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What does it matter if you finish your degree in Texas?” It wasn’t the first time Garen had implied that my school was second rate and that the education he’d gotten was far superior. I’d learned early on in our relationship that Garen was a school snob. I tried not to let it bother me. I reminded myself he was a driven guy, and there was no such thing as the perfect person. Everyone had faults. And being a school snob was pretty minor when it came to faults. I could live with it.
    “Please move out here, Terese. Don’t you love me, or have you found someone else?” His gray eyes narrowed.
    “Of course I haven’t found anyone else.” I wrapped my hands up in his shirt and snuggled in close. “You’re awfully cute when you’re jealous.” I smiled. “I’ll think about it.”
    Garen pressed me at every turn for the next two weeks. He’d make a great politician someday. My parents were less than thrilled with Garen’s proposal, feeling his tactics were a bit overbearing. They warned me not to take marriage lightly. “It’s not to be hopped in and out of carelessly, Tess,” Dad counseled. In the end, I accepted Garen’s proposal. I loved him, and knew he was everything a girl could want in a husband.
    My parents gave me the wedding of my dreams. How they afforded it on my dad’s teaching salary was a mystery to me. I did what I could to help cut corners. I rented a dress instead of buying one, and we held the reception in my best friend Martha’s backyard. Her dad was a lawyer and they had a beautiful home with a gorgeously landscaped yard. My brother Craig and his fiancée Michelle, along with my twin sister Abby, helped me decorate. We hung yards and yards of tulle and twinkling lights. My sister and her eye for decorating convinced me to accent with burlap. When she first described her ideas, I thought she was crazy. “Burlap? Are you sure? It sounds a little Beverly Hillbillies.” I was wrong. It was anything but. When we finished putting everything into place, except the flowers, scheduled for delivery in the morning, I couldn’t believe it. I had the fairytale wedding I’d always dreamt of. And tomorrow I’d marry my prince.
    Garen was strangely quiet the entire day, as were his parents. I’d not been around them much, but I could tell they didn’t care for me. During the ceremony, I worried that he’d leave me standing at the altar. We only danced three times, and he picked at his food. The photographer had to fight with him to get pictures. After the reception, he whisked me away to a beautiful resort on the beach. I was both excited and nervous. Garen wanted to wait until we were married to sleep together, and being my first time, I worried I’d disappoint him.
    “Garen, this place is perfect. We have an ocean view, and a private hot tub right out the back door,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat.
    “Sure beats the heck out of the country bumpkin wedding reception, doesn’t it?” He carefully hung his tux jacket on a hanger and untied his bowtie.
    “Country bumpkin?” I snapped as the anxiety drained from my body, replaced with annoyance. “The reception was beautiful.”
    “No, Terese, it wasn’t.” He carefully untied his shoes and placed them in the closet, lining them up perfectly with the jacket. “The flowers were pathetic and half dead. The decorations were cheap and homemade. Seriously, who uses bowls with floating candles, anyway? And burlap? It was an embarrassment. How am I supposed to use the photos when I’m campaigning in a few years? No one will take me seriously. They’ll think I’m some kind of uneducated moron instead of an Ivy League graduate.”
    “You’re being mean, Garen. Not everyone has an endless supply of money at their fingertips.” I ripped the veil from my hair and tossed it on the desk in the room.
    “Hang that up. Now,” he demanded, pointing at my veil.
    “I’ll hang it up when I want.” I folded my arms, fighting to rein