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It was a conceit to think that she knew Allie better than her own brother Maybe Zeke had been right all along About everything

“She said no to the dress?” Lauren asked in disbelief

“Not exactly She just said yes to another dress” Mi Buela’s dress back up in her closet Lauren had done a gorgeous job with it Tucking in a bit of lace and freshening up the organza overskirt She’d even added in a small bouquet of artificial flowers that she’d sewn onto the pale lavender silk ribbon interwoven into the goaistband It was a detail that Miave the dress an extra ooh, modern In a very old-fashioned kind of way Lauren told Mi in New York and becoht here in little old Whispering Bay

“Couldn’t we show Allie both dresses and let her pick between the two?”

“You didn’t see the look on her face when she showedAllie, if we show her Buela’s dress now, she’ll be afraid to hurt our feelings and end up wearing it out of a sense of obligation I’ve mentioned Buela’s dress a couple of times and she’s never shown any real interest in it, so…I think we should just respect her decision and go with it I should have asked her outright before I had you go to all the work of reva it”

Lauren sighed heavily “No worries I loved working with that old fabric And who knows? Maybe Claire ant to wear it one day”

“Quick, take that back Let et her married”

Milass of iced tea It was nice having a friend over, even if Operation Wedding Dress hadn’t turned out exactly the way she’d planned Zeke had taken Ca cabin and Claire was at a friend’s house working on her senior English project With the kids busy with their own lives, Mis Well, not exactly alone She had Toby and Buttercup Cleaning up Toby’s drool was al hiht

Lauren sat across from her on the couch and watched as Mi on the college front?”

“Really weird It’s been al to cootten the chance to really talk to her Between my job as mayor and all her end of the year senior activities, it’s like we’re two ships that cross in the night”

Buttercup juainst Mi kitten and settled her on her lap

“So she got accepted to a couple of other state colleges, but Florida State is the one she really wanted?” Lauren asked

Mimi nodded

“Maybe she just doesn’t want to leave Buttercup,” Lauren teased, reaching out to pet her

“Maybe,” Mimi mused, “But I doubt it”