Page 42 of This Time Around
“Never figured you’d shop in a place like this.”
Allie blinked. “Like what? A high-end boutique thrift shop?”
He shrugged, and she wondered if he was baiting her. Trying to make her defensive or to imply how far the mighty had fallen.
Or maybe she was reading too much into it.
“Oh, this one’s pretty!” Paige gripped the hem of one of the dresses Allie held, a fluttery, silk chiffon Vera Wang number with a V-neck and a draped skirt. “It looks like the green part of a peacock feather.”
“It kinda does,” Allie agreed. “That’s the one I like best. I’m crossing my fingers it fits.”
Paige beamed at her. “My favorite color is green, too.”
Allie glanced at the dresses, every one of them a slightly different hue of green. Heat crept into her cheeks, and she could feel Jack’s eyes on her. “Yes, uh—they do all seem to be green, don’t they?”
“A green dress?” The teasing note in Jack’s voice made her look up at him, and she wasn’t surprised to see traces of a smirk on that obnoxiously handsome face.
Allie straightened her spine. “Yes. A green dress.”
He grinned wider. “Is that in honor of our song? The one by the Barenaked Ladies?”
“No, I just—I like this color, that’s all.”
But that wasn’t all. Jack was right. She knew the song well, the one that used to make her laugh each time it got to the part about the green dress. The Barenaked Ladies had belted out their tune about the things they’d buy if they had a million dollars, and she and Jack used to sing along with them, twirling through the living room of their too-small apartment. They’d substituted words like textbooks and phone bill in place of items the singer claimed he’d buy for his sweetheart in the event of a financial windfall.
Allie felt the smile starting slow in her belly and spreading over her face. She saw the corners of Jack’s mouth tug, too.
Then he stopped, a frown wiping out the smile before it even appeared.
Her memory zipped from the living room of their old apartment to the attic at her grandmother’s house. To the million dollars tucked in a trunk up there, and uncertainty of what to do about it. As Jack stared at her, she wished for the hundredth time he’d never been there when she opened that lid.
“So,” she said, brushing hair off her forehead. “I didn’t even realize they had kids’ stuff here.”
“I can wear women’s extra-small stuff now,” Paige boasted. “And size-six shoes.”
“Impressive!” Allie smiled at the little girl, who wasn’t actually that little. She came up to Allie’s shoulder, probably four-foot-seven or eight. Was that above average for a ten-year-old? “You must have inherited your dad’s height.”
The second the words left her mouth, Allie wanted to kick herself. Good Lord, the girl’s mom was dead, and might have been a pro basketball player for all Allie knew.
But Paige just smiled and looked up at her dad. “Can I go check out the jeans over there?”
“Sure. Looks like the smaller sizes are on this side. Remember what we talked about, okay?”
“I know, I know . . . nothing skintight.”
“Right.”
Paige wandered toward the opposite side of the store, leaving Jack and Allie alone. Allie held the dresses aloft. “I guess I should try these on.”
“You should. For the record, the skintight rule doesn’t apply to you. In fact, I encourage it. The tighter the better.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Yes, I have. I brought an umbrella. That makes me a responsible, upstanding citizen.” He held it up to show her, and Allie laughed in spite of herself.
“I stand corrected.”
She turned and headed into the dressing room, conscious of Jack’s gaze following her. Pulling the door closed behind her, she took a shaky breath and ordered herself to get it together.
