“Scooch over, love.” Amelia aimed for the empty spot next to Ellie and only ended up sitting on a small swath of the poofy dress. As soon as she was by her side, Amelia pulled out her phone and swiped across the screen through a group of pictures until she found the one she wanted. It was actually a picture of a picture. It had always hung in their childhood home just over the fireplace. The images had faded over the years, the green trees in the background now yellowed, the blacks bluish gray, and the whites browning, but when it came down to it, all Amelia could ever see in that picture was love. Her mother, dressed in a simple but elegant and slightly hippie-ish wedding dress, flowers in a crown. With her dark hair, she looked like Ellie’s twin. By her side stood their father, his mustache black despite the fading. Amelia couldn’t remember seeing that smile since their mother’s passing.
“I look at this sometimes when I miss her and miss home. I know you see it every day at Dad’s house, but . . .” Amelia paused and shifted off the crinkled material she was in the process of ruining before pointing at the picture again. “As much as I love Mom’s dress in this picture, I think you need to remember that you might have your own kids one day. And they will need a picture like this to look at. Think of it like a picture book that shows them what love looks like. That should be your picture. Not a re-creation of Mom and Dad, right?” She passed the phone to Ellie, who had a tear running down her cheek. “That picture needs to be of ‘Ellie and Collin.’ Your dress. His smile.” She slipped her arm around her sister’s shoulder. “Your love.”
Ellie blinked a few times and passed the phone back to Amelia. “Damn it, M. Stop making me cry, okay? You know I hate crying.”
“For someone who hates crying, you sure seem to do a lot of it,” Amelia joked, squeezing Ellie’s shoulder hard and then ducking away.
“Shut up!” Ellie bumped up against her and sniffed again. Amelia lunged across the space between the mirrored platform and her seat and snagged three tissues from the box next to her empty champagne glass.
“Here, let’s get you cleaned up and home. You’ve been awake far too long. No more dress shopping after a shift, okay?” Amelia held out the tissues, and Ellie took them.
“I think you’re right. It’s the lack of sleep. I’ll be fine after eight or ten or maybe even twelve hours.” Ellie put out her hand for help, and Amelia yanked hard to get her up. Just as she got to her feet, the door dinged with a new customer. Ellie gathered the skirt of her dress in her hands, exposing her bare feet.
“I vote for twelve hours. You work too hard!” Amelia called after Ellie as she disappeared into the changing room.
“You’ve been on ‘Dad duty’ for the past three days. No rest for me!” Ellie called out from behind the dividers. She always thought it was funny how Ellie would talk to her through the thin metal walls when she was in public restroom stalls. Then again, Ellie had no real “Edit button” when it came to issues that might cause others embarrassment. Amelia once heard Steve explaining to her that just ’cause the guys hung around the firehouse with no shirt on didn’t mean she could just chill in her sports bra. Well, she could, but it wouldn’t really help make her “one of the guys” if that was what she was going for.
“I know, but sleep is kind of a physical necessity, Ellie,” Amelia shouted into the changing room, and then headed back toward her seat and purse so she could hide her phone before the manager, Bonnie, saw her with it and freaked.
She leaned over, grabbed her faded faux leather purse, and dropped the phone inside, where it settled nicely into the clutter of old receipts and appointment cards. As Amelia zipped it closed, she stood to full height and was nearly face-to-face with Collin, dressed in belted jeans and a tee shirt.
“Collin!” Amelia nearly screamed. He pressed a finger to his lips and imitated a shushing face, a bouquet of blue and yellow hydrangeas in his left hand. Amelia corrected herself and whispered this time. “Collin, what are you doing here?” She placed her fists on her hips and gave him the best sisterly stare down she could.
“My test got postponed, so I thought I’d come surprise Ellie.” He had a boy-like smirk on his face, and Amelia had to fight the urge to pinch his cheeks. He’d just been Caleb’s somewhat annoying little brother when she still spent time with the Thornton family, and when Ellie came home from her second week of junior year and told her that she was “going out” with Collin Thornton, Amelia told her to run, not walk, away from that boy, afraid that history was just repeating itself.
But when she brought him to Sunday dinner at Amelia’s house a few weeks later, it didn’t take long to see that the two teenagers weren’t just messing around. They were friends in more ways than they were boyfriend and girlfriend, which was actually one of the reasons she never expected them to make it to the altar, but then they went to U of I together, both pre-med, both excellent students, and their relationship kept growing. Amelia worried that they might break up when Ellie dropped out of med school and came back to Broadlands, but Collin made every sacrifice to be close to her and claimed the ninety-minute drive to and from school was worth spending his free nights with Ellie. Those two just kept proving her wrong.
“Aren’t you just the sweetest,” Amelia said with a touch of actual jealousy. “I remember when Steve was working his shift back when we first started dating and he’d make his partner stop by my house on the way home from a call. Our neighbor, Mrs. Ludlow, nearly had a heart attack every time. My dad would get so mad at Steve, but that didn’t stop him.” She paused, happy that at one time Steve loved her enough to break the rules in order to see her. Then she remembered why she’d been upset at Collin’s appearance. She reset her hands on her hips.
“You can’t be here! You’ll invalidate some poor dress by seeing it on her, and then it couldn’t be ‘the one’ anymore because you saw it. You don’t want to do that to your fiancée, do you, Collin?”
Collin laughed. “Goodness no. Who would want to do that?” The corner of his mouth turned up, and his cheek crinkled in a way that reminded her of his brother.
Her smile fell a little, and a cool, blank spot reopened inside her. She hadn’t seen Caleb since his ominous warning in the kitchen, and every time she found herself thinking about him, it was with a mix of concern for her friend and worry about his state of mind. She’d considered asking Collin if he’d noticed anything but had never gotten the chance. This was her opening; she took a deep breath and dove right in.
“So, have you talked to Caleb lately?”
“Like five minutes ago, actually. He was talking to some guy in a suit outside of the diner. I bet you could catch him if you wanted to.”
“Was the guy your height with brown, wavy hair. Kinda fancy looking?” She was just about to leave and meet Randy at the diner for their meeting.
“Yeah, sounds like the guy. They were standing by a fancy convertible BMW, but . . . Caleb works on the other side of your kitchen wall. Don’t you see enough of the guy?” Collin chuckled and tapped the bouquet against his thigh, the floral paper crinkling and a few petals falling to the floor of the bridal shop, strangely blending in with the décor.
“Yeah, I mean, I see him plenty, but I wanted to know if you had seen him. Maybe noticed something . . . different?”