Chapter 8 #2
“Put on my wedding dress? Why, yes, I am. I’ll need your help with the buttons, so start channeling some powerful feelings.”
Cole watched her pull it from the garment bag and sweep it out of the closet. The swirl and swish of ivory fabric brushed
against the floor. “Um . . .” he said, seemingly dumbstruck.
“Let’s see if your theory about not being able to change my clothes is true,” she said, and shooed him away with her hand.
His face burned and he turned around so his back was to her. She heard him swallow again. “What exactly are you hoping to
achieve here?”
Dell peeled her nightgown over her head and stepped into the wedding gown. The feel of the silky lining against her skin was
the most satisfying it had ever been. Unlike all the times before, she wanted to put on this dress. The excitement she had over Tommy’s reaction to seeing her in it was ten times what it had ever been
when imagining their wedding day.
“You know he won’t be able to see you, right?” Cole said, dousing her fire.
“He’ll at least see the dress, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. All the scarier,” Dell said, and pulled the bodice taut against her chest. She smiled at the thought of her gown floating
down the hall and scaring the ever-living shit out of Tommy.
“Okay, now I need a hand,” she announced to Cole.
He turned to see her standing with the dress held against her front and her entire bare back exposed from the nape of her
neck to her tailbone. She’d swept her hair over her shoulder to allow him access to the two dozen pearl buttons lining the
dress’s spine.
When he didn’t say anything, Dell turned to look over her shoulder. The look on his face hitched her breath. Cole’s eyes were
wide but soft, his lips slightly parted. He looked like he’d been stunned speechless.
The sight of him unable to speak put a warmth in Dell’s chest and face. “Could you please button me up?” she asked. In all
the times she’d put on the dress, she’d never buttoned it herself. A bridal shop assistant had always done it for her. With
some strategic bending of her elbows, she might have been able to fasten the bottom five buttons or so, but that was it. This
dress required help to get into.
And get out of, she thought, and felt herself tingle at the idea of Cole doing that part too.
“Um, I can try, but I’ve never touched anything from the physical world before,” he confessed. His voice was thick and low.
She felt him step closer to her. It took her a moment to find her voice. “Well, it’s not that hard. Just think of something
that summons a strong emotion.”
He stayed quiet for a long pause before Dell felt the tug of his fingers at her lower back. She smiled to herself.
“There you go! You’re doing it,” she encouraged, and regathered her hair in her hand. His breath fluttered against her skin and made her tingle.
“What are you feeling?” she asked out of curiosity. She couldn’t see his face but could tell his strong emotion was not anger.
A different energy pulsed off him.
“Um, I’m feeling . . . something,” he said shyly.
The warmth in Dell’s face spread to the rest of her body as she felt his hands work their way up her back. “Well, whatever
you’re feeling, it’s working.”
His fingertips brushed her spine like feathers, if feathers could send electric sparks shooting across her skin.
Cole softly cleared his throat. “This is, um, a nice dress,” he said like he was trying to find a distraction from touching
her bare skin.
“It is,” Dell agreed. “Too bad it’s going to go to waste. Well, I guess not entirely. Using it to scare Tommy is a more noble
purpose than walking down the aisle.”
“What exactly do you plan to do?” Cole asked. Nerves coursed through his voice. He was maybe five buttons from the top now,
and Dell found herself not wanting him to finish.
“Well, if horror movies are any indication, simply floating nearby him will be enough. But I want to go bigger than that.
Too bad there aren’t any walnuts in the house, otherwise I’d hit him in the face with a handful to let him know I figured
out his little plan.” Her voice faded out on a bitter note.
“Can you touch walnuts if you’re allergic to them?” Cole asked as he fastened the buttons that pulled the bodice tight over
Dell’s chest.
She felt her breath hitch at the now familiar compression.
“Normally, no. But I’m already dead, so.”
“Well, maybe you could still work the nuts in. There; done,” Cole said, and fastened the topmost button. His fingers brushed against her skin one last time before he stepped back.
Dell spun around to see him staring at her with another stunned expression.
“You look beautiful,” he said as if he couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth.
His reaction put a floating feeling in Dell’s chest. He was looking at her the way she could have only hoped Tommy would look
at her in the dress. Like he couldn’t quite comprehend his fortune. And like he wanted to peel it off her.
“Thank you,” Dell said, and fought the burn in her face. “What do you mean I can work the nuts in?”
“Nuts?” Cole asked like he wasn’t following.
“The walnuts,” she clarified. “Unless you mean kicking Tommy in his nuts, which I am not above.”
Cole winced like a kick to the crotch would be cruel punishment even despite the situation. “I meant the walnuts.”
“Hmmm,” Dell considered, and looked around her office. Inspiration struck when she caught sight of the large potted palm in
the corner.
“Oh, I got it,” she said. She strode over to it, her dress swishing, and channeled some anger so she could scoop up a handful
of dirt from the pot. Then she knelt to the floor and began pouring dirt from her fist in the shape of letters with a purely
wicked grin.
“What in the world are you doing?” Cole asked as she shaped the letter N.
“Sending a message,” Dell answered, and released the dirt into a U, T, and S.
“ ‘Nuts.’ ” Cole read the word spelled out in dirt and quietly laughed.
Dell stood and wiped the remaining dirt from her palms. “Yes. He’ll know what it means. Now we just need a way to get him
in here.” She pivoted again and saw a framed photo of her and Tommy from their engagement party on the shelf behind her desk.
“Perfect.” She grabbed the photo frame and carried it back to the middle of the room.
“You might want to stand back,” she told Cole as she fluffed her gown’s train out behind her. She angled herself and also
fluffed the fabric billowing in front of her so it laid perfectly. Then, with a loud crash and the ideal damsel’s faint, she
threw the photo frame on the floor and collapsed behind it in a heap of ivory silk and lace.
Cole jumped back when the frame shattered. “Now what are you doing?”
“Setting a trap,” she said with a feline smile. She held still, waiting for the sound she knew would come. On cue, Tommy’s
footsteps approached from down the hall.
When Tommy poked his head into the room with a curious frown, Dell grinned in delight. His eyes scanned the floor, looking
for the source of the crash. He still held the broom in one hand.
“What the hell?” Tommy said when he saw both the shattered photo frame and Dell’s wedding gown. He approached with caution,
avoiding the broken glass, and reached for the frame.
To Dell’s delight, he hissed in pain when a shard poked into his finger, sending a drop of blood onto the floor.
“How did this get here?” he asked what he thought was the empty room.
“With a little determined fury,” Dell answered. She kicked her foot so her dress rustled.
Tommy jumped back. “What the—” He spun around to look behind him, and then turned to the window as if a breeze had moved the
dress. In his scan, he caught sight of the dirt spelling out nuts on the floor.
Tommy’s face paled to a shade of snow. He stepped back and crunched a piece of glass. “What the fuck is this?” he blurted
in fright.
“It’s a love note, baby,” Dell said, and pushed herself up to stand. “From your dearly departed never-to-be wife.” She lunged at him, and he stumbled backward.
Tommy shrieked a sound of true horror that filled Dell with so much joy, she could have moved a mountain. “Stay back!” Tommy
wailed at her floating gown and brandished the broom like a sword.
Dell cackled and took another step toward him. “What’s wrong? Don’t want to get married anymore?” she said. “Maybe you should
have thought about the consequences of your actions.” She lunged at him again, and he let out a scream so high-pitched, even
Cole sputtered a laugh.
“What is happening?!” Tommy cried, and backed out of the room, still swinging the broom.
Dell dodged it and followed him. “Just ridding the house of pests,” she said with another delighted cackle. She found another
lamp on a side table in the hallway and threw it on the floor with a shatter.
Tommy screamed again and leaped back right as someone turned a key in the front door.
“Whoa!” Jason blurted when Tommy whipped around and aimed the broom at him. “What is going on?” He glanced over his shoulder at the reporters outside before closing the door on them.
“Jason!” Dell called, forgetting he couldn’t hear her.
“Stay back!” Tommy warned, and thrust the broom at Jason.
Jason threw up his hands and frowned. “Okay, but why?” He leaned to the side and clocked Dell’s wedding dress floating in
the hall. “What the—?”
Tommy was heaving breath, sweating, and looking seconds from fainting. “Are you part of this? I know you and her have some
crazy-ass best friend bond. Did she put you up to this?”
“First off, rude,” Jason said. “What Dell and I have is beyond anything your tiny brain can understand. And second, put me
up to what?”
“This!” Tommy howled, and pointed at the broken lamp in a pile on the floor. “And that!” he added, and thrust his arm at the dress. “And what’s written on the floor in there!”
Jason looked at the lamp and then at the dress. Then he pushed past Tommy and marched toward the office where he’d pointed.
“Dell, what are you doing?” he quietly muttered when he passed the dress ghoulishly hovering in the hallway.
“Having some fun,” she responded to only her and Cole’s ears.