A Love Like Ours

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I sniffed and blew my nose.

Then sniffed some more.

"Hay fever still acting up?" Janet asked with mock sympathy.

I paused, mid-sniffle, to glare openly at her. Having the sniffles didn't put me in a good mood, and it wasn't all hay fever either. My grumpiness was more due to Justin and the baby bump I now so proudly sported. Both were acting up, causing my tear ducts to work overtime needlessly. I just couldn't shake away the agony of Patrick's death haunting my poor Justin. It kept me tearing up just thinking about it. It was all so awful. Death always was.

To make things worse, having driven Justin crazy earlier, in the aftermath of some unfulfilled desires, from some harmless feel good humping, I now found myself in a similar state. Kissing Justin had to be faulted for that. And the imbecile seemed bent on popping up unexpectedly to steal wanton kisses from me. Heaven knows I couldn't kiss Justin and get away with it unscathed. I should simply stop trying altogether. Stop trying to get away after, that is, not stop the kissing.

Nope, the kisses I definitely could not live without. They were awesome. Delicious and tart, sensuous and softly tender, vicious and wild. I could go on and on, ... and on...

Being horny and teary was just a horrible combination.

I was in no condition to show my face around here. I should really just go and lie down and sob myself out to my heart's content and get it all over and done with. But I had to sort out my wedding dress first.

I bit into my sandwich and gobbled it up when no one was looking. Justin had already eaten and retreated to the study to work. No doubt he was simply snoozing behind those closed library doors.

The troupe of cousins was due soon, both mine and his. This was going to be one bizarre wedding, with both bride and groom's family en-mixed and mingling over the next four days. Four days of sheer hell.

I was doomed.

And I had to be done with my fitting before they arrived. I didn't want everyone to know my measurements or anything else as personal about me either. I was still haunted by the horror that dressing for the engagement had been. In and out, they had trotted into Justin's room, uncaring that I was there, struggling to make haste and get ready for the party already thumping away down below.

I refused to be put through that indignity once more.

God only knows I already had plentiful lumps and bumps to distort the lines of my dress; adding on a baby bump was asking for a whole new level of miracle to fit into the clingy silk. There would be no hiding the fact that this baby's daddy knocked up his mummy before the wedding day. Everyone else may or may not be told the good news, but the dress maker simply had to be informed. There was no way I could be wearing this dress otherwise. Allowances had to be made. The dress had to be adjusted, even if only to be let out an inch or so.

I lifted my glass of lemon-infused, iced water and gulped down the detox that it was. Janet, having already finished her own quite unsubstantial meal, rose to disappear out the dining room door. I was left alone in here now. Firming my jaw, I replaced my glass down with a resounding smack, and with renewed determination, I went off after my sister once more, knowing she would lead me on to hunt out my elusive dressmaker. Damn Janet and her infatuation with Justin's ex.

Now there's a thought I would never have realised I would one day have.

I exited the empty dining room and made a dash for the little sunroom parlour. Sure enough, they were all gathered there, pouring over the details of the sketches and swatches of fabric Martha had brought along.