Chapter 10 #3
“Please!” I clasped my hands together. I wasn’t above begging.
Savannah’s gaze lingered on the dress. “When’s the big day?”
“First weekend in June,” I said under my breath.
Savannah blinked. “You mean the first weekend in June of next year, right?”
“More like…this year.”
Her jaw hit the front counter. “That’s in two weeks! I can’t even get fabric delivered in that amount of time. Especially not specialty fabric! And do you know how much fabric it takes to make a wedding dress?”
“No, which is why I need you to be your amazing, talented self and help me figure something out,” I begged.
Hayes was right. I couldn’t just pull out any old evening gown out of my pageant trunks. It had to be something worthy of a Wilder wedding.
The newspaper headline was only a partial exaggeration. The Wilders weren’t just Honey Hollow royalty. They were American royalty.
Savannah huffed. “I’ll go shopping with you, but you’ll have to find something off the rack and beg—and I mean beg—the salesperson to sell you the floor sample. I might be able to customize it a little, but I can’t make a wedding dress from scratch in two weeks.”
I looked at Hallie. “I can beg.”
Hallie nodded. “I can beg too.”
Savannah assessed us with suspicion. “You do realize this means you have to tell me what the hell is going on up at the estate, right?”
“Why don’t you come to the estate for dinner?” Hallie offered with a conspiratorial grin.
—
“What’s all this?” Hayes asked as he released himself from Walt’s study, wearing another one of those slacks and button-up combos he lived in. The man even wore dress shoes inside.
Hallie looked up from the stove, where she had been throwing herbs and spices into a pot. “We’re having Savannah Scott over for dinner.”
Hayes’s dark eyes turned and landed on me. After our pantry tryst this morning, we had made avoiding each other a competitive sport.
“She’s helping with my dress,” I said.
Hayes’s expression lifted from confusion to relief. “Oh.”
“You know her, right?” Hallie asked.
A sad, distant expression crossed his face. “I was friends with her brother.”
The kitchen door opened, and Mason appeared with a vase of roses in his hand. He toed off his boots at the door, carried the vase to the window where Hallie often stood while she worked, and set it on the sill.
I didn’t miss the way her gaze lowered to the sun-bleached blue jeans that hugged his ass and thighs.
Mason Bishop was a good-looking man and totally rocked the silver fox look. He carried himself with distinction and definitely had it bad for Hallie.
Hallie must have realized she was staring at his ass and quickly snapped out of it, clearing her throat. “Thank you, Mason. You coming up for supper?”
His beard twitched as he smiled at her. “Wouldn’t miss it,” he said before putting his boots back on and heading back to the stables.
Hayes looked between Hallie and me, trying to get a read on the silent communication we shared. “What was that about?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said.
Hallie yanked open the refrigerator door and discreetly fanned herself.
Hayes’s brows knitted together. “You were staring at him.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You can’t have eyes for other men when you’re marrying me,” he teased with a stern expression.
Hallie’s cheeks were beet red, and I decided to take the fall. “It’s the jeans. Wranglers have a certain…effect.”
“What’s that about Wranglers?” Savannah asked as she let herself in the kitchen door.
“Cowboy butts,” Hallie and I said at the same time.
Savannah raised her hands in reverence as she kicked the door shut. “God bless cowboy butts.”
Hayes excused himself from the kitchen and headed upstairs as Savannah joined us.
“So,” she said. “The workday is done and I’ve been speculating wildly since y’all left the shop this morning. What’s with the shotgun wedding?”
Thankfully, Lewis had left the estate, so I let my guard down. “Hayes inherited the estate from his granddad.”
“But only if he’s married,” Hallie said.
“So, I agreed to marry him.”
She peered in the direction that Hayes had gone. “Honestly, you could’ve done way worse. He’s a catch.”
My mind floated back to that kiss. “Tell me about it.”
Savannah tossed her hair over her shoulder. “What’s in it for you?”
“Money and land.”
A door shut, but it wasn’t a Lewis-style slam. Heavy boots echoed with each step. Hayes jogged down the stairs in a pair of light-wash jeans belted high on his hips. Gone was the button-up. In its place was a tight white T-shirt with a logo so faded I couldn’t quite make out what it used to be.
“Ladies,” Hayes said to the three of us, but his gaze was locked on me.
Hallie’s jaw dropped at the sight of Hayes’s toned ass as he passed by. I shared the sentiment because oh my god!
“I thought you said you two weren’t actually a thing, and that the marriage is just business,” Savannah whispered.
I nodded vacantly and watched, slack-jawed, as Hayes slipped out onto the patio and headed down to the stables. “It is.”
Savannah snorted. “You sure about that? Because that man is playing dirty.”