Downgrade My Ride? I'll Upgrade My Groom! novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Lobby

I went down in Clay's white shirt, a pair of his gray sweatpants rolled four times at the waist, and the signet ring on my thumb.

Clay came down beside me in jeans and bare feet, carrying his coffee.

"You could let me handle this," he said in the elevator.

"You could let me."

He tipped his cup at me.

"Then I'm here for moral support and heavy lifting."

The doors opened on the lobby.

It was Sunday morning, and the building was full.

A woman in tennis whites with a little dog. Two men coming back from a run. An older couple waiting for their car with the newspaper.

And in the middle of the marble floor, beside a stack of moving boxes with my handwriting on the sides, stood my father, my ex-groom and the woman who'd worn my mother's dress.

Niles was in a pale linen suit with a bouquet of white roses.

My father was in his Sunday blazer.

Bailey was in a soft blue sundress, holding an iced coffee with both hands.

"Liv," Niles said.

He held out the roses.

"I'm not angry," he said. "I want you to know that first. I've thought about it all night, and I'm not angry."

The woman with the little dog stopped walking.

"You're not angry," I said.

"You were hurt and scared, and you did something impulsive. I understand. I forgive it." He smiled, gentle and patient, the smile from our engagement photos. "We'll have a small ceremony next Saturday. Just family. Nobody ever has to talk about yesterday again."

"You kissed her at my altar."

"For the guests." He said it like I was slow. "Three hundred people flew in, Liv. Would you rather they went home with nothing?"

"I'd rather you'd called an ambulance."

He sighed and lowered the roses.

My father stepped forward.

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