Home Ice (21 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Yourself and a Smile

“Jerrold reserved us a really nice suite in Vegas for the weekend.” Ben ran his fingers through his brown hair. “Which is good because I don’t plan on leaving the room very much.”

“Ben!” Ally gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth in embarrassment. They were standing outside behind the vet’s office during Ally’s morning break.

“I’ll pick you up Saturday morning. Our flight leaves at 10.”

A flicker of excitement flashed in her eyes then quickly faded. “I can’t. I mean, I want to, but Gram can’t be left alone for too long by herself. Judith isn’t coming until Saturday afternoon and Ruby only comes over during the week to help out.”

“I already took care of all that.” He pulled her into his arms. “I arranged for Ruby to stay late on Friday and Izzy’s helping out, too.” He brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead. “So you have nothing to worry about. No excuses.”

“But, I can’t afford--”

He cut her words off with a kiss. “It’s taken care of,” he said into her lips. He felt her stiff body begin to relax as he kissed her again.

They were going to Vegas, baby!

When Ally returned home from work, Ruby and Gram were at the kitchen table bent over a jigsaw puzzle discussing Ruby
’
s bingo win the night before. Ruby’s hair was pulled back into a bun and it bobbed up and down as she spoke.

“Hey, you two. I’m home.” Ally tossed her purse and keys onto the sofa and went to join them.

“Oh, good, Allison. We’re just about done with the sky.” Gram felt her way across the puzzle to assess their progress. It was 1,000 pieces of an old red barn surrounded by little yellow flowers. Red and yellow pieces were separated into two mounds on the table next to the completed frame.

Ally took her seat at the table and began rummaging through the box of puzzle pieces, pulling out a yellow piece and adding it to the pile. Ruby got up and excused herself to gather her stuff together and Ally took the opportunity to talk to Gram.

“Ben wants to take me to the UNHL Awards.” Ally hadn’t told Gram yet because she didn’t know how leaving town could possibly become a reality when Gram’s health was always up in the air.

“Oh, that sounds lovely, dear.” Gram picked up a red puzzle piece and snapped it into place.

“I can’t go, Gram. I just can’t up and leave you for the whole weekend and run off to Las Vegas.” She said it as if the decision not to go was already made and she hadn’t agonized over it all morning.

“Ruby and I will be just fine, dear.”

“But I’ll be in a whole different state. What if something happens?”

Gram’s tone turned serious and Ally knew she meant business when she set down the puzzle piece she was holding. “Allison, it’s time that you got out and started living your life. Don’t worry about me. I want you to enjoy your youth. Benjamin is a nice young man and you shouldn’t turn down his request to spend time with you.”

“Oh, Gram.” Ally turned a blue puzzle piece over and over in her hands. “Truthfully, I want to go more than anything, but I’m kind of scared. This whole thing is so new to me.”

“Having the attention of a man?”

“Yes. And a famous man at that. This means so much to him. He was nominated for the Lester Heart Memorial Trophy. It’s a really big deal for him even though he’s modest about it. You know I don’t have any red carpet experience.”

“I know, dear. But all you have to do is go and support him and be there for this special occasion.”

“He’s really great,” Ally sighed.

“Yes. And he’s chosen
you
to be his date.”

“But, I’m so afraid I’m going to screw this up.”

“Allison, you’re going to go and be yourself and you’re going to look gorgeous doing it. It won’t matter if you do the Cha-cha on the red carpet.” Ally laughed at the unexpected mental picture while Gram continued. “He’s going to love you no matter what. Now, I didn’t raise a coward. Call Izzy and have her meet you somewhere you can buy a dress. Don’t forget to bring your credit card.”

“Gram, it’s only for emergencies.”

“This is a red carpet emergency. Pick yourself out something nice.”

Later, Ally was relieved to reach Izzy at her office. In one breath, she managed to fill her in on all of the details.

“I told him yes and he’s picking me up in forty-eight hours,” Ally continued, breathless.

“Yay!” Izzy screeched into the receiver. “I’m so glad you decided to go. You can’t live vicariously through me for the rest of your life. Although,” she pondered, “that would still be exciting.”

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to bring. I
’
ve never gone away for the weekend with anyone before. I
’
ve never gone away for the weekend
period
.” Ally was in her room pulling out drawers and frantically rummaging through the closet. A measly row of tee shirts stared back at her, mocking her.

“Just bring yourself and a smile, Ally. That’s all he wants.” Izzy smirked into the phone.

“I need your help.”

“Oh, no. I’m not going to chaperone. A weekend in Vegas is awesome, but this is all you, baby.”

“I’m serious. I need you to help me buy a dress. Something red carpet worthy, but on an Ally Monroe budget.”

“Hmmm,” Izzy thought it over.

“I’ve got plastic,” Ally added to sweeten the deal.

“Oooh! That’s my specialty!” Izzy squealed. “It’s about time you asked for help with something right up my alley. Okay,” she got down to business, “meet me at Taunt in the mall in half an hour. I have a friend who works there who can totally set us up with a killer employee discount.”

Once inside the clothing store Taunt, Ally looked around in awe. “This is so weird.”

“What are you talking about? We’re going to find you something fabulous here.”

“No, I mean, yeah. I know we are. I was talking about this store. I had a weird dream just like this. We were picking out dresses and everything.”

Taunt looked eerily similar to the one in Ally’s dream except pop princess music was playing a little too loudly instead of Barry Manilow.

“You dreamt you were picking out a red carpet dress?” Izzy asked in disbelief as she began pulling dresses of the racks.

“No. Wedding dresses.”

Izzy’s eyes widened. “You don’t mess around, do you?” she chuckled.

Ally frowned at the sparkly, red dress that Izzy was holding up. “No, not for me. For you.”

Izzy clutched the red dress to her breast and doubled over in laughter. “And that’s why it was a dream. Because that would never happen in a
gazillion
years!”

Kenzie, the sales girl and Izzy’s friend with the killer employee discount, came up to them with a screech. “Izzy!” she cried. Kenzie looked like she was straight out of high school. Or perhaps, still in it. She had three different colored extensions woven into her dirty blonde hair and had an annoying habit of snapping and popping her gum every five seconds. She and Izzy were dressed in similar mini dresses.

God help us all
, Ally thought,
Izzy has a twin
.

“Kenzie!” Izzy squealed back. “This is my best friend, Ally.”

Kenzie squealed again in delight as if she had mistaken Ally for Miley Cyrus or whoever else was ‘in’ at the time. “Hi, Ally. It’s, like,
so
nice to
finally
meet you. Izzy talks about you, like,
all
the time,” Kenzie exaggerated every word and she obviously liked the work like.

“Kenzie,” Ally nodded an acknowledgement, but didn’t show nearly enough enthusiasm to match the other girl.

Then, Izzy piped up with the 4-1-1, “We’re here for a fabulous red carpet dress.”

“
Ooohh
!” Kenzie looked like her head might pop off her little teenage body. “We
just
got in a shipment of, like,
crazy-cute
dresses.” Kenzie narrowed her eyes at Ally. “I’d guess you are, like, a size 12/14?” Instead of waiting for an answer, Kenzie began pulling dresses from the racks in a frenzy resembling a thirsty hummingbird. Izzy “ooh-ed and aah-ed” while Ally’s head started to, like, spin.

“
These
should be enough to get you started. I’ll go get the new stuff from the back room.” With that, Kenzie hung a dozen dresses in an empty dressing room and flittered away.

Ally leaned against the dressing room door. “That girl is like a hyena on crack!”

“Who, Kenzie?” Izzy asked.

“No, the
other
hysterical, human bobble-head whizzing around the store.” Ally’s sarcasm was as thick as Kenzie’s lingering perfume.

“Oh, be nice, Ally. She’s a cool girl. You wanna hear something crazy? Her boyfriend…”

Izzy proceeded to babble on about the girl’s personal life and Ally promptly tuned her out.

Ally tried on several dresses and hated them all equally. The theme of the day was slinky, skanky and skimpy. The next dress in the try-on pile was a strapless silver number that looked like it could climb down a flight of stairs on its own. This was not what Ally had signed up for. She was looking for something more along the lines of sophisticated, stylish and special. Every dress that she slipped into looked like it belonged on a sixteen year old girl on her way to prom or homecoming.

“This one looks like it was attacked by a mountain lion!” Ally ran her hand over the shredded animal print fabric of the polyester dress currently clinging to her in all the wrong places.

“It’s cute.” Unwavering, Izzy advocated for the hideous garment. “Maybe not for the red carpet, but I like it.”

Ally huffed and pulled the dress over her head. The human sausage look was
not
cute.

“How ‘bout this one?” Izzy held up a little, white slinky tube dress adorned with sequins.

“That’s perfect!” Ally mocked. “If I were a stripper in Reno.”

“Fine.” Izzy threw up her hands. “I was just trying to help.”

Ally shoved a hot pink mini-dress at her friend. “This is Teen Choice Awards. I want ESPN Oscars!”

“Well, you’ve tried on practically everything in the store. Just pick something.”

“I am not going to this fancy awards ceremony dressed like Britney Spears!” Ally put her jeans back on along with her shoes.

“If you don’t like any of these, we’ll try somewhere else,” Izzy pouted.

“I’m done for today,” Ally decided. “This was enough humiliation for a lifetime.”

Izzy held up a green dress with the front cut down to the belly button. “Look! It’s a Jennifer Lopez dress!” Ally rolled her eyes. “Kenzie!” Izzy yelled. “Can you find this for me in a size two?”

“I’m leaving.” Ally pulled her tee shirt over her head, grabbed her purse and left the Dressing Room of Shame. On her way out, she almost ran right smack into Kenzie. The girl’s arms were piled with more slinky dresses. Her mouth dropped open as Ally stormed out and she looked over at Izzy questioningly.

“She wasn’t finding what she was looking for here,” Izzy explained. “I, on the other hand, would love to see that little green number in my size.”

* * *

Ally went into work the next day in a miserable mood.

“How was your afternoon yesterday?” Lynn asked her.

“It was all right. No, I take that back. It was horrible. Izzy and I went shopping for dresses and it was disappointing. To say the least.”

“Oh. Are you looking for a dress for a particular occasion or just for fun?”

“Ben was nominated for an award and we’re going to the UNHL ceremony this weekend in Las Vegas. I need something nice to wear on the red carpet.”

“Wow, Ally. Las Vegas? I’m excited for you. You know, my sister owns a dress shop downtown. I can take you if you’d like,” Lynn offered.

“Really?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you so much, Lynn. That would be nice. Just as long as it’s not a shop full of teeny bopper clothes. I don’t think I can handle another sequined tube dress.”

“Oh, no. It’s not that kind of place. We’ll be able to find something for your big night.”

Once inside Chloe’s Dress Boutique downtown, Ally felt instantly relieved. There were no sequins or neon colors in sight. And Lynn’s sister Chloe proved to be very helpful.

“So Ally, you’re looking for a special dress?” Chloe asked.

“Yes. My…boyfriend…,”
Ooh, that felt good to say out loud
, “…and I are going to an awards ceremony and I need something appropriate for the red carpet.”

“Sounds romantic,” Chloe cooed.

“He’s a professional hockey player,” Lynn added.

Chloe clapped her hands together with delight. “Well, I have a selection of floor length gowns over here.” Passing by short, colorful cocktail dresses, Chloe led Ally and Lynn to the far end of the store. “If there are going to be cameras around, you probably don’t want anything too flashy or sparkly.”