Sixth Sense (A Psychic Crystal Mystery) (22 page)

“You were better off here. I see that now. I know I could never take your mother’s place, and I wouldn’t want to, but I’m here now and I love you, and whatever I can do to help, I’m more than willing.”

Katherine knew she’d offended Juliette, even if unintentionally. She’d have to do her best to make it up to her special guest. “I’d like you to be a part of the wedding. I don’t know where to begin.”

Juliette looked at her with loving eyes. “To tell you the truth, neither do I, but we’ll do it together. I’m just getting used to having a daughter. I hope you don’t mind if I think of you that way. I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”

Katherine smiled. “That’s a lovely thing to say. I’m glad to have you in my life.”

Juliette’s expression brightened. “Have you thought about where you might want to have the wedding? Whether it will be a large or small affair?”

“You know, if my parents were here, it would be a big society affair, the wedding of the decade. They would make a big deal, invite all their friends, but a small ceremony sort of appeals to me. And it wouldn’t be right to have a big celebration so soon after I’ve lost them. So—smallish, I think.”

“That sounds wonderful. I can handle small.”

“Jack’s mother has been fabulous. I want you to meet her. I offered to have the wedding here at the house. We have so much room. It would mean a lot to me. We could have the ceremony outdoors in the garden and then come inside for the reception.”

Juliette’s eyes teared up. “I don’t think you could have it in a more meaningful setting. The home where you grew up.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Of course, we need dresses. I know I don’t have anything fancy enough.”

“Why don’t we run over to a bridal boutique today and try on some wedding dresses and mother-of-the-bride dresses?” Katherine suggested. “I’ll call and make us an appointment.”

“Mother of the bride?” Tears glistened again in Juliette’s eyes and threatened to spill over.

“That’s what you are, Juliette.”

“Lord, you need an appointment to go shopping? This
is
the big city. I’m sure a store like that would be out of my price range.”

“It will be my treat,” Katherine announced. “I will take care of everything. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”

Juliette walked over to a buffet table and picked up a picture.

“Is this your mother, Jessica Crystal?” Juliette asked. “And your dad?”

“Yes.”

“She looks like Grace Kelly. She’s very beautiful. And he is so handsome. I’ll be forever grateful that they took such good care of my baby.”

And now it was Katherine’s turn to cry. Then she dried her eyes and got up out of the chair. “Okay, enough sadness for one day. We need to get out of this house. Let’s go shopping.”

****

Juliette and Katherine entered the bridal shop on Peachtree Street.

“Is everything in Atlanta on Peachtree Street?” Juliette wondered.

“Most everything.”

“May I help you?” A stern-looking woman in a tailored dress approached them. She didn’t look like she belonged in a bridal shop. Her entire demeanor was off-putting.

“We had an appointment,” Katherine said. “Crystal?”

“Yes, Miss Crystal. We spoke on the phone. I’m Ingrid Frost. I was so sorry to hear about your mother. She was one of our best customers. It would be a privilege to help you find a wedding dress.”

“And this is Juliette.” Katherine hesitated, adding, “A close family friend.”

“I see. Now, you told me your size, and I know your mother’s taste, so I’ve started a fitting room for you. There’s one in particular—a satin gown with tulle cap sleeves and a glamorous tulle back train—that your mother would have loved. It’s dramatic and elegant, like Jessica.”

“Well, Miss…Frost, is it? My mother isn’t the one getting married. I am. I have completely different taste than my mother had. Not to mention that my mother was a size two and I’m a size eight. May I look through the shop and pick out some dresses?”

“Of course,” said Miss Frost, properly rebuked.

The wedding consultant stared at Katherine’s naked ring finger and look at her inquisitively.

Katherine followed the stare and stammered, “I, um, my fiancé, that is, we haven’t picked out the ring yet.”

“Does the girl need a ring on her finger in order to shop at your establishment?” Juliette asked, barely disguising her irritation.

“No,” Miss Frost stated flatly. “It’s just that girls are always eager to show off the size of their engagement rings. It’s a status symbol, a symbol of their husband’s success.”

Juliette’s brows narrowed, and she looked like turning Miss Frost into a toad would have been a pleasure, if only she were capable.

“The young lady’s status is that she and her fiancé are deeply in love and they don’t need a ring to prove their commitment to uptight shopkeepers such as yourself. So if we don’t meet your manufactured qualifications, we can take our business elsewhere, can we not, Katherine?”

Katherine smothered a smile. This outing was proving more fun than she’d expected.

Miss Frost choked and ignored the remark. “Let me show you our selection.” She led the way farther into the store, where she showed Katherine and Juliette dozens of dresses, each of which they summarily rejected. Miss Frost was growing more and more impatient.

“These are very luxurious,” Katherine began, “wonderfully designed. But I had something else in mind.”

Juliette located a diaphanous pink gown on the rack and exclaimed, “Oh, my. What about this one?”

Miss Frost shuddered. “Oh, no. That won’t do at all. That would make you look like Tinkerbelle or Glinda, the Good Witch of the East.”

“I love Glinda,” Katherine said.

Katherine took another dress off the rack and held it up against her body. She twirled over to the mirror. “What about this one?”

“The strapless Vera Wang taffeta gown with asymmetrically draped bodice, a scoop neckline, and a full ball-gown tulle skirt.” Miss Frost recited the description in a monotone as if she were reading it from an advertisement.

“I love it,” Katherine stated. “What colors does this come in?”

“Champagne/ivory and blush/ivory,” Miss Frost said.

“I like the blush bodice with the ivory skirt, the one I’m holding. And I love this floral sash and the cathedral-length train.”

“The floral sash is removable,” Miss Frost pointed out.

“No, we’ll keep it. It’s exactly what I’m looking for. Juliette, what do you think?” Katherine twirled around one more time with the gown pressed against her body and turned to Juliette.

“I think it’s magnificent. It looks like spun sugar. You’ll look like a princess in it, like you’re floating on a cloud.”

“Jack will love this. He always says I remind him of a fairy. Juliette, I think we have the same taste.”

“Isn’t it a little...flamboyant?” Miss Frost remarked coldly.

“No, I think it’s just right. My mother would have hated it,” Katherine smothered a laugh and looked up. “Sorry, Mother.” To Miss Frost she said, “I’ll take this one into the dressing room and try it on. It’s my size, and I’m betting it will be a perfect fit. It was meant to be.”

“Let me have my seamstress come into the fitting room. I think it’s a little tight in the—”

“It’s all that fried chicken I’ve been eating lately,” Katherine explained.

“I was referring to your, I mean, are you sure you want to wear strapless?”

“Why not?”

Miss Frost’s eyes focused on Katherine’s breasts like a laser. “Perhaps it would make you appear a bit... top heavy—”

“Are you saying my boobs are too big? Well, I always thought so, too, but my fiancé really likes them the way they are, and he would want me to celebrate them.” Katherine snuck a private look at Juliette.

Miss Frost turned pale and looked like she’d swallowed an egg.

“Big breasts run in the family,” said Juliette, whose breasts were fairly obvious in her tight bargain-basement T-shirt.

“Very well, then. Let’s see what you look like in it. If it suits you, I will have the gown cleaned and pressed and delivered to your house.”

“Wonderful. Now my— Juliette needs a gown, as well. Something on the order of a mother-of-the-bride dress.”

“Do you have anything in purple?” Juliette asked. “Purple is my color.”

Miss Frost shuddered. “Purple is yesterday’s color,” she said. “We don’t have much call for it. Perhaps we may have one or two on the
sale
rack.” Miss Frost frowned on the last words.

“I never buy anything
unless
it’s on sale,” said Juliette. “Lead the way.”

Katherine laughed. “My mother never bought anything if it
was
on sale. She went to great lengths to pay full price.”

“We have a Calvin Klein pleated taffeta in cerise,” offered Miss Frost.

“I knew a psychic once named Madame Cherie,” Juliette said.

“Or an Adrianna Papell in deep mulberry,” Miss Frost added, her eyes rolling.

“Is that purple?” Juliette asked.

“I think it would be best if I showed you. Smoke might be a nice color on you, or an elegant gray hue for a touch of glamour, or a Nicole Miller metallic, which would look great on a full-figured woman such as yourself.”

“I don’t know who Nicole Miller is, but I think I’ve just been insulted.” Juliette laughed. “And I’ve never had such fun in my life.”

“If we can’t find the perfect dress here, I’m sure Nordstrom’s Bridal Shoppe could accommodate us,” Katherine said.

Miss Frost stiffened. “Ladies, I think we can work together.”

“Wonderful,” said Katherine, taking Juliette’s hand.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Jack, this was a great idea you had, this little getaway to North Carolina,” Kate said, leaning back on the headrest in Jack’s car as she watched the world fly by.

“I know how stressed you’ve been lately, honey, with your parents’ funeral, discovering your birth parents, planning the wedding, and all. I know I haven’t been much help. I thought a nice drive to the mountains would lift your spirits.”

“And you were right. I feel like I don’t have a care in the world. No voices in my head, no premonitions. It’s great.”

“We’re almost there. You’re going to love the little place I’ve booked. We’ll be all alone, no Mama, no Juliette. Those two are driving me crazy, and I’m sure they’re doing the same to you.”

“Well, just a little, but I kind of like it. And the wedding’s almost here.”

Jack reached over and touched Katherine’s face. “I can’t wait, which is why I’ve booked this little romantic getaway, because I can’t wait.”

Katherine blushed. Since she and Jack had made love in Casa Spirito, she couldn’t get enough of him. They couldn’t get enough of each other. Each day was a revelation, each night a wonder. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have Jack in her life.

“I’m so lucky I found you,” Jack said, as if reading her thoughts. Strange how they were bonding, connecting, getting closer every minute.

“I love you, Jack,” Katherine mused dreamily, eyes half-closed. “Love you, love you, love you. I must have love on the brain. I keep seeing love everywhere.”

Katherine squinted up through the moon roof. The tops of the trees flitted by, closer than the blue sky and puffy clouds, and she relaxed, possibly for the first time since Jack had proposed.

Suddenly, the sky darkened and the canopy of trees felt like they were closing in on her. Her thoughts darkened with them.

“Jack, stop the car,” Katherine cried out. “Stop the car right now.”

“Honey, we’re on a small country road in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing out here but woods.”

“Stop it. I have to get out.” Katherine was becoming more agitated by the second.

“Okay, okay, let me pull over. Are you feeling all right? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Katherine jerked open the car door and stumbled out. Jack followed. She had walked only a few feet when she found herself in a small overgrown family cemetery, just a fenced-in area with some old family plots, not a house or a living creature in sight except for two giant ravens perched on a gravestone.

“I think those are the same birds we saw in Casa Spirito, Kate.”

Katherine frowned. “Don’t you see? It’s a sign. I’m cursed.”

And what she saw inscribed on the crumbling gravestones shook her to her core.

“What the hell?” Jack stared at a cemetery no one had tended in decades.

“Jack, do you see?” she shrieked. “Do you see this? This is what I was visualizing in my mind. Every stone engraved with the word LOVE. This is the Love family plot. Love, Love, Love. This is what I was thinking in the car. My god, will I ever get away from it? I can’t stop the voices. I think I am going insane!”

“Kate, this is freaky,” he admitted. “You are one scary woman.”

She massaged her forehead. “See what you’re going to have to live with? This is what your life is going to be like. You’re about to marry a woman with serious issues.”

“And I can’t wait.” Jack enveloped her in his arms. “Whatever you’re going through, whatever happens, I am going to be with you, loving you. Celebrating our love.”

“You are going to grow tired of me. You’re going to regret marrying me. You may not think so now, but give it time. It’s just like Justin Bamberger. He—”

“Please don’t compare me with that snobby blueblood bastard Justin Bamberger. His loss was my gain. I will never grow tired of you, Katherine Crystal. And I love you just the way you are.”

Then he kissed her, right there in the middle of the cemetery.

“I love this woman,” Jack shouted. “Anybody listening? I love you, Katherine Crystal.”

Katherine returned Jack’s kisses and nestled against his warmth.

“Who says this is a bad thing?” Jack asked quietly.

“They, the voices, wanted me to stop. For some reason, they wanted me to stop. What does it mean?”

“Baby, everything doesn’t have to
mean
something. You felt a presence, you felt the name Love, and we stopped, and this is what we found. Nothing sinister going on here. Why don’t we take it as a good sign? That the world approves of our love.”

“Jack, you don’t really believe that, do you?”