Eight Months Pregnant, My Husband Locked Me in a Freezing Cabin for His Ex on Christmas Eve novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Serving Tray

Eli's POV

The white jacket was a size too small across the shoulders.

I stood in the catering kitchen at the Alder Pass Grand Ballroom with a tray of crab puffs and tried not to look like a man holding a tray.

"Stop frowning," the caterer said. She was a small woman with a clipboard, and she was a volunteer's sister. "You're a waiter. Waiters don't have opinions."

"I have one."

"Keep it in the walk-in."

Hallie came out of the changing room in a black server's dress and a white apron.

Her hair was pinned up, and she wore flat shoes.

She was six days past delivery and had hardly slept.

She looked tired and fierce and entitled to be anywhere she liked.

I forgot the crab puffs.

"You're staring," she said.

"I am."

"I thought you were a man with no opinions."

"I have this one."

Her mouth twitched. She took the tray out of my hands, put it on a rack, and straightened my collar.

"Behind me," she said. "Don't speak. Don't look at Joyce."

"She won't look at the help."

"She won't," Hallie said. "That's the whole plan."

We went out through the swinging doors with the second wave of trays.

The ballroom was full.

Four hundred people stood in gowns and dark suits under a ceiling of crystal lamps.

A string quartet played in one corner.

I saw the hospital board in the front row.

I saw the chief of staff beside his wife, looking grim.

I saw county commissioners, bank managers and a woman from the newspaper.

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