“When you showed up at my front door, you were babbling on about what married life would be like, and I definitely heard mention of a kitten, but now I’m thinking I heard that wrong. We’re so clearly destined to be a dog family, right?”

She smiled at his use of the word family. Clarke would be her family. Her partner. They would have a cat, and sure, a dog, too, and every morning could be like this one.

It would be enough. It would have to be.

Chapter Twenty-Two

FRIDAY, MARCH 6

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been having regular nightmares that you were going to pick pink bridesmaid dresses,” Naomi called from the other side of the dressing room. “I’m so relieved to be wrong.”

“You look great in pink,” Audrey protested.

“I look great in some pinks,” Naomi said. “But there’s a particular shade, not unlike the color of Claire’s powder room, that makes me look like a sunset.”

“Who wouldn’t want to look like a sunset?” Claire asked indignantly, stepping out of her own dressing room. “They’re everyone’s favorite photo op.”

“Not mine,” Audrey said, already reaching for her phone. “This is my favorite, this moment. Oh, Claire, you look gorgeous.”

“You get to take at least some credit,” Claire said with a smile as she stepped in front of the mirror. “You picked the dress, and, well done you. It’s beautiful.”

“I know,” Audrey said smugly. Despite her “wedding in a hurry,” Audrey had refused to rush any of the important decisions, taking her time to get her bridesmaid dresses exactly right. Whenever she’d planned her hypothetical wedding, she’d imagined her bridesmaids wearing something muted and soft to complement the whimsical fairy-tale version of her dream wedding. She’d toyed with the ideas of moss green, gentle lilac, glacier blue, a muted millennial pink that, for the record, would have looked lovely on Naomi, sunset and all.

Instead, she’d shocked herself by choosing… black. She wanted to be a princess, yes, but she was a Manhattan princess, and nothing said Manhattan like black. And nothing said Upper East Side like the ever-iconic little black dress.

She’d chosen a slightly different style for each woman. A daring V-neck for Naomi and a high-neck halter top for Claire that left her back sexily bare. Oliver and Scott could—and would—thank Audrey later.

She’d chosen a flattering one-shoulder cut for her maid-of-honor sister, who was still fretting about her post-baby body, and an assortment of sweetheart necks and edgy asymmetrical cuts for the childhood and college friends she’d asked to be in the wedding.

Naomi opened her dressing room, confirming what Audrey had already known. That, just as Claire’s classic but surprisingly seductive dress suited her, the plunging neckline was the perfect fit for both Naomi’s body and daring personality.