He Thought I Was an Orphan Until I Went Home novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Orchard Wedding
I did not sleep, and at six I went down to the inn kitchen to be near other people.
Forty staff were eating eggs at the long table.
Phyllis stood at the sink in her apron with her sleeves pushed up, scouring a stockpot as big as a washtub.
She didn't look at me.
The back door opened, and the cold came in, and so did Rory.
He still had yesterday's clothes on.
His eyes were red, and there was straw on his sleeve, and he held his hat in both hands.
The room went quiet in a ripple.
"Where have you been?" I said.
"Columbia County. I told my brother no."
"You drove all night to say no?"
"I sat up with my mother," Rory said. "I told her about you."
"I told her what I did, and she hit me with a dish towel."
Somebody at the table laughed and swallowed it.
"I'm not selling," he said. "I don't want money in my own name. I want my name next to yours."
He crossed the kitchen.
He stopped in front of me, and there was flour on the floor between us, and a cook with her spoon in the air.
"I'm bad at this," Rory said. "I've practiced in the truck for nine days. I only remember the first line."
"What's the first line?"
"I stayed in a truck once."
My throat closed.
"I'm never doing that again," he said.
He went down on one knee on the flour.
Out of his jacket came the dark green box, and it shook a little in his big scarred hand.
"Ada Van Dorn. Marry me. Not because of the hill. I'd marry you if you owned a tent."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of He Thought I Was an Orphan Until I Went Home are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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