All of Me: A Small Town Romance (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1)

Chapter 9

Logan held two bottles of wine in his hand and knocked on Tess' door. He could hear laughter coming from inside her apartment. The sound made him glad he'd come.

He didn't need to come to Tess' apartment. He could have called Molly, asked if she'd be happy to combine her photos with the story he wanted to write. If she agreed, it would have taken ten minutes to call everyone else. But instead, he'd come here to talk to Tess and her friends in person. And maybe, if he was lucky, their story would fill his mind instead of the nightmares keeping him awake at night.

Tess opened the door. His eyes traveled slowly down her body, appreciating the figure-hugging deep blue silk dress she was wearing. "I didn't realize it was a black-tie event."

He didn't need to look at her feet to know she was wearing high heels. At six-foot-five, he wasn't short. Tess' eyes were almost level with his. She was grinning as if he was a slice of the chocolate cake she'd made.

"We're playing dress-up."

Heat built in parts of his body that hadn't been switched on in years. Tess must have read his mind, or the parts of him that were turned on.

Her smile grew wider and her eyes sparkled. "You'll have to play nurses and doctors with someone else."

Before he began to appreciate where that visual could take him, Tess pulled him into the room. Molly had her camera out, snapping photos of Annie as she posed beside the large picture window in the living room.

"Tilt your head a little toward the ceiling," Molly said.

Annie moved her head and waited patiently while Molly got the shot. She turned left, then right, until Molly was happy with what she had. Annie looked good in the pink silk dress she was wearing and he wondered why she didn't get dressed up more often.

Tess laughed when Annie poked her tongue out at Molly. "When Molly suggested taking photos of each of the dresses for a catalog, we didn't think she meant this. She's set up a full-blown photoshoot."

He took another look at Annie and noticed the makeup she was wearing. Her hair was styled in a way that didn't look as though a bird had made a nest on her head.

She looked like a model. She moved like a model. This wasn't the over-excited woman who served him coffee and pie in jeans and a T-shirt.

After Molly had finished taking the shots she needed, Annie smiled at him and patted her hair. "Do you like my new hairstyle? Tess convinced me that shabby chic belongs in a house, not on my head. I went for the Audrey Hepburn look. What do you think?"

She turned around. The swept up hairstyle was a vast improvement on the tumble of hair she normally held together with chopsticks and hair ties. "It looks good. Sophisticated and elegant."

Annie grinned. "Carl won't recognize me when I turn up at the bowling alley looking like a glamour puss. I'll change into the next dress."

Molly glanced at Tess. "You need to do your hair and makeup."

"I don't need makeup. You're not including my face in the photos."

"You wear a pretty dress, you put on makeup. It's an unwritten law of nature."

Tess frowned. "It sounds like an Irish rule of nature. I'm American."

"And I'm the photographer and I'm Irish." Molly ignored the growl coming from Tess and turned to Logan. "Did you bring a suit?"

"Don't trust her," Tess said as she walked across the room. "She has evil intentions."

"I do not. There's not an evil bone in my body, but I do have a good imagination." Molly looked at the bottles in Logan's hands. "You brought wine? You'd make a fine addition to The Bridesmaids Club."