Chapter Twelve
Tyler
“He wants me to move in with him.” I flicked through a rack of vintage wedding dresses, white and ivory and even a soft pink, lace and silk and satin gleaming under the warm light of the chandeliers.
Across the room, Mama Nancy examined a gown from the eighties with puffy sleeves and lace scallops on the skirt.
Marilyn quirked a single brow. “Were you planning to marry him and not live with him?”
“I could understand not wanting to live with Joey. But Jase is great.” Maggie glanced at her phone, tapping out a reply to the third text she’d gotten since we’d walked through the door at Timeless, filled with glossy wood floors and racks upon racks of quality vintage clothes.
I frowned. Noah had put a ring on her finger and seemed kind of clingy, but that constant checking in seemed more like control.
Guilt pricked at me. I’d been so buried in the shock of finding myself pregnant, plus my plans with Jase, that I hadn’t been the friend to her I normally was.
“I knew we’d live together after we were married.” Long filmy sleeves caught my eye, but the bodice was very seventies polyester and very itchy. “He told his parents and didn’t say how they reacted.”
“Oh.” Both of my friends stared at me with big eyes. I got that. I’d stared at Jase the same way when he’d dropped that news as an aside while we watched a movie and he folded his laundry. I hadn’t wanted to look insecure by asking what they said.
Marilyn recovered first, shifting to her smooth corporate expression. “Maybe their response was positive, and he didn’t feel the need to expound.”
Maggie snorted. “More like he’s a guy and is clueless to the idea he needs to.”
“Ding ding ding.” I held up a lace dress with long sleeves. “He’s smart but has dumb moments.”
Like eight years of them with his ex.
“You should try that one on.” At Mama Nancy’s quiet voice, I cast a startled look over my shoulder. When had she crossed the store to join us? “And don’t worry about his parents. If they don’t like it? Leave them to me.”
Letting that lie – Mama Nancy could be the most intimidating person I knew – I tried on the dress, falling in love with it as I did so.
The lace was finely woven with a silk underlayment, tiny buttons doing up the back below a deep vee.
Besides being very well-made, the dress was almost a perfect fit – not too fancy, but special enough for a party to celebrate beginning a life together.
“Oh.” Mama Nancy’s hushed exclamation shimmered in the air when I stepped out of the dressing room.
She lifted a hand to brush my cheek, her eyes wet and shining.
My own eyes prickled, and I laid a hand on my lower stomach.
I would love this baby as much as Mama Nancy loved me, would be everything for them my biological mother hadn’t been for me.
And Jase would be there, too, to help me.
I released a breath, aware of Mama Nancy’s soft gaze on my face. We were committed to one another, to our baby. We’d decided. Was there really any reason for us to wait?
With my dress pinned for alterations and a pair of satin pointed-toe pumps selected, we moved on to lunch at one of Sweet Grass’s outdoor tables.
I let Marilyn and Maggie’s dissection of the menu flow over me while I texted Jase that I’d found my dress.
I always ordered the burger here since they were amazing.
“Mrs. Nancy.” The deep male voice rang a little familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I knew it from. “Haven’t seen you in forever.”
Idly curious, I looked up, straight into Elizabeth Hall’s infuriated blue gaze. She stared back, unsmiling. The tall man at her side was the same one she’d been with the afternoon Jase and I had run across her and her mean-spirited little friend not long ago.
“Pierce.” Mama Nancy offered a polite smile, with only a tinge of warmth. “Hello.”
“It’s good to see you.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek, his hazel gaze roaming over us. “And your lovely companions.”
“My daughter, Tyler.” Mama Nancy’s smile warmed considerably as she gestured at me. “And her friends Marilyn Bartlett and Maggie Lane.”
“I know Mr. Bartlett. Is that Lane Real Estate?” His eyes lingered on me even as Maggie nodded.
A gleam of interest bloomed there. Fiduciary interest, I was sure.
Waves of fury emanated off Elizabeth. If her eyes narrowed further, she’d be squinting.
“Tyler, I’ve heard a lot about you. Always wanted to meet you officially. ”
Meaning he wanted an in with Mama Nancy. He wasn’t the first. I didn’t date Thomasville society boys for this very reason.
I smiled, as briefly as I could. “A pleasure.”
Elizabeth touched his arm. He started, like he’d forgotten her, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and anger. “Oh, Mrs. Nancy, my friend Elizabeth Hall. Elizabeth, Mrs. Nancy Grant, and Marilyn, Maggie and Tyler.”
“Hello.” Oh, those wide eyes and that perfect smile, even though her voice held a hint of an edge. Her gaze settled on me, calculating and insulting. “I think we went to high school together. Did you go to Chandler-Haynes for a little while?”
Snotty little bitch.
“I did.” I smiled wider, breezy and unconcerned. “But I don’t remember you.”
Lord, I hoped she got the message – that she was absolutely unremarkable. Her face froze, nails flexing against Pierce’s arm.
“Some people are like that.” Maggie waved her wine glass in a circle. She blinked at Marilyn, the picture of innocence. “Basically forgettable.”
A flare of fury lit an unholy light in Elizabeth’s blue eyes, but she couldn’t hit back. She held the least amount of power in this little social meeting.
And she hated it.
I knew what that felt like, and I almost felt sorry for her. She hated the sensation, but she’d take advantage in a second if the situation were reversed.
Pierce was checking me out, gaze roving my face and torso, and she hated that, too. My lips twitched. She’d failed to draw Jase back. I had him, even if she didn’t know it, and now the man she was with was measuring my worth.
And that hurt.
This was a woman desperate to feel valued, to be seen as valuable. Maybe to be seen at all.
Too bad she’d looked in all the wrong places. I’m sure at one point Jase had valued, maybe even treasured her.
And she’d tossed that away for clicks and likes.
Sad, even if I couldn’t really sympathize. If she’d been someone else, I wouldn’t have Jase now.
I wasn’t his second choice, either. He wasn’t settling for me. At one time, he might have treasured another version of Elizabeth Hall, but not the woman standing in front of me, eyes burning with resentment and dissatisfaction.
This woman had buried that treasure so deep it suffocated.
Rotted.
Turned to dry bones.
And Jase’s feelings for me – not love, but deep caring that could flourish into love – grew in the place of those dead emotions.
He was capable of love.
And I was the woman he treasured now.
Nothing she did could touch that.