“I kept thinking about you hiding in here naked and almost lost it more than once as she talked and talked. Do you know how much of a struggle it was to keep a straight face? Especially when I saw your work bag in the corner of the living room and just kept praying she wouldn’t notice it. Every time I thought we were almost done and I could get her out of here, no, she had something more to say. And then I would think of you naked in here and almost laugh again.”

This made him laugh, and soon both of them had dissolved into giggles.

“I was dying! In addition to trying to silently react to the news that the wedding is in less than four months, and not freeze to death in your incredibly cold kitchen, I kept thinking about the look on her face if she knew I was hiding naked in here while she was pouring out this story to you.” Theo wrapped his arms around Maddie and shivered. “And I had to listen to you two drink coffee and not have any of my own.”

Maddie handed him her cup.

“Here, I took pity on you and saved most of mine for you. I felt like the worst friend in the world; here Alexa was dealing with something super stressful and I was trying to help but I was so distracted envisioning you naked in here.”

He leered at her.

“I’m glad thinking about me naked distracts you.”

She swatted his butt, and he grinned. Damn it, why did he have to have so much fun with her?

She led him into the living room and tossed him the blanket that was draped over the couch.

“Okay, fine. Here, I’ll take you out for some of your stupid fancy coffee. Will that make you feel better?”

Oh thank God. This lukewarm coffee wasn’t going to do it for him. He wrapped the blanket around himself and smiled.

“Blue Bottle? Please? I know it’s not your favorite but it’s only a few blocks away.”

She frowned at him.

“Don’t give me those puppy-dog eyes. It doesn’t work on me.”She picked up Alexa’s cup and turned to take it into the kitchen. “But fine, Blue Bottle. Get dressed, naked boy.”

Theo walked down the hallway to Maddie’s bedroom, trailing the blanket behind him like a cape. He heard her call out to him from the kitchen.

“Did you alphabetize my spice rack?”

He shrugged.

“I had to do something to keep myself busy in there!” he yelled back.

Chapter Eleven

AGAINST HIS BETTER JUDGMENT, THEO WAS IN THE BACK SEAT OF ALEXA’S car two weeks later, along with Maddie and Olivia, on their way to go wedding dress shopping. Olivia had flown into town for the weekend to help Alexa find a dress, and Alexa had invited Theo to come along, too. She’d made it clear he didn’t have to go, but he felt like he had to support her. And when would he ever get this opportunity again?

Plus, he hadn’t seen Maddie for well over a week, not since their relaxed—and very hot—Fourth of July at his apartment. They’d texted funny—or sexy—notes to each other almost every day for the past week, but the night he’d texted her to see if he could come over, she had been out on a doomed wedding dress shopping trip with Alexa and had an early-morning client the next day. A few days later, she’d texted him, but he’d been at an event with his boss and ended up getting home past midnight.

Now she was on the other side of the back seat, and it took all his willpower not to reach over to touch her.

“There’s a plan B, right?” Alexa asked the car at large. “In case the people at this boutique are assholes, too, and all these dresses also look terrible on me and I can’t find a wedding dress anywhere in the nine Bay Area counties? Maddie, do you have some sort of white fabric in your studio that you can, like, drape around me for me to walk down the aisle so I don’t have to do it naked?”

When he said he’d come shopping, he hadn’t accounted for Alexa’s wedding dress–related breakdown.

“I told you, don’t worry. This place is great—you’ll see,” Maddie said.

“Don’t worry? Don’t worry?!? It’s already July! My wedding is in October! I don’t have a dress, and from what people tell me, it’s virtually impossible for me to GET a dress when you look like me and have this little amount of time to go before a wedding. How can I not worry???”

He’d never seen Alexa this panicky. She’d told him the first two trips had been disastrous, but he didn’t realize she’d be this stressed about it. Maddie should have warned him that today was going to be like this. He still would have come; he just might be more prepared for it.

“Lexie, come on, this will be fun!” Olivia said. “I can’t wait to see my little sister in a wedding dress.”

Alexa turned to look at Maddie.

“That’s what I thought the first time! ‘This will be fun!’ I thought. ‘I can’t wait to see myself in a wedding dress!’ I thought. That was before the women in the bridal shop all made me feel like I was too fat to ever find a man to even look at me, much less to marry me. And between their attitude and Mom asking me if I was sure about having the wedding date so soon because it didn’t give me much time to lose weight before the wedding, I almost lost it.”

Olivia winced. Theo had always thought Alexa and Olivia got along well with their mom, but then he’d also heard that weddings make everyone go over the edge.

“Lex, I could have told you not to bring Mom. You knew she would do that!”

Alexa glared at all three of them in the rearview mirror. Why him? He hadn’t even said anything!

“I got lost in the moment, okay? I got all excited about having a wedding date and trying on dresses and wanting my mom to see me in dresses and I kind of forgot what she would be like. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again; as you know, today is a secret from anyone except the four of us and Drew. If I ever find a dress, she can come back then to see it, but that’s not looking likely.”

Olivia and Maddie exchanged worried glances.

“Lexie, I’m sure we’ll find you a great dress,” Olivia said. “That was just one place!”

Alexa changed lanes to head toward the Bay Bridge.

“Maybe that was just one place, but every dress I tried on at that place looked terrible on me. I’m not even exaggerating, am I, Maddie? Tell them!”

Maddie sighed and shook her head.

“Unfortunately, no, she isn’t. But that’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have taken her to that store. They were awful there. I don’t do bridal often enough to know how they are with non-standard-size brides. But trust me, none of my clients will go there ever again.”

Olivia patted her sister on the shoulder.

“Okay, that sucks, but that was just the one shop. What happened at the other shop?”

Alexa slowed as they approached the tollgates for the Bay Bridge.

“They weren’t as terrible about what I looked like there, but they flipped OUT about the wedding date. Apparently, unless it’s at least nine months before your wedding, you shouldn’t even think about getting a wedding dress.”

“Wait, really, they need nine months of lead time just to make a dress?” Theo asked. “Are you kidding me? What the hell are they doing to it?”

Alexa pointed at him.

“Thank you! And I have no idea what they’re doing to it. It’s all a mystery! They give you some bullshit about craftsmanship and blah blah blah. Come on. My great-aunt was a seamstress. Making a dress doesn’t take that long! But apparently if you’re getting married with less time than that, you should just find scraps of fabric on the floor of a thrift store and piece them together, because that’s all you deserve.”

Maddie looked at Theo and opened her eyes wide.

“Okay, now you’re exaggerating a little,” she said.

“A LITTLE, maybe, but not that much. They had literally three dresses they thought it might be possible to get made before the wedding, and they were all very, very ugly.”

Maddie poked the back of Alexa’s seat.

“Two of the dresses were very, very ugly, I’ll give you that, but I liked that last one! I’m not saying you had to like it—it’s your wedding—but still.”

“It was very, very ugly on me. I don’t care what it looked like on the hanger.” Alexa glanced back at Theo. “Are you ready to watch me put on a bunch more dresses that look fine or even good on the hanger but very, very ugly on me? Well, you’re in luck. Looks like that’s what’s going to happen for hours this afternoon!”

He hoped Maddie and Olivia knew how to talk Alexa down. He knew exactly how to do it in a work context, just as Alexa knew how to talk him down. But when it came to wedding dresses? His role today was going to be to stay silent and let the women talk.

“That is not what’s going to happen today,” Maddie said. “There will be plenty of things for you to try on, and at least half of them won’t be ugly, I promise. And like I told you, I’ve heard good stuff from a lot of people about this place and their options for brides of all sizes. And I called ahead to make sure they’re aware of your wedding date. It’ll be better here. Trust me.”

He never should have doubted. Maddie was so good at this.

Alexa shrugged and was quiet for a moment.

“You guys, is my mom right?”