My grandmother wore that dress when she got married a very long time ago. And now Aunt Heidi is going to wear it for her wedding. And maybe you’ll even wear it for yours.”
If there was enough of it left. If Heidi didn’t demand so many alterations that there was nothing salvageable for another bride...
“Grandma Jane...” Zoey said softly.
“No, Great-Grandma Kemp.” Harper sighed. Six months wasn’t really long enough for Zoey to embrace all the extra family, let alone fully understand what ancestors were. She was four. She knew about the family she saw on a regular basis, which included Andrea’s mom, Grandma Jane, and Harper’s mom, Grandma Georgia. Having two grandmas was as much as Zoey seemed able to wrap her mind around right now. And having a new mother...
Harper opened the box on the counter and looked down at the familiar material. It was a gown from 1950—A-line taffeta covered in lace with sheer lace sleeves and décolletage. The dress had fit their grandmother at ankle length, but Grandma Kemp had been a petite woman, and Heidi was significantly taller, so Harper was guessing it would fit her sister at a tea length—perfect for today’s fashion.
There was a tap at the front door, and Harper looked up to see Heidi through the unbroken window. She wore a leather jacket and a pair of jeans, a floppy leather bag tossed over one shoulder. A pair of sunglasses was perched on top of her short-cropped auburn hair.
“Auntie Heidi!” Zoey announced, and Harper crossed the store and unlocked the door. As Heidi came inside, she glanced around. She’d dropped by yesterday and seen the state of things—as had a quarter of the town—so it wasn’t a shock.
“So where’s Gabe?” Heidi asked.
“I don’t know. He’s not going to be here every second,” Harper replied. “The police are doing a lot of drive-bys, though.”
“Hmm.” Heidi ruffled Zoey’s hair. “And how’s my favorite flower girl?”
“I’m good!” Zoey sang out. She was excited to be in Heidi’s wedding, and Harper was grateful to her sister for including her new daughter. Anything that made Zoey feel more accepted and at home was a plus.
While Heidi deposited her bag and sunglasses on a nearby chair, Harper pulled the antique dress out of the box. It had been stored impeccably over the years, and while the lace had darkened over time, it was still a stunning dress by any standard.
“Is he still as good-looking as he used to be?” Heidi asked.
“Good looks only go so far,” Harper replied. But yes, he was—more so. He’d matured into a ruggedly handsome man with a steely gaze that could make a woman’s stomach flip. But what use was that when a man’s character didn’t match up?
“Does he...know?” Heidi murmured as Zoey took the sunglasses to the mirror to try them on.
“No.” Harper knew what her sister was asking, and she didn’t want to say too much within Zoey’s hearing distance. “He seems completely oblivious.”
“Are you going to tell him?” Heidi glanced toward Zoey, too, but the girl seemed rapt in her game of dress up.
“I don’t know,” Harper admitted quietly. “I feel like I should. He deserves to know at least, doesn’t he?”
“Andrea didn’t think so.” Heidi met Harper’s gaze and held it.
“That was a personal grudge, though,” Harper said. Andrea had been deeply hurt by Gabe’s inability to commit to her, and she’d never been able to forgive him. She said he hadn’t wanted to be a husband or a father, and she was protecting her daughter from the ultimate rejection. But Zoey was his daughter, and meeting her in person might change that.
“Something can be both personal and the right choice,” Heidi replied softly.
“One day, Zoey’s going to ask about her dad, and what then?” Harper asked. She couldn’t lie to her daughter, and without a really good reason otherwise, Harper couldn’t lie to Gabe, either. “I’d hoped to be able to put off thinking about Gabe until another time. But with him in town, I’m going to have to face this sooner than I thought.”
Zoey tired of her game and came back to where they were standing. She wore the sunglasses perched on the top of her little head the way she’d seen Heidi wear them, and they slipped and dropped to the floor. Heidi bent to pick them up.
Harper gently shook the dress out of its folds and held it aloft for her sister to see in full length. Heidi slowly rose from her crouch to collect the glasses, her gaze moving over the dress in wonder.
“This is it...” Heidi breathed.
“Grandma’s dress.”
No one had worn the dress since Grandma Kemp, and while Harper had done a few repairs where the lining had fallen apart, nothing else was changed.
“I’m thinking it will fit you at about a tea length.” Harper went on. “We’ll have to let out the waist a little bit...since I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be squeezing yourself into a 1950s girdle. And Grandma was tiny.”
Heidi chuckled. “No girdle. And I want to shorten it to above the knee.”
“Above the knee?” Harper gathered the dress back up and put it on top of the box. “That’s not even funny.”
“I’m not joking,” Heidi retorted. “I don’t see myself as a traditional bride anyway.”
“Not traditional?” Harper retorted. “Heidi, you quit your job to marry this man! If that isn’t traditional, I don’t know what is!”
“Planning a society wedding is going to be a full-time job in itself,” Heidi said. “Besides, I obviously won’t need the income anymore. It’s not like the job was my dream career. I was a receptionist.”
“That job was yours,” Harper countered. “That matters. Keeping something that belongs to you...” Harper sighed. In her humble opinion, her sister was fighting the wrong battle over keeping some independence. Heidi was waging war for a dress, but she’d given up her job. “I’m just saying, Chris’s family is very traditional. You’re marrying into one of the wealthiest families in the county. If you leave the dress as is, it’ll be tea length. So midcalf.”
“That’s long, Harper.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “Do you have to be so different all the time?”
“I’ll still be me,” Heidi quipped. “Difficult as always. Thankfully, Chris thinks I’m pretty.”
“You’ll want nice pictures. And so will he, for that matter.”
“I’ll want pictures that show me as me,” Heidi countered. “I have never in my life worn a long dress anywhere. I’m a jeans girl. So I think a short, flirty dress is a nice compromise.”
“And hack apart Grandma’s dress?” Harper gaped at her sister.
“We could use the leftover material in a flower girl dress for Zoey.” Heidi shrugged, a smile coming to her face. “It would be perfect!”
It
