Not His Bride Anymore novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Wedding Hall

I did not call ahead.

I walked through the Inn's marble lobby at nine on Tuesday morning with my phone in my fist, and the doorman took one look at my face and held the elevator.

My mother's office was on the top floor, behind a glass door with her name on it.

She was at her desk with her reading glasses on.

She looked up, and she took the glasses off.

I turned the phone around and set it on her blotter.

"Explain the date," I said. "The groom line is blank."

My mother looked at the screen for a long time.

"Yes," she said.

"You booked my wedding before you hired him."

"The same week."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted a date on the calendar that I could not talk myself out of."

"You're unbelievable."

"Sit down, Ainsley."

"No."

"Please."

I sat on the edge of the chair across from her, and I kept my coat on.

She opened her top drawer.

She took out a small leather planner, worn at the corners, and flipped to the back.

Six years of December pages, each one with a line in pencil.

Groom: C. Hartigan.

The next year, the same line, crossed out.

The next year, E. Wray.

Then crossed out.

Then a blank.

"I wrote a name in every year," she said. "And every year I couldn't leave it."

"Because you were never sure."

"Because I was a coward. I wanted to choose for you and I wanted not to."

"That's not an apology. That's a confession."

"I know the difference."

"Do you?"

She closed the planner.

"What do you want me to do with the room?"

I hadn't known I would say it until I opened my mouth.

"Keep it."

"Keep..."

"The date. The ballroom. The two hundred places."

"You can't want to be married there. After..."

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