Page 56 of My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding

“Huh!”

“This woman needs to work on her vocabulary,” I point out. “It’s a bit limited.”

“Damn straight,” Bree agrees. “And maybe she and the other women in her family need to set their sights a little higher than other women’s husbands.” She looks the blonde up and down, cool as a cucumber. “You know what they say. If a man is cheating on his current wife he’ll be cheating on the next one.”

The woman huffs again. Then she scurries out with a toss of her hair.

“Well done, you,” I say with admiration. I’ve let myself forget that Bree was never really the marshmallow people thought she was.

Bree closes her eyes briefly before meeting mine. “I wish I could tell you that’s the first time another woman thought I needed to know that my husband had strayed. You did warn me that he wasn’t ready for marriage, but that was twenty years ago. I assumed he’d grow out of it.” Her eyes well with tears. “You can go ahead and tell meI told you soif you want to. I deserve it.”

“No. No you don’t.” I shake my head. I do not mention that Clay brought that woman’s sister into their home. “But... how in the world do you put up with it?”

She squares her shoulders and continues to meet my eyes. “Same way you get to Carnegie Hall.” Her lips tremble even as they tilt up into a smile. “Practice.”

I blow out a harsh breath at the sheer, awful irony of her smile. Both of us have been lied to by the very people we have loved and thought we could trust. As we head back to the table I’m filled with anger and sorrow on Bree’s behalf.

Somebody needs to teach Clay Williams a serious lesson. He doesn’t deserve Brianna or the devotion that she’s given him. The way she’s put him first. It would serve him right if... I stumble, unable to finish the thought or the step I’ve just taken. Not when I realize what my eyes just skimmed over on their way to the darkening sky outside the windows.

I yank my gaze back to the pale face that I do not want to see. My gaze narrows so that I feel as if I’m looking down a long, oddly narrow tunnel. At the end of that tunnel is my mother. She’s standing next to our table and talking to my father and my fiancé.

A voice rings out and silences all the others. It takes a couple of heartbeats to realize that the voice is mine.

Twenty-six

Kendra

“I can’t believe you had the nerve to come here.” Lauren moves toward the table, her face a rictus of anger, horror, and outrage that she somehow manages to mask with an icy disdain that I have no idea how to crack through.

For the first time I understand the expression “if looks could kill.”

Bree moves almost protectively beside her, but my eyes are locked on Lauren’s face. If my hands weren’t clamped so tightly to the back of a chair I’d already be on the floor. I want desperately to turn and run, but I can’t do that now, not without at least trying to explain.

“What do you want?” Lauren’s words are pitched low as if there’s some chance everyone in the place hasn’t fallen quiet in order to hear.

What I truly want—to turn back time and make different choices—is impossible.

Yet here I am. “I can’t let you leave town without at least talking this through.”

“You can’t actually believe there’s anything you could say that would excuse what you’ve done.”

We are all frozen in place as if suddenly overcome by an avalanche. Lauren’s holding herself so stiffly I’m afraid she might break. “Please, sweetheart. Just sit down and listen.”

“No. I want you to leave. Now. Or I will.”

“Lauren.” Jake gets to his feet.

For a moment I’m afraid that he’ll leave and take Lauren with him. That they’ll all leave and this will be over before it begins. So much for my hope that Lauren would be unwilling to create a scene or storm out of a public place.

Her eyes go to Jake. “Did you know she was coming here?”

Jake sighs. My heart trip-hammers in my chest.It’s a setup.The ultimate payback to give me hope then snatch it away.I should never have come here. She’s just not ready. There’s nothing I can...But he doesn’t lie or evade. “Yes.”

“How could you after what she’s done?”

For a moment I think Lauren is going to storm off and I will have ruined everything not only for myself but for Jake, too.

“Because as sad and angry as I am, I loved her. And because she’s your mother and raised you to be the incredible person you are.” Jake speaks quietly and in a matter-of-fact tone that not even Lauren argues with.

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