The One and Only: A Single Mom Second Chance Romance (Heart of Hope) Ajme Williams (books for new readers TXT) 📖

Sometimes, Mom would ask me why I didn’t smile more. She wouldn’t want the truth because she didn’t care that I was unhappy, she just cared about me looking happy. The family image was all that mattered to her.

No wonder I had been depressed for the last decade! Only one person had ever cared about me. Only one person had ever loved me for me, not because of my family or what favors I could do for them.

Laura.

But I had to banish all thoughts of her now. Maybe meeting the event planner would stop me from spiraling further into depression as I thought about my wedding day—the day of my imprisonment. I might be going through with this wedding for the sake of my parents, and the girl might be nice, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be actively involved in the event that would tie me down to someone I didn’t care about.

But I couldn’t leave without walking down to the lake for one last time.

I took my time, feeling the grass under my shoes, resisting the urge to take my clothes off and dive right into the water. The lake was pristine and placid, the sun shimmering on the water. If I closed my eyes and listened carefully, I could hear the ghost of splashing and laughter from when Laura and I had taken swims in the lake. Every day that we’d stayed at the lake house had made me feel like a badass, sneaking my secret girlfriend up here. It had felt like a honeymoon. I wished it had been my honeymoon.

You aren’t a kid anymore, I told myself viciously. Laura could’ve turned into a horrible person, the logical part of my brain told me. We had been eighteen at the time, young and fresh out of high school. We both were immature and inexperienced, and so, Laura could very well have turned into someone I didn’t like, someone I couldn’t stand.

Deep in my heart though, I knew that this could not be true in any way. My brain could argue with logic, but my heart knew the truth. Nobody knew about her, as I’d kept my pain a secret, but Laura was the one that got away. No, the one that I shoved away. Even if it was for her own sake.

My phone rang again. For fuck’s sake. I considered throwing it into the lake so that nobody could ever contact me or bother me again, especially right now.

Oh, fuck! It was Dad. “Hey, Dad!”

“Cade.” Dad sounded like he was in the middle of doing something important and I had bothered him, even though he was the one who’d called. “I want to set up a meeting with a potential campaign adviser. He’s an up-in-comer on the Beltway.”

“I’m stuck in Michigan planning the wedding,” I reminded him. I could hear the disappointed silence on the other end of the line, so I quickly added, “Set something up for when I come back to D.C.”

“Sounds good.” Then suddenly, his tone softened, “I remember my wedding…your mother looked radiant. I know it’s hectic, so let your mother do most of the work and we can get you back here to focus on your campaign work. Trust me when I say that the planning might be a pain in the neck, but it’ll all be worth it when you see your bride walking down the aisle.”

He hung up before I could reply. He’d always do that. When he was done talking, the conversation would be considered as over. No sense in waiting around exchanging pleasantries.

But my dad was wrong. It wouldn’t be “worth it” for me in the end. I couldn’t ignore the truth that I simply wasn’t in love with my bride. Seeing her walk down the aisle would not bring out any feelings inside me. Because those feelings were never there.

I knew better than to tell my dad all this, of course. And that I didn’t want to do the campaign. Senator Kirkpatrick wasn’t a man you said no to, which had made him successful but, in my opinion, it had made him a lousy father.

Keeping my phone back in my pocket, I looked back out over the lake. I didn’t say “goodbye” out loud, but felt it in my heart. I sighed deeply before walking back to my car and driving into town to meet the event planner.

Ten minutes later, I pulled up in front of a small office building in the downtown area. Entering the ground floor reception area, I rechecked the directory on the wall and there it was, on the second floor—High Point Events. I took a deep breath. Let’s hope that this wedding planner knows what they are doing, so that I can hand it off to them and wash my hands of the entire fucking deal!

Stepping off the elevator and walking in through the office door, I saw that the space was immaculately decorated and arranged, with ivory-colored couches and coffee tables nestled between numerous floral arrangements and photographs of various brides and grooms on their wedding day adorning the walls. There were various magazines and binders on a bookshelf in a corner of the room, labeled WEDDING, BIRTHDAYS, ENGAGEMENTS and HOLIDAYS. The whole room made me realize—again—that this wedding was really happening, and it wasn’t just a bad dream. I was stuck in a deal that I’d had no part in making.

Thankfully, there was no one around to see my nervousness. “Hello?” I called out.

“Be with you in a moment!” a feminine voice responded from one of the rooms behind the reception desk. I tried to peer behind me but all I could see were filing cabinets and decorations hanging from the door frame, no humans. That must be the room where the actual work happened, cluttered with decorations and files, while the reception was kept meticulously clean for clients and visitors.

“Not a problem,” I replied, lying. I wanted to get this dreaded meeting done with as soon as