Piper swept out of the changing room in a white silk empire dress. Zoe and Addison watched from the plush Queen Anne sofa with hopeful anticipation. Would this be the one? The perfect gown to replace the one that was destroyed in Zoe’s van?
Fabric swished with each step as Piper glided across the Princess Room and stepped onto the raised platform in the center. Zoe crossed her fingers, feeling guiltier than ever that Piper had to go through dress fittings and alterations all over again. And so close to the big day.
She might not have cut up her friend’s dress herself, but she was the reason it happened. She just wasn’t sure why yet. The police still had no leads. It was hard to narrow it down from the thousands of people who had visited the Hilton that day.
The short saleswoman, Astrid, danced around her high-profile customer like an excited puppy, rearranging her train, straightening any wrinkles. Once every square inch was tweaked, tugged, and fluffed, she stood back and spread her hands wide as though displaying Piper. Ta-dah!
Piper assessed herself in the three-way mirror before spinning around to face her friends. A hesitant wrinkle creased her forehead.
“What do you guys think?”
Addison sighed. “You look beautiful. It’s gorgeous. Aiden will love it.”
Zoe shook her head. “You look like crap.”
Piper’s mouth dropped. “What?”
Addison gasped, a long, drawn-out, cartoony sound. “Zoe!”
“It’s true, Addy. Don’t lie.” She held up her hands to Piper before she became distressed. “You look beautiful, as always. But the dress isn’t flattering. Your boobs are squished, your curves hidden, your torso shortened.”
Piper turned her shocked gaze from Zoe to Addison, the fashionista of the group. “Addy? Is it true?”
She bit her bottom lip and kind of cringed. “Well…”
“It’s only one week until the big day,” Zoe reminded Addison. “We don’t have time for sugar coating.”
Piper crossed her arms, still waiting for Addison’s response.
“It could be better,” Addison finally relented. Which was as blunt of an answer as they would get out of her, since she was nothing if not coated in sweet sugariness.
“So, this is a no?” Astrid asked in her thick French accent.
“It’s a no,” Zoe confirmed.
Piper’s shoulders slumped and she headed back to the changing room to try the next one.
When she was out of earshot, Addison spun on Zoe. “You don’t have to be so rude.”
“I’m not rude. I’m honest,” Zoe said simply. “We’re running out of time, and I will not let this wedding be anything but perfect.”
Addison frowned, but eventually nodded. “You’re right. Okay. Honesty. I can do that.” She took a sip of tea out of the shop’s Royal Albert teacup, as though the caffeine would fortify her. “Are you okay, Zoe? You seem a bit stressed today.”
“I don’t know why?” Zoe said airily. “I only have a week to be ready for Piper’s wedding, there’s someone out there that might want to kill me, and my business is tanking as we speak. Not to mention, I’m moving back in with my mother.” And she didn’t even want to get into the whole arranged marriage thing.
By now, Zoe couldn’t deny that someone had it in for her. The snipped brake lines might have been a tiny hint, the explosion an even bigger one. But it wasn’t just that. Whoever was behind the incidents didn’t want to simply hurt Zoe. They wanted to ruin her by destroying her business, her office, her supplies. It was personal. That was why her first instinct screamed rival.
Natalie was clearly going out of her way to cut Zoe down professionally by stealing her clients. Could she have been taking things too far? She would have known exactly which dress to cut to shreds to do the most damage to her business. Hell, she’d even had a key to Zoe’s office. But could she have gone as far as blowing it up?
Then again, Chelsea had just as much motivation as Natalie, if not more. She’d been trying to undermine Zoe for years. Or maybe they were both in on it since they were working together now. Maybe it was part of some grand master plan to eliminate Plum Crazy Events for good.
Then there was Juliet. And she was just crazy.
With a sigh, Zoe leaned against the sofa’s backrest while she shoved all those problems into her bottle with everything else and jammed the cap back on.
Addison was watching her closely. She was already up to date on the details of Zoe’s dramas. “Can I do anything to help?”
“No. Thank you. I just need a little stress relief.” She took a sip of her own tea.
Addison grinned into her cup. “Maybe Levi can help you out with that.”
At the reminder, Zoe swallowed hard, nearly choking on tea. Addison gave her a strange look as she coughed and sputtered. That had been one of the main sources of her stress since she ran away from Pier 39 the day before. She hadn’t spoken to Levi since.
Thankfully she didn’t need to explain her reaction because the changing-room door squeaked opened. Astrid held it open for Piper to squeeze out in a tulle ball gown with heavy beading on the sheer bodice.
She barely made it to the platform before Zoe was pointing back toward the changing room and Addison was shaking her head—albeit with an apologetic frown.
Piper groaned and spun on her heel, disappearing again for round three.
While Zoe and Addison waited, a chime rang out in the tune of the wedding march. The French woman slipped out of Piper’s dressing room.
“That’ll be the door. I’ll just go see who it is. I’ll be right back!” Shoving the heavy privacy curtains aside, she headed out to the store front.
Piper poked her head out into the viewing area before shuffling out in a shapely mermaid gown. It certainly hugged her curves nicely. Approaching the raised platform, she tried to lift her fishtail skirt to step up, but her movements were stiff. She couldn’t bend over far enough to reach the flared tulle.
Finally, she kicked the fabric up with her foot and caught it in her hands. Leaning awkwardly, she stepped onto the platform and spun to face her friends.
“Beautiful,” Addison breathed.
Zoe nodded her head, her eyes running over the gown critically. “I agree. But it’s still a no. Too impractical. You need to be comfortable on your big day. If you can’t move freely, there certainly won’t be any dancing. You’d have to cancel Reluctant Redemption,” she realized, suddenly hopeful. “But if you really want it, I can call them right now and let them know the bad news.”
Astrid’s thick accent drifted through the curtains as she returned. “I’m sorry. I’m booked for the day,” she was saying. “You’ll have to make an appointment and come back another day.”
“Oh, it’s fine. They won’t mind.” Zoe recognized the voice only a second before the heavy pink curtains swished apart and in burst The Holly Hart.
“Ladies!” Holly cried. “What a coincidence!”
Piper gaped. “Holly?”
Zoe got to her feet, blocking Holly from coming into the private viewing room any farther. “Coincidence, my ass.”
But Holly had obviously learned to be quick to get all those breaking stories, and she dodged Zoe’s outstretched arms. Slinking to the platform, she shoved her phone up to Piper’s mouth, the screen displaying a recording app.
“So, any talks of honeymoon destinations?”
“Why? Will I find you lurking in the bushes?” Piper narrowed her eyes.
“I don’t lurk. I stake out. It’s a professional term.” She held a hand to her chest. “I’m a professional.”
“What are you doing here?” Zoe demanded.
“I didn’t think you’d mind, you know, considering our little arrangement.” She gave a subtle eyewink. Or about as subtle as Holly could be.
Zoe eyed her up and down. “What arrangement? We don’t have an arrangement.” Grabbing the reporter by the arm, she began to drag her back through the curtains.
“Oh, you remember,” she said lightly, like she was used to getting manhandled. “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”
“Zoe, what is she talking about?” Piper stepped down off the platform to get into Holly’s face. She crossed her arms below the sweetheart neckline. “What are you talking about?”
Holly looked at Piper as though she were a simpleton. She spoke very slowly so she could follow. “Where do you think I’ve been getting all my delicious facts for my blog articles?”
Piper spun on her friend. “What? Zoe, you didn’t.”
“I didn’t. Well”—she hesitated, wincing a little—“I guess I did, but—”
Holly gasped and held a hand over her mouth. “Was that supposed to be a secret? Oops. My bad.” Stepping back, she held up her phone to take a photo of Piper in the dress, but Addison slapped it away before she could take the shot.
“Zoe. How could you?” Piper asked.
Zoe cringed at the tone in her voice, at the hurt, the betrayal. And she wished she could deny it, but she had let a few things slip. A lot of things, now that she thought about it. But she most certainly didn’t tell her about their appointment at the bridal shop.
“You knew Aiden and I wanted a low-key wedding,” Piper said, storming back to the changing room—more like teetering in her tight dress. “No media, no public, and especially no Holly Hart,” she said like the name was poison in her mouth.
“Hello. Right here.” Holly held up a hand and waved. “Still in the room.”
Zoe pulled on Piper’s arm before she could slip away. “It wasn’t like that. You know what Holly is like.”
“Overbearing, obtrusive, nosey…” Addison counted the amazing qualities out on her fingers.
“Again. Right here,” Holly said.
Zoe spun on her, her hands balling into fists. “Yes. You are still here. Let’s do something about that, shall we?”
Holly held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “Now, now. Let’s not be hasty. We’re all friends here.”
“No. We’re friends,” Zoe gestured to the three of them. “That doesn’t include you.”
“Friends?” Piper repeated. “That depends on your explanation as to why you’ve been leaking info to Holly.”
The shop owner’s eyes shifted uncertainly between the girls. Finally, when the tension was thick enough to jab one of her stick pins into, she clapped her hands. “Shall we try on another dress?” she asked hopefully.
“Ooh. Yes! Let’s.” Holly plopped down on the sofa and settled in like she was replacing Zoe in the “friends” category.
And by the fierce expression on Piper’s face, it looked like there might very well be an opening.
“Not you.” Addison shoved the reporter off the velvet sofa and onto the hardwood floor.
Huffing, she picked herself up and brushed off her coral pantsuit. “I don’t have to take this. I’m leaving,” she said, like it was entirely her choice.
“Allons-y!” Astrid said as she shooed Holly toward the exit.
They disappeared through the curtains together. Zoe relaxed as the fabric fell still, but then a moment later, Holly’s head popped through the slit again.
Her eyes narrowed in Zoe’s direction. “Tit for tat, remember.” She waggled her fingers in farewell. “Chow!”
Silence fell around the girls. They heard the distant chime of the Wedding March as Holly was kicked out of the store.
“Zoe, how could you?” Piper asked again.
Zoe’s face screwed up as she tried to find some kind of explanation that would make sense, but she couldn’t. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
The curtains parted and Astrid ushered Piper back into the changing room, determined to sell a dress that day. “Next dress. Here we go!” She shut the door firmly behind them, and a moment later the frantic swishing of silk and organza could be heard through the door.
“So what?” Piper called through the door. “Wedding details just fell out of your mouth by accident then?”
“The day I was kicked out of the expo, Holly was there with her cameraman. They caught it all on film. It wasn’t good.” Zoe lingered nearby, speaking through the door’s louver slits. “She threatened to run a smear campaign against my business. Between my assistant stealing clients, and Chelsea slandering my name all over town, and Juliet’s tantrum at the expo, I couldn’t afford the bad publicity.”
“So you sold me out.”
“No. I mean, yes.” She ran a hand over her face, banging her head against the wall. “But I only gave her information that she could dig up herself if she really had a mind to, and you know she would have. I didn’t tell her anything that would get her anywhere near the wedding, or allow her to stick her nose into it.”
“Except for my wedding-dress appointment,” Piper shot back through the door.
Zoe placed a hand against the door, wishing she could talk to Piper’s face, so she could know how sorry she was, so she could see it in her expression. “I swear I didn’t. I have no idea how she found out.”
Addison had been listening from the other side of the room, but now she came to stand near Zoe. “Piper,” she spoke to the door, “to be fair, I know first-hand how manipulative Holly Hart can be and what kind of damage she can do when she doesn’t get what she wants.”
Addison frowned, probably remembering how close she’d come to losing her business the year before. Holly had been creative with the facts about a dognapping case in the show-dog circuit and turned it all around on her.
Piper went quiet on the other side of the door. Zoe and Addison exchanged a glance as they listened to the scratch and swish of fabric against skin.
Finally, Piper replied. “It’s not like I don’t get it,” she said. “I do. And I don’t want your business to suffer, Zoe. But I only get one wedding, and if she can ruin a business, then she can ruin our wedding.”
“She won’t. I promise,” Zoe said. “I won’t let her. Look. It’s done. Holly Hart isn’t getting any more information from me. I swear it. Or I’ll find you a new wedding planner myself.”
“It’s not like I haven’t had offers.” It was almost a mutter, but it was clear enough that Zoe heard every word.
“What?”
Piper went quiet inside the changing room, like she was deliberating whether to say any more. “I didn’t want to tell you this because you already have so much to worry about, but…”
“Tell me. What is it?” Zoe resisted the urge to whip the door open.
“I got a call from your old assistant yesterday.”
The tea in Zoe’s stomach turned acidic, eating away at her insides. “What did Natalie want?”
“To be my wedding planner.”
Zoe stepped back from the door like Piper just swore at her. “She tried to poach you? With only a week left to go?! You’re my best friend.”
“Ahem,” Addison made a fake coughing noise.
“One of them,” Zoe amended eliciting an angelic smile from her friend.
Astrid stepped out of the changing room, a curious look on her face. “Natalie? Natalie Evans? She’s no longer your assistant?”
“No,” Zoe said. “She left me for the competition. Enchanted Events.”
The woman frowned. “That is so strange. She just called here on your behalf this morning to confirm your appointment.”
Zoe laughed, in an I’m going to kill someone kind of way. “You’re kidding.”
“I guess we know who let the cat out of the bag,” Addison said.
Zoe shook her head, already pacing the room, ready to take action. Her heels clicked angrily on the hardwood. “Holly must have gone to Natalie after I refused to talk to her anymore. Natalie knows I use this shop a lot.”
The changing-room door opened as Piper finally came out. “Zoe, please do something before she tells Holly anything more.”
“Oh, trust me, she won’t be doing any more talking once I’m finished with her…” When Zoe turned around, she gasped at the sight of her best friend—one of them, anyway.
Next to her, Addison squeaked and covered her mouth. “Oh, my gosh.”
Piper hesitated, like she wanted to slink back into the change room. “Is it that bad?”
Zoe shook her head. “It’s perfect.”
“Really?” Piper’s face lit up as she rushed to the platform.
Astrid appeared with a shoulder-length double veil. Sliding the combs into her hair, she fluffed it out like a tulle frame around her pretty face.
Piper’s breath hitched a little and her eyes began to glisten, something that had never happened with the original dress. “This is the one.”
Addison skipped over to the platform and did a little happy dance with Piper while Zoe gave a little relieved sigh and thanked the wedding gods. Despite all the last-minute roadblocks with the wedding, she might actually pull it off.
She turned to Astrid. “We’ll take it.”
The woman smiled, very pleased with the sale. “Certainly. Let me just go grab an order form.”
Turning, she headed for the front, but Zoe stopped her. “No. I don’t think you understand. We want this dress.” She pointed, like there could be any mistake.
Astrid blinked, glancing from Zoe to her friends. “You mean the one off the rack? No. No. I’m afraid that’s not possible. We can put a rush order on it. It can be here in three months.”
Three months! They didn’t have time for that. “Try a week,” Zoe said.
Astrid gaped at her. She looked about ready to argue, but Piper hoisted her skirts and hopped down from the platform.
“I’ll take this dress, please,” she told her. “Just name your price.”
Astrid finally closed her mouth. Her eyebrows rose, as though in question, and Piper responded with a nod.
A grin spreading across her face, Astrid slipped through the privacy curtains, calling over her shoulder as she left. “I’ll just go ring it up!”
Zoe waited until the drapes swished closed before laughing. “Impressive, Piper. You’re practically a Caldwell already.”
But Piper spun on her with a firm look, shoving her fists on her hips. “Now promise. No more Holly.”
Zoe held up her hands in surrender. “I promise. And I’m really sorry.”
Piper smiled, seemingly placated. “Me too.”
“Group hug!” Addison threw out her arms and encircled both her friends.
Now that the dress dilemma had been solved, Zoe was going to have to pay a little visit to Chelsea’s office. Holly’s visit reeked of her underhanded guidance.
It was one thing when Natalie had simply left her high and dry. People quit jobs all the time. And considering everything that had happened in Zoe’s life recently, confronting the traitor had been low on her list of priorities.
But Natalie had gone too far. Zoe was done standing by while her backstabbing assistant continued to undercut her and hijack her business. Clearly, she was going to have to remind Natalie who was boss.