Page 111 of Wedding Crasher

Marla turned to him sharply, but the all-too-knowing sparkle in his eye silenced the denial on her lips.

‘How did you know?’

‘Oh, come on! You two are like Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers kept apart by the brides on one side and the widows on the other.’

‘Really?’ Marla squeaked, as she slid the car into first gear and moved off again. She hadn’t even properly acknowledged her feelings to herself, yet it seemed that Jonny had known all along.

‘Really,’ Jonny confirmed.

Out on the pavement, a couple were wrapped in each other’s arms, a bunch of mistletoe clutched tightly in the girl’s hand. Marla’s heart thumped against the sides of its ice tomb, desperate for escape.

‘I think I love him, Jonny,’ she whispered, and steered the car into a parking space.

The enormity of saying the ‘L’ word out loud required all of her attention.

‘No shit, Sherlock! I know you do.’

Marla gulped in a great lungful of air as she brushed away tears. Tears of relief at having finally admitted it, and of fear that she’d left it too late.

‘But he’s gone. I sent him away. Oh God, what if he’s changed his mind about me?’

‘Don’t be stupid. He’s an undertaker.’

Marla squinted at him. ‘So?’

‘So he’s reliable and serious, of course. And I happen to know that right at this very moment he’s back on these shores.’

Marla stared at Jonny in silence, hardly daring to hope, willing him to continue.

‘Come on Marla, work with me, sister! Ask me where he is!’

‘Where is he?’ she whispered.

Jonny tipped his head to one side and arched his eyebrows at her. ‘How much do you want to know?’

Marla grabbed him by the lapels of his winter coat.

‘That’s more like it!’ he laughed. ‘Word on the street is that he’s spending Christmas at his horny henchman’s house so he can finalise the sale of the funeral parlour.’

Marla’s heart soared at the knowledge that Gabe was close by, then nose-dived again. He was only here to tie up loose ends before he disappeared for good.

‘What am I going to do?’ she asked, as much to herself as to Jonny.

Her eyes focused on the street outside and spotted a doorway to the side of the hairdressers, which had a neon sign flashing in the window. For once, she’d asked a question and been given the answer. Life-altering decisions deserved to be marked. Maybe there was something in this praying thing after all.

‘Don’t answer that. I know exactly what to do.’ Laughter bubbled up inside her as she jumped out of the car. ‘Come on! Get out.’

She yanked Jonny’s door open.

‘I need you to hold my hand.’

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Gabe wandered along Beckleberry High Street with his head bowed against the snow and his hands shoved deep into his jean pockets.

Ahead of him loomed the boarded-over windows and smoke-damaged walls of the burnt-out funeral parlour. He couldn’t look. Melanie hadn’t only torched the bricks and mortar of his career. She’d taken with it his hopes and dreams, his achievements to date, and his plans for the future.

‘Time to grow up, Gabe.’

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