Page 16 of Isabella

Lux’s eyes light up. “Do you think Teo will like it?”

Nodding, I say, “He’llloveit.”

She smiles and walks over to the mirror wall in my closet to admire the dress on her.

“Alright, you’re up,” Liana says as she pulls my dress out of its garment bag. I quickly shed my clothes while Liana unzips the back of it. Kneeling before me, she holds the dress out so I’m able to step into it.

She shimmies it up my body, then I drop my arms to my sides. The corset bodice tightens around me as Liana zips it up. She pulls the skirt of the dress out so the train relaxes around me in a beautiful flowing manner. Walking around me, Liana runs her hands along the skirt, smoothing out the fabric. She slowly raises her gaze up my body, the twinkle in her eye and the smile on her face showcasing her approval.

“Well, shit. Now it’s my turn to gasp,” Lux says, which I respond to with a giggle and make my way over to the mirror.

“Damn,” I whisper.

Lux turns and stares at my reflection in the mirror, and Liana saddles up on my other side with a proud smile on her face.

“I think my job here is done,” Liana says, stepping in front of Lux and me one more time to inspect her work. “The dresses fit you both perfectly. I’ve even impressed myself.” She laughs. After doing one final look over, she says, “Okay, now let me help you both out of these, and we can get them put away so they’re nice and protected until tomorrow night.”

Liana helps Lux first, untying the criss-cross ties that ride up her back.

“Are you sure you can’t come tomorrow?” I ask Liana. “I’m going to be stuck with Enzo all night, which means I’ll be stuck all by myself because he’ll end up ditching me to go find some chick to bang.”

“Hey, you’ll have me,” Lux says, slightly offended that I wouldn’t consider her as support while attending this gala.

I raise a brow and say, “Once my brother sees you in that dress, there’s no way he’s going to keep his hands off you. Trust me when I say you’ll be entertained the entire night.”

Lux rolls her eyes and waves me off with a laugh. “He can wait. I won’t ditch you. Promise.”

Lux and I have gotten extremely close since she came into my brother’s life. It’s been great having another woman around the house. It needed some estrogen to even out the testosterone.

“I know, I’m sorry. You know I would if I could, but I just have so much to do for my bridal line,” Liana says.

“I know, I know. I had to try and guilt trip you into coming one more time,” I say while Liana carefully hangs Lux’s dress on a hook before turning toward me to help me out of mine.

Once the dresses are hung and Lux and I have our clothes back on, we head out to my room and take a seat by the two large French doors that lead out onto the patio. Lux and I sit on the couch while Liana takes up the loveseat to our left.

“Thank you so much, Liana,” Lux says.

“Seriously, I can’t believe you pulled off making these with everything else you have on your plate,” I add.

Liana waves us off. “Please, now you’re both walking advertisements for me. Just make sure to tell anyone who asks who the designer is,” she says with a wink.

“Oh, you already know we will,” I say.

“So, fill me in on everything. What’s been going on?”

I glance over and make eye contact with Lux before turning my attention back to Liana. With a furrow in her brow, she says, “I feel like there’s something I missed.”

You’ve got that right.

I let out an audible breath. “Well, we had a little incident at my birthday dinner.”

“A little incident? What did Vincenzo do? Try to flirt his way into your waitress’s pants, so she dropped a drink on his head?”

Liana’s been calling Enzo by his full name since forever just to annoy him. He thinks when people use his first name it sounds pretentious, but I don’t know. I like it. Maybe I’ll start doing the same thing, and if it annoys him, all the better.

Laughing, I shake my head. “No, but that’s something I would pay money to see even though it’s highly unlikely to ever happen. You know how that one is. He could charm the pants off anybody. I don’t get it.”

I turn to Lux since she’s the only one in the room who’s not blood related to him. “What is it about him? He doesn’t even have to do anything and the ladies swoon all over him.”

---