Page 21 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

In the past, Allie had always been the one to say exactly what she thought, but that had a habit of coming back to bite her in the butt. But if Jo didn’t like how she was acting, there had to be a happy medium. Maybe she could afford to be more honest with her twin, and more tactful with strangers? Yeah, she’d try that.

“All right, fine, it’s terrible. The cut isn’t in the least bit flattering, the bodice is a nightmare, and with all the tulle, you’re more likely to float away on a light breeze than get married.”

Jo threw her hands up. “Thank you! Where was that honesty four dresses ago?” She marched over to the sofa and plopped down.

Allie sat next to her.

“I thought trying on dresses was supposed to be fun,” Jo said.

“It might be if we weren’t at the wedding dress symposium.” Allie was just glad there wasn’t a sale going on—this was the kind of place where a person would get trampled for a bargain. “Why are we here, anyway?”

Jo sighed. “Cash has a lot of friends coming in, some of the celebrity persuasion, and I wanted to make sure that I got a dress that wouldn’t embarrass him.”

Allie laughed. “Okay, first, if you want to impress people, don’t pick dresses that look like pastries.”

Jo dropped her head back against the sofa.Clunk.“Ouch.”

Allie reached over and rubbed her twin’s head. “Careful.”

“It didn’t look so bad on the hanger,” Jo said.

“And second,” Allie continued, “you could show up in an oversized tee shirt with holes in and a ratty pair of jeans, and Cash would still be over the moon that you’re going to marry him.”

Jo grinned. “He does seem pretty taken with me.”

Was that the understatement of the century or what? Cash was the very definition of head over heels. If Jo got food poisoning, turned green in the gills, and started hurling, he’d still look at her with stars in his eyes. Worried stars, but still.

“I can’t try on another dress,” Jo said.

Allie glanced at her watch. There wasn’t a lot of free time between now and the wedding. They’d come to Charlottesville today because it was their birthday and they had it off from work. And it was two p.m. already. They weren’t supposed to come home until they had her dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses picked out. And considering the last hour, it could take all the time they had left until they were supposed to meet their friends tonight for dancing.

“Okay,” Allie said, “then let’s tag-team. I’ll try on half the dresses for you.”

Jo sat tall in her seat and faced Allie, a look of hope springing forth from her dewy complexion. “You’d do that?”

“If it’ll get us out of here in time for our party, then heck yes,” she said. They were supposed to be at Cotton Eye Mo’s Country Swing Club in Charleston at six-thirty.

She didn’t mind at all. When she’d been engaged to Tony, she hadn’t gone wedding dress shopping—hadn’t done anything for her wedding. She’d been putting it off. Part of it was the looming feeling that marrying him was the wrong thing, and boy, oh boy, had she been right on that count. But there’d been another much smaller part of her that kept thinking of a childhood pact she and Jo had made to have a double wedding. Not that she ever really considered it a possibility—she had always dated too much to be serious, and Jo hadn’t dated enough.

She popped off the chair and rushed to the rack of dresses, grabbing three.

“Thanks for helping me with this,” Jo called from the dressing room over.

“What are identical twin sisters for if not for reducing the number of dresses you have to try on?”

A few minutes later, they both came out. Jo moved to the mirror and frowned. “How is it they look so good on the hanger and terrible on me?”

“It’s a mystery,” Allie said, not bothering with diplomacy as she took in the dress her sister wore that hung on her like a rag. “Let’s look at mine.”

Jo turned and stepped back. “That’s beautiful!”

Allie looked in the mirror. It was. A slip dress in silk with a V-neck, a high waist, and capped sleeves. Very simple, but stunning. Just the kind of dress she’d wear at her own wedding. Why, oh why, cruel world, would you let her find her dream when Jo was getting married?

“I mean, I’d never wear it,” Jo said, “but it looks amazing on you.”

It did look amazing on her. Allie blinked, then shook her head and headed back to the dressing room. “Okay, time is money—snap, snap, let’s get a move on!”

Jo chuckled. “You don’t want to stop to admire how good you look in that dress?”

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