Page 93 of Dreams of Falling
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, unable to mask the small sensation of excitement I felt at transforming into someone new, even if it was just for a night.
She took the yellow dress from the hanger on my closet door andunzipped it. “Mama aired it out real good when she finished with the alterations to get that mothball smell out of the fabric. And then I sprayed it with Febreze just to make sure. It smells brand-new now.”
I dropped my robe onto my bed and stepped into the dress, then turned around to let her zip me. She stopped me before I could look at myself in the cheval mirror. “Don’t forget the shoes. We’ve been the same shoe size since seventh grade, so I hope these will fit.” Mabry buckled a pair of strappy metallic silver high-heeled sandals on my feet, and then stepped back to admire her handiwork. “You sure you don’t want another necklace?”
I reached up and touched the chain Bitty had given me all those years ago, feeling the sharp point of the arrow charm. “I’m sure.”
With a wide smile, she said, “You may look now.”
I turned and stared at my reflection. When I’d tried the dress on for the first time and seen myself, I’d been amazed. But that was before hair and makeup and strappy sandals—not to mention a soft tan that made my skin glow. “You’re a miracle worker, Mabry.”
“Not really—at least not when I have such a great canvas to work with.” She came to stand behind me, admiring my reflection. “Bennett won’t be able to resist you, that’s for sure.”
I met her gaze in the mirror. “Bennett? He’s like a brother to me.”
“Uh-huh. And the sky is pink.”
We heard the sound of car doors closing outside. Mabry rushed to the closet door where she’d left her own dress hanging. “I’d better hurry and throw this on. Can’t wait to see Bennett’s expression.”
My phone buzzed as I zipped up her dark green dress. I picked it up and looked at the screen. It was an 843 number I didn’t recognize, so I hit “ignore” and threw the phone into my evening bag next to Ceecee’s lipstick.
“You ready?” she asked.
I followed her out the door and down the stairs, leaving behind a bedroom that looked like a hurricane had passed through it. Jonathan and Bennett were waiting in the foyer, talking with Ceecee and Bitty, who immediately turned toward us and started making a fuss overMabry and me and our dresses. I saw Jonathan and greeted him, then watched as he approached Mabry and kissed her.
“Hello, Larkin.” I turned and saw Bennett leaning on the newel post, his smile like that of a boy who’d just learned a secret. He wore a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and khakis, which somehow managed to make him devastating. “You aren’t planning on dancing?”
I smiled back at him, forgetting that I didn’t want to speak to him, and wondering if his eyes had always been that shade of green, if that was a new cologne he was wearing, or if maybe I’d never noticed it before. “Of course I am. Mabry’s carrying our flats in her bag. She said something about making a grand entrance.”
His gaze traveled from my feet up to my eyes, yet it felt different from when Jackson’s had done the same. As if Bennett was admiring me without claiming ownership.
Which made sense, of course. I’d never been his. But then I’d never really been Jackson’s, either.
“I think you’d do that with or without the shoes.” Bennett’s voice sounded different, like he’d just swallowed peanut butter and it was stuck in his throat. “You...” He stopped. “You look as if you’re wearing moonlight.”
I wasn’t sure if that’s what he’d meant to say, but the way he said it, and the way he looked at me while saying it, made it sound like something wonderful and extraordinary. “Thank you,” I said, suddenly shy.
“Shall we?” He formally extended his arm, and I placed my hand gently in the crook of his, feeling a small shock as my fingers touched his warm skin. “We’re driving to a friend’s house on Orange Street. He said we could park in his driveway, so you won’t have to worry about walking too far in those shoes.”
“Good,” I said. “I’d hate to have to make you carry me.”
“I don’t think I’d mind,” he said softly, stepping back to allow Mabry and me to pass through the front door.
We said our good-byes to Ceecee and Bitty, whose eyes were strangely bright, then piled into Jonathan’s Mustang with Bennett andme in the backseat. Mabry made Jonathan put the top up to protect our hair, then flipped on the car stereo. I leaned back against the headrest and said, “‘Save the Last Dance for Me,’ Michael Bublé.”
Mabry turned around and stuck her hand through the front bucket seats for a high five. “You’re amazing.”
“That you are,” Bennett said, close to my ear, but I pretended I hadn’t heard.
thirty-one
Ceecee
1954
Ceecee huddled under her umbrella, feeling the strap of her plastic rain hat rub the tender skin under her chin. Although it was close to the middle of October, the temperature was nearly eighty degrees, the cloying humidity doing nothing to help her hair, which she’d washed the day before and then carefully rolled.
Not that she’d been able to sleep, anyway. She had a sore throat that sucking on Sucrets did nothing to help, but she’d not been able to get a full night’s sleep in the two years since Ivy was born. Despite still living in her parents’ house, she arose at regular intervals throughout the night, imagining she heard a baby crying. Except there was no baby for her to go to.
