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It wasn’t just them—it was me. I didn’t believe in me either.
You know Claire, if you’d just trim up a bit, it would be easier for people to get to know you. You’d have so many more friends. My mother’s voice echoed in my head.
I never understood what she meant by that—that somehow the shape of my body prevented people from knowing me. And if it did, I said I didn’t want those friends anyway.
You’ll never keep a man if you don’t get your weight under control.
“Shut up,” I muttered. Her “helpful” voice on a loop was as bad as my own. Why did it always have to come back to this? I plastered a smile on my face and joined the group.
“Thank you all so much for coming. It really means the world to me.”
Seeing Rosa and Hollie in the dresses I’d made—how utterly fucking fabulous they looked—it touched me deeper than any stupid voice on any lame loop. This was what I was meant to do and I was good at it.
My eyes watered when they hugged me, stupid pollen. Because I wasn’t the type to snivel or cry over something like this. It had to be the pollen.
“You guys are perfect,” I said after I broke the hug.
Rosa spun in a circle, the crinoline under the skirt swung out to reveal more leg. “I kind of do look perfect, don’t I? I feel like a rockabilly princess.”
“Am I still up first?” Kieran said.
I nodded. “Hell yeah. You and Rosa, like we talked about.”
He grinned and pulled off his shirt. I tried not to look, but Rosa didn’t make any such effort.
“It’s good to be me,” she said.
Hollie laughed. “No kidding.”
My gaze was drawn to Brant, and he smiled. It wasn’t a sly smirk, or even a naughty grin. It was a genuine smile. My lips curved of their own accord. There was something about the expression on his face, like maybe he was proud of me.
Not like I was a puppy who’d done something cute and should be indulged, but actually proud of me.
Something foreign swelled in my chest. Thank you, I mouthed.
Always, he mouthed back.
I turned my attention back to the scene in front of me and Ryan had already started snapping pictures.
Kieran lifted Rosa up to sit on the hood of his Challenger and he crouched down in front of her so that Rosa could lean forward and brace her hands on his shoulders. His very broad shoulders. I tried not to drool. The shot wouldn’t do much for the dress, but I’d planned to use a series of pictures and a big splash page for each item. Risky, with what I knew about people’s clicking/buying habits, but there was a certain feel that I wanted to capture for each thing. Something I wanted to transmit to the consumer and I wanted them to feel beautiful in my clothes.
Basically, if you buy this dress, you can have anything you want. Not just any man, but the world. Yourself.
Maybe that was ambitious for some fabric and thread to accomplish, but I wanted to try.
Kieran swept her up in his arms and then proceeded to lift her over his head. She squealed. “Don’t squirm and you’ll be fine. Claire, come fix these ruffles.”
The pose was like all those vintage muscle beach guys holding the woman above their heads. Only it was for Chubbalicious and the woman wasn’t a size five. She was a 22/24.
I rushed in to smooth the skirt and let it fall over Kieran’s shoulder. Part of me wanted to take a while, not only to be closer to Kieran, but to see how long he could hold her up. He wasn’t even straining. This was nothing to him.
I looked around to see if anyone could tell that my panties had just melted off of me.
“You sure you’re okay?” Rosa asked, biting her lip.
Kieran started to lower his arms, playing at fatigue and when she shrieked, he hoisted her aloft again, laughing. “Come on, lass. I bench my own body weight and I definitely weigh more than you. Relax.”
I arched a brow. “That wasn’t nice.”
“You’re next.”
“Oh, I think not.” No, I could never let that happen. “And you just ruined all my work.” I fussed with the skirt again, maybe longer than I needed to.
“You like feeling me up anyway.”
Caught, my face flamed, but I lifted my chin. “Well, who wouldn’t?”
Rosa giggled. “Stop feeling up Muscles McIrish here. I wanna turn.”
“You’re so bad.” Hollie laughed from the sideline. “But uh, yeah. I get a turn, too.”
“Ladies, there’s enough muscle to go around,” Austin said and tipped his cowboy hat.
Kieran shrugged. “It’s the Oirish.”
I realized that Ryan hadn’t stopped snapping. The film kept rolling through all of this. It might be good to have some candid outtakes, but I certainly didn’t want a picture of my ass in the shot.
