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

haven’t done much right lately.”
    “You walked out before you married the wrong man.” Hazel patted her granddaughter’s knee. “I’d say that means you did something right.”
    Something right? This was the last place she’d expected to get absolution, from someone who barely knew her. But she couldn’t resist asking, “How do you know he and I were wrong for each other?”
    Her grandmother leaned in, conspirator-like, the scent of gardenia perfume and those flowers in her hat mixing. “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but you’re not that good of an actress. You weren’t really in love with Boone any more than he was in love with you.”
    Ouch. That hurt.
    But not as much as it should, which spoke volumes. She’d already half guessed as much anyway. “Then would you like to explain why we almost got married – since you seem to have all the answers? Because, quite frankly, I’m coming up dry here.”
    Hazel Mae smiled at her as she snapped a bloom from a bush and tucked it in her granddaughter’s gathered-up hair. “You’re a people pleaser.” She tucked in another tiny blossom on the other side. “You wanted everyone to love you, so you went along with the plan to marry the golden boy of Atlanta.”
    “You’re making me sound like a wimp.”
    “A wimp wouldn’t be here confronting me.” She tucked another blossom in her hair before cradling her cheek briefly in a lotion soft hand.
    Tears burned along with a pressing question she couldn’t fathom.
    “You say I was going along with the plan. But what about Boone? If Boone didn’t love me, then why did he propose?” What had been visible on camera that had been hidden from her? She desperately wanted answers about her failed attempt at happily-ever-after. Even if they hurt. She needed to know.
    “My guess? He thought it was time to take that next step in his life and you are a pretty girl. He was probably infatuated. Maybe even a little smitten, but being with you was safe. Plenty of men flinch at deeper emotions.”
    Seriously? That was it? She was convenient? They’d both been part of one big reality show hoax because real life was too scary? That meant she and Boone both were big fat cowards after all. Although she couldn’t help but wonder how many people fell into that same trap off-camera.
    “Is that what happened with my mom and dad?”
    Snorting on a laugh, Hazel shook her head. “Oh not at all. They were deeply, passionately in love. The kind that heats up a room when they so much as walk through the door.” She fanned herself with both hands. “That kind of love either lasts a lifetime or combusts. Your parents, well, they combusted. But at least they made you, so something very wonderful came of their love.”
    “He loved my mother so much he left for Australia?” That didn’t seem to add up.
    Hazel Mae’s laughter faded along with her smile, sadness settling into her eyes. “He wasn’t a steady kind of guy. He was the sort that had restless feet like his daddy.”
    “So when he heard my mother was pregnant with me, he left the country.” That sounded like a step beyond restless feet to her.
    “Actually, he asked her to go with him. He was going to strap you into a backpack for a walkabout.”
    She tried to envision her mother in outback gear trekking with wallabies and the image didn’t come close to gelling. “My mom said no.”
    “She did.”
    “Figures.”
    “Hold on now. Life isn’t always that simple. She said she didn’t believe he would stick around for the long haul once they got there, and honestly, girlie, I’m not sure I can blame her. It’s one thing to be a single mom in her own hometown. But to be in another country, left alone with no support system, that would be devastating.”
    The thought of her mother alone in a strange country with a baby was beyond scary. For any new parent. “My mom opted for security for my sake,” she said, realizing it for the first time and more than a