Page 64 of Wedding Crasher

Gabe’s smile couldn’t have been more awkward as he made his way around the table and kissed Cecilia’s overly powdered cheek.

Marla watched in horrified fascination as her mother fluttered her false lashes and swooned under Gabe’s attention. The fact that this particular good-looking man was trying to wreck her daughter’s life was clearly not reason enough to refrain from flirting.

‘Good to meet you, Cecilia. Marla tells me you’re to be married?’

Marla’s toes curled as she peeped at Rupert through her fringe. She hadn’t talked about her mom with Rupert before this visit, so her obvious confidence in Gabe was not likely to go down well. Oh dear. He was purple-in-the-face kind of angry.Please don’t make a scene, Rupert.

But then, he’s never asked you about your family either, has he?the little devil on her shoulder prompted.

‘Please, come join us. We’re having a bit of a party,’ Cecilia asked.

‘We’d love to, thank you,’ Melanie piped up and beamed at Marla’s mother.

‘We would?’ Gabe shot her a quizzical look.

Melanie leaned in and cupped her hand around Gabe’s ear for privacy.

‘There’s been a bit of a hitch with the others, they went to the wrong restaurant,’ she whispered.

It was a toss-up for who looked more mortified, Marla or Gabe. Shock robbed them both of the power of speech for a crucial moment, and Cecilia jumped in and beckoned the waiter over to organise two extra chairs next to her own.

‘And who is this delightful creature?’ Cecilia enquired, her eyes on Melanie.

Delightful?Marla reached the end of her tether. ‘This is Melanie, Mom. She’s the one who killed Bluey.’

Melanie blanched beneath her make-up and Rupert coughed nervously.

‘Marla, darling, that’s umm, not …’ he flicked a glance between Marla and Melanie. ‘Well, not strictly fair.’

Why. Thank. You. Rupert.His lack of public support stung like a slap.

Tom raised his glass again, merry as a mad monk on too much wine and not enough food. ‘A toast.’ He paused until everyone had quietened down to listen. ‘To Bluey.’

‘Who’s Bluey?’ Brynn hissed to no one in particular as everyone reached for their glass.

‘Marla’s Great Dane. Melanie ran him over,’ Emily supplied quietly, as she topped up her wine glass with more water.

‘Lovely big boy he was,’ Dora said, her lip quivering so much that Brynn was moved to upend the wine bottle into her glass and push it towards her.

Ivan nodded and pointed a crooked index finger at Brynn. ‘I’ll tell you something for nothing. He’d have given your bull a run for his money. Huge todger. Spotted it when he piddled on my roses.’

Brynn clapped his hands in delight and looked over at Gabe with hopeful eyes.

‘You don’t still have him in the deep freeze do you, Gabriel?’

‘No, he bloody well hasn’t!’ Marla banged her glass down on the table. With as much control as she could muster, she shot out of her chair to make a break for the sanctuary of the little girls’ room. She would have made it, had she not barrelled headlong into a strong pair of arms instead, just a few feet from the table.

‘Marla, I thought it was you.’

She looked up, and one glimpse of the familiar, craggy face of her ex-stepfather Dr Robert Black was enough to make her crumple against his crisp white shirt.

He was an unexpected and comforting lifejacket in a stormy sea, and she clung on tight.

‘Robert?’ Cecilia’s voice quivered from behind them, stripped bare of her trademark confidence.

Robert smiled warmly at his ex-wife. ‘Cecilia. Long time no see.’

When Marla returned to the table some minutes later, her main course was cold and her seat was occupied by Robert, head to head in quiet conversation with her mother. Marla couldn’t help but notice the way her mother leaned her body in towards him, or how her face had softened in his presence, in a way that had nothing to do with the candles flickering on the table.

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