“Sorry, Tess. No wonder you’ve been panicking.”
Finally, we were on the same page.
As he continued to stare at the dress, his eyes grew wider. “Isn’t that…? It looks just like…”
“Princess Diana’s affair?” I said, before he could finish.
“Bloody hell, Tess.” He let out a snigger. “You definitely can’t wear it, you’ll be the laughing stock.”
“Going off your and Sal’s reactions, I already am. As for Chloe and Abbey’s reaction. They’re still sending funny pictures through.”
“I mean, it’s horrific.”
“Which is exactly what I’ve been telling you.”
Mesmerised, Leo took a step closer. “I can’t believe your mum actually wore this herself. Even back in the day.” Lifting his hand to touch it, he smiled as he stroked the material. “To be fair, it feels better than it looks. Which I suppose is something.”
“Never mind that.” I tapped his hand back down. “What am I going to do?”
“Get another dress.”
I stared at him. Talk about stating the obvious. “And in the meantime? When it comes to Mum?”
“If she does bring it up…”
“There’s noifabout it.”
“Then I’ll have to deal with it.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.”
Chapter 24
“Here she is,” Ryan said, calling out from the kitchen doorway. “The latest royal in the family.”
I rolled my eyes as Leo as I hung our coats on the banister. Having just landed at Sal’s I’d expected some quip or other. My brother-in-law couldn’t help himself. “You’ve seen the photo then?” I asked, as we approached.
Ryan chuckled. “Oh yes.”
“There’s a picture?” Leo asked. “Of you wearing your mother’s dress?” He looked to Ryan with a mischievous smile. “Mate, you’ve got to send it to me.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” I said.
Leo chuckled as we made our way down the hall. “But think of the children, Tess.”
I tried to keep a straight face. “Forget it. We have enough pictures on the mantelpiece.”
Entering the room, I stopped. “What’s all this?” Taking in the sight before me, I’d never felt so relieved. It seemed I’d been wrong to worry about potential surprises; some of them turned out to be pretty good. My eyes followed the line of delicious-looking cakes that sat on the countertop next to two glasses of water. “Someone’s been busy.”
“I know we should all be at Mum and Dad’s this month,” Sal said. “I just thought we could use the afternoon to do a tasting session. You know, decide what flavour you want for the big day.”
I looked to Leo. “Did you know about this?”
Leo shook his head.
“A bit early, isn’t it?” I asked. With three months to go, I assumed we had loads of time for that kind of decision.
