Jake urged Boo off his back and jumped up to come help me pick it up, but we realized pretty quickly it was broken.
“What’s wrong with it?” Jake asked.
I blew out a frustrated breath. “Well, it got banged up in the move, and I’ve just been trying to make it work as best I can. I think part of the problem is the weight of the fabric in a full gown. I was able to drape a silk chiffon design on it just fine because the fabric was gauzy and light, but this gown is going to be made from suiting. The damned dress form can’t even handle the muslin.”
Bless his heart, Jake looked at me like I’d just spoken Mandarin Chinese.
“It done got broke,” I said with a wink.
His confusion turned to a smirk. “Now that, I understand. Let me see what I can do.”
I pulled off all the fabric I’d spent so much time draping and pinning. Luckily, I’d snapped a few photos of it on my phone to text to Zoey during the process, so I’d be able to recreate it when the form was back together.
Once I removed the pins and muslin, Jake sat on the floor with the pieces. “Hm, is this how it goes? Like a mannequin without… a head or limbs?”
I nodded. “The way I design gowns, I have to have something like a dress form, but I swear to god I haven’t been able to find one that can take the beatings I seem to dish out.”
Jake seemed to think of a way to rig it back together because he looked up at me with victory in his eyes. “I’ve got the best tool ever over at my place. Be right back.”
After shoving on his parka and stepping into his boots, he reached for the door. I turned back to my worktable to organize my pin stash again when I heard Jake murmur to my dog, “Come on, Princess Cujo. Out we go. We’re going on a search and rescue mission.”
Boo sauntered out of the place with her head held high while Jake held the door for her. My heart squeezed tightly as I witnessed him through the window talking to her the whole way across the yard. What a fucking sheep in wolf’s clothing. He tried so hard to keep people at arm’s length, but then he went and sweet-talked my baby girl.
The scene reminded me of how I got Boo in the first place, and I thought about how different my life was already than it had been two years ago. Even though I’d only been in Haven for a little less than a month, I already felt more like myself. Being away from the cutthroat environment of the modeling world was so freeing. And the people I’d met were genuine and kind.
Once I’d finished with pins, I went into the kitchen and started a fresh pot of coffee. I didn’t have any packaged cookies left and it drove me crazy to serve coffee without them. So I quickly scrounged for the frozen tube of ready-made cookie dough I’d bought in a moment of self-pity at the store. It wasn’t much, but I could now cut and bake with the best of them, and just that simple act steadied me.
By the time they were ready to put in the oven, Jake had come back and was making noise in the main room as he worked on resurrecting my dress form. I heard the clickclick of Boo’s toenails on the floor as she rushed over to her bed by the fire to get warm. I left them to it while I waited for the cookies to be ready and scrounged in the fridge for some dinner ideas. I had plenty of chicken in the freezer but was getting low on fresh vegetables. Since food delivery wasn’t even an option on the mountain, I’d had to become adept at cooking pretty quickly. Though adept was probably stretching it a bit. But I was finding I liked the challenge of having to buy actual food at a grocery store and make it into something edible.
“You have any veggies at your place?” I called out.
“Yes. I wish you’d asked me that before I braved the cold for my tools, though,” he teased back. “I could have grabbed my sprouts.”
I couldn’t hold back a laugh. I wandered over to where he sat on the floor with his toolbox and wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning down to put my mouth next to the back of his ear.
“I can grab your sprouts if you want,” I suggested in a purr. “Just say the word.”
His entire body shuddered and I heard a violent ripping sound.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking over his shoulder to see where the sound came from. The entire dress form was put back together and wrapped a million times over with duct tape. “Oh. I see. Duct tape for the win, huh?”