Promised (The Promised Series)

smiles at me and claps her hands together. “Alright ladies, come find your dress. Your names are on the garment bags. Your shoes are in their boxes under the bags. Put everything on and come out for us all to see.”
    The girls and Mom, minus Dani whose dress has to be made last minute because of her due to give birth the month before the wedding, head to the stalls to follow Mrs. Dallas’ directions. She stays by the stalls so she’ll hear them if they need help getting zipped up, and Dani takes a seat in the chair beside me.
    “How are you holding up?” She leans in to whisper so I only hear her.
    “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I ask back, eyeing her pregnant belly. She may not be due till April, but she looks like she could go into labor at any moment.
    Her hand reflexively comes to rub her stomach and she smiles. “I’m perfect, swollen ankles and all. But today isn’t about me, it’s about you and I want to know how my best friend is dealing with this.”
    “I’m here, soldiering through like always.”
    “How did it go yesterday at you know who’s house?” She quietly asks, trying to lean forward to grab a bottle of water and cookie off the coffee table.
    I grab them for her and hand them over. I look at the dressing rooms and Mrs. Dallas to make sure no one has emerged to overhear us before I answer. “Good. Great even. His Mom seemed so understanding and even invited me to stay for dinner, but I couldn’t because of it being date night with Shay.”
    “And how are things with Shay?” I pretend like I don’t hear the hope in her voice when she brings him up. But I’ve learned over the last few weeks, Dani is holding out hope that I’ll fall madly in love with Shay so she won’t have to worry about losing me. She knows me falling for Shay is a pipe dream, but I let her have it because if the roles were reversed, I’d be hoping for the same thing.
    “I must say, he’s persistent. He comes around about every day and makes me spend time with him, but my feelings for him haven’t changed.”
    Dani doesn’t even try to hide her frown so I lean in and give her a hug.
    Marley comes out of her dressing room first and walks over to the mirrors. Mrs. Dallas designed the dresses so they’d each be a different shade of purple from lavender to a deep eggplant, and each would have a different design. Marley’s is the lavender with a beautiful braided racer back. It clings tight to her till it hits her waist, then it falls in loose waves to where the hem ends at mid-thigh. The bodice is covered in a swirly crystal design and the skirt has a few scattered throughout. The lavender goes perfectly with her light blonde hair. Out of all my sister-in-laws, I’m closest to Marley (after Dani of course). But since I don’t get along with Aidan or agree with what he’s doing behind her back, I’ve been keeping my distance. I wish I didn’t have to. Heck, I wish I could tell her the truth without having to worry about Aidan blowing his gasket, but I can’t.
    She doesn’t deserve to put up with Aidan’s crap. She’s drop dead gorgeous with legs that go on for miles and a body sent straight from the heavens, but she doesn’t realize any of that. If you asked her, she’d describe herself as the plain girl from next door. When in reality, she’d only be the girl next door if you were living next door to a Hollywood starlet. She’s seriously that beautiful and to top it all off, she has a heart made of pure gold. How the heck Aidan got her, I don’t know, but he sure as heck doesn’t deserve her.
    After scanning herself in the mirror, she turns to us and asks. “Does it look okay?” See, she seriously doesn’t get how beautiful she is.
    “Beautiful.” Dani and I say at the same time that Mrs. Dallas says. “Perfection.”
    Cara, Ali and Jenna come out at the same time. Their dresses are almost identical, short (hem at upper thigh), tight, and coated in crystals. Cara’s is a strapless pale violet number. Ali’s is a true purple, one shoulder design. And Jenna’s is a plum color with a halter top. When Dani’s is finished, it will be a dark eggplant with a design closer to Marley’s.
    While Cara, Ali, and Jenna are admiring their designs in the mirrors, Mom comes out in her mother of the bride dress. A fitted silver dress covered in purple crystals that pushes up her breasts and shows about as much leg as Cara, Ali, and Jenna’s dresses. I knew she wouldn’t tone it down, but