Free The Wedding Audition by Catherine Mann, Joanne Rock Page A

Right?
    A really strong attraction.
    Adjusting her sunglasses, Annamae stepped lightly on the slate path that wound into the marigold garden. Pockets of morning glories and rose bushes welcomed her into the thick of the garden. The red of the roses caught her eye and for a moment, her mind turned away from the task of talking to her grandmother.
    For the briefest moment, her mind wandered back again to this morning and her exchange with Heath. Did she care what he thought of her? Should she care? He was rough-spun, so blunt and honest. He clearly wasn’t interested in empty flattery or fifteen minutes on screen with her. He had nothing to gain from their interaction.
    Focus, she reprimanded herself, scanning the neat fields of the community garden just outside the hedgerow around the walking paths through the flowers. She searched for a trace of her grandmother. Annnnnd nothing. No sign of her.
    Marigolds encircled the marble fountain, a trio of angels spewing water from their mouths. The path curved around the right side of the orange flowers and cherub trio. Tall stalks of sunflowers hugged the other side of the path.
    The back edge of the garden was lined with a cluster of Slash Pines standing like guardians of this little sanctuary, benches strategically placed for elderly residents to take a breather whenever needed. The white flowers of witch alder swayed beneath the pines, making the garden feel full of life.
    But absent of her grandmother, Annamae noted. Her stomach plummeted.
    Was Hazel Mae the sort of woman to stand her up? She had been absent in her life for all this time. This whole impulsive plan—
    Out of the corner of her eye, Annamae noticed there was a floppy sun hat in the midst of the witch alder, a hat filled with little white flowers. It had to be her grandmother.
    Was everyone in her life going to make a habit of hanging in trees and shrubbery to talk to her?
    “Are you sure no one followed you?” Hazel Mae asked in a stage whisper, eyebrows arched as Annamae drew close.
    It was a question Annamae was already growing used to hearing.
    “I’m certain.” She had a sneaking suspicion she would become an expert at hiding in plain sight over the next few months after the way she broke off her engagement.
    “Your disguise is good. You always did like to play dress up as a little one,” she said, stepping out from the bushes. Hazel Mae swooped her hands along her t-shirt, brushing off stray twigs from the faded carnival logo.
    Shock washed through Annamae faster than the water from the angels’ mouths. “How do you know that?”
    “Your mother let me see you some, in the early days before she found her a new husband.” She pressed on the knees of her jeans as she sat slowly on a bench. “I have pictures. I keep them in an album in my room.”
    “You do? I thought …” Her voice trailed off. Her mother had intentionally misled her. For years, Annamae had been allowed to believe that her grandmother was ashamed of her, that she had never wanted to meet her. That she even blamed Annamae for the way her son had left for Australia.
    “What?” Her grandmother watched her with a sharp intensity.
    “I thought that we never met.”
    Her lips pressed tight, thinning. “That I just walked away from you?”
    “Didn’t you?” The accusation came out sharper than Annamae intended. She couldn’t help it. Years of frustration pressed against her tongue.
    “In the end, I didn’t have much choice.” Bitterness edged into Hazel Mae’s words. What had Annamae’s mother said to keep her away?
    And why would it matter now?
    “I’m an adult now. There’s this thing called the telephone. Or the Internet. Or the good old U.S. Postal Service.”
    “True enough.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Is that why you came here to Beulah? To chew me out for being a crummy grammy?”
    Annamae shook her head and let out a wavering sigh as she sat beside her grandmother. “I’m not doing this right. I