Chapter 19: Front Row

The woman at the front desk of the Sable Key resort looked at me for a long moment.

"Ma'am," she said. "You canceled."

"I did. Now I'm attending."

Her mouth twitched.

"The arch went back up on Wednesday. The florist got the white roses back, too."

"Then give them to the staff afterward, like I asked."

"I'll make a note."

I set my carry-on on the counter and lowered my voice.

"I need a favor. Who runs the screen and the sound for the ceremony?"

She looked past me at the lobby, at the gold welcome board with Dexter and Casey on it in curling letters, and then she picked up a phone.

"Send up the AV tech," she said. "Tell him the real bride is here."

He turned out to be a tall young man with a lanyard and a laptop under his arm.

I showed him the login on my phone, the shared folder, and the run of show.

"Mrs. Pennick locked this to her account," he said. "She wants the slideshow cued at four twenty-five. She checked it twice."

"She'll check it again tonight at ten. By then it won't matter."

I opened the folder Dexter had given me.

It held two hundred slides, and almost all of them were Lindy.

Lindy at five on a porch step. Lindy on a pier. Lindy and Dexter at a prom.

I deleted them one by one, and I felt calmer with each.

In their place I loaded what Lindy had sent me, and what I already had.

The March receipt for a wedding gown, with the customer's name on it.

Denise's texts, a long column of them.

The funeral list with one name missing.

The ledger, a green page in my father's handwriting: Frank Bellweather + Little Captain.

Keep reading free with an account. Start His "Childhood Friend" Planned My Wedding? Cool, I Planned My Exit! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.