He Stood Me Up, so I Married His Brother novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Number Twenty-Eight

I held the ticket in both hands.

Twenty-eight.

The red board over the counter said nineteen.

"You set it?" I said to the clerk.

"Last night, after close," she said. "Don't tell the judge."

"The judge knows," said a dry voice behind her.

The gray-haired judge from the hearing came out of the back hallway in her robe, half-glasses on her nose.

"I've never done one of these at the counter," she said. "I asked to."

Thatcher looked at her, then at me. He hadn't known either.

We sat down in the waiting room in the plastic chairs.

I was in a white dress again.

Not the sundress. My aunt had marched me to a shop on Broughton and made me buy one with long sleeves, because it was December.

Thatcher wore his navy suit. Somebody had taken it in across the shoulders. Tammy wouldn't say who.

At nine-thirty, the lobby doors opened.

The crew came in first, in clean shirts, with their kids.

Then my aunt, in her church hat, on the deacon's arm.

Then the white-haired widow in her fur hat.

Then Bolton Street. Half of it, anyway. They filled every chair. Then they lined the walls.

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

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