Chapter 6: Sixty Guests

The Prescotts seated sixty people on the terrace on Sunday night, under strings of white lights.

Cornelia had put Jocelyn at the head table beside Leighton.

She had put Ethan and me at the far end, next to a banker and his wife, where we could see everything and hear nothing.

Ethan had said he'd sit wherever they put him.

I had said I'd sit there too, and keep my eyes open.

Jocelyn wore a green dress and her red lipstick.

She had made me one promise in the car.

"I'll sit through dinner," she'd said. "I won't say yes to anything. Don't make a scene."

I had not promised her anything back.

The soup came and went.

Leighton watched Jocelyn over every spoonful, tender and unblinking.

Jocelyn talked to the woman on her other side about gardens.

At the second course, Cornelia stood and tapped her glass with a fork.

The terrace went quiet.

"I won't make a long speech," she said. "My son has asked me to share some news. Leighton?"

Leighton rose.

He took Jocelyn's hand and drew her up beside him, and she let him, white to the lips.

"Jocelyn Winslow has done me the honor of agreeing to be my wife," he said.

The terrace burst into applause.

Jocelyn didn't move.

She stood there with her hand in his and the applause rolling over her.

Then she took her hand back and set it on the tablecloth.

"I haven't said yes," she said.

It was not loud.

It carried anyway.

The applause stopped, one table at a time.

Cornelia laughed lightly. "Girls are so shy. Jocelyn, darling, sit down."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Was Reborn to Claim Me, But I'm Already Married from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.