Chapter 12: Rule Four

"What did you just say?" I asked.

Marlene did not blink.

"A runaway bride stays a runaway," she said. "That was the point of that day, Delaney. It was meant to last."

"The point of what day?"

"I kept this family together for fifteen years." Her voice stayed low and flat. "I won't have a girl in a borrowed dress undo it."

"It's my mother's dress."

"It's lace."

The door opened behind her.

Laurence stood in the frame.

He looked at Marlene, and then at me.

"Mrs. Whalley," he said. "The party's in the tent."

Marlene put her smile back on as she went by him, and I watched her do it.

Then I took Laurence's hand, and we left through the garden gate.

The lake house was dark when we pulled in.

The porch light was out, and a note was taped to the front door.

*Key under the blue pot. I'm at the Lakeview Motel. B isn't here. I'm sorry. S.*

I read it standing in the rain.

"Shelby left you a key," Laurence said.

"She left me an apology."

"That's an unusual one."

"She came to warn us at two in the morning. I don't know what she is anymore."

I found the key under the pot and opened the door.

It was my mother's house, and it smelled like somebody else's candles.

I walked through it with the lights off.

Shelby's coats were on the hooks.

Brett's boots were by the stairs.

My mother's kitchen was the same, with the same blue tile over the stove.

I stopped in the doorway and put my hand over my mouth.

Laurence did not say anything.

He came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders.

"It's mine," I said.

"It's yours."

"I'm standing in my own kitchen."

"I know."

I turned in his hands.

The lace on my shoulders was damp from the rain.

His eyes were dark in the dim light, and his hands had not moved.

"Rule four," I said.

"No sex."

"That one."

"It's a good rule," he said. "I wrote it."

"You wrote it for a woman who wasn't standing in your arms in her mother's wedding dress."

"Delaney."

"Say it again. The rule."

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