~TESSA~
The very moment I stepped through the French doors and out onto the garden, it felt like the entire party took a breath at once.
Then...
They looked.
Not in a cruel, judging way.
Not like back then.
This was different.
It was the kind of look that made conversation pause, forks freeze halfway to mouths, drinks stop midair.
Like I had stepped out of a dream and into their reality.
I nearly turned back.
But Debbie, beside me in gold and black with a smug little grin, looped her arm through mine and said under her breath:
“Told you. Showstopper.”
I could hear it.
Murmurs.
"Who is that?"
"She’s with Ryder, right?"
"Stunning..."
"Future Mrs. Bishop?"
That last one wasn’t Debbie.
But she grinned when she heard it.
She leaned in close and said, loud enough for several
