Page 87 of Wedding Crasher

‘Tom. I can’t do this.’ Her voice wavered. ‘We need to talk.’

Shit. Back up Emily, please back up. I don’t want to do this.

‘Just eat your dinner, Em. I went halfway to Italy for those mushrooms.’

He joked to lighten her mood, his stomach full of foreboding.

‘That’s just it, Tom. You’re so kind, and lovely, and thoughtful, and me … I’m …’

Her fingers shook around the stem of her glass as she floundered for words to describe herself.

‘Don’t do this, Emily.’

The bleak defeat in her eyes terrified him.

‘Tom …’

He pushed his chair back. A scream of wood against stone.

‘Don’t say another word, Emily. Just wait one minute, okay?’

He took the stairs two at a time, high on adrenalin and fear.

Twenty seconds later he was back in the kitchen, her green letter in his hand.

Emily’s face crumpled as he held it up for her to see, a magician flourishing his cards to his audience.

He crossed to the cooker and lit the nearest gas ring.

She stood, trembling, but he held up a warning hand to still her and shook his head.

The flames caught the corner of the note, licked up the page towards his fingers until he couldn’t hold it any longer. He dropped it into the sink and turned the tap on full, then scooped out the mush of paper and hurled it on the floor.

Stamped on it.

Again. And again. And again.

He was unaware of the tears on his face until Emily’s tentative fingers touched his cheek. He was unaware of his own roar of anguish until he registered her gentle shush.

‘It’s gone,’ he said, finally. ‘It’s history.’

She nodded, her hand still on his cheek.

‘There’s nothing to gain by raking over the coals.’ He covered her hand with his own larger one. ‘We’re still standing. It’s all that matters.’

He laid his other hand on her belly. ‘You, me, and the baby.’

He was careful not to sayourbaby.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

‘Morning, my gorgeous girlfriends!’

Jonny shimmied back into the chapel after a last-minute weekend in Mykonos, freshly bronzed, with a bottle of ouzo in his hand and an undeniable glint in his eye. It died as soon as he caught sight of Marla and Emily’s coordinated miserable expressions.

‘Shall I go out and come back in again?’

He cast a wistful glance back towards the doorway.

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