We didn’t go back to sleep for hours.

Chapter Twelve

Jackie Gardner was spotted shopping for wedding dresses for her upcoming nuptials to Virginia State Senator William Clayton. Her sisters and reported bridesmaids, Kate and Blair Reynolds, were in attendance.

—Capital Confessions blog

Kate

I sat next to Blair on the stuffed sofa in the bridal shop, waiting for Jackie to come out of the dressing room. Considering Will’s position as a state senator and the fact that his family included a former vice president of the United States and parents who were constantly mentioned in the society column, her wedding was beginning to resemble a mini royal wedding.

Jackie wasn’t the type of girl who spent a lot of time worrying about things like seating charts and floral arrangements—she wasn’t Blair—so I figured she was pretty overwhelmed by it all. I knew she was excited to marry Will, but I doubted that she’d anticipated all of the bridal craziness that would accompany marrying a Clayton. She’d called Blair and me last week in a panic and asked us to help her pick out a dress.

We sipped glasses of champagne, Blair looking perfectly at home in the elegant salon filled with tiny, breakable furniture, the soft strands of classical music, and a ridiculous amount of flowers. Me? Not so much.

“Okay, I need you guys to give me your honest opinion,” Jackie called out from behind the dressing room door. “It’s not necessarily what I would have picked if this were a normal wedding, but given Will’s career and the fact that these pictures will probably show up somewhere, I wanted to look like a politician’s wife. Just, you know, not boring.”

My lips twitched. Demure, she definitely wasn’t. Not that Will seemed to mind, though. He absolutely adored my sister.

The door opened and Jackie stepped out.

Whoa.

Blair and I had only discovered that we had a sister a year ago when Jackie’s paternity was exposed by Capital Confessions. Since then we’d spent as much time as our crazy schedules allowed trying to build a relationship, trying to make up for twenty-one years of lost time. Even though I didn’t have a lifetime of memories with her like I did with Blair, and even though our relationship would probably never be the same, I loved Jackie. She was my sister in every way that counted. So seeing her standing there in her wedding gown was something special.

I didn’t really get into clothes, so I couldn’t tell who the designer was, or what kind of shape it was, or anything about the material. I just knew that she looked beautiful. And happy. So happy.

“You look amazing,” Blair whispered, tears filling her eyes. Between the two of us, she was definitely the crier.

I grinned. “You really do. Will’s going to freak when he sees you.”

He always looked at her like he would never get tired of it, as though there were something new to dazzle him each time, but I figured there was something special about seeing the woman you were going to marry in a wedding dress. Especially, when you looked like Jackie did.

“You don’t think it’s too conservative?” she asked, staring at her reflection in the mirror with a critical eye.

I shrugged. “I mean, I can see cleavage, so I’m thinking no.”

Blair laughed. “It’s perfect. You’re right; you want something that will look good for Will’s staff to use in official photos. It’s feminine and sexy, while still perfectly appropriate for the wife of a rising political star.”

Jackie grinned, her eyes gleaming, and I knew she was already scheming up ways to use their wedding to help Will’s career.

“I think this is it, then. I saw it in the bridal magazine and thought it might be, but I really wanted to come try it on and see for myself.” She gave us both quick hugs. “I can’t believe I just found my wedding dress. Thank you guys so much for coming with me.”

Blair stood, handing Jackie and me champagne flutes. She lifted hers in the air.

“To our amazing sister. We wish you and Will a lifetime of happiness.” Her eyes teared up. “I’m so glad that we have you in our lives. We love you so much.”

Jackie grinned. “Thanks. I love you guys, too. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Despite all of the shit with my father and all of the issues I had with my family, my sisters were the best part of being a Reynolds, no contest. I knew my parents hated that Blair and I had a relationship with Jackie; besides the press conference they’d conducted when news of Jackie’s paternity had come out in the media, they’d made it clear that they didn’t want us to be linked with her publicly. When it came down to a relationship with the sister we loved or the approval of the parents we could barely stand, there hadn’t been much of a question for Blair or me. This was our father’s legacy, whether he liked it or not.

We finished our champagne and then Jackie went back into the dressing room to get changed, leaving Blair and me together.

“So do you think you and Gray will get married someday?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. Blair was pretty private about her relationship—and given everything that had happened before, I couldn’t blame her—but they’d been living together for several months now and they seemed really happy. And I’d thrown mock weddings with Blair more times than I could count when we were kids. That said, I knew Gray was divorced, and considering Blair’s last attempt at marriage had resulted in her fleeing the altar when she’d learned her fiancé was gay and cheating on her, I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if neither one of them had a favorable outlook on matrimony.

Blair’s cheeks turned a little pink. “Yeah, I do.”

I waited to see if she’d share more.

“We’ve talked about it and we both want the same thing, want to have a future together. I think he’s a little nervous about the rest of it—having children, feeling like he’s ready to be a husband and father. With his track record and the way he was raised, he definitely still has some baggage, but it seems like he gets more comfortable with the idea the longer we’re together, the more he sees that our relationship is solid.” She shrugged. “Maybe in a year? Neither one of us is in a huge rush. We love each other and we’re happy. Plus, we’re both really busy getting our careers off the ground.”

Blair had started working at a nonprofit in Boston a few months ago and seemed to really enjoy it. Gray had opened his own private legal practice and while I knew he’d tried to cut back on his hours, he still worked a lot.

“I always thought that I needed to get married, like it was some box I had to check,” Blair continued. “But honestly, I never really figured out who I was before. It’s different with Jackie. She probably came out of the womb telling the world to suck it, kicking ass and taking names.”

I laughed. That did totally sound like Jackie.

“I still feel like I’m figuring out who I am and what I want independent of everyone’s expectations of me. Don’t get me wrong; Gray is awesome and so supportive, but I just want to spend a little time working on me before I start working on a marriage. And I think he feels the same way. He’s only been sober a couple years now, and we both just want to be in a good place before we shake things up.”

I reached out and squeezed her hand.

“That sounds like a really smart plan. I’m glad you found someone who makes you as happy as he does. And I’m so happy that you’ve found someone who lets you be you and doesn’t try to put you in a box or make you think you have to be someone you’re not.”

I’d been lucky—I’d always had Matt there to accept me for who I was, even when I’d clearly disappointed our parents. But Blair had spent most of her life playing by their rules. It was good to see her making her own choices now.