Page 105 of Wedding Crasher

He was a comfort. He was beautiful. He scared her stupid.

She reached for the bottle and poured herself another stiff drink.

‘Did Melanie start the fire?’

Rumours had been thrown around wildly ever since the fireman had stumbled out with her in his arms. Jonny had practically opened a book to take bets this afternoon after a couple of tequilas, until Marla had put her stone-cold-sober foot down and stopped him.

Gabe nodded.

‘I had no idea what was going on with her. I still don’t.’ He stared into the bottom of his brandy glass. ‘The hospital is keeping her in tonight, and she’ll be formally charged in the morning.’

Marla cast around for something charitable to say about the girl but found nothing. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Not as sorry as I am. I must have missed so many warning signs.’ He shook his head with a bewildered look. ‘I take it you know that she’d been sleeping with Rupert?’

‘Rupert?’ Marla squeaked, wide-eyed with shock. ‘When?’

Gabe shrugged. ‘No idea. Same time as you, I think.’ He drank deeply and then looked at her with an apologetic shrug. ‘Sorry. I assumed that was why you’d split up.’

Marla shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around the idea of Rupert and Melanie. In many ways they made a perfect match. ‘No. I just realised that I didn’t want to marry him after all.’

‘Sensible decision. He’s a dick.’

Marla laughed shakily. ‘Jonny broke his nose.’

‘I know. I think I broke it again yesterday.’

‘Did you really?’

‘He hurt you. I hurt him. He deserved it.’

Marla couldn’t disagree, and the fact that Gabe had defended her honour was yet another tick on that intrinsically decent list.

‘So what will you do now?’ she asked eventually, not even sure she wanted him to answer. There was a broken, melancholy air around Gabe tonight that filled her with a fear she didn’t understand.

He ran a hand through his dusty hair.

‘I’ve had a gutful of this place.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m done.’

Her palms went clammy as she stared at him.

‘But you must have been insured? You can rebuild.’

There were dark circles under his eyes and smears of soot mingling with the five o’clock shadow along his jaw. ‘Yeah, I could rebuild.’ A cynical laugh rattled in his throat. ‘But why would I? Nobody wants the funeral parlour here, Marla. It’s been one fucking nightmare after another, since the day I arrived.’

Marla stared into the amber swirls of her brandy. She couldn’t argue with him, and what’s more, she knew that she’d been a big contributor to his difficulties. The knowledge that their campaign had been justified didn’t make her feel any less shabby in the face of Gabe’s despair.

‘I tried, and I failed. I’m no coward, but this is one battle I’m just not destined to win. You can have your street back.’

Marla was stricken by his U-turn. She felt no glory in the victory. ‘What will you do?’ Her voice shook with the effort of holding herself together.

‘I don’t know. I have nothing to stay here for anymore.’

He locked eyes with her, and she swallowed hard.

‘You don’t?’ She regretted the whispered words, as soon as they’d left her lips.

‘Do I?’

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