Chapter Twelve
Seeing the stems of the pink tulips gracefully draping over the beautiful crystal vase brightened Dina’s morning, almost to the point of forgetting her ex was bopping around her playground.
Almost.
Autumn called her this morning to warn her that Dominique was nowhere to be found at the B&B. His bags were gone, and his cot looked as if it hadn’t been touched all night. Dina didn’t really care other than she didn’t want him to show up at either of her doorsteps. She had a full day of sewing and consults with no time to waste in between.
This Dom thing was wearing on her nerves, and she really didn’t feel like unleashing the new Dina on him.
She shook the thought of him out of her mind and flipped on all the lights before heading to her workroom. This was her happy place where she could forget her worries, drape some fabric, and cut some patterns, and she had a beautiful bodice to begin today.
The gown was actually for a local bride, which made Dina extra excited. If she could establish a local clientele that would only help strengthen her longevity here in Silver Ridge, and she had no plans of leaving.
Even if Dom did try to ruin a winter or two for her.
She shook her head and put him out of her mind again.
Dina took a seat and began working on the bodice, and before she knew it, hours had passed. It wasn’t until she heard the chime of the door that she realized her first consult for the day had arrived. She quickly placed the piece she was working with onto the table and headed out to the front room, only to have her dreams dashed when she saw a drunken Dom wandering through her shop, picking up veils and putting them on his head.
Dina glanced outside, grateful she didn’t see any brides or their mothers wandering toward her shop.
“Dom, what in God’s name are you doing here?” She marched over to him and slid the veil off his head.
“Trying to convince you to take the afternoon off.”
“This is no way to go about doing it,” Dina assured him as she placed the item back on the display.
“What do I have to do to get your attention?” he slurred his speech and was completely unable to focus his eyes on hers.
“Believe me, you had my attention as of yesterday.” She put her hands on her hips and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall behind him.
The bride and her mother would be here any second, and she didn’t need the trail of alcohol to be left behind when she finally chased him out of the shop.
“So, what’s the deal with you and tulip man?” he asked, nodding toward the arrangement.
“There’s no deal. He’s only a friend who happens to be very considerate, unlike someone I know.” Her brows shot up in hopes of him connecting the dots, but he was too far gone for that type of thinking.
Although in hindsight, thinking was never his strong suit.
Dina spotted a car pull up in front of her store and parallel park. Pure panic shot through her veins the moment she realized it was her first appointment of the day. Her heart started racing and she got clammy all over as Dom stared into oblivion without a care in the world.
She turned to Dom and frantically began pushing him toward the workroom as he tripped over his own feet.
“Go. I need you out of here. Use the back entrance.”
“Is lover boy here?” his slurring was getting worse.
“No, but a potential client is. Now get out of here. Shoo. Go out the back door.” She kept pushing him through the stools, mannequins, and workbenches until she got him to the back exit.
But he suddenly turned on her and draped his arm around her shoulder. “And where do you plan on me going?”
“I don’t know. Start walking to the B&B or wherever you stayed last night.” She shrugged the dead weight off her shoulders. “I really don’t care. Just go.”
She pushed open the exit, and he stumbled out the door, knocking his knee against the metal door. She really didn’t have time for this.
He hollered in a fit of pain and bent over, holding his knee as if his leg was broken, and all she wanted to do was shut the door on him, but she was worried he’d find his way back to the front of the store.
Dina glanced at her purse, and with every fiber in her being hated what she was about to do. She quickly took her house key off her key ring and handed it to him.
“Go back to my house and rest up. Be gone before I get home tonight and leave the key under the mat.”
His cries of pain quickly turned into a look of overjoyed fulfillment, which only frustrated Dina more as she gave him one last heave out the door while she quickly locked it. She glanced at a spray freshener and began squirting it sparingly through the air to wipe away all things Dom.
By the time she’d grabbed the champagne glasses and bottle of champagne from the fridge and made it up front, the mother and daughter were walking into her showroom, blissfully unaware how close they’d come to meeting a crazy man.
Or at least one who’d temporarily lost his mind.
“It’s so good to meet you,” the bride gushed, squeezing her mom’s arm before coming in to hug Dina. “I’ve been following you forever online, and I never thought I’d actually get to wear one of your designs, let alone meet you. Whatever made you come to Washington?”
Dina couldn’t give herself time to be flattered as she spotted Dom wandering the street with a somewhat vague notion of which direction her house was located. She saved her smile for the bride and explained how she fell in love with the town when she was visiting her best friend who’d moved here.
It seemed like the perfect explanation to segue into her design work and different options the bride-to-be was leaning toward.
She offered them a glass of champagne, which they happily sipped, as they went over Dina’s portfolio.
“I absolutely love the A-line look. If I were smaller, I’d want a ball gown.” The bride glanced at her mom who nodded in agreement, and Dina instantly realized what was going on. The bride wanted a ball gown, but her mother had told her it wouldn’t look good. She thought back to her own mother. She always tried to ignore the fact that her mother could have cared less about what wedding dress she wanted. In the bridal business, Dina had experienced all kinds of mother-daughter relationships, but she never quite found a relationship like the one she had with her mother. There was aloofness about her mom, and it didn’t matter what she did to try to close the gap, it always stayed wedged open.
“Well, size has nothing to do with what fits well on a person’s shape. I’ve seen many A line dresses accentuate the wrong parts of the body as well. I actually have a ball gown in the back that I think would look phenomenal on you. You could try it on as an example…”
The bride glanced at her mom, but quickly nodded, ignoring her mom’s displeasure.
“Perfect. I’ll be right back.” Dina avoided eye contact with the mother and hurried to the back room. She’d actually fallen in love with this particular gown when she first designed it over a year ago. It had only been used in a photo shoot for some promo material for a bridal convention, and she hadn’t had the heart to put it up on her site.
The soft flow of the organza floated over the silk underlayment as she grabbed the dress and began moving toward the front of the store again. The moment the bride’s eyes connected with the dress, she knew it was first love.
“I don’t know about that,” her mother muttered as Dina marched into the showroom.
“We can try it on over here behind the curtain.” Dina pointed to the pale pink and grey striped curtain, and the bride quickly nodded, excitement still brimming her gaze. “I have a feeling this is going to be absolutely gorgeous on you.”
“Me too,” the bride whispered as they went behind the curtain.
Within a matter of minutes, Dina had the bride zipped and pinned into the ball gown, and she knew there was no way her mother wouldn’t love it.
Crystal beading dotted sheer cap sleeves over a ruched silk bodice that was intricately beaded and boned to accentuate the bride’s waist. A wide, scalloped V-neckline showed off the bride’s beautiful décolletage, and the hand-patterned beading along the skirt of the gown only added to the subtle touches this dress offered. The dress was about a half-size too large for the bride, but she could take it in without any issue, or they could use this gown as a jumping-off point to design another.
“This dress is a dream come true,” the bride whispered. “I think I would sell my soul for it.”
“Don’t do that. Those are hard to come by.” Dina laughed but loved the bride’s excitement. There was nothing better than hearing someone’s excitement over something she’d designed. “Well, let’s hope your mom loves it too.”
When Dina shoved the curtain aside, she heard the mother of the bride gasp, and she knew her work had been done. The mother and daughter squealed in delight, and Dina could finally let out a sigh of relief.
Another mother-daughter crisis averted.
By the time Dina met with two more clients, sewed a little more, and closed up shop, it was close to seven and every part of her was ready to fall into bed. As she grabbed her keys out of her purse, she froze, realizing Dom might still be at her house.
Who was she kidding?
He was most definitely still there.
She let out a grunt and headed toward her car, her head spinning with ways to get him out of her house.
She’d had such a good day, like so many others since moving to Silver Ridge, that she’d forgotten what it felt like to drive home, feeling reluctant about what the evening had in store for her. It was insane how having Dom show up in her life made her world frazzled again, but she was determined not to let this become a thing.
There was no thing, and she certainly wasn’t going to fall for his tricks.
When she pulled into her driveway, she saw all the lights blazing in her home and knew that Dom was most definitely inside. She debated about turning around and driving over to Autumn’s, but Dom was the kind of person who would take over her house. She had no doubt about that, and then she’d be the one who’d have to go to all the trouble to get him evicted.
Nope. She was going to march into her home and lay down the law. Those two giant suitcases weren’t only for four days. The more she thought about it, she found herself squeezing the steering wheel as if she were trying to get juice out of a turnip and took a deep breath.
“Don’t let him get to you,” she said aloud.
With those words of encouragement to herself, she swung open the car door and jumped out of her car, ready to tackle the problem at hand.
By the time she went inside, she was ready to throw him out on his ear, but what she found in front of her made her stop in her tracks.
Dom was standing in the living room with nothing more than a towel barely clutching his waist, his hair, wet from a recent shower, hung around his face, and the kitchen was an absolute catastrophe. He’d completely made himself at home.
Dina tossed her purse onto the couch and shook her head. “Oh, no, you don’t.”
He walked over and gave her a big bear hug, the smell of alcohol still swirling around her.
“Knock it off, you jerk.” She pounded on his chest and started to take a step back just as she heard another man clear his throat behind them.
“Am I interrupting something?” Sam asked, just as Dina spun around to see him standing in the foyer.
She’d been so shocked by seeing Dom in her house that she’d forgotten to close the door.
“Not in the slightest,” she assured him, but Sam’s brow arched.
“Just reliving some old times.” A sardonic smile spread along Dom’s thin lips, and Dina shook her head. But she did notice her clothes were all wet from where he grabbed her and thought that probably didn’t look so great, considering her history.
“I got worried because I’d been trying your cell all day,” Sam continued, ignoring Dom’s comment.
“There’s nothing to worry about. She’s been with me all day.” Dom’s brows furrowed, and she swore she saw him attempt to move what feeble pecs he had.
“Not even.” Dina shook her head. “I’ve been at the shop all day, but I must have forgotten to turn my phone back on since last night.”
Sam’s expression hardened, and he gave a quick nod. “I’ll let you two be. Like I said, I only wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Dina completely ignored Dom, rushing past him to get to Sam, and reached for his hand.
“Thank you. I’m sure this looks a little off, but there’s absolutely nothing going on.”
“Not my place if it were.” Sam smiled at her, giving her a hard time.
“Where is Catrina when we need her?” Dina laughed, shaking her head.
“Are you going to be okay?” Sam asked.
“Why wouldn’t she be?” Dom’s voice rose as if he were forty feet away.
Dina spun around and folded her arms across her chest. “Because I have an unwanted houseguest.”
“You heard her, buddy,” Dom said, winking and pointing at the door.
Dina’s cheeks reddened as she turned around to face Sam. “I’m absolutely mortified that I said yes, not once…but three times. I don’t know where my brain was at.”
“Caught up in the moment, I’m sure.” Sam chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at Dom. “So, where are you planning on staying for the night, Dom?”
“Right through that door.” Dom pointed down the hall, and Dina rolled her eyes.
“Well, I just got word that there’s room at the lodge so why don’t you throw some clothes on, and I’ll walk you back to the lobby. The room’s on me.” Sam glanced at Dina, who looked extremely grateful, but she was also being generous considering this had to do with Sam canceling the reservation in the first place.
“I don’t need your cha-ri-tee,” Dom said in a huff, staring at Dina.
She honestly had never seen Dom this drunk for this long. She bit her lip, hoping she wouldn’t start laughing as Sam stared at the hopeless case in front of them.
It was going to take a bit of finesse to get him out of here, but he was willing to play along if that was what it took.
“Don’t you want to know how he knows there’s room at the inn, so to speak?” Dina questioned, realizing Dom still hadn’t connected the dots about Sam.
“I really could care less.” Dom walked into the kitchen, his towel moving lower with each step and Dina just shook her head.
If Sam ever wanted to walk back into Dina’s life after seeing whom she’d been connected with, she’d be surprised.
While Dom was pouring himself another drink, Sam wandered down the hall to Dina’s bedroom where he stayed for a few minutes before wheeling out Dom’s suitcases.
“Hey, Dom.” He tossed a pair of sweats and a shirt over to him. “Put these on, and I’ll buy you a drink at the lodge.”
For some reason, the pull of free alcohol was all it took for Dom to become compliant as he quickly pulled the sweats on—thankfully—underneath his towel and slipped on the t-shirt.
Dina watched Sam wheel the suitcases out of her house with Dom on his tail, and before she had a chance to even thank Sam, the door had been closed behind them both, and all she could do was collapse on the couch.