Oops, Wrong Bride? Fine. No Wedding. novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Loan

"My fault," I said.

People were coming out of the ballroom behind us. The buyers. The man from the paper. They slowed down when they saw us.

My father didn't lower his voice. He'd stopped caring who heard.

"You've got the money Trey gave back," he said. "And whatever those silly cakes bring in. You could cover the payments. Three months, maybe four. Long enough for me to find another contract."

"You want my wedding money."

"I want you to save your mother's bakery."

Hayes stood a step behind me. Emmy had Biscuit's leash wound so tight around her hand it had gone white.

"How much did you borrow, Daddy?"

"That's not your business."

"You just made it my business."

He looked at the people in the hall. He looked back at me.

"Nine hundred thousand," he said. "Give or take."

Somebody behind me let out a low whistle.

"On a building Mama owned outright," I said. "She paid it off the year I turned twelve. We had cake."

"Things cost money, Liza."

"What things?"

He didn't answer.

"Say it out loud," I said. "What did you spend my mother's building on?"

"Liza."

"Say it, or I walk out that door and you can explain it to the bank by yourself."

His jaw worked.

"Shelby's apartment," he said finally. "Before Trey. On Rainbow Row."

"What else?"

"Her car. The pink one."

"What else?"

"Her trips. For her page. Tulum. Paris. The Amalfi thing." He was talking faster now, angry, like it was being pulled out of him. "Her birthday dinners. Her teeth. The gown she wore at the reception. The DJ. The license."

"The license," I said. "You took out a loan on my mother's bakery to pay for the license that married my fiance to your other daughter."

He didn't say anything.

He didn't have to. The man from The Post and Courier had his notebook open.

The ballroom doors banged open behind us.

Shelby came out, mascara streaked, her ring light folded under her arm.

She'd heard. I could see it on her face.

"Nine hundred thousand?" she said.

"Sweetheart," my father said. "Not now."

"You gave me a bakery the bank owns?"

"I gave you everything I had."

"You gave me HER things." She flung a hand at me. "And you didn't even own them!"

"Shelby, lower your voice."

"Did you even sign it over? The bakery? The house?"

He hesitated.

It was only a second.

It was long enough.

Shelby laughed, a horrible high laugh, and the ring light slid out from under her arm and cracked on the marble.

"Oh my God," she said. "It's all still in your name. All of it. You gave me a toast."

She turned and walked out through the lobby doors into the heat without her ring light.

My father looked after her.

Then he turned back to me.

"Liza. Please."

It was the first time in my life he'd said please to me.

"No," I said.

"You'll let it go to the bank?"

"I'll let it go to the bank," I said. "And then I'll take it back from the bank myself. Not from you."

I walked out.

He didn't follow me this time.

That evening Hayes didn't take me to the cottage or the loft.

He walked me past both, down the dock at the end of the yard, to the one boat I'd never been on.

It was his sailboat, the old wooden one he'd restored the year he walked out of his mother's house.

She had varnished mahogany, a white hull and a little cabin with brass portholes.

"She's never had anybody else on her," he said.

"Not one woman?"

"Not one. You're the first one I wanted to bring."

He took us down the creek under the motor, past the shrimp boats and the restaurants with their patios full, out into the harbor.

The sun went down behind Charleston.

I could see the steeples from the water. I could see the Battery, and his mother's house, very small.

He dropped anchor in the dark off the marsh, where the water went flat and black and the stars came out all at once.

I sat on the deck with my knees up and he sat behind me and pulled me back against his chest.

"I told my father no," I said.

"I heard."

"I said please to him a thousand times in my life. He said it once."

He kissed the side of my neck.

"You don't owe him a thing," he said into my skin. "Not one thing."

I turned around in his arms.

I turned around in his arms.

His mouth was already there.

Hayes kissed me like he'd been waiting for me to turn.

← Chapter 14 · All chapters · Chapter 16 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend