Page 111 of Just One Kiss

Carly didn’t know when she’d stopped wanting to look like a fairy princess— maybe when she’d realized fairy tales didn’t come true, and the dress didn’t appeal to her at all. Still, there was no way she was bursting her sister’s wedding bubble.

“It’s really pretty,” she said.

“It’s stunning,” Dot said from behind them. “Absolutely stunning.”

Quinn reached over to the rack and pulled out another dress, this one the exact opposite of the first. “Here.” She shoved it toward Carly.

Carly took a step back. “What do you want me to do with it?”

“You can’t just sit there while I try on all of these dresses.” Quinn stared at her, wide-eyed.

“You want me to put this on?”

“Yes, Little Miss Grumpy. I do.”

Carly shoved it back. “No way.”

“Carly, come on, at least pretend you’re having fun.” Quinn pouted the way she did when they were kids. It had never worked—Carly couldn’t understand why she still did it. “I’m only going to get married once.”

“You know this is not my thing, Q,” Carly said.

“Today, pretend like it is.” She shook the dress out toward Carly. “For me?”

Carly sighed. “You owe me.” She snatched the hanger from her sister and scowled.

“When you get married, you can force me to do something I don’t want to do.”

“Like let me elope?”

Quinn gasped. “That’s not even funny.”

“Not everyone has been planning their wedding since they were a little girl,” Carly said.

“I haven’t even done that,” Quinn said. “But now that I met Grady . . .” Her voice trailed off and she turned wispy and weird. “I can’t explain it. I just want everything to be perfect.”

Carly stared at her, waiting for her to snap out of this fantasy.

When she finally did, Quinn shot her sister a look of annoyance. “Try it on. And you have to come out here in it to prove you actually did.”

“Fine.”

In the quiet of the changing room, Carly hung the dress on the hook and stared at it. It really was beautiful, the kind of dress Carly would’ve loved to get married in. If girls like her got married.

She ran a hand over the simple A-line, fingering the beaded belt and the tiny details that likely only the bride and groom would be able to see. It was exquisite.

She undressed, then slipped her feet into the sleeveless dress with an elegant line of sparkling beads outlining the high neckline and zipped it up.

Was this the kind of dress she would’ve worn if she’d accepted Josh’s proposal all those years ago?

People said a lot of things about Josh Dixon, but Carly knew he’d at least try and do right by her. But she had it in her head that they were too young, and she didn’t want her pregnancy to be the only reason they got married.

“It wouldn’t be,” he’d said. “We’d get married because we love each other.”

They were sitting on the top of a sand dune, overlooking the lake, and she’d just told him about the pregnancy test. Seeing a positive result had nearly knocked the wind out of her—she’d run to the car wash where Josh worked and pulled him out before he could even tell his boss where he was going.

He’d taken the news better than she had, but then, reality probably hadn’t set in. Suggesting marriage before high school graduation was ludicrous. And yet, shouldn’t they get married? Wasn’t that what good Christian girls in hersituationdid?

“The offer stands,” Josh said. “It’ll always stand.”

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