Page 64 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
“No problem,” Nathan gave back. “At least here people think I'm worthy a little bit of attention.”
“Your family loves you,” I reminded him. “And Calebadoresyou.” If he could remember that, he might feel better about himself.
“Yeah, I know,” Nathan said, although he didn't sound completely convinced.
I was going to say something else, but then the doorbell rang.
More guests?
When I went to open the door, I came face to face with a woman I wouldn't have recognized if I hadn't seen her in pictures recently. There was one in a frame in Caleb's room that showed the whole family
—Ethan, the children, and their mother.
My heart froze in my chest.
What was Laura doing here?
She didn’t offer me an explanation. No, she simply pushed past me into the house with all the determination of a woman on a mission. I stared after her. People gaped at her as she passed, but nobody stopped her. I would have wondered what was going through her head if my own mind hadn't been taken over by total chaos. Only one thought stood out loud and clear: I had to warn Ethan before she could get to him.
I'd seen him go into the kitchen only a minute or two ago, and I hoped to hell he was still there.
I found him stirring milk and sugar into a cup of coffee on the counter.
“Rhys?” He looked up when I came in. “You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“Worse. Laura is here.” I'd meant to tell him the news a little more gently than that, but the words just burst out of me.
“What?” he asked, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard.
“Laura is here,” I repeated. “She just arrived.”
I watched Ethan run through a gamut of emotions as he processed this news. His eyes widened, his mouth fell open and closed again, deep lines appeared on his forehead, and finally his features turned to stone and I couldn't tell what he was thinking anymore. I only knew it was nothing good. When he spoke, I thought I could detect a quiet rage in his words. “Where is she?”
“She went into the living room. I don't know where she is now.”
The children weren't in the living room, but if Laura was looking for them, they weren't hard to find with all the noise they were making.
Speaking of, it had become very quiet in the house. Too quiet.
Ethan seemed to have noticed this too. His features darkened and I was glad I wasn't going to be in the center of the storm he was about to unleash. “How dare she...” he said quietly, to no one in particular, and then he left the kitchen.
I would have given a lot to know what he was thinking that moment, but all I could do was follow him and see what he was going to do.
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E T H A N
I couldn't believe that Laura had come back to crash our son's birthday party. After all the effort I'd put into making this day so much fun that Caleb didn't have a minute to worry about his mommy not being there. After all the effort I'd put into keeping my kids from going off the rails after she left us in the middle of the night.
What was she trying to achieve by coming here today—other than undoing all the progress I'd made so far?
Laura wasn't in the living room, but all eyes were on me as I entered. People must have seen her. It was the only explanation for all the looks I was getting. My wife was back in town and everyone wanted to know how I was going to react. Damn gossips, all of them. Even my grandmother was smiling as she loaded more cake on her plate.
I was about to ask where I could find Laura, when I heard an excited squeal from the direction of the family room. Caleb.
I exhaled.
Of course she'd gone right for the children. Even back in high school, she'd always had a flair for the dramatic. If she'd come back to Oceanport, she wanted a tearful reunion. She was smart enough to know I wasn't going to give her that.
