Page 115 of Wedding Crasher

Cecilia frowned. ‘Oh. Well, hewashere, and then …’

‘You fell into a drunken stupor and have no idea when he left?’ Jonny supplied in a sympathetic voice, and batted his eyelids at Cecilia with a knowing smirk.

Marla sank down into the seat next to her mother and dropped her head in her hands.

She was too late.

It had been too much to expect that he’d still be here, and the flame of hope within her fizzled out.

He’d gone.

On the other side of the glass entrance doors, Gabe watched Marla drop down dejectedly next to her mother.

What was wrong?

Had something happened to Emily, or the baby?

He couldn’t stand it any longer.

He knocked the snow out of his hair and went inside.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

‘Marla.’

God, she had to get a grip. Jonny had even started to sound like Gabe in her head now. Marla peeled her hands away from her eyes and looked down at the feet in front of her.

Hmmm.

They definitely weren’t Jonny’s cowboy boots, and the purple satin trousers had been replaced by faded jeans that hugged in all the right places. She forced her eyes to skim past the crotch area, even though they wanted to linger.

Gabe’s leather jacket clung to him, and snowflakes clung to it.

Lucky snowflakes.

Marla licked her dry lips and finally looked up into his face.

Still beautiful. But did he look a little gaunt?

Neither Jonny nor Cecilia moved a muscle, nor said a word.

‘Is everything okay with the baby?’

Marla frowned, too dumbstruck by his presence to know the answer to any question more difficult than her own name.

What baby?

Again, Jonny rushed to her aid. ‘No news yet, dude.’ He reached down and yanked Cecilia onto her feet. ‘Come on. Let’s go and find you some coffee.’

‘My shoes …’ Cecilia grumbled and tried to bend to retrieve them, but Jonny, who had her tucked firmly under one arm, frog-marched her down the corridor.

Marla’s throat constricted with nerves as Gabe sat down next to her.

‘You came back,’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘How have you been?’

---