Read The Man You'll Marry for Free Online

Jill she’d viewed in her dream. After all, Milly’s eyes weren’t what they used to be….
    “Does your mother know?” Jill asked as she stepped into the dress. She raised it over her hips and turned around to let Shelly fasten the buttons that ran down the back.
    “That’s another thing,” Shelly moaned. “Mom’s been calling me every day since I got the dress, wanting to know if I’ve met anyone special yet.”
    “What did you tell her?” Jill asked, looking at Shelly over her shoulder.
    “What’s there to tell?” she asked irritably.
    “Well, you might have mentioned Mark.”
    “Mark,” Shelly repeated. She shrugged elaborately. “I haven’t given him a thought in days.” Not strictly true, but she’d been trying not to think about him. Even if he was interested in her—and he’d made very clear that he wasn’t—she couldn’t imagine two more ill-suited people. “I haven’t seen him since Saturday and I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”
    “You’re sure of that?”
    “Positive.”
    “Well, what do you think?” Jill asked next, pirouetting slowly in front of her. “My hair’s a mess and I’ve got hardly any makeup on, but…”
    Shelly studied her friend and sighed audibly. Never had she seen Jill look lovelier. It was as if the dress had been made for her. “Absolutely enchanting. It fits like a dream.”
    “I feel like I am dreaming,” Jill admitted softly. “Here,” she said, turning around, “undo me before I start longing for a husband and 2.5 children.”
    “Don’t forget the house with the white picket fence,” Shelly teased, unfastening the buttons.
    Jill slipped out of the dress. “Your turn,” she said as she laid it carefully across the bed. “If it fits me, then it can’t possibly fit you. You’ve got the perfect excuse to send it back to your aunt Milly.”
    “I…don’t know.” Shelly bit her lip. She felt an inexplicable urge to keep the dress, and at the same time she would’ve willingly returned it to her aunt. Even while she hesitated, Shelly found herself undressing. Shecouldn’t explain her sudden eagerness to try on the wedding gown any more than she could fathom its growing emotional appeal.
    The dress slid easily over her hips. She turned around so Jill could secure the back, then glanced at the mirror, expecting to find the skirt miles too short. It would have to be in order to fit Jill as perfectly as it had.
    “Shelly,” Jill whispered, then cupped her hand over her mouth. “My goodness…you look beautiful…really beautiful.”
    That was what Shelly had felt the instant she’d seen her friend in the dress. “Something’s wrong,” she said once she found her voice. “Something’s very wrong.”
    “No,” Jill countered, “it’s very right. It’s as if the dress was made for you.”
    “Then answer me this,” Shelly whispered. “How is it possible for the same dress to fit two women who wear totally different sizes?”

Five

    S helly struggled to open the door of the Internal Revenue office, her arms weighed down with a huge box stuffed full of receipts and records for the audit. By bracing the box against the wall with her knee, she freed one hand to open the door. For the first time ever, she’d completed her tax return early—all by herself, too—and this was her reward. She grumbled righteously and bit her lip, more in anxiety than annoyance.
    She’d just managed to grasp the door handle, when the door unexpectedly opened and she staggered into the room, nearly colliding with an end table. She did a quick pirouette, convinced she’d ruined a new pair of panty hose. With a heartfelt sigh, she set her box of records on the floor and sank into the first available chair, neatly arranging her unaccustomed skirt around her knees. Only then did she bother to look around. There was one other person in the large reception area.
    Shelly’s heart did a nosedive, landing in the pit of herstomach. The man who’d opened the door