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A Marriage Worth Waiting For (The Alabama Brides Book 2)

By Debra Lynn Collins

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The click of her high-heeled shoes was the only sound Anslee Ryan heard when she stepped out of the elevator onto the sixth floor of her office building. She was thirty minutes early for work, but she had to talk to her boss and best friend, Ellen Kingston, about the text message she’d received earlier from her boyfriend, Rodney Copeland. In the text, he’d said he was coming to pick her up for lunch today because he had something he needed to talk to her about. He said whatever it was would change their relationship forever. She hoped Ellen would be able to give her some sage advice or at least help her calm down the butterflies. Marriage? Was she ready for that?
Holding out her left hand, she imagined a sparkling diamond ring on her third finger, and joy spread through her. She cared deeply about Rodney, but still one question tumbled around in her head that made her uneasy. Did she love him enough to marry him?
They had been dating for two years now, and a few months back they had talked about living the modern dream. Getting married, buying a little white house outside the city limits, and having two children. But now Anslee questioned if she was really ready for that kind of commitment. How much love equaled “I do”?
Confusion muddle her brain as she tried to make sense of her chaotic thoughts. She sucked in a deep breath as she opened the lobby door to their offices. Laying a shaky hand on her twitching stomach, she glanced around the dimly lit room until her eyes stopped on Ellen’s closed office door. When she saw the glow of light at the bottom of the door, relief spread through her veins like warm honey.
As she’d hoped, Ellen was already here. Knowing her friend was only a few feet away somehow helped to calm Anslee’s nerves. She knew without a doubt that Ellen would be able to help her put things into perspective.
Anslee had been Ellen’s assistant designer at Donovan’s Design Firm for the last three years. However, their relationship went much deeper than that. They were friends. Best friends. A friendship that Anslee had come to treasure since her move to the big city from tiny Trinity, Alabama. If there was anyone she could count on, it was Ellen.
She took a deep breath and glanced around the dark room again. Normally, the first thing she would do in the mornings when she arrived would be to open the heavy shades to let the sunshine in. But today she had more important things on her mind.
Anxious to talk to her friend, she quickly crossed the floor to Ellen’s office. Without knocking, she grabbed the knob, gave it a twist, and pushed it open. “Ellen, I have to talk to─”
Her words died in her throat and a pain like she had never felt before shot through her heart, sweeping her breath away with it. There in the middle of Ellen’s office stood Rodney holding her best friend in his arms as they kissed. And not a friendly kiss, a deep passionate one that killed all the butterflies with one horrific gasp. “What…?”
“Anslee!” Ellen jerked around with a snap, stepped away from Rodney, and put her hand over her lips as if to hide the kiss. It was too late. There was no erasing that memory.
A sickening silence washed over the room as Anslee felt her world tilt and then slowly disintegrate around her. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came all the way to the air. Her blood made a swooshing sound as it rushed to her head and pounded hard against her eardrums. Her knees trembled and threatened to buckle underneath her. She swayed against Ellen’s drawing table to keep from crumbling to the floor.
The three stood motionless, staring at each other as if they were frozen in time.
Ellen finally sucked in a noisy breath, breaking the silence, then yanked her glance up at Rodney. “Say something.”
As if in slow motion, Rodney reached out, slid his arm around Ellen’s thin waist, and pulled her to his side. “I’m sorry, Anslee. I didn’t mean for you to find out this way.” He glanced down at Ellen, smiled, and then he looked back at Anslee. “We were going to talk to you about ‘us’ over lunch, remember?”
Us? That single two-letter-word punched right through Anslee’s heart like an angry fist. How could such a small word cause so much pain?
Anslee’s throat throbbed as she tried to find her voice, and she blinked back the shocked tears. “I… I don’t understand?”
Ellen’s face twisted with shame and guilt. “We didn’t mean for this to happen, it just did. I’m so sorry, Anslee. We didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just…” Ellen moved as if she was going to take a step toward her.
Hot white anger ripped through Anslee causing her entire body to jerk. She shot her hand out in front of her and took a step back. “No! Don’t you dare come near me. I thought you were my friend.” She glared at Ellen for a moment, then jerked her head back toward Rodney. “How could you? How long has this been going on?”
From the look of pure guilt on both of their faces, Anslee knew the answer. This had been going on for a while, and it had been going on behind her back.
“No. Never mind. I don’t want to know.” Anslee waved both hands in the air when Rodney opened his mouth to speak. “It doesn’t matter.”
As she backed toward the door, tears burned Anslee’s eyes, but she wasn’t going to let them see her cry. She clamped her mouth tight to imprison the sobs that threatened to burst free. She had to get out of there, and she had to get out of there now.
Twisting around on her heels, Anslee ran out of the office and headed toward the elevator. Her heart and her entire being pitched forward, dragging her sanity with it.
“Anslee, wait!” Ellen’s voice rang out behind her, causing her to speed up in her flight to escape the heartache that pulsed through her. “Please wait!”
However, waiting was the last thing on her mind. When she reached the elevator, she pounded on the down arrow. “Please, God. Please, let these doors open now. I have to get out of here.” The moment they did, she bolted inside and pushed the button to the parking deck.
A heavy sigh of relief hissed past her lips when she glanced back across the hallway and saw that neither Ellen nor Rodney had followed her. When the doors closed, she slumped against the back wall and surrendered to the uncontrollable sobs that rocked her body.
No one should ever have to suffer this kind of betrayal in a lifetime, but twice in a lifetime was more than Anslee could take. All the pain of the betrayal she had kept buried deep in her heart for years ripped to the surface, dousing her with wave after wave of hurt and anger. The haunting images flashed through her mind once again, images she had never really forgotten. Walking in on her father in the arms of another woman when she was only eight-years-old. Her father insisting that it wasn’t what she thought and that she shouldn’t tell anyone because if she did, it would only hurt her mother.
“No!” She stomped as she screamed into the empty elevator. She couldn’t let her mind go back to that horrible night. Not again. She couldn’t bear it. The pain in her heart from Rodney and Ellen’s betrayal was enough. Right now, she couldn’t dwell on her father’s deception, too.
Her breaths were coming in short painful gasps when the elevator finally reached the parking deck. The second the doors slid open, she rushed out and raced toward her vehicle. Once she reached it, she fumbled in her bag until she found her keys. With her fingers shaking something awful, she unlocked the door and jumped into the safety of her car. She locked it behind her as if to lock out the horrible images that bit and gnawed at the raw edges of her mind and her heart.
One minute her world was perfect. The next, she’d lost everything. Her boyfriend, her best friend, and her job.

For the next several days, Anslee swam in vats of shock and disbelief. She barely ate. She shut off her phone, locked her apartment door, stayed buried under the covers, and cried until she had no more tears to give. Why hadn’t they just told her? It wasn’t the fact that Rodney and Ellen were together that hurt her the most. It was the fact that they didn’t care enough about her to even tell her the truth. Over and over her mind helpfully reminded her that her entire relationship with Rodney had been a lie, and her friendship with Ellen had been a lie, too.
After three solid days, other thoughts began to seep to the surface. Like what was she going to do? She couldn’t stay here because there was no way she was going back to work with Ellen and have to endure seeing the two of them together every day. That would be like pouring salt into an open, bleeding wound. The only logical choice left was to go back to her hometown in Trinity, Alabama. At first she fought the idea, but eventually, she conceded that it was the only choice that made any sense.
Once her mind was made up, she packed her things into every empty box and bag she could get her hands on. Thankfully, when she’d rented her apartment, it was fully furnished with everything, even down to the cookware. So it took almost no time for everything she owned to be crammed into her car. Once the last box was loaded, she turned in her keys, gassed up her car, and pointed it toward Trinity. With a lift of her chin, she left the city and all the pain it held.
It was only after being on the road for several hours that she realized it was time to call her mother to let her know she was coming home. Not that it was a call Anslee wanted to make, but she knew it was one she could put off no longer. Pulling into a rest-stop, she dug her cell phone out of her bag, turned it on, and placed the call, telling herself she had to sound normal and unfazed by the spin her life had taken.
Her mother answered on the third ring. “Anslee?”
The instant she heard her mother’s voice, she felt her resolve tremble as her heart cracked again. In one breath the lies gave way to the truth as Anslee tearfully told her mother what had happened, and that she and Rodney were over.
“Oh, honey, I am so sorry. I know you must be heartbroken. I wish there was something I could do.” The tenderness in her mother’s voice made Anslee cry even more. She thought she’d had no more tears to shed, but she was wrong.
“I just want to come home,” she whispered into the phone as exhaustion settled into her bones.
“Come on home, honey, but there’s something I need to tell you.” It was a few seconds before her mother spoke again. “I’m not in Trinity, Anslee. Right now, I’m in Africa.”
“Africa?” As the word sank into her brain, she gripped the steering wheel until her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands. “Why are you in Africa?”
To Anslee’s surprise her mother informed her that she was on a missionary trip and would be gone for several weeks. She also went on to tell her she was sorry but Anslee couldn’t stay at the house either because it was under renovation due to a tree that had crashed through the roof during a storm.
Why hadn’t she known any of this? How long had it been since she’d last talked to her mother? Three weeks, maybe a month? She wasn’t even sure. She was always so busy, she hadn’t taken the time to sit and chat with any of her family. That realization knifed into the rest of the shame and guilt covering her heart.
Desperation clawed at Anslee like a caged animal trying to escape. She needed her mom now more than ever, but she wasn’t about to ruin her mother’s trip. No, she couldn’t be that selfish. So, she took a deep, long breath and swallowed down the knot lodged in her throat. “Mom,” she said as calmly as she could. “Look, I don’t want you worrying about me.” She fought to keep the trembling out of her voice. “I’ve got enough money to hold me over until I can find a job. I can stay at one of the local hotels until the house is ready to move back into.” She swallowed hard, fighting to stay strong. “And Mom, I want you to know that I am so proud of you, I know you’ve been wanting to do this for years. I’ll see you when you get back. Now, I’m serious, I don’t want you to worry about me, I’ll be fine.” However, even as she said the logical words, her heart screamed for her mom to come back home and take care of her like when she was younger. Thankfully, her head had been more reasonable than her tattered emotions.
“I can’t do much to help you right now, but there’s no way I’m going to let you stay in a hotel. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
Anslee opened her mouth to protest, but the line went dead.
Her head fell back against the headrest, and she squeezed her eyes shut fighting back more tears. As she opened her eyes and looked around the deserted rest-stop, the heaviness of being totally alone settled over her like a thick, wet woolen blanket. The one person she needed to talk to the most was the very one who had caused this pain in her heart, and now, she couldn’t even get to her mother.
Minutes later, her cell phone rang, causing her to jump.
“Anslee honey, it’s Sara.” Her aunt’s worried but firm voice brushed across her like a warm breeze on a cold evening, settling something deep in Anslee. “Your momma just called and told me you were on your way home. You can come and stay with me until you can get on your feet. There’s no way you’re gonna be stayin’ in a hotel when you got family here. And if you want to, you can work in the diner until you find something else.”
“Oh. Are you sure, Sara? I don’t want to be in the way.” However, just hearing her aunt’s voice caused Anslee’s heart to fill with deep love for this woman. She remembered when she was a little girl, her aunt had insisted on her calling her just Sara because she thought of her more like a daughter than a niece and Anslee agreed. In fact, growing up, Sara had been more than an aunt to Anslee, too, she had been more like a second mother. “Really, I don’t mind staying at a hotel.”
“What? Are you kiddin’ me? I’d love to have you here. I’ll fix up Kitty’s old room for you. With her being away at college and with the passing of my precious Thomas last year, this house is way too quiet for me anyway. I would love the company.”
Anslee’s chest tightened, and a lump formed in her throat when she heard Sara sniffle. Guilt wrenched her heart because she hadn’t been able to come home for her own uncle’s funeral last year. Work. Work that had seemed so important, so critical. She couldn’t get away. Give Sara and Kitty my love, she had told her mother. How selfish could she have been? Sadness once again gripped her heart that her aunt had suffered such a terrible loss, only now it was twined with guilt so tightly it was as if they were one. Sure Anslee had sent flowers and money, but she had not been there herself. No. Her time was too valuable to take a few days out to be there for those who needed her.
When her aunt sniffled again, Anslee realize her own brokenness was trivial compared to what her aunt had endured. She blinked back the tears and whispered, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when−”
“Hold on there, honey child. You don’t have to apologize for anything. I know why you weren’t able to come home for the funeral. Now, I don’t want you frettin’ about that, not one more minute. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Suddenly, the cold hard truth slapped Anslee in the face like a wet rag. She hadn’t been there for her aunt, but her aunt held no animosity toward her over it. No, she didn’t deserve this gift, but she vowed right there to never again take it for granted.
“I love you, my sweet girl. You know there will always be a place here for you. In my home and in my heart. So, hurry home.”

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