“You look stunning, Rachel,” Marcy choked out and began searching through her purse.

“I was going to ask how you feel in it, but it’s all over your face. You’re glowing,” Mrs. Gates added and rubbed Marcy’s shoulder when she started blotting her cheeks with a tissue she’d found in her purse.

Maddie stood up and walked over to me, turning my body so I was facing the mirrors again. “What if we did this,” she said mostly to herself as she loosened her hair from a clip, and began gathering up mine.

I watched as she made a messy—yet somehow styled—bun, low on the side of my neck and held it together with the now-hidden clip before stepping away. My next intake of breath was audible, and she smiled.

“Perfect.”

I couldn’t respond, but I agreed wholeheartedly. Bringing my hands up, I covered the majority of my face, not even bothering with the tears still slowly falling down my hands, and continued to stare at the transformed reflection in the mirror.

“What do you think? Is this the one?” the saleswoman asked softly, and I turned to smile at her.

“Yeah.” I stopped to clear my throat and shook my head as I gathered myself. “Yeah, it is. I love it.”

She did a happy clap reminding me so much of Candice, and I asked Maddie to grab my phone to take pictures so I could send them to Candice and her mom, Janet. After calls from a squealing Candice, and a crying Janet, I reluctantly went back to the dressing room to change into my clothes.

Once the dresses were bought, and an extra bridesmaid dress ordered for Candice to try on in Texas, the three of us went out for lunch and the wedding planning took off once again. We already had a venue, photographer, and food for June 28; and now that I had the dress, I felt like the rest would fall into place easily. But for the first time in these last three weeks, I wasn’t in the mood to plan. I wanted my mom to be here helping, and nothing was going to ease the ache of knowing she couldn’t.

“OH, MADDIE! You so shouldn’t have brought me here,” I whispered as I took in all the dogs whimpering and barking in their kennels at the shelter a few days later.

“Why?” She turned to look at me with worried eyes. “Are you afraid of dogs or something?”

“No, now I want to take one home with me!”

“Ha! They’re sweet, and looking at them like this just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”

My eyes latched onto a skin-and-bones pitbull that looked like he was ready to cry. “That’s the understatement of the year. How do you work here and not take all of them home with you? I start bawling whenever I’m watching TV and I hear Sarah McLachlan start singing, because I know abused and depressed-looking animals are about to follow.”

Maddie threw her hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter as she led me through a maze of dogs. “Oh God, that’s so true! It’s like you can’t find the remote and change the channel fast enough!”

A dog so ugly he was cute smashed himself against the gate next to me, and in my mind I was hearing him beg me to take him home. “We need to go before I adopt all of them. Why did you bring me here?”

“I need to check on my babies. When I came in about a week ago, someone had abandoned a dog and her puppies at the door. Like, literally left her tied to the handle of the door, and the box of her puppies next to her. They just became available for adoption two days ago, and I hate not seeing them every day, and I just know they’ll all be gone by the time I come back in on Saturday.”

I want to take you home! And you, oh you’re really sad-looking, I need to stop looking at you. This is such a bad idea, I need to get out of— Oh, I want to take you too! “Maddie, I’m not joking, we need—”

“Aww, just you two left?”

My jaw dropped and I stopped walking. “Oh. My. Word.”

“Aren’t they precious?”

“I’m in puppy love,” I whispered as Maddie pulled a little golden retriever puppy out of a smaller kennel.

“This one is such a trip. I swear he’s the flirt of the bunch. Indifferent toward males, loves all females.”

I took him from her arms and about died in cute-heaven when he wrapped his big paws around my arm like he was hugging it. “You just know you’re cute so you use that to your advantage, don’t you?” I crooned at him, and snuggled him closer when he plopped his head on my chest. “Such a guy.”

Maddie laughed as she held the other one. “I’m sad they’re all going to be gone soon.”

“Why don’t you get one?”

“Right”—she snorted—“and pay the thousand-dollar pet deposit at my apartment? Um, no thank you.”

“One thousand dollars? Why? It was like, two-fifty at the place we were at in Texas!”

“I’d like to know the same thing, and I would have a monthly ‘pet rent.’ Isn’t that crazy?”

“So that’s how you work here and don’t adopt them. Got it.” I looked down and watched my little flirt gnawing on my thumb, and the second he realized I was looking at him, he tried to jump out of my arms and fully onto my chest. He has puppy breath! “Kash is going to be so pissed,” I murmured against his nose. “Maddie, I’m in love.”

“I know, they’re just so dang cute.”

“How much to adopt?”

She gasped and did a weird little dance while holding the other puppy. “Wait! Kash would be pissed!”

“I just told Trip that.”

“Who?”

I pointed at the puppy. “You said he was a trip, and I think it’s cute. So how much?”

“Oh, I love that! It’s only thirty-five dollars. But I really think that maybe you should wait, maybe talk to Kash first?”

“I told you I’m in love! I want him now.” Then I looked down at the pup and fake-whispered, “We just aren’t going to tell Daddy until he gets home.”

Maddie laughed and put the other puppy back in the kennel. “Shit, he’s going to be so mad!”

“Don’t care. In puppy love.”

“Whatever, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Got it, put all the blame on you.” Trip gave me little kisses, and I knew the fight coming my way was totally worth it.

Kash

THE SIGHT I WAS MET WITH IN THE KITCHEN was a dead giveaway. Rachel wanted something. She only voluntarily made pancakes when she wanted something, or was showing me her appreciation for something I’d done. And since I’d been gone for thirteen hours at work, I knew it wasn’t the latter.

“Hey, babe! How was work? I really missed you and I’m glad you’re home. You hungry? You were gone so long today; did you stay over? What time is it? Why don’t you go get comfortable and I’ll finish up here?”

What in the fuck? My eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She was rambling, which means I had been wrong about both. She didn’t want something; she’d done something. “What’d you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“You suck at trying to act normal. And you’re making pancakes without me asking you to.” She just sat there with a plastered smile on her face, and I decided to push it more. “You’re really shitty at hiding things from me, you know that?”

“So how many do you want?”

“None. No, wait, that’s a lie. I want four. But who the fuck is this Barbie in my kitchen and what did she do with my Rachel? My Rachel would have snapped at me just then and told me to make pancakes myself.”

“I just wanted to do something—”

A crash from the back of the house sounded, and Rachel froze but didn’t look scared. I pulled out my gun from the holster and maneuvered out of her arms.

“No, Kash! Please put the gun away, I don’t want you to shoot or scare him!”

“Him? Who the fuck is in my house, Rachel?!” Without waiting for an answer, I stalked off down the hall and straight toward the shut bedroom door. This wasn’t fucking happening, she would never cheat on me. I knew she wouldn’t. Another loud noise sounded, and I swore I would kill the son of a bitch. Shoot first, ask questions after.

“Kash, wait!”