EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2018 Laura Jardine
ISBN: 978-1-77339-586-9
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: CA Clauson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
HIS BEST FRIEND’S OLDER SISTER
Laura Jardine
Copyright © 2018
Chapter One
Emily picked up the first black dress she saw. Perhaps this would do.
It was hardly a little black dress. No, it had a high neckline and would end well below her knees. Excellent.
“Are you seriously thinking of that?” Liz yanked the dress out of Emily’s hands and put it back on the rack. “It looks like something you’d wear to a funeral. What about this one?”
Emily examined the dress that her friend held up. It was a vibrant green, and it took plunging necklines to a whole new level.
Down to a whole new level.
A bra wouldn’t work with this dress. Stick-on cups would be the only option.
An actress with a perfect body and no tan lines might be able to pull this off. But not Emily Branson. She would never wear such a dress, especially not to her younger brother’s wedding.
“You should see your face,” Liz said. “I was kidding. Though you could try it on just for my amusement.” She clasped her hands together. “Please? I promise I won’t post any pictures on Facebook.”
Emily laughed. “No way.”
Liz whisked the dress away and held up another. Black lace over white fabric, with a thick black ribbon around the waist. “This time I’m serious.”
That was more what Emily was looking for, but it still showed too much cleavage.
She shook her head and looked longingly at the funeral dress.
“I refuse to let you get that one,” Liz said. “What’s wrong with this?” She shook the black lace dress. “At least try it on. See what it looks like.”
Perhaps bringing a friend along hadn’t been the best plan. But this was the sort of thing women did with their friends, right? They went shopping together.
Emily had promised herself that she would try harder at this friendship business. Her therapist had pointed out her avoidance of close friendships—apparently romantic relationships weren’t her only problem—and Emily had vowed to change it.
She did have a few friends from university. They were mostly guys, since the math and physics classes she’d taken to get her degree had more men than women. They got together every now and then at a bar, or sometimes Emily would have people over. She was famous for her elaborate brunches.
But with Liz, she was trying something different.
Liz had moved into her building a few months ago. She was a few years younger than Emily, and she was doing a PhD in English literature. She was entirely unlike the people Emily usually hung out with.
Emily looked at the dress in Liz’s hand. She wished she could wear it. But…
“It’s cut too low,” she said.
Liz frowned. “You could wear something like this to work and it would be entirely appropriate.”
“I’m not comfortable showing even a hint of cleavage.”
“Come on. You don’t need to dress like a nun just because it’s a family event.”
Emily wasn’t a prude. Not really. It was just…
Perhaps she should tell her new friend the truth.
No. She immediately dismissed that idea.
“Okay,” Liz said. “Nothing that shows any cleavage. Got it. Though I really think you should reconsider.”
Emily put on a smile. “Not today.”
She looked around for a saleslady, but they were all helping other people. It was quite busy in this little store on Queen Street. The Jen Kwong Boutique had been Liz’s idea, and it was a good choice. Lots of selection, reasonable prices.
Emily draped a champagne-colored asymmetrical dress over her arm and went over to the next rack. She was examining a gray dress, trying to decide if the color was too drab, when a gorgeous redhead walked out of a change room wearing an itty-bitty blue dress. She twirled in front of a mirror and wiggled her hips before asking her friend, “What do you think?”
“Oh, my God,” her friend said. “You’re smoking hot, girl! But I’m not sure you can wear that to your nephew’s baptism.”
The redhead pouted.
Emily rolled her eyes before discarding the gray dress and moving on to a non-itty-bitty blue one. But she wasn’t a fan of the robin’s egg color.
Liz came over. “Two choices.”
She held up a purple dress that graded from light at the top to dark at the bottom. It was high-cut, though there was a vertical slit in the fabric below the neckline, which would show just a flash of chest. Hm. Would Emily’s horrible skin be visible through that tiny slit?
The other dress was dark red lace. Not quite what she’d had in mind, but she would be able to wear it, unlike so many of the other dresses in the store.
God, dress shopping was stressful. Buying work clothes was so much easier. She had a couple of stores she always went to, and she knew exactly what worked for her.
“Please tell me you’ll try these ones,” Liz said. “I’m running out of ideas.”
“They’re great,” Emily assured her.
She went into a change room with the two dresses Liz had picked out as well as the champagne-colored dress. She tried that one on first. It didn’t seem quite right, but she came out to show her friend anyway.
This was foreign to her. Usually she shopped alone, and she just looked at herself in the mirror in the change room.
Though there were no mirrors in the change rooms here anyway. It was one of those annoying places that forced you to step out into the store to see what you looked like.
Liz shook her head. “It washes you out. But the red one—I really think that will work. Try it next.”
Emily returned to the change room and hurriedly took off the dress and put on the red one. She went out to look at herself in the mirror and was surprised to see that she looked…
“Amazing,” Liz said. “Like, it’s sexy, but a bit understated.”
Emily was good at making herself look put-together and professional. Pretty. But not sexy like this. The dress ended just above her knees. It did a great job of showing off her arms and shoulders, without exposing any of her chest. It was perfect.
“I’ll get it.”
Liz squealed. “That’s awesome. You’re so much easier to shop with than my sister. Even if she finds something that looks good on her right away, she has to try on ten more things at a few different stores to be sure.”
“I—”
Emily’s phone rang. Not her regular, boring ringtone, but the ominous opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
Her mother.
Emily wanted as much warning as possible before she spoke to her mother. Hence the personalized ringtone. Not that she heard it often. Her mom rarely called.
“I better get that,” she said, ducking into the change room. She pulled her phone out of her purse, her hand shaking slightly. “Hello.”
“Hi, Emily. How are you?”
Her mother didn’t really care how she was doing. It was just a greeting.
“Fine
,” Emily said. “I’m just fine.”
“I can’t get ahold of Nick. It went straight to voicemail. And I figured it would be better if you passed the news along personally rather than me leaving a message.”
Goose bumps formed on Emily’s arms. “What is it?”
“I’m not going to the wedding,” her mom said. “I’ve got a big case coming up. I have to be in court the Monday after, and there’s so much to go over. Plus Pip doesn’t like when I leave him at the kennel overnight.” Pip was her beloved bichon frise. “It’ll be easier if I don’t come down to Toronto.”
“Mom. It’s Nick’s wedding. You’re going to miss it just because it’s a little inconvenient? Don’t you want to be there?”
Emily didn’t usually waste energy arguing with her mother. It wasn’t worth it. But she couldn’t help it this time.
Honestly. It was Nick’s wedding.
Though perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised.
“It’s a long drive,” her mother said. “More than four hours. And there are so many other things I ought to be doing. Like I said, it’s a very big case. So you’ll pass it along to Nick? Tell him I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” Emily said, deflated. “I’ll let him know.”
Her mother hung up before Emily could say anything else.
She slid the phone back into her purse and stared at the wall.
“Emily?” Liz said through the door. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. I’ll just get changed and pay for the dress.”
“Not yet. I found something you have to try. Now don’t freak out.” Liz threw the dress over the top of the change room door. “It doesn’t show any cleavage, but…”
But it was backless. It was a deep purple halter dress that tied behind the neck with a purple ribbon. High cut in the front, and very low cut in the back. Still, it was something Emily could wear, though she might have to get those stick-on cups.
Although she was hesitant to try on something that showed so much skin, she was also curious. So she took off the red dress as well as her bra, then pulled the purple one over her head and awkwardly tied a bow at the back of her neck.
When she stepped out of the change room, Liz was nowhere to be found.
“Liz! Where are you?”
Emily wanted to show her friend and get back into her sensible jeans and T-shirt as fast as possible. She felt far too exposed.
“Hold on,” called Liz, from a change room on the opposite side of the store. “I’ll be there in a minute. But my breasts keep popping out.”
A few heads swiveled in the direction of that change room. A boy of twelve or thirteen, who appeared to have been dragged along on a shopping trip with his mother, looked up from his phone.
While she waited, Emily checked herself out in the mirror and could hardly believe what she saw. Her urge to dive under the change room door disappeared.
Damn. She looked hot. She’d had no idea she could pull off something like this.
“Okay. Here it goes.” Liz stepped out into the store.
Wearing the bright green dress with the plunging neckline.
“Oh, my God,” Emily said. “You look…”
“It’s a red-carpet outfit gone horribly wrong,” Liz said. “I know it’s hideous, but I figured if you were trying on a dress without a back…” She came to stand beside Emily, and they looked at themselves in the mirror. “You look great in that one, too. Though we clash so badly.”
“We really do.” Emily laughed. “If you came up to me at a party, I wouldn’t want to stand next to you.”
Liz shot her an exaggerated glare and inched away.
Emily pulled her back. “Thanks so much for coming with me. I really appreciate it. I’ll buy you a drink afterward.”
“You think you owe me a drink for half an hour of dress shopping? Emily, you don’t owe me anything.”
Right. Okay. Shopping with a friend was just a normal thing, not something that put you in their debt.
“But we’ll have a drink anyway,” Liz said. “Which dress are you buying?”
“I’ll get both.” It was rare for Emily to find two dresses that looked so good on her. “I’ll wear the red one to Nick’s wedding, and save the purple one for later.” Perhaps she could wear it on a fancy date someday.
“You are so going to pick up someone at this wedding. All those men in suits won’t be able to keep their eyes off you.”
Emily nearly choked. “What?”
“Come on. Didn’t you say you wanted to start dating again?”
“Yes. Dating. Not hooking up. I have no interest in a one-night stand.”
Liz waved this off. “Just have fun and don’t worry about where it’s going. Weddings are a great place to meet guys.”
Emily retreated to the change room and took off the purple dress. “My brother’s wedding is a great place to meet people who are related to me. Or related to my future sister-in-law.”
Liz’s laughter was slightly muffled through the door. “Surely your brother has friends.”
“He does, but not a lot of them. And they’re my brother’s friends.”
Nick had first brought Diana home a year and a half ago. When Emily had seen the way he lit up around her, it had melted her heart. She wanted that for herself, and she’d resolved to conquer her issues about love. If Nick could do it, then maybe she could, too.
And now, Emily finally felt like she was almost ready.
But she didn’t expect to meet anyone at the wedding.
When she stepped out of the change room, Liz was waiting for her, no longer wearing the hideous green dress.
“Alright,” Liz said. “You pay for those dresses, and then we’ll grab a drink. I know a great place just west of here. Fantastic cocktails.”
Mid-afternoon drinks with a friend after a shopping trip? This was a new world for Emily.
She clutched the dresses to her chest like they were the key to her future.
Chapter Two
Jay Cheng thought everything had gone off quite well.
The wedding was at a golf course just north of Toronto. Diana had seen no reason to follow the tradition that the groom wasn’t supposed to see the bride in her dress until she walked down the aisle, and they’d done the pictures before the ceremony.
The outdoor ceremony had been short and sweet, followed by cocktails and then dinner. As the best man, Jay had made a speech that was mostly free of embarrassing stories about Nick, whom he’d known for more than two decades.
Mostly free. He hadn’t been able to stop himself from telling the story of the time he’d dared Nick to eat as many slushies as possible.
Now Jay sat at the head table and watched the newlyweds have their first dance to “Have I Told You Lately.”
He was happy for his best friend. Of course he was.
But marriage did not appeal to him.
He scraped some chocolate icing off his plate of wedding cake. Nick’s younger brother, Ryan, had made it. The man was certainly talented, and Jay bet that owning a bakery went over well with the ladies.
Not that Jay needed any help in that area.
He glanced at his parents and sister, sitting at a table near the back. He kind of wished they weren’t here. It was cramping his style. The whole flirting-in-front-of-his-family business?
Yeah, awkward.
But the biggest problem was that the woman he most wanted to pick up was Nick’s older sister, Emily. And that was a line he had no intention of crossing.
He hadn’t seen her in a few years, and wow, did she ever look stunning tonight. She wore a simple red dress that was far from risqué … but damn, he wanted to pull on the bow around her waist and unwrap her like a present.
Mmm. He’d had inappropriate thoughts about her all day.
Actually, he’d had inappropriate thoughts about her for almost twenty years.
For a while, he’d gone over to Nick’s house nearly every day after school, and Emily had always been there. Tak
ing care of Ryan, baking cookies, and generally running the household. She was three years older than Jay, and the age difference seemed huge back then. She was so much more responsible, and she was developing these great things called breasts.
She was also the only girl who’d ever made him stutter. Fortunately he’d grown out of that by the age of thirteen.
But Emily Branson was definitely still off-limits, especially since he wanted nothing more than a tumble in bed with her, and besides, she’d probably never thought of him as anything more than her brother’s annoying friend.
Jay turned his attention back to the dance floor. The song ended and Diana began her dance with her father. Nick would not dance with his mother, however, because she wasn’t here. And even if she were, he wouldn’t have danced with her anyway.
When the dance floor was opened up to all the guests, Diana dragged a reluctant Nick back out. The man had always hated dancing, but he still smiled and brushed the back of his hand over his wife’s cheek.
His wife. It was hard to believe his friend had a wife. It seemed like just yesterday they were making light sabers out of toilet paper rolls. But they were twenty-eight now, and Nick and Diana had been together for two years.
Unlike Nick, Jay needed no encouragement to get on the dance floor. He was soon dancing and having a great time, though he kept looking at Emily out of the corner of his eye. She stayed at the table, chatting with her stepmother, her long legs crossed in front of her, her feet clad in high black heels.
Nothing could happen between them, but there was no reason he couldn’t dance with her.
And so, several songs later, when her stepmother had gone off to talk to someone else, Jay went up to her.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in the room,” he said with an easy smile, charming and not very serious. Emily wouldn’t suspect he was telling the truth.
She laughed. Even when she laughed, she seemed composed, in complete control of herself.
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