Page 57 of Wedding Crasher

‘You okay, Dan? You’ve gone a bit pale.’

‘What? No. I mean yes, course I am. ’Scuse me, love.’

Dan hightailed it out of the kitchen, leaving Melanie alone with just her coffee and her thoughts.

‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ she murmured, as her mind took the hop, skip and a jump towards the obvious conclusion.

Gabe looked up from Gladys Macintyre’s peaceful form just in time to see Dan kick the tyre of the hearse and then spark up a cigarette. By the time he made it outside a minute or two later, the cigarette had mostly gone and Dan was perched moodily against the bonnet of the old black car.

‘You okay, bud?’

Dan looked up sharply, obviously jolted from deep thought. The frown lines across his brow looked out of place on a face more given to laughter. It took a few seconds and considerable effort for him to rearrange his features into a tight smile.

‘Fine. Just grabbing a smoke.’

Gabe nodded and went to perch alongside his friend.

‘You thinking of taking up the habit?’ Dan said, offering Gabe a cigarette even though he knew perfectly well he wouldn’t take it.

‘What’s the old car done to deserve a kicking?’ Gabe patted the bonnet affectionately, knowing that the hearse was an innocent party.

Dan took a long last drag on the cigarette and then screwed it into the gravel with his foot. ‘It’s not the car.’

‘No shit,’ Gabe murmured. ‘If it’s not cars it has to be a woman.’

Dan reached for a second cigarette and lit it slowly. ‘I’ve fucked up.’

‘With who?’ Gabe couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice. Dan had told him about pretty much every girl he’d been involved with over the years, but lately he hadn’t mentioned anyone at all. Thinking on that now, Gabe saw how that in itself should have rung a warning bell.

‘It doesn’t matter who.’ Dan huffed and blew out a plume of smoke. ‘She’s someone else’s.’

‘Oh.’ A second warning bell rang out for Gabe. However much of a Romeo Dan liked to be, he had his own unique code of moral conduct that ruled married women out of his remit. He’d always maintained it was because he wanted an uncomplicated life, but Gabe knew him well enough to know that it was more likely because he’d been raised with old-fashioned values, within a rock-solid family. He wasn’t someone who’d hurt someone else on purpose; if he’d gotten himself involved with someone else’s woman, he hadn’t done it lightly.

‘Is she happy being with her other half?’ Gabe asked.

‘I think she is, yeah.’

‘Sounds complicated.’ Gabe laid his hand on Dan’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, man.’

‘It’s complicated alright,’ Dan muttered. ‘A right royal fucking mess, to be honest.’

‘Can you untangle yourself? Sounds like you need to.’ Gabe didn’t ask who the woman in question was. Partly because he didn’t need to know, but mostly because he knew Dan wouldn’t tell him anyway.

‘I need to. I just don’t know if I want to, or even if I should.’

He dropped the second cigarette onto the gravel and ground it under his foot. ‘It’s cool, Gabe, honestly.’ He reached into his pocket for his mobile. ‘I’ll be in in five. I just need to make a call.’

As much as Emily knew that avoiding Dan wasn’t going to magic the problem away, she was still desperate not to havetheconversation in the next few minutes. The park basked in the late afternoon sun, all dappled and lush. Glossy trees hid her from prying eyes. She’d suggested meeting here because it wasn’t her natural habitat and she hoped they wouldn’t run into anyone who knew them. Yet, give her a few months and no doubt it would become one of her regular stomping grounds.

She was just glad that she’d been alone when she’d answered the office telephone earlier. How the hell would she have explained her reaction to Marla or Jonny, or even worse, to Dora? She’d grown accustomed to carrying this secret around inside her, and every day it seemed to grow along with the baby. There was no denying her pregnancy now. She was, if the smug TV guru was to be listened to, ‘in her bloom’. Although, to be honest, she’d lost faith in the TV pregnancy guru some time back, right about the time that she’d started to bang on about the importance of involving ‘Daddy’ in the pregnancy.

Oh God.What was she going to say? What was Dan going to think? He had every right to demand she at least talk to him. Should she lie? Maybe he’d secretlywanther to say the baby was nothing to do with him so that he could wriggle off the hook. But then, any fool can add up, and though she didn’t know him well, he didn’t seem like a village idiot. Christ, it was hot. She stripped her flimsy cardigan off from over her sundress and closed her eyes as she leaned back and fanned herself with her hand.

It was only when she realised that her inefficient cooling system had dramatically improved that she opened her eyes to find Dan wafting her with a rolled-up copy ofThe Sun.

‘Lookin’ swell, darlin’.’

He sat down next to her and looked at her little bump, his blue eyes far more serious than his words.