Read Cancel the Wedding for Free Online

instead of arguing back my mom would shake her head very slowly and say, “Bless her heart.” As if it wasn’t worth getting upset over, clearly God had made that person stupid and all you could do for the ignorant was feel pity and pray for a jump in their IQ. I think that phrase might have meant something else to other people, but my mother had adopted it to mean “dumbass.”
    The horrific meals she used to cook that always had cream of something soup as a major component. That woman had not grown up learning the finer art of cooking. Maybe that was a byproduct of losing her mother at such an early age; she was no more than ten when her mother had died. But then who cooked for her and her father? So many questions.
    â€œHey Lo, who’ll be the manners gestapo now?”
    Logan laughed. “You know my thank-you note after Christmas was late one year so she wrote out the whole thing for me and left it taped to my door. She was all, ‘Dear Grandmother, I am absolutely appalled by my lack of courtesy in writing to thank you for my lovely monogrammed stationery.’”
    I had always thought of her quirky mannerisms as old-fashioned. Now I was starting to wonder if they weren’t just a product of this small town. I had been getting “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” since we drove in. She was at the heart, after all, a small-town girl. I just had to figure out why she decided to hide it from us.
    The sound of very loud footfalls on the wooden staircase behind us startled me. I turned around to see Elliott, the nonwaiter from breakfast, making his way toward us. He was carrying a fishing pole. A surprised sort of smile edged across his face as he spotted us on the dock. I could tell he hadn’t expected to see us here.
    Well, this was embarrassing. I leaned into Logan. “We’re being stalked by Opie Taylor.”
    Logan looked at me. “Who’s Opie Taylor?” Then she turned in the direction I was facing and saw Elliott. She waved. Ugh! Don’t wave at him. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to see that guy again after the stunt I pulled at breakfast. Logan lowered her sunglasses. “He’s super cute, Livie.”
    â€œI think he’s a little old for you, Lo.”
    Logan was whispering now so that Elliott couldn’t hear her as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “Gross! Not for me. He’s so old. He’s like your age.”
    â€œNice, thanks.” I stood up to greet our random visitor.
    â€œWell, hey ladies. What are you doing here?” Elliott said.
    â€œUs? We’re just—what are you doing here?” I blurted out. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t a waiter?”
    He winced or laughed I wasn’t sure. “Sorry. I was just trying to help out. Jimmy’s shop can be so confusing.” He said it with a fair amount of sarcasm. “And you looked a little bit like you might drop dead without a quick injection of coffee.” He winked at Logan and she laughed at me.
    Great, now they were in cahoots with the whole “Olivia’s an idiot” thing. As if Logan didn’t already think everyone over the age of twenty-five was a moron. I said, “It wasn’t . . . You should have said something. I felt awful. I didn’t mean to make you serve us.”
    He stepped out on the floating dock, making it wobble a bit. “It was no problem.”
    Elliott came over and sat in the chair right next to me. It felt a tad too familiar, him sitting so close.
    I asked again, “So what are you doing here?”
    He held up the fishing rod like it was pretty obvious what he was doing there. “But please stay. You won’t bother me.”
    I was confused. Who was this guy? “Are you staying at the inn?”
    â€œWhat? No, why?”
    Hang on. I had a bad feeling about this. “Isn’t this the inn’s dock? Is it open to the town or