“No,” she said. “And when Gail Marea’s daughter’s engagement fell through, I offered to pay half of the Plaza’s cancellation fee if she called and gave Alexis Morgan first dibs on the vacancy.”

“Why?”

“You know that I’ve never really understood Audrey. She’s always been a lovely girl, and I’ve appreciated her being such a good friend to you. But I guess, if I’m being honest, I never let myself acknowledge that she’s no longer a flighty fifteen-year-old whose main preoccupation was how shiny her hair was. Just like I never let myself acknowledge that you’d grown well beyond your wild years.”

“So you had an epiphany?”

Linda nodded. “That night at dinner. You were pretending to be engaged, I knew that. But then I saw you look at each other, just for a second. A casual thing, the way that couples do, and I realized. You were pretending to be engaged. But you weren’t pretending to be in love. That part was real.”

“No,” Clarke said automatically. “It was for show. She was just trying to preserve her reputation, and I was trying to…” He trailed off, realizing how pathetic the reasons sounded, even to his own ears, how pathetic they’d always sounded. And all of a sudden, he realized just why he’d been in such a good mood the past few weeks. It wasn’t just Audrey’s enthusiasm for the wedding rubbing off on him or the fact that work had been going well. It wasn’t even that he was getting regular epic sex. It was Audrey. It had always been Audrey.

“How did you know?” he asked, stunned. “How did you know before I knew?”

“That you’re in love with her?”

He nodded. He was in love with Audrey. It was both the most momentous and yet somehow the most blindly obvious realization of his life.

She leaned forward and patted his hand. “Oh, Clarke. A mother always knows.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

You are the most amazing sister in the whole world,” Audrey said as she undid the ankle strap of her busted sandal.

“Not even close,” Adele said cheerfully, pulling off her own stilettos. “I’ve been feeling so bad that I’ve missed all your wedding festivities. I hope this will at least restore your faith in me as matron of honor.”

“You flew in to be here, and you’ll be standing by my side tomorrow,” Audrey said. “That’s all I need. Well, that and your shoes.”

“I still can’t believe your strap just snapped like that,” Adele said, picking up the discarded stiletto sandal. “You’re going to get a refund, right? They look brand-new.”

“They are brand-new,” Audrey said, glaring at the pretty but faulty shoe. “I’m just glad I chose them for the rehearsal dinner instead of the wedding. Can you imagine if I’d worn them tomorrow?”