All of Me (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1) (10 page)

“Why did you go to Afghanistan? I mean, you could have gone anywhere, but you chose to report on a war.”

“It was one of the most important stories in the world. I wanted to see for myself what was going on. I wanted everyone to know the truth about what was happening.” He glanced across the cab at her. “I was lucky. I could leave whenever I wanted to but, for the most part, the civilians were poor and had to stay.”

“Will you go back again?”

Logan shook his head. “No. I did what I needed to do and it was time to move on.” He took a deep breath and turned right. “We’re nearly there.” He pulled into a parking space and took his seatbelt off.

“After writing about Afghanistan, aren’t you bored with the stories you work on in Bozeman?”

“It took me a while to adjust, but I wouldn’t say what I write about is boring. If my editor and readers thought that, I wouldn’t have a job. And speaking about stories, I think it’s about time we found a happy ending for yours.” He opened his door and got out of the truck.

Tess followed him into the stationery store. She was still thinking about Afghanistan and what Logan must have seen when he disappeared down an aisle.

“Connie?”

A woman with brown hair stopped restocking the shelves. “Logan? What are you doing here?”

“If I told you I needed some pens and paper would you believe me?”

Connie smiled. “You’ve definitely come to the right store. Is this pure coincidence or did you come to see me?”

“We came to see you and buy stationery.” Logan turned toward Tess. “Connie, this is a friend of mine, Tess Williams.”

Tess shook Connie’s hand. “I’m sorry someone stole everything from your home.”

“So am I.” Connie put the last six folders she was holding on the shelf. “The only good thing was that we weren’t in the house when they broke in.”

Tess glanced at Logan. “I read the article Logan wrote and it said you’re getting married soon?”

“It’s less than two weeks away. I’m worried something else will happen.”

The bell on the front counter rang and Connie smiled at them. “I need to go and help serve. It was nice seeing you.”

Connie walked quickly along the aisle. She’d make a pretty bride, Tess thought as she watched her. She was younger than Tess, probably only twenty-two or twenty-three. She had a beautiful smile and the darkest blue eyes Tess had ever seen.

Logan picked up a box of colored pencils and a large sketch pad. “Do you need anything while we’re here?”

“You actually need stationery?”

“I want to restock my cupboards for when my niece comes to stay again. She loves drawing and cleans me out of supplies each time she visits.”

Connie finished serving one customer and another took their place. “I wonder how busy it gets in here?”

“Not as busy as your café.”

Tess took a closer look at the store. Everything was well stocked. The floors were clean and colorful posters hung on every available wall. The owners took pride in their business and it showed. “Online purchasing is killing stores like this one. People don’t want to come into town to buy an eraser or a pencil sharpener. They can go on the Internet and have it delivered the next day. It would be like someone opening an online café in town.”

“Your food is too good to be replaced by a web-based business. I’d drive twice the distance to sit in your café and smell your home baking.”

Tess felt a blush streak across her cheeks. “You’re biased because I taught you how to make pancakes.”

“And I’m coming back to give you a hand when the Groovy Grans are next in town.” Logan looked at the sales counter. “Looks as though Connie’s available now.”

Tess walked toward Connie. “Cross your fingers that she wants to consider taking the dresses.”

Tess looked around her. No one was waiting to be served so she had a few minutes to ask Connie about the bridesmaids’ dresses. She took Logan’s stationery out of his hands and put it on the counter.

“I’ll take these, please,” Tess said.

“I’m paying for them,” Logan said.

“No, you’re not. Put your wallet away and don’t argue.” Connie smiled at them both, then took the money Tess held out.

“Do you still need four bridesmaids’ dresses for your wedding?” Tess asked.

Connie sighed. “We do. My sister spent most of the day looking at hire dresses in Great Falls. There are some nice ones in their catalog, but most of them are already booked for the weekend we’re getting married. I’m beginning to think we’re not going to find anything.”

“I might have a solution for you.”

Connie raised her eyebrows.

“My friends and I have got a lot of bridesmaids’ dresses between us. None of them have been worn more than once and they’re all less than five years old. We’d be happy to let you have a look at them and take the ones you like the most.”

Connie’s face turned red. “That’s really nice of you, but Dave and I don’t have a lot of money. We weren’t insured and I can’t afford to buy them from you.”

“We don’t want anything for them,” Tess said. “They’d be yours to keep. For free.”

“You’re joking?”

“I couldn’t be more serious if I tried. Everyone is bringing their dresses to my apartment tonight. You could come and have a look tomorrow?”

“I don’t know what to say.” Connie bit her bottom lip. “Would it be okay if I brought one of my sisters with me? She knows what size dresses we need.”

“Sure. If any of them look as though they’d fit, you could take them home for your bridesmaids to try on.” Tess pulled a business card out of her wallet. “This is my phone number. I’ll be home after four o’clock.”

Connie looked down at the card. “I finish work at four. Could I come straight around then?”

Tess smiled at the excitement on the bride-to-be’s face. “I’ll see you sometime around four o’clock.” She picked up the bag that held Logan’s pencils and paper. “It was nice meeting you, Connie.”

“It was nice meeting you, too. Thank you so much. I’m going to call my sister. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Logan smiled as Connie rushed across the store. “You’ve made someone happy.”

“I just hope she likes the dresses.” Tess opened the front door and took one last look around the store. “She seems like a nice person. They’re lucky to have her working here.”

Logan unlocked his truck and opened Tess’ door. “Are you ready to go home?”

“You bet,” Tess said with a smile. “I’ve got some texts to send. Molly, Sally, and Annie are going to be excited when I tell them we’ve found Connie.”

“I assume there’s going to be a celebration tonight?”

“You’d be assuming right. I might even make a chocolate cake to celebrate.” Tess knew the recipe for her favorite chocolate cake by heart. She’d made the recipe so many times that it almost felt as though it made itself.

“Did I tell you chocolate cake is one of my favorite desserts?”

Tess laughed at the big old eyes staring across the truck at her. “My cake is chocolaty rich, deliciously decadent and sinfully saucy.”

“Sounds exactly like the type of dessert a reporter with an incredible vocabulary might enjoy.”

“As long as you can put up with a lot of giggly females, you can join us.”

Logan started the truck and drove toward the café. “It’ll be hard, but I’m sure I’ll survive. What time are you meeting?”

“Anytime after six-thirty. If you arrive sooner, you’ll have to help dry my dinner dishes.” For some reason, the thought of Logan standing in her kitchen with an apron tied around his waist did funny things to her stomach.

But he was a reporter. She had a past life she was hiding. It didn’t matter what he was wearing because nothing was going to happen.

***

Logan held two bottles of wine in his hand and knocked on Tess’ door. He could hear laughter coming from inside her apartment. The sound made him glad he’d come.

He could have done what he wanted to do on the phone. He could have called Molly, asked if she’d be happy to combine her photos with the story he wanted to write. If she’d agreed, it would have taken ten minutes to call everyone else. But instead he’d decided to come here and talk to Tess and her friends in person. And maybe, if he was lucky, their story would fill his mind instead of the nightmares keeping him awake at night.

Tess opened the door. His eyes traveled slowly down her body, appreciating the figure-hugging bright blue silk dress she was wearing. “I didn’t realize it was a black tie event.”

He didn’t need to look at her feet to know she was wearing high heels. At six-foot-five, he wasn’t short. Tess’ eyes were almost level with his. She was grinning at him as if he was a slice of the chocolate cake she’d been going to bake.

“We’re playing dress-up.”

Heat built in parts of his body that hadn’t been switched on in years. Tess must have read his mind, or the parts of him that were turned on.

Her smile grew wider and her eyes sparkled. “You’ll have to play nurses and doctors with someone else.”

Before he could begin to appreciate where that visual could take him, Tess pulled him into the room. Molly had her camera out, snapping photos of Annie as she posed beside the large picture window in the living room.

“Tilt your head a little toward the ceiling,” Molly said.

Annie moved her head and waited patiently while Molly got the shot. She turned left, then right, until Molly was happy with what she had. Annie looked good in the pink silk dress she was wearing and he wondered why she didn’t get dressed up more often.

Tess laughed when Annie poked her tongue out at Molly. “When Molly suggested taking photos of each of the dresses for a catalog, we didn’t think she meant this. She’s set up a full blown photo shoot.”

He took another look at Annie and noticed the makeup she was wearing. Her hair had been styled in a way that didn’t look as though a bird had made a nest on her head. She looked like a model. She moved like a model. This wasn’t the over-excited woman that served him coffee and pie in jeans and a t-shirt.

After Molly had finished taking the shots she needed, Annie smiled at him and patted her hair. “Do you like my new hairstyle? Tess convinced me that shabby chic belongs in a house, not on my head. I went for the Audrey Hepburn look. What do you think?”

She turned around. The swept up hairstyle was a vast improvement on the tumble of hair she normally held together with chopsticks and hair ties. “It looks good. Sophisticated and elegant.”

Annie grinned. “Carl won’t recognize me when I turn up at the bowling alley looking like a glamor puss. I’ll go and put the next dress on.”

Molly glanced at Tess. “You need to do your hair and makeup.”

“I don’t need makeup. You’re not including my face in the photos.”

“You wear a pretty dress, you put makeup on. It’s an unwritten law of nature.”

Tess frowned. “It sounds like an Irish rule of nature. I’m American.”

“And I’m the photographer and I’m Irish.” Molly ignored the growl coming from Tess and turned to Logan. “Did you bring a suit?”

“Don’t trust her,” Tess said as she walked across the room. “She’s got evil intentions.”

“I do not. There’s not an evil bone in my body, but I do have a good imagination.” Molly looked at the bottles in Logan’s hands. “You brought wine? You’d make a fine addition to The Bridesmaids Club.”

Logan laughed at the mischievous grin on Molly’s face. “I’m not here to be part of your club. I’ve got something I want you to consider.”

“I don’t date and I won’t marry you. Anything else is a possibility.”

Logan smiled as he took the wine across to the kitchen counter and opened a bottle. “I’d like to write a follow-up story about what you’re doing for Connie and Dave. Would you supply the photos if I did the writing?”

“Sure. As long as you credit the photos to me, I’d be happy to help.” She glanced toward the doorway that Tess had disappeared through. “I don’t know about Annie or Sally, but Tess won’t want her face or name in the story.”

“She’s already mentioned that. Do you know why?”

“You’ll have to ask her.” Molly took the glass of wine he handed her. “Sometimes you have to be careful where you step, and this is one of those times.”

“But you’re taking her photograph?”

“She trusts me. I’ll crop and edit my pictures to tell a different story. You’ll need to do the same with your words.”

Annie and Tess walked into the living room. He was glad he wasn’t holding the wine because the bottles would have dropped to the ground. Tess looked incredible. She’d pulled her hair out of the ponytail she’d been wearing. A blonde curtain of silky hair fell to her shoulders. She’d done something to her eyes, made them bigger and bluer with a few strokes of eyeliner and shadow. Her cheeks were highlighted in a soft sweep of peach powder and her lips were tilted into a smile.

“I’ll take Tess’ photo first.” Molly picked up her light meter and took a reading. “Stand by the window. That’s it.”

Logan watched Tess twist and turn, stand in profile, then look straight into the lens of the camera. She’d zoned out, left what was happening in the rest of the room alone. She concentrated on Molly’s directions, found what Molly wanted, then worked the mood like a seasoned pro. He was beginning to think there was more to her than what she wanted everyone to believe.