No Matter, You Don't Have to Wait for Me novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Folder

Saturday morning, Donovan Reeve was waiting outside a coffee shop two blocks from my clinic with a folder under his arm.

He had asked for twenty minutes on the phone, politely, and had not said why.

He looked different out of the hotel.

No tablet, no jacket buttoned to the throat, only a gray sweater and a paper cup.

"Ms. Halstead."

"Justine. I'm not your guest anymore."

"Then Donovan." He held the door. "I'll be honest, I'm not supposed to bring you this."

We took the table by the window.

He opened the folder and turned it toward me, and I saw a column of dates and phone numbers.

"The deposits cleared this morning," he said. "Forty-one thousand, back on your card. You can check."

"I believe you."

"You shouldn't, as a rule. People lie about money." He almost smiled. "That's not the reason I called, though."

"Why did you?"

"Because I read this file three times before I followed you into the hallway on Saturday."

I waited.

"Eleven years in hotels, and I've seen a lot of couples plan a wedding," he said. "Usually the bride runs it, the groom shows up for the cake, and everyone's happy. Yours was the first one where the bride ran it, and the groom's friends ran the bride."

"That's a generous way to say it."

"I wasn't trying to be generous."

I laughed, and it surprised me.

It was the first time anyone had said that out loud without wanting something from me.

"There's a second reason I asked you here," he said. "The hold I mentioned. The room for Ms. Fontana."

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