Free Love And Coffee: A Cup Of Grace Romance Series Book 1 by Katy Halliday Page A

trip over the threshold on his way out.
    Friday was two days away.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive until then without exploding with excitement.
     
     
    ***
     
                  I was standing in front of my bedroom mirror trying to look at myself from every angle.  Kathryn and Jillian stood behind me, checking out the sides I couldn’t see.  After trying on nearly everything I owned, I had settled on a cute floral print dress.  It wasn’t too dressy as we were going to Olive Garden.  Jillian had pried that information out of Matt.  Don’t judge.  We were both on a budget.
                  I had worn the dress to a casual wedding last year and really liked the way it looked on me.  I decided I would have to start wearing it to church every now and then.  We were one of those modern, casual churches and since I wore business skirts and suits to work every day while working at the paper, it had been just too much for me to pull pantyhose on one more day of the week.  I know, some people think it’s disrespectful to wear jeans to church, but I think it’s worse to demand people that don’t have any money to go out and buy clothes they can’t afford.  We had a lot of inner city families in our church and I’m pretty sure God would rather see them come in jeans than not come at all.  Just my two cents.
                  “Well?” I asked them as they looked on in silence.  “Oh forget it,” I suddenly said and pulled the dress off over my head faster than ice cream melts on a summer day in Texas.  I tossed it on the bed and started rummaging through all the outfits I had already tried on and discarded.
                  “No, no!  What are you doing?”  Kathryn said, rushing over to me.
                  “I can’t wear that. I look like a flower shop exploded all over me,” I said holding up a pink dress with a white belt.  “No, this will make me look like Mary had a little lamb,” and I tossed it on the floor.  Next I grabbed a black pantsuit.
                  “Will you stop that!” Kathryn said sternly.  “The floral dress is perfect.”
                  “Come on, Tara. You look really nice in that dress.  It’s not too fancy and it’s not too casual.  It’s perfect,” Jillian said, picking it up off the end of the bed and straightening it out.
                  “No, I need something else,” I said, tossing the pantsuit on the bed.  I rummaged through more clothes, realizing that I had wrinkled nearly everything I owned by trying them on and dropping them either on the bed or the floor.  I doubted that I would have enough time to iron anything.  “Oh what will I do?” I wailed.
                  “Here, put this back on.  You don’t have much time,” Kathryn said.
                  I looked at her, near tears.  I wanted this night to be special.  “Do you really think it’s the right one?”
                  “Yes!”  They both said together.
                  I sniffed.  Maybe they were right.  I took one more look at the clothes scattered about and took the dress from Kathryn.  I gingerly pulled it back over my head and straightened it out.  I really did like it.  I decided right then that I would be wearing more dresses to church and that I would start with this one.  Well, except for the days I was too late in getting out of bed, of course.  I looked up at both of them, questioning.
                  “Perfect,” Kathryn said.
                  “I wouldn’t change a thing,” Jillian agreed, nodding her head.
                  “I could always go with the little black dress?” I asked, starting to feel a little unsure of myself.  There was really no point in feeling that way.  I mean, he had already seen me in a HAZMAT suit.  There was no place to go but up after