The Carpenter's Bride

by Elana Johnson

  “Yeah, and he’s cute, and we’re already friends.” Sierra looked at Cal with so much hope in her eyes. Lisa would’ve said yes in a heartbeat.

  “The thirtieth is five days after my two-week grounding ends,” she said. “Please, Dad?”

  Cal looked at Lisa again and back to his daughter. “All right. But I want a full itinerary. I want to know what you’re wearing and what he’s wearing and who else you’ll be with.”

  Sierra squealed and jumped up from the table to hug him. “Thanks, Dad.” She started tapping on her phone a mile a minute, her bad eggs as well as the sandwich she’d made clearly forgotten.

  “You’ll need a dress,” Lisa said. “Have you bought a prom dress before?”

  “No,” Sierra said without looking up.

  “I know the best places on the island,” Lisa said. “If you’re interested, I can give you the names of the shops.”

  Sierra did look at her then. “I’m sure I can find something at the mall.”

  “Oh, okay,” Lisa said, not quite sure why this girl didn’t like her. Cal had said he’d made a promise to his late wife to find someone else to grow old with. He’d said Sierra was fine with him starting to date.

  But apparently, not with him dating Lisa.

  She gave the teenager a tight smile and went back to her rubbery egg. It really wasn’t good, and it probably would’ve been had she been on time. She sighed and put down her fork, looked at Cal, and tried to smile.

  It didn’t quite work. He reached over and covered her hand with his, a silent show that he didn’t mind that she’d been late.

  But his daughter certainly did, and Sierra left the table a moment later. “I’m going to call Megan,” she said. “Maybe her mom can give us a ride to the mall today.”

  “I can take you,” Cal said.

  “I’ll ask her,” Sierra said, walking through the kitchen and down another hall, where the bedrooms clearly were.

  “Well, that was a disaster,” Lisa said as soon as she was gone. “She doesn’t like me much, does she?”

  “She’s fourteen,” Cal said. “She doesn’t know what she likes.”

  Lisa might not have had a lot of experience with teens, but she knew the cold shoulder when she got it.

  “I mean, this is the third boy she’ll be going out with this month,” Cal said darkly. “She goes by how she feels in the moment.”

  Lisa nodded and helped him clean up the kitchen. “I really am sorry I was late.”

  “I know.” He took her into his arms. “I’m glad you’re here. You want to go for a walk up to the waterfall?”

  “Mm, yes,” she said, some of the pressure off her shoulders now that she was alone with him.

  “Okay, but first.” Cal smiled and kissed her, and Lisa decided she could put up with surly teenagers if she got to kiss Cal Lewiston afterward.

  Chapter Twelve

  Cal’s phone was blowing up, and he knew who it was. Sierra.

  School had been out for an hour or two, and he still had another couple to go before he’d be home. He’d already given her permission to go shopping with her friends after school, despite her grounding. With only ten more days until the prom, she still didn’t have a dress, and the situation was “dire.” Her words, not his.

  He pulled off his kneepads, said, “I need a minute,” and pulled out his phone as he stepped outside of the house he was working on. Sure enough, Sierra had texted eight times, all about the fruitlessness of finding a decent dress he would approve of.

  The last three texts were pictures, and none of them were appropriate for a fourteen-year-old freshman in high school to wear to her first prom.

  What do you think of those? she’d asked, and Cal felt like an ogre for wanting to veto all of them. But he supposed a few years of ogre-dom was what he’d signed up for when he’d become a father.

  The blue one has no sleeves or straps. We already talked about that.

  The pink one looks like it would barely cover your bottom half. So that was totally out.

  And the black one—does that V-neck go down to your belly button?

  Sierra started typing immediately, and her response was Dad.

  What? he thumbed out. None of these are appropriate.

  It’s all there is!

  He tapped the phone icon and lifted his device to his ear.

  “What?” his daughter practically barked at him.

  “First, you talk to me like that again, and you won’t be leaving the house until Christmas.” Cal could be grumpy too if he had to be.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, and she sounded like she was too. “I’m just frustrated. I don’t know where to find a dress.”

  He looked up into the brilliant blue sky, this job cleaning up after the tsunami almost finished. No one else had contacted him, as the island was mostly put back together now.

  “I know, baby,” he said with a sigh. “Why don’t you text Lisa? She really does know what she’s talking about. She works at the premier wedding planner on the island.”

  Silence came through the line. Every time he brought up Lisa, Sierra rewarded him with silence. After their brunch last weekend, where Lisa had been late, Sierra had once again called her fake.

  Did you see that smile? Sierra had shaken her head and rolled her eyes. Fake.

  Cal had seen it. Maybe it was a little on the professional side instead of the personal side, but he saw the other, softer side of her too. The side where she stood in her hallway, her foot dripping blood. The side where she pounded out the drywall in her house. The side where she finished his drink and asked him to dance. They still hadn’t done that.

  “Fine,” Sierra said. “Will you send me her number?”

  “Really?” Cal asked.

  “I need a dress, Dad.”

  “Okay, well, she has a huge wedding this weekend. Be really polite, okay? Like, over-the-top polite.”

  “I will.”

  “I’ll know if you’re not.”

  “Dad,” Sierra said. “I can be polite.”

  Cal didn’t want to get into an argument right now. “I just…you’ve never really been nice to her, bug.” Not at the outdoor cinema. Not during brunch. And not during movie night this past Saturday evening. In fact, she’d only stayed for twenty minutes of the movie before asking Cal if she could just go to her room.

  Her grounding ended on Sunday, and Cal worried he shouldn’t have even let her go shopping after school. But he couldn’t take her to do everything, and his indecision and guilt had allowed him to give her permission to do prom-related things after school, as long as he knew exactly where she was and who she was with.

  “I’ll be nice to her,” Sierra promised. “Or you can take the prom from me.”

  Cal knew how important this was to his daughter. “All right. I’ll text you her number.”

  “Thanks, Dad. We’ll head home now, and I’ll get dinner started.”

  “Okay, that would be great. I’m probably still two hours out.”

  “Okay.” Sierra hung up, and Cal quickly typed out Lisa’s phone number and sent it to Sierra. Then he sent Lisa a quick message, telling her that he’d given her number to Sierra, and that his daughter needed help with finding an appropriate prom dress. Heavy emphasis on appropriate.

  Really? Lisa sent back.

  Really really, he messaged her.

  Great. I’ll hook her up with something awesome. A smiley face emoji followed, and Cal turned back to the house. If he could get the rest of the floor finished, this place would be done. He and his crew would only have four more houses to finish, and their deadline sat only three days in the future.

  So he couldn’t knock off early, and he went back inside, strapped on his kneepads, and got back to work.

  When he entered the house with “Sea, I’m home,” the scent of hamburgers met his nose. His stomach twisted, because he was starving, and she’d made his favorite food. At the same time, he wondered what she wanted.

 
“Dad,” she said over her shoulder from where she stood at the stove. “The fries just have a few more minutes.”

  Burgers and fries. Sierra definitely wanted something. He backtracked to his office and dropped his bag with paperwork on the desk. He kicked off his boots and headed back into the kitchen in his socks.

  He soaped up to his elbows in the sink and took a bottle of water out of the fridge. “All right,” he said. “What’s going on?”

  “Going on?” Sierra reached for a roll of paper towels, and she made a little bed of them on a plate before spooning the perfectly golden and crisp French fries onto it. “Nothing’s going on.”

  Right. “Did you talk to Lisa?”

  “Yes.”

  “And?” He really wasn’t in the mood for games and cryptic conversations tonight. He was exhausted, and he and Adam had agreed to meet at seven o’clock in the morning to get an early start on one of the four remaining homes. The owners were out of town, and if they started early, they’d have a better chance of making their deadline.

  “And you were right. She’s really busy with the wedding this weekend.”

  “So she can’t text you the names of the shops?”

  “She did.”

  “Sea,” he said. “I need you to just tell me what’s going on.”

  She set the plate of fries on the counter and salted them. “Let’s eat,” she said. “And I’ll tell you.” She smiled at him, and in that moment, with his daughter in a good mood and minimal makeup, he remembered the little girl she’d once been. Love moved through him powerfully, and he smiled back at her.

  “All right.” He fixed up his burger with all the things he liked, because Sierra had made sure to make them all, right down to the fried egg. They sat at the table, and he said, “Start talking.”

  “Lisa gave me the names of a few dress shops,” she said. “But they all require appointments.”

  “Okay.” He took another bite of his burger, hoping he wouldn’t choke on the food with whatever his daughter said next.

  “Some of them are booked out already,” Sierra said. “Like, I can’t even get in before the prom.” She dipped a fry through some ketchup. “So I called Lisa and asked her what to do. She said she could get us in.”

  Sierra had called Lisa. And neither of them had texted him, so the conversation must’ve gone okay. “And?” he asked.

  “Lisa is very busy,” Sierra said. “Until next week, which is too late. She called around to all the shops, and we have two appointments…tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “And I know I’m grounded and all of that, but this is prom-related, and I really want to go. I can’t get the appointments by myself, and there’s no time, and can I please go?”

  “What time is the first appointment?”

  “Uh, twenty minutes.” Sierra took a bite of her burger. “Lisa should be here any minute.”

  Any minute? “Why didn’t you text me?”

  “Because you’re super busy too, and I figured it would be okay, because it’s Lisa and she’s your girlfriend.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Right? She is your girlfriend, isn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Cal said. “And you can go with her. Do you want me to come?”

  “Uh, no.” Sierra smiled at him. “I love you, but no. Lisa will send you pictures.”

  The doorbell rang, and Luna barked as she went skidding toward the door. She came trotting back, clearly torn between begging for a bite of hamburger and attacking the serial killer who’d dared to ring the doorbell.

  Sierra got up and stuffed another bite into her mouth. Cal followed her to find her giving Lisa a quick hug in the doorway. Surprise darted through him, because literally that morning, Sierra wouldn’t have anything to do with Lisa.

  “Hey,” Lisa said, stepping past Sierra to kiss Cal quickly. “Sierra explained to me all your rules for modesty. I promise to send you pictures.”

  “I’ll be in the car,” Sierra said, making a quick escape.

  “Why is she so jumpy?” Cal asked.

  “I think she’s worried about price,” Lisa said. “But I’ll get her our discount.” She flashed him a brilliant smile and emitted a little squeal. “Can you believe she called me? I’m so excited.”

  “You tell me if she’s not nice. Even a tiny little bit, Lisa.” He squeezed her hand. “Okay? That was part of my deal with her.”

  “She’s been awesome,” Lisa said. “Kind, and polite.” She beamed at him. “You and Jo have done a great job with her.”

  “Thank you,” Cal said, an automatic response. Before Jo’s death, she’d done most of the raising of their daughter.

  “I’ll stay in touch,” Lisa said, grinning. “We’ll be late if we don’t leave now.” She kissed him again quickly, and Cal held the door as she left. He waved to his daughter and went to finish his dinner.

  And after that…he’d put his phone on his chest so he could hear it when it chimed, and he’d take a nap.

  “Please let them get along,” he whispered. “Okay, Jo? Maybe now would be a good time to let Sierra know it’s okay to like Lisa.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lisa got behind the wheel of her car, wondering what in the world to say to a fourteen-year-old girl. Then she realized she dealt with women like Sierra all the time. Maybe a decade or two older, but in the exact same position.

  “So, tell me what kind of dress you’re dreaming about.” She put the car in reverse and backed out of Cal’s driveway. Her giddiness was a little ridiculous, but she didn’t care. She’d been thinking about having a serious conversation with Cal about his daughter and how she might come between them.

  Maybe now, she wouldn’t have to.

  “I think I look good in blue,” Sierra said. “Or black. Something a little darker.”

  “So no pink or yellow or like, light blue.”

  “Ew, no.” Sierra shook her head, and Lisa thought she’d actually look good in something pink, because her hair was dark. But she knew better than most that what looked the best was what felt the most comfortable to the person wearing it.

  “We’re meeting with a woman named Amarillis. She’s been a dress consultant for a long time, and I’m sure you’re going to love her.”

  “What does a dress consultant do?”

  “She’ll measure you and ask you what you like. Then she’ll pull dresses for you to try on.”

  “So I can’t just look?”

  “Sure, you can,” she said. “But it’s not browsing.” She glanced at Sierra. “You have to let her take care of you. They’ll offer you a drink, and I can help you in the dressing room, or Rilla can.”

  “I can put on a dress,” Sierra said.

  “Okay,” Lisa said, because she didn’t want to argue with her. But she wouldn’t be able to put on these dresses. They weren’t department store dresses, and she’d need at least a little bit of help.

  A few minutes later, she pulled up to a building that looked like it should be condemned and said, “Here we are.”

  “Are you sure?” Sierra looked out the windshield at the nondescript building with no signage and only two other cars in the lot.

  “Yep.” She opened her door and got out. “And let’s go. We barely have a minute to spare.”

  Sierra joined her, and Lisa opened the door to the dress shop, the sight of all the dresses spreading before her making her pulse quicken the tiniest bit. “We get a lot of our bridesmaids dresses here,” she explained as she removed her sunglasses and balanced them on her head.

  “Wow,” Sierra said, pausing just inside the door.

  Rilla came toward them, a huge smile on her face. “Lisa,” she said with a laugh. “How are you?” She hugged Lisa, who also giggled.

  “So great,” she said, backing up. “This is Sierra Lewiston. She needs the perfect prom dress.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sierra,” Rilla said, so perfectly poised and professional. Her dark auburn hair fell in waves over her shoulders, and Lisa had literally
never seen her without a smile. “What can I get you guys to drink?”

  “I want that lemonade you guys have here,” Lisa said.

  Rilla shook her head with another laugh. “I put one in the freezer when you called so it would be cold.” She looked at Sierra. “Water? Soda? Lemonade?”

  “I’m fine,” she said, and Lisa wished she’d told her to take the drink. She wasn’t sure why, but she was always more relaxed when Riley—or now Sunny—had managed to get a drink for her clients before they came back. She supposed she just liked the personal touch.

  Rilla bustled off to get her lemonade, and Lisa stepped next to Sierra. “I see a lot of black and blue right now. And red. Look at that one.” She pointed to a red dress in the left corner of the shop. “What are you thinking for sleeves? Length?”

  “My dad says it has to have sleeves,” she said. “Wide straps, nothing spaghetti-like.”

  “I wonder what he’d think of a cap sleeve,” Lisa said.

  “He’d freak out,” Sierra said dryly. “I swear, sometimes I think he thinks I’m still four.”

  Lisa’s heart skipped a beat. “Who knows what he thinks?”

  Sierra blinked at Lisa. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “What were you expecting?”

  “I don’t know. You to tell me he just loves me. Just wants the best for me.”

  He does, Lisa thought, but she kept those words cooped up in her mind. “You don’t need advice from me.”

  Rilla returned and handed Lisa the frosty lemonade bottle. Her mouth watered as she twisted the lid, as Rilla said, “Okay, Sierra. Tell me what you like.” She led her further into the shop, and Lisa sipped her lemonade while they picked out a few dresses to try on.

  She learned quickly that Sierra wanted something long, though they got a shorter one in a nice shade of burgundy just to try. Rilla’s assistant hung all their choices in a dressing room, and finally, Rilla said, “I think we have some really good options. Should we try on?”