(Dianne) Fox Writes

“Okay,” Brenda said, straightening up from being hugged by Charlotte, who promptly shifted from hugging her mother’s neck to hugging her mother’s leg. She was always a little clingy when she got to whomever it was she hadn’t seen for a few days, even if that person was Ven. “The colors we’re after are yellow and white?”

“With pink!” Charlotte reminded all of them. Until Momma had suggested it, Ven hadn’t really been planning on having a wedding, much less on having white, yellow, and pink involved, but if it made the girls happy, he sure as hell wasn’t saying no.

“With pink.” Toby laughed and gave Ven a quick squeeze, then headed over to the racks of dresses. “How could we forget the pink?”

“You can forget pink?” Brenda picked Charlotte up with a sigh and shook her head, then laughed, kissing Charlotte on the cheek. “Okay. Nothing stretchy. No sequins. No feathers.” She looked over her shoulder at Ven. “For the girls, that is. Don’t let me interfere with anything you two might have picked out for the occasion.”

Toby gave a little snort and shook his head, letting Josie drag him over to see the lacy, sparkly dress she was insisting was “just perfect, Daddy, really.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Toby said, and pulled the dress down off the rack to hold it up against her. Josie looked down at herself and sort of harrumphed, and then her gaze lit on something else down the aisle and Toby was left to put the dress away and chase after her.

“I wanted feathers, but I was voted down,” Ven said dryly. “Charlotte, why don’t you come look down this aisle. I think it’s your size.” It had taken him a while to figure out that the sizes were only theoretically sorted by age. Charlotte was a lot smaller than some girls her age, and had ended up swimming in some of the clothes he’d tried on her the first time he’d taken her shopping.

“Okay.” Suddenly, Charlotte was all business. She wriggled until Brenda put her down, then towed Brenda by the hand toward the row where Ven was waiting. “I want pink,” she asserted, for possibly the millionth time since she’d been able to talk. Almost every choice had the same answer.

Toby steered Josie toward them, hands on her shoulders, letting her carry the mass of white lace and yellow taffeta she’d found. “I know we’re not going to get you two into the same kind of dress,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Josie’s head, “but maybe we can find dresses that match.”

“We can dream,” Brenda said dryly, as Charlotte started poking at dresses that caught her fancy.

Ven was ahead of her by a rack and carefully moved a pink-rosette-covered, floor-length pageant dress out of sight. “How about we start with just looking at a couple,” he suggested. That always worked with Cake. Cake wanted to have a choice, but sure wasn’t up to choosing one thing out of twenty. “And if we don’t like any of those, we’ll get more.” He held a short pink taffeta and tulle dress out for Charlotte to inspect.

Charlotte squealed and hugged it to her chest. “I want to try it on!”

Brenda gave Ven a long look. “The first one? The first?”

Ven tried to look apologetic. “Sorry?”

“You can take her shoe shopping this fall is all I’m saying. That’s four hours I could use on something important, like the spa.” Brenda pointed toward the change room. “This way. Come on girls, Daddy and Ven will bring a few more.”