Her Wedding Dress novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Four Million Views

"Try it," I told Clifton.

He opened his mouth, and nothing came out.

Behind him the ballroom was a wall of raised phones.

I walked out through the lobby with my chin up and my knees shaking, and nobody stopped me.

Rhett caught up with me under the hotel awning.

"My rental is across the street," he said. "I can drive you anywhere."

"I have a friend," I said. "She teaches third grade and has a couch."

"Then I'll drive you to the couch."

I should have said no.

I was too tired, and my feet hurt, and I had run out of ways to be proud.

He drove with both hands on the wheel and did not turn on the radio.

At the first red light he said, "He can't take a baby that isn't born."

"I know that."

"After the baby is born he can try."

"I know that too."

"I'm telling you so you hear it from someone who isn't trying to scare you."

I looked at the road.

"You don't have to be the nice Ashdown," I said.

"I'm not nice. I'm just not them."

At the light I almost smiled.

"Write down every detail of today before you sleep," he said. "Times, names, what was said. Record whatever you can."

"I have forty minutes of my mother, my brother and your mother," I said, "in a room, discussing what I cost."

He glanced over.

"Good," he said, and it was the first time I saw his mouth turn up at one corner.

He stopped outside my friend's building and walked me to the door, and he didn't touch me.

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