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Marilyn was sitting across from her in the booth, sipping coffee. They’d both already given their statements to the police. The fact that Jared had been coming at her with a knife when she’d shot meant there’d be no criminal charges brought up against Marilyn. The woman had a lot she needed to process, but so far, she was holding up like a champ.

Marilyn had been sitting across from Bree for the past thirty minutes as more and more of the women from Risk Peak heard about what had happened and filled the diner around them.

“What’s your plan?” Marilyn finally asked softly as the talking continued. “You know we can make the wedding work later if you want to wait. Don’t worry about that.”

But Bree didn’t want to wait. She was ready. Ready for her always to start. Ready to say the vows that had become so clear to her.

Damn it. Ready to have sex with Tanner.

But she didn’t want to do it without Marilyn up there with her. If she wanted to wait, Bree could wait too.

“What about you? I want you standing beside me when I do this. You’ve kept me sane over the past few months with all the wedding planning. If you’re not up to it, then we’ll reschedule.”

Marilyn shook her head. “I refuse to give that man even one more hour of my life. Please get married tomorrow, Bree Cheese. Give us even more reason to celebrate life.”

Around them someone was talking about whether they needed to wake up the church secretary right now and see if there were any other possible weekends available.

“No.” Bree stood. Enough. “The wedding is still on for tomorrow. As long as Tanner can be there, I’ll still be walking down the aisle in the morning.”

“Tanner will be there,” Cassandra called out. “I already asked—since I’m the bossy little sister and allowed to ask questions like that. He says there’s nothing about this situation that will keep him from the church if that’s what you want.”

But there would be no time to get another dress.

“I’ll just wear a sundress or something,” she said.

That was okay. The important thing was that she would get to marry Tanner tomorrow. She tried not to cringe at the thought of him in his tuxedo and her walking down the aisle in a sundress. But she didn’t own anything fancier, and there was no way to get to a wedding dress shop before the ceremony in the morning.

“Oh, no you won’t.” Cheryl came and put her arm around Bree. How many times had she done that over the last year since Bree arrived in town? This woman had become a surrogate mother to her. Someone Bree treasured. “Leah and I have already been talking about that.”

“You have?” Bree hadn’t even realized Tanner’s mother was here.

“We have a plan. We’re going to make you a dress using sections of all of our own wedding dresses.”

“But...I don’t understand. Using pieces of your own dresses? Won’t that ruin them?”

Cheryl pulled Bree in for a hug. “You’re the only bride I know who’s concerned about our wedding dresses, not about what hers might look like when it’s all done.”

Bree shrugged with one shoulder. “I can’t envision it, to be honest. And is this even possible? How will you do it?”

“It won’t be as ornate and detailed as your dress. There’s no way we could make something like that probably ever, let alone in one night.”

“Oh, well, that’s okay. Nobody could actually make a dress like that one. I would never expect it.”

“And would never want it either,” Cheryl said with a smile. “Dan told me that as soon as he saw it. He admitted it was beautiful but said it wasn’t a Bree kind of beautiful. I just wrote him off, convinced he was a man who didn’t know anything about wedding dresses.”

Bree couldn’t stand that she might be hurting Cheryl’s feelings after all the woman had done for her. “It is—was—a beautiful dress. Truly. I never would’ve picked out anything so beautiful without your help.”

Cheryl smiled. “Oh, I know it was beautiful, but as painful as it is for me to say this, Dan was right. It’s beautiful, but not a Bree kind of beautiful.”

“I don’t even know what Bree kind of beautiful is.”

Cheryl reached in and kissed her on her cheek. “And that’s exactly why it’s such a unique beauty. Because you don’t see it in yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a wedding dress creation to supervise. We’ll have you ready to walk down that aisle in the morning.”

Bree squeezed her hand. “Okay. Thank you.”

The older woman spun around and started announcing the plan. Everyone cheered, and within minutes they were running out into the darkness to grab their wedding dresses out of closets and mothballs and cedar trunks.

Others were running off to grab sewing machines.