He turned to face her, surprise in his expression. “When I found out Courtney had hired you, I wondered if God was punishing me for what I did so many years ago.”
Laughter bubbled up in Anne’s throat. “When I found out it was your wedding, I wondered nearly the same thing.”
He crossed the room and sat in the adjacent chair. “Anne, you have to understand. You were one of the few true friends I ever had. I never felt as close to anyone as I did to you. You understood me. You knew what it was like to feel alone in a room full of people. You didn’t have any expectations of me.” He hung his head. “And I took advantage of that friendship. I let you give and give and give—your time, your money, your friendship—without giving you anything in return. I wouldn’t have made it out of school if it hadn’t been for you. I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today if it hadn’t been for you.”
Anne studied her recently manicured nails, the remaining bitterness and accusations she’d harbored for the past decade replacing her amusement of moments before.
“I wanted to marry you, Anne. Really, I did. I wanted us to get married just like you’d planned and then bring you out to California to be with me. God knows I needed you those first few years after—” He jumped up and started pacing again.
“Then why?” She gripped her hands to keep them from shaking.
He tossed his hands in the air. “It sounds so stupid now, really. When I signed the contract to make
Tears burned her eyes. It hadn’t been his idea to call off the wedding.
He spun and came to kneel in front of her. “They wouldn’t let me call, but I could at least have the studio secretary mail letters for me.”
Anne shook her head. “I never got any letters. I thought once you got your big break, you had everything you wanted and didn’t need me anymore.”
“I needed you, Anne.” He clasped her hands in his. “I needed you more than anything. I was miserable making that movie—especially since my character fell in love with a character named Anne. I poured my heart into those scenes, the dialogue between us, because I hoped if you ever saw it, you’d know I was talking to you.”
She stared at the ceiling, blinking to keep the tears from spilling out.
“When I never heard back from you, I got mad because I thought you didn’t want to talk to me because I’d postponed the wedding. I hadn’t wanted to think you were that shallow, but then when I got your letter…” Cliff shrugged his broad shoulders.
Her gaze snapped back to his. “
A frown furrowed the area between his well-groomed brows. He let go of her hands and reached into his jeans pocket. “This letter.”
She took the yellowed piece of paper from him. The folds were fragile, the edges darkened from years of handling. In old dot-matrix print was a brief note with what looked like her signature under it. It was dated nearly six months after he called off the wedding:
“I didn’t write this, Cliff. That’s not my signature. It’s a good forgery, but it’s not mine.” She handed the page back to him.
He folded it and put it in his pocket. “I always suspected. It didn’t sound like you. You’d only typed one letter to me before that—you’d handwritten the rest of them. But I just wasn’t sure.”
“Why didn’t you call? Or come see me whenever you came back to town?”
He stood and ran his fingers through his stylishly tousled hair. “I was going to. The first time I came back after the movie came out, I went by Aunt Maggie’s house, but they didn’t live there anymore. The people who did live there didn’t know where y’all had moved to. I finally tracked down Forbes’s phone number. I went to his office to meet with him. He told me how hurt you’d been, how you’d dropped out of graduate school just to be able to send me money.”
Forbes. Anger started to rise. How dare he try to manipulate her life!
“Before you get mad at Forbes, let me explain what I told him. I told him that I wanted to see you, to apologize. He asked me if I still intended to marry you. I had to be honest with him, Annie. I’d just started dating someone else. I thought I was falling in love with her. He thought it best that we didn’t see each other again. You had been my best friend. But—” He pressed his lips together as if unwilling to continue.
“But you were never really in love with me.” Anne pressed her hands together and rested her forefingers against her lips.
“He thought it would hurt you more to see me on those terms than to never see me again. I’m so sorry.”
Closing her eyes, she sat in silence for a long time, trying to remember when she’d stopped loving him. She’d loved the idea of being married to a handsome, talented, interesting man—the only one who’d ever shown any interest in her. But in all honesty, he hadn’t broken her heart. He’d broken her trust—an emotion stronger than love.
“I forgive you, Cliff.” The words, softly spoken, came from a place in her heart she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “I was angry at you for so many years—especially while I was still trying to pay off all that debt, knowing how rich you were getting.”
“Wait a minute! I asked my manager to have a check cut for you—I had kept a running tally of everything I owed you. The least I could do was pay you back with interest.”
Anne shook her head. “Didn’t get the letters, didn’t get the check, either. I hope whoever that manager was doesn’t work for you anymore.”
Cliff started to puff up the way she remembered when he was angry. She bit her bottom lip as a smile threatened. Nice to know some things didn’t change.
She stood and rested her hand on his arm. “Never mind about that. God knew what He wanted from both of our lives and that we were better off not together. And now look.” She waved her hand toward the window overlooking the lawn where members of the wedding party were starting to congregate. “You do get to pay me back—with interest. You know, I never would have gotten into this business if it hadn’t been for you borrowing that money and my dropping out of graduate school. Thank you.”
He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
She laughed—a feeling of freedom overwhelming her. “Come on. Let’s go practice getting you married.”
“How did it go?” George asked when she joined him in the kitchen moments later.
She smiled and slipped her arms around his waist. “Better than I expected. I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, I need to get to work.”
He kissed her cheek. “Righto.” He released her and pressed the button on the battery pack clipped to his belt. “Places, everyone.”
Anne took the headset he offered and got wired up to be able to direct the proceedings.
Courtney’s ten bridesmaids kept her busy for nearly half an hour, trying to get them in some semblance of order, while George tried to do the same with the groomsmen down at the gazebo. Once aligned, Anne clicked her headset microphone on. “George Laurence, I need to see you, please.”
He appeared at her side a few seconds later. “Yes, ma’am?”
She nodded at Courtney, standing at the back of the long line of giggling girls on the back veranda. “You have a duty to perform, sir.”
If Cliff was surprised to see George escorting Courtney down the aisle, he didn’t let on. George returned to stand beside Anne, his hands clasped behind his back, very much the same as the position he’d maintained during Cliff’s press conference. The man certainly didn’t believe in public displays of affection. She wouldn’t have minded if
