I Have Lived and I Have Loved - Willow Winters Page 0,337

chattering away about the kind of dress she wanted to buy. Max seemed to have little interest in her as he stared out of the window.

“I think it’s going to rain,” he said.

“Dad.” She punched him on the leg and he caught her hand and wrapped it in his. “Do you agree about the dress?”

“I’m not committing to anything until I see it.”

“Well, if we don’t find something today, I’m going naked.”

Max chuckled. “If you were a couple of years older, I might worry. Right now, I think your teenage angst is my insurance policy against that happening.”

“I don’t understand what you just said,” she said.

“And so that’s a double win for me, peanut.” As he scooped his arm around her shoulder to pull her close, he caught my jacket sleeve. “Sorry,” he said and I smiled, staring at my hands in my lap. Unclear whether I was imagining things, I wanted to stare at the two of them. They seemed comfortable with each other, happy to be in each other’s company. A pang of jealousy ran through me.

“Here we are,” Amanda announced as the cab pulled up.

The humidity hit me as I got out of the car.

“It’s definitely going to rain,” Max mumbled, staring up at the sky.

He held the door open, gesturing for me to go before him as Amanda led the way into a boutique. I hoped this would be a one-stop shop and I’d be back home by lunchtime.

As we started looking around, Max found a chair outside the dressing rooms and concentrated on his phone rather than his daughter. Typical. Why had he come at all?

“What about this?” Amanda asked, holding a long purple gown against herself as she turned toward me.

I grinned. “We should definitely try it.”

We picked out six dresses in total, and Amanda managed to sneak a couple of strapless ones in that I was sure wouldn’t go down well with her father.

“We can do shoes and a bag once we get the dress,” I said as Amanda stopped on the way to the dressing room, transfixed by a table of sparkly evening bags.

I hung up the dresses I was carrying, then shut the curtain on Amanda.

“Harper, will you stay there while I change so you can see it before my dad? I want to surprise him with the perfect choice.”

“Of course,” I replied and leaned on the wall opposite Amanda’s room. “Which one are you going to try on first?”

“The purple one. Uh-oh,” she said. “My dad isn’t going to like this one.”

The moment she opened the curtain, I knew she was right. Max would never go for the dress. And I couldn’t blame him. A twenty-five-year-old would have to make an effort not to look slutty in it. The neckline dipped very low in a big swath of fabric, but it was so low her bra was showing.

“I don’t think it suits you,” I said, not wanting to hurt her feelings or for her to feel as if her dad’s opinion was the only one that counted. “People say that you should wear the dress, the dress shouldn’t wear you. Now I’m not sure what that means, but I think we’re in dangerous territory. What about the shorter one?”

Next she appeared in a beautiful yellow dress with spaghetti straps, diamanté beading across the bodice, and a netted skirt that fell just above the knee.

“What do you think?” I asked, grinning.

“I think my dad would like it,” she replied, but the look on her face said even though she thought her dad would approve, she wasn’t in love with it. “But I think I want to look more . . . grown-up.”

I nodded. The dress was beautiful on her, though it was a lot like a bigger version of something an eight-year-old might wear. And if Max would like it and she didn’t, then we wouldn’t even show it to him. “Try the royal blue one. I think it would look great against your black hair, and silver accessories would go beautifully with it. It’s more sophisticated.”

She turned and swept up her hair and I realized she was asking me to unzip her. “Would you wear it?” she asked as I helped her out of her dress.

I nodded. “Yes. It’s beautiful. Not that I would have anywhere to wear a dress like that.” I closed the curtain so she could dress in private.

“On a date?” she asked. “Do you have a boyfriend yet?”

My stomach flipped over as I remembered our conversation