He Begged Me to Forgive Her, Then Lost Everything novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: White

"Not red," I said.

"It's a gala," said Hattie. "You are a woman who has been dragged through the mud. You walk in there in red."

"I walk in there in something I can still stand up in at midnight."

We were in a boutique in Cold Spring with a mirror the size of a barn door.

The saleswoman hovered behind us with pins in her mouth.

She wore the expression of a woman watching a cat fight.

Hattie held up a scarlet satin gown with a plunging back.

I held up a long midnight-blue dress with sleeves, a high neck and a skirt that moved like water.

"You look like a librarian at a funeral."

"I look like a woman who can't be pushed."

Hattie lowered the scarlet dress.

Her face changed.

"Oh," she said quietly. "You're right. Sleeves."

I tried on the blue.

It fit.

When I stepped out of the dressing room, Hattie put her hand over her mouth.

In the doorway behind her stood Tiernan, who had been told to wait in the truck.

"Hell," he said, very softly.

He cleared his throat.

"That's the one."

"You're supposed to be outside."

"The saleswoman let me in. She said I looked like a man who needed to sit down."

"I do not need to sit down."

"He looks like he needs to sit down," said Hattie.

I laughed, a real one, the kind that bent me over.

I paid for it myself with my back pay from the board.

Tiernan pretended to study a rack of scarves while I counted out the bills.

On the porch of the lake house, a courier was waiting with a cream envelope.

It was heavy as a card for a wedding.

I knew the handwriting before I turned it over.

The Lowry Foundation requests the pleasure of your company at the Founders' Gala, Saturday, seven o'clock, Lowry House.

Underneath, in a hand, she had written two lines.

Family should be together. We would be honored if you would give the toast.

Please wear white. C.L.

Hattie read it over my shoulder.

"She wants you in white."

"So that everyone in the room remembers the bride," I said.

"It's a trap," Tiernan said.

"Of course it's a trap."

"Willa."

"I want to be in the room where it springs."

He studied me the way he studied a plank before he cut it.

Then he nodded.

"Then I'm your date," he said. "And Hattie's your plus-one."

"I'm nobody's plus-one, I'm the cavalry."

Later, after Hattie went home to feed her cat, we sat on the porch swing.

We watched the lake go dark under a wool blanket.

"What if I'm wrong again?" I said.

"About what?"

"About wanting someone. I was so sure about him."

Tiernan's arm tightened around me.

"I can't promise I'm wood," he said. "I'm a man."

"But I can tell you the truth in the morning, every morning. That's the whole offer."

I leaned against his shoulder.

It was a better offer than a ring.

"Come to bed," I said.

The stairs were his idea, or mine, I don't remember.

I just know I held his hand and pulled him up them, and he let me.

His bedroom smelled like cedar and lake wind.

The window was cracked open.

A loon called somewhere out on the water, low and a little sad.

I stopped beside the bed.

It was a big bed, heavy, built from honey-colored wood.

His mother's quilt lay folded at the foot.

One lamp burned on the nightstand, and the light made his face look softer than he was.

"Take off your shirt," I said.

Tiernan's eyebrows went up.

"Please," I added, because I wanted to watch him do it.

He pulled the T-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor.

The lamp light moved over his chest and arms.

The cedar smell got stronger.

← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend