Page 56 of Wedding Crasher

‘Fancy a coffee?’

Gabe glanced up with a distracted smile that warmed Melanie’s skin, despite the coolness of the room and the presence of the village’s most recently deceased resident, Gladys Macintyre.

‘You’re an angel.’

Melanie melted and retired to the kitchen, where she unsnapped the neck brace and rubbed her sore skin. The bloody thing was a pain. She’d dug it out of her dad’s wardrobe where he’d stashed it after his dubious whiplash injury claim a few years back. Once she’d lied to Gabe about going to A&E, she figured she better have some kind of treatment to show for it. She’d had to think of something to text Gabe to get him to leave. She was twenty-four years old and still living at home with her dad – that’s bound to be a turn-off.

In truth she’d been remarkably lucky to not be injured at all apart from shock, but she could hardly parade that around, could she?

Besides, she was enjoying the extra fuss from Gabe.

Much to her relief, he’d been wonderful about the whole episode. Her fears that he might sack her had proved totally unfounded. If anything, the accident had solidified her place at the funeral parlour, rather than threatened it. She felt genuinely awful about Bluey, but then Marla really ought to have been more careful. She should have been more careful with her boyfriend too, for that matter. Rupert had been simply lovely to Melanie. He’d insisted that she go back to his apartment for a brandy to steady her shredded nerves. He’d joined her in a large one, then another, and then she’d joined him in his large bed. It had felt like an inevitable chain of events, one of those serendipitous things that it’s pointless to fight or question.

She snapped the neck brace hastily back in place a couple of seconds before Gabe wandered into the kitchen and rinsed his hands at the sink. He shot her a grateful smile as he picked up his mug.

‘Thanks, love,’ he smiled and his black hair flopped over his brow in a way that made Melanie’s fingers itch to stroke it.

Love. He called me his Love.

She watched his backside retreat from the room as he left and cast a glance out of the window towards the chapel.

It seemed the mighty were falling, after all.

A few short weeks ago, Marla had had them all. Gabe, Rupert and Bluey.

Since then, Melanie had managed to take them all away, one by one. Not on purpose of course, it had just happened that way. Poor little Yank girl. Melanie pouted her lip. Life was hard sometimes, eh?

‘Any chance of a cuppa?’

Dan appeared in the doorway.

Melanie couldn’t make her mind up about him – he unsettled her. He was too cocky, and she wasn’t sure if he’d guessed how she felt about Gabe. But then two could play at that game, because she’d noticed him making doe eyes at Marla’s sidekick over the road.

The way his gaze automatically lingered on Melanie’s breasts annoyed her as she splashed a minuscule drop of milk in his hastily thrown-together coffee.

‘Does working in such a gloomy place never get to you?’ she asked with an innocent smile as she handed it over.

‘Not really.’ He shrugged. ‘Gabe’s a mate. Anyway, I don’t spend as much time here as you do. Maybe you should be more worried about your own happiness levels rather than mine.’

Privately, Dan harboured no doubts at all about Melanie’s happiness at the funeral parlour. There was a coldness about the girl that gave him the creeps. He winced as the coffee burnt his tongue.

‘Yeah. Maybe I should apply for the job vacancy over at the chapel.’ Melanie flashed her eyes at him in direct challenge.

Confusion clouded his handsome expression. He really was an easy target to reel in, like a little goldfish flapping on the end of a very large hook. Melanie licked her lips in anticipation. This going in for the kill thing was addictive.

‘Job vacancy?’

‘Yeah, Marla’s assistant’s bound to be leaving soon. At least I’m guessing so, anyway.’ She paused, leaning back against the kitchen counter. ‘Seeing as how she’s having a baby, and all.’

Dan placed his almost-untouched coffee onto the kitchen table.

‘Emily’s pregnant?’

‘Well, I don’t mean Dora, do I?’

Melanie laughed with the pleasure of the big reveal.

It was almost painful to watch. Dan’s expression went from self-satisfied to bewildered, and then to something else, something she didn’t quite understand. It wasn’t surprise, and it definitely wasn’t the face of a man casually lamenting the loss of his favourite piece of eye-candy. She leaned in a little, keen to know what was going on behind his baby blues.

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