Page 80 of On the Rocks

Sometimes, it was a combination of the three.

“Sure, sweetie. Just let me get these in the oven and we can pull up the seating chart again.”

I shifted. “It’s actually not about the seating chart.”

“Oh,” she said, opening the oven and sliding the baking sheet of squares inside before she popped it closed again. “Is it the registry? I know we’re a little behind, but we can get it all done before next Sunday. Most people wait until the last minute to buy gifts for the shower, anyway.”

“Mama,” I said, taking a seat at the kitchen island. “It’s important.”

I set the ring Anthony had given me on the counter with a gentleclink, metal hitting granite, and it was as if that sound alone stopped Mama in her tracks.

She stopped right in front of the sink, one hand under the faucet and the other ready to turn it on, but she never did. Instead, she just stood like that, glancing at the ring, at me, back at the ring, at me again.

Her face paled, and she turned back to the sink, kicking on the faucet with her wrist before running her hands under the water. “We still need to decide what readings you want to do during the ceremony. I was thinking we should do something fresh. Corinthians is so overdone.”

My heart squeezed.

“Mama.”

“And you know, maybe weshoulddo the twine like you wanted. Instead of the coral ribbon.” She dried her hands haphazardly on one of the towels hanging from the oven, immediately launching into clean up. “You were right, that would look so much classier.”

“Mama.”

“And we need to go in for your final fitting on Friday. Don’t forget that.”

“Mama!”

She winced, shutting her eyes and hanging her head between her shoulders with the sponge in her hand. She shook her head, eyes still closed, and I knew in her mind she was praying to God that I hadn’t actually taken my ring off.

“Please,” I begged her, my own throat tightening. “Can you please sit down?”

She sniffed, dropping the sponge on the counter and sitting at the stool across from me. She wouldn’t look at me. She kept her eyes on her hands, which were folded now, her right fingers playing with the ring that adorned her left.

I inhaled a deep breath once she was seated, once the ball was in my court. Dad and Anthony had gone out for the evening, back to the casino, and after talking to Annie first, she’d helped me decide that Mom was the first person I should tell in the family. From there, I could make a plan to talk to Anthony, to Dad, and figure out how to break the news to our close friends and family — and to the town.

If there was one thing Mama excelled at, it was damage control.

“I need your help,” I finally said.

She lifted her head a little, her worried eyes finding mine.

“I overheard Anthony on the phone yesterday,” I explained, and tears flooded my eyes, the shivers too much as I tried to steady my shaking hands by stuffing them between my thighs and the barstool. “He said some really awful things.”

“Men say awful things all the time,” she replied quickly. “They’re stupid. And half the time, drunk.”

“He was sober.”

“Whatever he said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

“I’m calling off the wedding.”

Her eyes closed, and she shook her head, inhaling a deep breath before she opened her eyes again. This time, she held her shoulders back, her chin high, eyes locking with mine. “No, you most certainly are not, young lady.”

“I am. And I need your help, because we both know this is going to take a lot of damage control.”

“You’re not calling off the wedding!” she hissed, whispering as if someone might overhear. “You can’t,” she said, voice calmer.

“He said he fully intends on cheating on me,” I said, as gently as I could with those being the words coming from my mouth. “He said I’m perfect to fit therolehe needs his dutiful wife to play. He said I wasbred for this.”