Free Our Song Returns: Falling In Love At The Wrong Time by Sheila Bradley Page B

and on the street, agreeing to meet back at the hotel an hour before the reception the next day to do a final sound check.

Chapter 2
    The next day Maggie was up early. The reception did not start until 5:00, but she had slept restlessly. She awakened from a dream at one point, and though Maggie had not felt like it was a nightmare, she had adrenaline coursing through her veins. It had taken her a while to get back to sleep, and then she had been startled awake by the beeping of a snow plow from outside. She went to the window and saw that several inches of fresh snow had fallen during the night.
    She made a pot of coffee and went to her bookshelf. She intended to find a novel to read, but her high school yearbook caught her eye, and she pulled it out. She was not sure why it was not packed away, but her powerful memories the day before had put her in a nostalgic frame of mind. She curled up in an armchair with her mug and the book, and started to flip through its pages.
    She looked at each page, smiling at the dated hairstyles and clothes. She found her own picture. She looked so young. She kept turning pages, forcing herself to peruse each one. She read inscriptions from her classmates, knowing that with every page she was getting closer to the one picture she wanted to see.
    Finally, she got there, and Bill’s handsome face smiled up at her from the page. He wore his Yankee cap, and his face had the open, eager expression she always loved so much. She smiled back, unable to stop herself, and ran her finger over the line of x’s and o’s he had scrawled underneath his picture. He’d written a longer message on the back cover of the yearbook, but he had not been able to resist leaving a string of kisses and hugs next to his picture.
    She flipped to the back and read his message to her. It was long, covering the entire inside cover. It was full of memories, private jokes and plans for the future and a few of them had come to fruition, like experiences they had in New York during their freshman year, but most of them had not.
    After another ten minutes, she sighed and closed the yearbook. There was no point in crying over spilled milk or failed relationships. She hoped Bill was happy, wherever he was. It would be nice if she found someone who was as good a match for her. Maggie was not giving up hope on that, even though there were times she thought it would never happen.
    When she strolled into the Park Plaza lobby later that day, she was dressed in a simple black cocktail dress. She smiled when she saw Patrick in his tuxedo. She knew they made a striking pair.
    He feigned surprise, she was actually five minutes early, an almost unprecedented occurrence. “You look beautiful. And punctual. Will you marry me?”
    She suppressed a giggle. “We wouldn’t last two seconds as a couple and you know it.”
    He clapped his hands over his heart and put on a wounded expression. “Cruelty, thy name is woman.”
    “Yes, that’s me. Cruella de Ville. Be careful, or I’ll skin your puppies.”
    He swatted the back of her head playfully, and she smirked at him as they headed for the ballroom.
    The hotel staff had left them a copy of the program for the reception and the wedding planner was waiting for them. Tiffany Harkins was the top wedding planner in Boston, and they had worked with her dozens of times over the years. She ran her events like a drill sergeant, and she could be a little scary when things did not go as planned. Patrick had an enormous crush on her, but whenever Maggie encouraged him to ask her out, he balked. “She eats guys like me for a champagne brunch,” he would say with a shudder.
    Maggie actually thought they would make a great couple. She narrowed her eyes speculatively as Tiffany approached, and the wedding planner stopped. “Why are you looking at me like that?
    “Oh, just wondering why you’re not married. You’re such a great catch.”
    Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Well, maybe when I’m not