All Dressed Up Read Online Free PDF Page A

into
her soul. She struggled with that. “Call me,” she said, “to tell me
you got in safe.”
    She watched
him down the street and kept watching even after he’d disappeared
from sight, thinking about everything he and Emma would need to do
and how awkward and wrong it would be. Emma had been living back at
her parents in Saddle River, New Jersey during her internship year,
because she’d taken it at Hackensack Hospital which wasn’t far from
there, but she had a lot of her things at Charlie’s Manhattan
apartment.
    He would have
to pack all that up for her. He’d have to pack up the dress, too,
and Lainie knew he wouldn’t do it right. It wouldn’t be a priority,
he’d take it too casually. He wouldn’t have the skills. In fact, he
should not be in possession of the dress – of such a dress – at
all. Emma, her so-nearly-daughter-in-law, would regret letting it
happen.
    Oh, Emma would
never forgive herself for it, when she cooled down.
    Stopping only
to lock the front door and not even thinking to contact Charlie on
his cell, Lainie jumped into her Buick Lucerne – a good car for a
realtor from the wrong side of the tracks – and went after him,
thinking, “Why is this important to me, what business do I have
with the dress, wanting to protect it like this? Why do I care so
much about how Emma feels when we never really got close?”
    And would
probably never get close, now.
    She caught up
to her son when he'd just turned southbound onto the Northway at
Exit 17, flashed her high beams and sat the heel of her hand on the
horn until she caught his attention. He pulled over onto the
shoulder, jumped out and almost ran back.
    Lainie climbed
from her seat. It was full dark by this time, and chilly breaths of
night air rose from the ground. As Charlie came closer, she saw an
eager look on his face, a complicated look, with other things in it
besides eagerness that she didn't have the time or skill to
interpret.
    All she could
think was, “He’s hoping I’m chasing him to tell him Emma came to
the door begging for another chance.” And she knew she couldn’t let
him go on thinking this for another second. It worried her that
such a big part of him obviously thought they’d made a mistake in
calling it off, that he loved Emma so very much.
    “Charlie, I
don’t think you should take the dress to New York.”
    “This is why
the high beams and the horn and running me down at seventy-five
miles an hour? This is why we’re illegally pulled over on the
Interstate? Are we going for completely farcical, now?”
    It was
farcical. And also not. Lainie blurted out, “I think she’s going to
hate you for having the dress.”
    “Since she
already has several other better reasons to hate me – ”
    “Just let me
take it, Charlie. You won’t know how to hang it and store it right.
It’s so beautiful. When she calls to arrange about getting it back,
tell her I’m taking real good care of it for her.”
    “She won’t
call.” Could he see into Emma’s soul, too?
    “Whatever.
When she gets Amber or Sarah to call.”
    “Okay, take
the dress. You’re right, I’d just stuff it in the top of a
closet.”
    They both
stomped along the grassy shoulder to his car. He opened the door
for her then stood back while she lifted the dress out, folded it
as tidily as she could and cradled it against her front. She would
press it as soon as she got home, in case Emma followed up on its
whereabouts tomorrow. If Emma didn’t, the gown would need cedar
balls and blue tissue paper, a full-length garment bag and a dark
place in back of a tall closet.
    It had a very
demanding personality, just like its owner.
    “Talk to you
during the week,” Charlie said.
    “No, call me
tonight to tell me you got in safe,” she reminded him, then they
saw a patrol car on the opposite carriageway. You really weren’t
supposed to conduct covert wedding gown exchange operations on the
shoulder of the highway, so they didn’t hug again.