care.
All those months, pretending that she wasnât interested in finding a relationship. The evenings in front of the television, convincing herself that reality TV was better than an internet date. The days when Tad stopped by the office, when she couldnât focus on a single task.
The exquisite pain of being invited to the apartment he shared with Luna, where the two of them avoided looking at each other. She thought he disliked her, but all this time, heâd felt it tooâthe pain of longing, the guilt of wanting someone he couldnât have. But all it took was one look at her gorgeous sister for Tad to realize what a mistake heâd nearly made.
Mandy took her second shower in twelve hours, taking care not to scrub as hard. The makeup artist would not be pleased to find her skin raw and ruddy.
She dressed in the jeans and black sweater so many models favoredâafter her years in the business she could adopt their uniform with easeâand headed to the beach. This time, however, she stopped in the lobby and filled her bag with fruit from the bowl on the registration desk. She wasnât about to starve to death on the same day that she perished of heartbreak and embarrassment.
They were shooting on the dock today, against a backdrop of bleached wood and the riot of flowers spilling from planters lining the path. Deirdre was already directing her crew as they set up their equipment. And in the middle of the dock, on a stool someone had dragged down from the manor, Sylvie sat flipping through a magazine, a pair of black-framed glasses perched on her nose.
âHey, Mandy,â she said, without looking up.
âAh, Mandy,â Deirdre said briskly. âChange of plans. Lark was absolutely delighted with the test sheets. He wants to shoot a couple of the bridal gowns this morning.â
âOf course,â Mandy said efficiently, relieved to have the distraction of work. âIâll help Sylvie get started now.â
âNo, no. He wants the gowns on you. He loved the contrast of your hair against the ivory shantung.â
âMe? But Iâm not even a real model. And Iâm, well, not going to fit into the samples.â
Deirdre smiled indulgently. âWhich is even more perfect. Lark has decided to reverse the shoot. The plus gown on you, the sample bridesmaid gown on Sylvie. He says sales of the larger gowns have eclipsed the regular sales in the last quarter. He had the gowns driven down from Miami overnight.â Deirdre leaned in close. âYouâve captivated him, my dear. He tried to call you last nightâhe refused to believe thereâs no cell service on this island.â
âButâ¦Sylvie? Are you okay with this?â
âMore than okay,â Sylvia said, turning a page. âThose things weigh, like, a hundred pounds each. And itâs supposed to get up to eighty-five degrees today. Better you than me.â
Mandy nodded dumbly. The idea of her as the feature model in the shoot was absurd, but the important thing was that the shoot hadnât been a disaster. The client was happy. The catalog was a go. And if there would soon be a hundred thousand copies of a photograph in circulation of her as a blushing bride â something that seemed unlikelier than ever after her latest love-life debacleâwell, it was just how the job got done.
So what if she had to spend another grueling day being stitched and shoved and pinched into the gowns, twirling and posing and smiling for all she was worth, when all she really wanted to do was cry? She could do thisâfor the company, for the futureâ¦for Luna.
Her sister was bound to wander down with Tad at some point to see how the shoot was going. And Mandy was going to do her best to pretend it was all just business as usual. Mandy working her heart out and the two of them just being their glamorous selves, gliding through life being the envy of all who encountered them. Now Mandy
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