Nancy's cheeks flushed pink. "Oh, sorry. I guess I'm out of the loop. I've been gone from Marietta so long that I haven't really kept up with things." Her eyes flickered out towards the street. She sounded a little melancholy.
There. She was being stupid – paranoid even. No one knew about Melody and Joe. They'd moved far enough away to be out of gossip range and neither of them had kept in touch with anyone from Marietta. Just as well. Lisa didn't really want to keep a smile pasted on her face once everyone heard they'd got married.
Nancy looked back to the dress. "The color is nice. Why don't you give it a try?" she said to Ruby. But Ruby shook her head. "No way. I want something much brighter than that."
Polly's top lip curled into a sneer. "I don't like the style. I want a neckline that's more plunging." She gave her breasts a little shake. "After all, if you've got it, flaunt it. Right?"
Lisa sucked in a deep breath. It was a classic design with a sweetheart neckline. Something that would entirely enhance their surgical assets. "In most cases you can't really tell by looking at a dress on the hanger. It looks entirely different when it's on your body." She pulled back the curtain on one of her changing rooms. "Why don't you give it a try?"
For a few seconds it felt like a Mexican standoff. Polly glared at her before grabbing a few more chocolates and stuffing them in her mouth. "Fine." She grabbed the dress and yanked the curtain closed.
Nancy was standing up again, going through the rail of dresses. She pressed her lips together and gave Lisa a tight smile. As she moved the hangers along the rail the sun glinted off her massive pink diamond ring. "Nancy, that's beautiful," said Lisa as she grabbed her hand to look. She'd only ever seen diamonds this big in a magazine. This was pure Hollywood all the way.
Nancy smiled. And it was the first genuine smile Lisa had seen that day. She hugged the ring back to her chest. "It is? Isn't it? Jared surprised me. He'd already picked it when he proposed and it's just perfect. I love it."
Her eyes connected with Lisa's. This was what Lisa was used to – making a connection with a head-over-heels bride. She was relieved. For a few minutes this morning she'd wondered if Nancy was just a bag of nerves. But her eyes sparkled when she mentioned Jared. It didn't matter what Lisa had read about him in the press. This was a bride who was genuinely in love with her groom.
Something flitted across Nancy's eyes and she reached over and took Lisa's hand giving it a little squeeze. "I was in grade school with Grace," she said quietly. "I'm really sorry about your sister. I still remember her hair in plaits on the first day of school. I loved those plaits. We have a picture sitting on a bench together with our brand new school uniforms on."
Grace. Melody. Nancy was bringing back a whole lot of unexpected memories today. Lisa really hadn't had much luck with sisters. She'd completely forgotten that Nancy had been in same grade as her baby sister, Grace.
Grace was the reason she spent so much time volunteering at the hospital. Losing her baby sister to leukaemia had given Lisa a real instinct for what people needed. Whether that was in a hospital ward, or in her bridal salon.
Some things just never left you. Her overwhelming memories of her sister in hospital weren't sad or painful. The staff and volunteers had been like family to them. Sometimes coming from a small place wasn't so bad at all. There was always someone to entertain her and Melody while Grace was especially unwell. But most importantly Grace had never been alone. There was always someone to give her a hug, hold her hand, or read her a story.
Now, as an adult, Lisa appreciated just how important those things were to families who had relatives in hospital – especially if they couldn't be there every second of the day. It was why she treated her volunteer shifts like another job. The only time she didn't do her shifts was if she was sick. And she got just as much out of her shifts as the patients did.
She smiled at Nancy. "I'd love to see that picture sometime. I don't have a lot of pictures of Grace at grade school – she was only there a few months."
Nancy nodded. "I'll have a look when we go back to the ranch. I'm sure I know where all the old pictures are stored."
Lisa smiled. If Nancy could find that picture she had a frame that would fit perfectly. She might even keep it here, in the salon.
"I hate this dress!" yelled Polly. "It doesn't fit at all." She flung back the curtain on the dressing room.
Lisa rushed over as Polly started tugging at the pale green fabric. She was right. It didn't fit at all. Polly was tiny, her waist and hips completely out of proportion with her enhanced breasts. There was no ‘standard' size dress that would fit her. Anything that she picked would need multiple fittings to ensure it was perfect.
"Come over here." She waved Polly over towards a free-standing mirror and pulled the dress from behind to make it hug her figure. "What do you think?"
Polly shook her head, her hair splaying and catching Lisa in the face. She wrinkled her nose to try and stop herself sneezing. "I hate it," said Polly. "I'm definitely not wearing this."
The color actually suited her perfectly. But she pointed towards a bright red dress on the rail. "I want to try that one."
Ruby had finally stopped hovering near the bottle of Prosecco and was fingering a pale one-shouldered yellow dress. "And I want to try this one."
Lisa painted a smile on her face. It was going to be a long, long day.
Chapter Three
‡
The music was pumping and Grey's was already packed. Adam bought a beer at the bar and fought his way through the crowd to one of the tables near the back. Dawson gave him a nod and pulled out the chair next to him.
"Where you been?" he asked.
Adam shrugged. "I stopped in at the hospital before I came along."
Jake, one of the other guys, waved his hand. "Don't tell us. There was a patient you had to see. A prescription you had to write. I wish you gave our poker game the priority you give your patients." He dealt the cards swiftly.
Adam wasn't offended by the words. As the new guy around here he was the butt of most of their jokes. He took a sip of his beer. "You wouldn't be saying that if you were the patient."
Jake rolled his eyes, "If I was the patient, I'd be looking for a doctor of the female variety. And one that was a whole lot prettier than you."
The rest of the guys laughed as Adam settled back into his chair. Making friends in Marietta had come easy. People welcomed you here. There were, of course, a few nosey questions but nothing he couldn't bat away with a joke or two.
Several of the guys had already asked if they could move into ‘bachelor palace' as they'd nicknamed his house. But most of these guys were already loved up. People didn't seem to stay single in Marietta for long. He wondered if something was in the water around here.
Not that he hadn't noticed the complement of lovely ladies in Marietta. He might even have been on the odd date. But there had been nothing serious.
Marietta was new. Marietta was a fresh start. No one here knew about his wealth. For those not in the know, doctors were always considered well off. The truth was, most spent most of their life paying off their tuition. Adam had lucked out.
After his face had appeared in the press in Washington he seemed to inherit a whole load of new best friends. A whole host of women who found him irresistible, and while that wasn't exactly a crime, he would rather they found his personality irresistible rather than his bank balance.
"Heard you were visiting my wife again today," smiled Dawson.
He nodded. "You might as well just sell me shares in the place and be done with it. I'm going to be a permanent fixture. And while it could easily be the beauty behind the counter that is the attraction," he smiled as Dawson raised his eyebrows, "I can assure you it's the cinnamon and chocolate hazelnut bars."
Dawson glanced at the cards in his hand and gestured towards the dealer. "Card. I also heard you met Luscious Lisa."
"Who?"
Jake, Bruce and Mark all put their elbows on the table. A collective curious hmmmm went around the table.
Adam shook his head and laughed. "You're worse than a bunch of old women. Who is Luscious Lisa?"