“I should have checked,” she persisted. “I shouldn’t have taken his word that his divorce was nearly final. How dumb could I have been?”

“Don’t let yourself feel guilty because you believe the best in people. A jaded person might have second-guessed his claims, sure. But you’re not jaded.”

“Well, I wasn’t then,” she said with a cheeky grin. “Now I’ve got my guard up.”

He smiled back, but he felt a stab of regret and a fresh wave of anger that Brayden had taken someone as trusting and optimistic as Audrey and dulled her ability to always look for the best in people. She wasn’t a cynic now, by any means, but it bothered the hell out of him that the girl who still had dreams of a white wedding dress and doves assumed she wasn’t worthy of any of it.

“Hey!” she said happily. “At least our conversation made me forget all about the whole Scandal Boy thing. Do you think they got a picture of us holding hands?”

Clarke looked down, a little surprised to see that they were indeed still holding hands. And more than a little surprised that for the past few moments of their conversation, he hadn’t been holding them for a photo op.

But he was most surprised of all that he didn’t want to let go.

Chapter Ten

MONDAY, JANUARY 27

O-M-G you guys!!! You will never guess where I am today! Be sure to check my stories for all of the white, poofy details.

—@TheAudreyTate

No,” Claire and Naomi said at the exact same time as Audrey came out of the dressing room.

She feigned confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Honey, is there no mirror in there?” Naomi asked, aghast, as she stared at Audrey.

“What, do you not like it?” Audrey asked in dismay.

She shuffled toward the big mirrors in the main dressing area, then tried and failed to hold in her laugh at the absurd wedding dress. “Who made this?”

“Oh, thank God,” Naomi breathed. “I thought you were serious.”

“Yes, definitely serious,” Audrey said, plucking one of the dozen buttons that made up the front of the bodice. Not functional buttons. But decorative, mismatched, randomly scattered buttons. “Country quilt is so very me.”

“It does sort of look like a quilt,” Claire said, champagne glass in hand as she circled Audrey. “It’s like they took all the scraps and buttons from every other wedding dress in existence and put them all together on this dress.”

“I couldn’t resist trying it on. I thought it had to look better on me than on the hanger, but… no. It’s worse. So much worse.”

“At least it makes your boobs look good!” Naomi said cheerfully.

“Sorry about the delay,” the saleswoman said as she came back into the dressing area. “I had to— Oh. Oh my.”