My Hockey Alpha by Eve Above Story PDF

Chapter 301

Bonus 1: The Perfect Dress

Nina

The sun had already slipped below the skyline by the time I entered “Belle Ame Bridal,” with Jessica and Lori by my side.

We were on a mission-a mission that I had been avoiding like the plague.

Finding the perfect wedding dress, something that should have been exciting, was a stark reminder of my mother’s absence. She was somewhere overseas, unreachable, and it felt like a part of my heart was missing.

No matter how often I called her, no matter how many voicemails I left and letters I wrote, I didn’t get a response. It was both worrisome and depressing at the same time, and as my wedding with Enzo ticked closer, I just felt worse and worse by the day.

I kept telling myself that she was safe; she was likely busy and forgot to change her number over to the international line. Maybe she and Taylor bought a house or rented an apartment and didn’t update their address yet.

But there was another little voice inside of me… Something telling me that because she wasn’t my “real” mom, that she had decided to abandon me.

I knew my biological father now. I never got the chance to meet my biological mother, but I knew who she was now.

But it didn’t make my love for my adoptive mother any less potent; if anything, after all this time that I had spent learning about both my past and her past, I felt more love for her than ever. Our history together wasn’t the best, but I was prepared to spend the rest of my life making up for that with her. I wanted a real relationship with my adoptive mother, one in which we could actually get to know each other for once instead of hating each other.

I couldn’t do that, however, if she wouldn’t talk to me.

“Nina, you can’t avoid it any longer,” Jessica reminded me gently as we walked into the little bridal store, which had only recently reopened its doors after the Crescent debacle. “Enzo and you are getting married in less than a month.”

“I know, Jessica. I just… I

could offer another comforting statement, Lori interrupted. She was always more stoic than the rest of us, but right now, I think that I actually kind of needed that

and pushing me over toward

were practically lined with tulle and

feel like a wrapped up candy, an A-line with a lace overlay made me itch, and a ball gown made me feel like I was

throat tighten with unshed tears. I was standing on the little platform in front of the

a pile of rejected dresses, and my heart was only growing heavier with each

rushed over, her arm sliding around my shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay, Nina. Your mom would be proud, you know. And she’d want

Jessica corrected, lifting a finger. “They’d both be

nodded, but it didn’t lessen the ache. One mother was dead before I ever even got to know her, and it felt as though the other mother had just decided

tomorrow,” I said, picking my skirt up and stepping down off of the platform. “I’m

a quizzical look, but neither of them said

for a

it, pulling out a gown that was unlike the

design was simple yet elegant; an off-shoulder cut, with a fitted bodice that flared out slightly from the hips, trailing into a beautiful sweep train. There were intricate lacy floral patterns sewn into the fabric, lending an ethereal

one…” I murmured, unable to take my eyes

owner, a woman named Marta, who’d been assisting us all afternoon without batting