Page 21 of Forever Dark
“Yes.”
“As pointless pursuits go, that’s right up there with counting dandruff in Father Wells’sbeard.”
She stopped again, turning to face him properly.“Connor, you picked the reception hall.A hall that smells like mint air freshener and bingo cards.”
“It does not smell like bingo cards.”
“It absolutely does.”
“That’s just because old men play bingo there on Thursdays.”
“And old men smell like bingo cards.”
He laughed once, in spite of himself, then caught it and tried to look stern.“The point is, we don’t need the church as a venue.”
“Outside isn’t the only option.”
“I picked the only option we can pay for without your father looking at me like I’m a financial disease with my hands out looking for some loose change.”
Selena winced.“That’s not fair.”
Connor’s mouth tightened a little.“He thinks I’m a freeloader.”
A breeze shifted through the churchyard and stirred the leaves overhead.The temperature had climbed through the morning, and the stones underfoot held heat now.From the road came the rattle of an old truck passing by.Beyond the low fence at the far side of the church, a group of children ran through the grass with plastic water guns and dripping balloons, yelling at one another in the wild, breathless way kids did when supervision had wandered too far off.
Selena looked back at Connor.His expression had changed in that quick, familiar way.Something real had slid in beneath the joking.
“Dad doesn’t look at you like that,” she said.
Connor gave a small shrug.“Only every time money comes up.”
“My father looks at everybody like that when money comes up.”
“That’s supposed to help?”
She sighed.“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”Connor dragged a hand over the back of his neck, then looked past her toward the church doors.“I’m not saying I won’t marry you in a church because your father annoys me.I’m saying I can’t see myself standing in there pretending I’m religiously devout while everybody watches.”
“Who said anything about pretending?”
“I just don’t want to have to fake anything on the day.I want the day to be ours.Real.Ya know?”
His tone pulled another reluctant smile from her.Then it faded.
“You really hate the idea that much?”
Connor studied her face for a moment before answering.For all his swagger, he always got quieter around anything that mattered.“No,” he said.“I hate the feeling that if we don’t get this right from the start, it puts us down the wrong road.”
Selena blinked at him.
That was more honest than she had expected.
A little of the heat went out of her.“Connor.”
She stepped closer until their shoulders nearly touched.“Listen to me.We’re not doing anything wrong as long as we’re together.We’re getting married to each other.That’s the part I care about most.”
Connor glanced back at her.
