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Suddenly, the door burst open, and Miss Jennings was before her again. “Oh, good. You’re still here. I wanted to give you a note about the breakfast. Of course, it was remarkably tasty, but…”
As Miss Jennings prattled on about breakfast, Kelli nodded along, her eyes flitting back and forth. Down at the opposite end of the hallway, something white burst past and then returned, and she furrowed her brow to see it properly.Ah! Sandra.She was probably hustling from one mess to another, just as Kelli was. Kelli had done a good job in hiring Sandra. At least she had someone good on her team.
But as Kelli stared down the hallway at Sandra, another figure appeared beside Sandra, speaking conspiratorially in Sandra’s ear. Kelli’s heartbeat sped up. She took a small step toward them as Miss Jennings continued to complain and realized with a horrific jump in her gut that the man Sandra was whispering to wasn’t a stranger, nor was he a member of the hotel staff.
It was Sam.
Sam was all dressed up in his tuxedo, his bowtie as-yet untied and hanging down his chest. His face was red and blotchy, unlike how Kelli had ever seen it. Even during the height of chaos at the Sunrise Cove, Sam was always calm and composed. It was part of the reason people loved coming back to the inn— for the balm of knowing Sam.
Kelli’s mouth tasted like cotton balls.Why was Sandra speaking to Sam so closely, this far above the festivities down below? Wasn’t Sam needed in his groom’s suite? Where were the other groomsmen?
During this chaotic moment, Kelli tried to make sense of it. Amanda and Sandra were, if not friends, at least friendly. Maybe Sam was asking Sandra about something, a gift he wanted to give Amanda. But if that was true, why wouldn’t Sam just ask Audrey?
“Kelli? Are you paying any attention to me?” Miss Jennings blared.
Kelli forced her eyes away from Sam and Sandra, at a loss. Her stomach felt all wrong. “I hear you, loud and clear,” she said. “And I will implement those changes.”
Miss Jennings gaped at her. “What changes, exactly?”
Kelli was panicked. She tried to take a deep breath, but instead, she sputtered and said, “If you’ll excuse me, Miss Jennings. I have to take care of something.” She then turned on her heel and ran down the hallway, where, mysteriously, Sam and Sandra had disappeared. There was no sign of them at all. Kelli even opened the door to the stairwell and listened for the echo of footsteps, but there was nothing.
How could they have disappeared like that? Where could they have gone?
Kelli limped toward the grand staircase, praying that what she’d seen didn’t matter, that it was a misunderstanding.How could Sam cheat on Amanda?It didn’t seem likely. It didn’t seem reasonable. Amanda was a gorgeous woman with big dreams and an even bigger heart. Despite her heartache after what Chris had done, she’d given Sam all of her love over the past two years.Didn’t Sam appreciate that?
ChapterEighteen
Thirty minutes before the wedding, Amanda received a text from her father.
RICHARD: Hi, honey. I was wondering if I could see you briefly before the ceremony. My room is on the second floor.
RICHARD: I know you must be very stressed and very busy, so don’t worry if it doesn’t work out.
Amanda showed the text to Audrey.
“It’s cutting it close,” Audrey said.
Amanda eyed herself in the mirror, noting her perfected lipstick, her sharp eyeliner, and her contours, which added dimension to her face.
“My only plan for the next thirty minutes was to freak out,” Amanda said. “I might as well go see Dad to distract myself.”
“Dad?” Susan said, turning from the mirror, where she’d been fixing her lipstick after the snack.
“He says he wants to see me,” Amanda said as she walked slowly toward the door. Her mother’s eyes glinted strangely, as though she wasn’t willing to give Amanda up just yet. “I won’t be long.”
“We don’t have very long until the ceremony,” Susan said. “Charlotte just wrote she’s sending people outside to begin taking their seats.”
“It’ll be fine,” Audrey assured Susan. “We can’t have the ceremony without the bride, anyway.”
High on adrenaline, Amanda walked from the bridal suite toward the nearby elevator, where she stepped inside and pressed the button for floor two. She closed her eyes, inhaled sharply, then released, trying to shake off all the tension running through her. For some reason, she felt on the verge of a panic attack. When the doors opened onto floor two, she stepped out feeling weak in the knees and fell against the wall, her hand on her chest as she inhaled and exhaled.
“Amanda?” Her father’s grounding voice found her ears, and a moment later, he was beside her, his hand on her shoulder. “Just breathe, honey. It’s going to be okay.”
Amanda raised her eyes to meet his and found herself floating on a cloud of memories of her long-ago girlhood. “Hi, Dad. Wow. You look good,” she said, her voice very weak.
Richard dropped his hand from her shoulder and brushed it across his suit. “I look like an old man,” he replied.
“Not true,” Amanda said.
