A Love Like Ours

Chapter 35

I couldn't get over it. Her in that dress.

She glanced my way just in time to catch me staring for the umpteenth time during the ten minute car ride.

"Stop," she said with a winning, but still embarrassed smile, causing me to laugh. She grabbed my hand between us and squeezed. "I'm nervous enough."

"I can't help it," I said, still chuckling, still letting my eyes sweep over the sight of her. "I—I'm never going to forget the way you look tonight."

Her smile softened then, but it was a sight no less beautiful. And it was almost too much—looking at her. I couldn't breathe properly. I couldn't think straight. And I needed to be able to do both to get us through this evening.

I never could've been prepared for the sight of her when she came downstairs back home. Even though I was excited to see her, anxious to see the dress, and even though I knew she had been up there for hours with Glenne and Lou... I never could have anticipated the visceral reaction I would have seeing her slowly descend the staircase.

Her dress wasn't pink. Or at least, not hot pink. It was more of an orange—coral, I think it was called. The kind of pink you'd see just above the horizon at sunset. One of her favorite colors in the world.

I'd held my breath as her feet came into view first, strappy, sparkly heels on them, as that coral dress swished around her ankles before tapering up to hug her hips, her waist—I was a goner at that point.

Mads' smile then was so breathtakingly excited, I felt it reflected in my heart, in the way it thundered as she hit that last step and stood there, her hands coming to lace together in front of her.

I had to look her up and down once more, from the top of her head all the way to her feet. Her shoulder-length, dark hair was pinned back, half of it down in waves, and her makeup—I don't know what the hell Lou did, but Jesus, she looked stunning. Whatever it was was subtle. Her eyes, always bright, didn't have dark makeup around them, but were shadowed and highlighted in all the right spots, her lashes long and fluttering just enough to emphasize the brilliant sparkling blue of the irises. And her lips—they were full and smiling and the loveliest shade of pink.

But that dress—it was hard to look away from her body in that dress. The neckline wasn't over-the-top revealing, but dipped deep enough to enormously flatter the swell of her breasts, rising and falling with her somewhat rapid breath. And the orangey-pink material clung to her waist, her hips. And as my eyes fell to her legs, where the material pooled around her feet, Mads turned to the side, beckoning my eyes up, up, up to the rise of her bum, and then... to her back.

I'd gulped then. And she smiled at me over her shoulder because she knew. She wasn't completely bare-backed. The straps of the dress hooked together between her shoulder blades. But there was a diamond-shaped cutout right beneath those straps. It didn't dip quite as low as her New Year's Eve dress had, but low enough that the line of her spine was fully visible, reaching down to her soft lower back.

Mads had turned to face me again, still smiling, almost laughing, absolutely radiant—I was still too wonderfully stunned to speak.

"Our work here is done," Glenne had announced. I hadn't even noticed she and Lou standing on the stairs, both smiling as they watched the silent exchange between Mads and I.

"You look beautiful, Maddie," Gemma said from somewhere behind me. I hadn't noticed her either.

Madelyn's sparkling eyes met my sister's over my shoulder as she thanked her, but I couldn't tear my gaze from her. Not yet.