“I am so
excited for this.” Constance was already chattering before she fully opened the
door to her apartment, ushering Gracie inside. “Here, let me take this.” Constance
took the large box from Gracie, nearly spilling the smaller box on top of it if
Gracie hadn’t have grabbed it. Without even noticing, Constance headed back
into her bedroom.
Grinning, Gracie
followed her, dreamy about finally showing the McCagan women her grandmother’s
bridal gown. They had been talking about it forever and had only seen it in the
faded photographs of Eddie and Peg’s wedding. Gracie felt privileged to have
been able to bring something so important to the McCagan family back to them.
Constance
set the box on the bed then turned to give Gracie a quick hug. “I thought we
could set up in here. Miss June loaned me one of her dress forms. Isn’t it
perfect with all the curlicues?”
“It’s perfect.”
Gracie pressed her hands together, that dreamy feeling pressing into her heart
again. The dress form looked to be from the same era as the dress, which made
sense since Miss June’s dress shop had been around since the early nineteen
hundreds. The body of the form was made of stuffed burlap with thick dark wire
rising out of the neck, swooshing into intricate swirls where a head would be.
Gigi’s gown would look lovely on it.
Constance
came to stand beside her, still for a moment. “I wonder if this could be the
very form that they used when they first created the dress.”
Gracie felt
her throat closing with emotion. She felt as though she was retracing Gigi’s footsteps in a way made her feel like she was right there
with her.
A knock at
the door broke her reverie and a bubble of excitement started in her belly.
Constance
latched onto Gracie’s arm “It’s them.” Her smile flashed. She was as excited as
Gracie in showing off the treasured dress to her new family. “Get the gown on
the dress form. It’s going to be perfect!” She practically squealed and rushed
out to greet everyone.
Gracie heard
Constance welcoming the McCagans in. She heard Shannon’s soft voice mingling
with Chloe’s chirpier clipped tones. Elise said something, her subtle twang easing
into the apartment like sweet iced tea.
Gracie took
the dress out of the box and gathered the hem of the gown up to get it over the
dress form. When she let the gown tumble down to the floor and took a step back,
her breath caught again the same way it had when she had first seen it on the
dress form at Baubles and Bows. She classed her hands to her heart and
just stood gazing at it. Tears prickled at her eyes.
“Oh my,”
Shannon said from just behind Gracie’s shoulder. All the women gathered into
the small bedroom. Chloe gasped. Shannon lifted her arm to touch the gown’s
sleeve but then let it fall as though she were afraid she’d ruin it. “I can’t
believe it. It is so beautiful.”
Elise took one
of Shannon’s hands into her own. “The photographs didn’t do it justice. Just
imagine…” Elise said. “That Margaret, a part of our family from so long ago,
who had such heartbreak, would be the means to bring us all together like this.”
Elise smiled widely at Constance who smiled back but then Elise’s gaze sought
Gracie’s.
She inhaled
and Gracie’s heart warmed a couple hundred degrees. Elise was right, she was
absolutely right. The McCagans were going to be her family too, just as they
always should have been.
“It’s such a
fragile thing, isn’t it?” Shannon spoke softly and this time she did lift her
arm and allowed herself to smooth her hands down the soft silk. “Eddie and
Peg’s love hung on such a fragile thread. You would think since the war took
Eddie from her and then her grief took Peg from all of us, that that would be
the end of it.”
“But it was
only the beginning,” Chloe finished and Shannon nodded. “Yet their love was
also strong enough that it brought their family back together.” Chloe held
her hands out toward Constance and Gracie.
True to her
nature, Constance was quick to grab on, united with her future in-laws.
Gracie
yearned to do the same, yearned to belong to this family. All the women looked
back at her, waiting, welcoming. Her nature was hesitant, but not this time. As
though it was Gigi’s hand extended, Gracie took Chloe’s hand with her left and
Elise’s on her right and felt all the belonging and love she’d had with Gigi
and Camille grow tenfold and her heart became stronger for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment