Four to One: Outvoted at My Own Wedding novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Five to Nothing, Again

I drove home at five-thirty with the window down and my hair still smelling of cedar.

I had slept two hours.

I had never felt so awake.

Mom met me at the kitchen door and looked me over once, from my hair to my shoes.

"You look flushed, Joanna."

"I ran in from the car."

"Your neck is red."

"Boat rope," I said. "I helped a friend with a mooring."

She didn't smile, and she didn't let go of my sleeve.

"Give me your phone," she said. "It needs the family plan update. I'll do it at the counter."

"It's charging in the car."

"Then go get it."

"After dinner," I said. "I'm starving."

She let go.

The dining room was set the way it was for funerals and votes, with the good plates, the legal pad at Dad's right hand and a pitcher of water nobody drank.

Brett sat in my usual seat.

I took the one beside him without a word, and he put his hand on my knee again.

I let it stay there and did not move.

Dawn sat across from us with her braid over her shoulder and her fingers laced over her stomach.

I saw it now, the small protective curve, and I wondered how many times I'd looked right at it.

"Before we eat," Dad said, "business."

He uncapped his pen.

"Motion one. Brett has been told by the hall that moving the date triggers a rebooking fee of eighteen thousand dollars."

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