It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) by Beth Prentice Read Free Book Online Page A

match the dress. I thought he
might be a tad angry.
    “Of course I
do. But I didn’t buy the dress, Scott. I mean since when have I ever been small breasted?” I asked
haughtily.
    “If you’d tried
it on when I gave it to you, you might have bothered to lose some weight!” he
snapped.
    “It wouldn’t
matter how much weight I lost, I would never fit this dress!” I yelled, feeling
a need to defend myself. His comment actually hurt. Even though I’m not fat in
any way, I’ve always been curvy. That didn’t prevent Scott from constantly
trying to change me, though. I turned and walked into the bedroom.
    I mean, I know
on the right woman this dress would be stunning. I just wasn’t that woman. But
the right woman was the one Scott really deserved, wasn’t it? All he’d asked me
to do today was wear a beautiful dress and look my best. Any normal woman could
do that, couldn’t she?
    I could feel
the tears prick the back of my eyes and my heartbeat become heavy. Once again I’d
failed him. Shit .
    Determined not
to mess tonight up completely, I opened my boxes and quickly ran through my
options. I knew somewhere I had a lovely jacket I could put on over the dress
and maybe cover up some of this cleavage. As it was, I would probably give the
poor businessmen a heart attack before dinner was over.
    After ripping
into box after box, I decided I needed to clear out some of my clothes. Eventually
I came up with the jacket I was looking for. Molly had passed it to me in one
of her closet clean-outs. Along with quite a few other items, this one was too
good to throw away but too last year for Molly. The label read Zac Posen and it was black with lots of feathers
stuck to the bottom edge of it. It probably wasn’t the best accessory to wear
with this dress but it would have to be good enough.
    Slipping it on,
I realized I still couldn’t quite do up all the buttons and had a moment of
thinking Scott was right. I should go on a diet. I’ll start that tomorrow.
    Grabbing my
purse, I held my head high and walked downstairs to meet Scott, quickly checking
the clock as I did so. Hmm…five forty-five...well if Scott drove fast we would
only be about fifteen minutes late.
    Riley was
leaving as I walked into the kitchen but he turned and looked as I entered the
room. I thought I saw a look of approval in his eyes, but then again I didn’t
know him very well, so who knew. Scott on the other hand looked like he had
gas. He had a pinched look around his mouth and a very deep frown between his
eyes.
    “I’m sorry,
it’s the best I could do,” I said apologetically.
    “Fine.”
    This was the
only conversation we had all the way to the restaurant.

 
    * * * *

 
    Scott
had chosen a beautiful restaurant in the heart of the city. It was very high-end
and served only the very best food and wine money could buy. The only problem
was they wanted to keep their patrons comfortable and as this evening was quite
cool, they had turned the heating up just a bit too high for someone wearing a
wool blend jacket. By the time dessert was served, I was sweating quite
profusely.
    “Are you okay,
Elizabeth?” asked Donald Shepherd, the lovely elderly gentleman of our group. His
manners were impeccable and several times this evening he had inquired as to
how comfortable I was. His grandson Rodney was not so gentlemanly though. If
I’d caught him looking at my cleavage once, I’d caught him a dozen times. Like
I said, the jacket just didn’t quite close, which did give everyone a small
view of my generous assets.
    “Yes thank you,
Mister Shepherd. I’m fine. Thank you,” I smiled, discreetly fanning myself.
    “You’d be more
comfortable if you removed your jacket,” smiled Rodney. “Let me help you,” he
suggested, pushing his chair backwards, ready to stand up and help remove my
clothing.
    “ No ,” I snapped.
    Scott glared at
me as Rodney looked a bit taken aback by my abruptness. “Elizabeth feels the
cold very easily,”