Page 23 of Daddy's Christmas Elf
Grey didn’t answer, as he tore open the envelope, his fingers acting before his brain could tell them to stop. He pulled out the card.
“Mr. & Mrs. Carr request the pleasure of Grey Gillespie and guest at the wedding of their son David to Samantha…” Grey golf balled his cheeks, his voice fading as he stared at the card.
“Who are David and Samantha, and why don’t you want to go? One of them’s not your ex, are they?”
Grey almost choked on his laugh. “No, but you’re kind of in the right ball park. David’s a friend of mine. A good friend.”
Grey hesitated, the familiar hard knot of tension lodging in his stomach whenever he thought about—
He swallowed, as he met Eli’s curious, concern filled eyes.
“David’s brother… I was married to him. We’ve been divorced for just over six months.”
CHAPTERELEVEN
“Married?” Eli blinked up at Grey, unsure if he’d heard him right. Grey’s next words were confirmation he had.
“Yes. David was my best friend at university and Peter was — is — his younger brother.” Grey turned away and headed back to the sofa, his face tight, his fingers on the invite tighter. He sat down and looked at the invite. Eli sank down next to him.
“Why are you being invited? I mean, okay, you were friends with David, but if you and, and…”
“Peter.”
“Yeah, sure. But if you and Peter have only been divorced for a few months, didn’t your friend think it might be really, really awkward? For everybody?”
Grey’s revelation had almost knocked Eli off his feet, and he’d staggered rather than walked across to the sofa, glad to collapse down onto it. Why had it affected him so much? It wasn’t as if he knew much about Grey… But the stiffness in Grey’s muscles, the hard scrunch of his brow screamedtensionand made Eli want to sling his arms around Grey and whisper in his ear that he should tell this David character to shove his invite… Instead, he sat quietly and waited for Grey to speak.
“Do you want a beer?”
Grey jumped up, suddenly, making Eli lurch back. It wasn’t what he was expecting to hear, but from the strained, tense expression on Grey’s face, Eli knew they were both going to need a drink. He nodded, and Grey disappeared to the kitchen, leaving the now slightly crumpled invite on the arm of the sofa. Eli picked it up, holding it away from himself as though it might suddenly turn and bite him. Gingerly, he opened it up.
A village church, and afterwards at a golf club.
“Mr. Grey Gillespie and guest,” Eli murmured.
Who would be Grey’s guest? Whoever it was, he’d be a lucky guy. Grey looked good in a suit, tall and broad, blond and blue-eyed… Whoever he took with him, the guy should be proud to be on Grey’s arm. If Grey decided to go, because Grey really shouldn’t be accepting the invite, even if he didn’t go so far as to tell his friend to stick it up his bum.
Grey returned with two open bottles of lager and handed one over. Taking the invite from Eli, he held it up.
“I can’t not go. David and I go back too many years. He and I were good, close friends long before Peter and I got together. If I don’t reply soon he’ll be calling me every five minutes.” He sat down and tossed the invite onto the coffee table, and turned the bottle around and around in his hands.
Eli huffed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see why you feel you have to. If he’s such a good friend, he’d understand you saying no. He’s probably expecting you to turn it down, because your—his brother—will be there, I assume?” Why was it so hard to for him to sayyour ex-husband? Eli gulped back on his lager, the icy cold alcohol stinging the back of this throat.
Why did you break up? What happened?Eli wanted to know why as much as he didn’t.
“Of course he’ll be there.” Grey sighed, and to Eli it sounded like he had the weight of the world thrust suddenly upon his shoulders.
“When things got difficult between me and Peter, it was my side David took. The divorce didn’t only damage me and Peter, it damaged the relationship between the two brothers, which was the last thing I wanted. They’ve managed to sort it out between them, and Peter’s David’s best man. But David’s loyal, he doesn’t forget who his friends are. I owe it to him to go. The wedding’s not until the summer…”
Grey picked up the invite and stared down at it.
“We didn’t have a bad break up, not that there’s such a thing as a good one, so it’s not as though there’s a chance of some kind of scene erupting. Any dust that’s still hanging about should have settled by then. It’ll be awkward, but at least I’ll have done the right thing by David.”
Eli locked his hands together, to stop himself from grabbing Grey by the shoulders and giving him a hard shake.
Going to a wedding where his ex-husband would be swanning around, was not theright thing. But Grey wouldn’t back out. Eli had come to know him enough to realise as much, because doing the right thing was important to Grey.
Eli sucked in his lower lip and clamped it between his teeth. It was why he was here, in the warmth and safety of Grey’s home, because Grey had extended the right thing to him, even if the wrong done to him hadn’t been Grey’s to right.
