The Wedding Planner. Eve Devon

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      Nearly.

      Not actually, thank God.

      Because Gloria finding out where he went most nights?

      The Captain Kirk inside him might think it was worth brazening out just to see her reaction.

      The Spock inside him told him if he wanted any chance of living long and prospering, not to be so stupid.

      ‘So what are you reading?’ he asked, his gaze snatching on her other prop. ‘Is it for Book Club?’

      ‘Oh my God, Book Club …’ Immediately she started trying to shove the book into her small bag without him seeing the cover. ‘I have to leave Book Club. I can’t take it anymore.’

      ‘Anymore?’ He laughed. ‘There’ve only been two meetings.’ Juliet had set up the book club, which met in Cocktails & Chai every other week.

      ‘It’s awful,’ Gloria said, with a shake of her head. ‘Crispin keeps choosing romance books.’

      ‘What’s wrong with romance books?’

      ‘You mean apart from the part where it’s all mahoosive BS?’

      ‘You think romance is massive bullshit?’

      ‘I think books based around those six deadly words, is.’

      ‘Six?’ Seth was no mathlete but even he knew ‘I Love You’ was only three words. ‘Your problem is you’ve had too little romance in your life.’

      She did the contemplative stare down at the apple thing again and then added softly, ‘I’m not totally averse to the “I Love You” stuff. I get it makes the world go round.’

      Something inside of him broke free so that little remote robots, like the kind found in bomb disposal units, scuttled quickly to the unidentified feeling within him and dealt with it by rolling it back up and pushing it back into the box it had appeared from.

      ‘It’s what happens afterwards I have the problem with,’ she added.

      ‘Something to do with those six words?’

      ‘You know the ones,’ she sighed, then lifted her hands up and moved them apart as if to showcase a headline. ‘And They Lived Happily Ever After’.

      Even in his cynical state there was something so sad about her absolute conviction. Like for her those six words would always amount to six hundred degrees of separation from the world.

      ‘You don’t believe in Happily Ever After?’

      She glanced at her watch presumably to check how much time she had left on her lunch break and relaxed back against the tree. After a few moments she said, quietly, ‘It’s like everyone thinks it’s an actual place and once they’re there that’s it. They don’t have to do anything. They just have to be.’

      ‘In Happily Ever After Land?’ he finished for her.

      ‘Exactly. Like it’s some Nirvana. I mean,’ she turned her head to look at him, ‘what a load of crock, right?’

      ‘There she is,’ he said looking back at her relieved.

      ‘There who is?’

      ‘The cynic.’

      ‘Thank you,’ she said with a nod before shooting him a look from under her lashes. ‘You’ve missed her, right?’

      Idly he wondered what kind of man could get her to believe in And They Lived Happily Ever After again but because he suspected they might not actually exist, and because her cynicism was a known factor and therefore easier to deal with, he confirmed, ‘I actually have. And to think all it took to bring her back out was getting asked to be a bridesmaid.’

      ‘Well, don’t worry. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of her. The cynic, that is. Not the bridesmaid.’

      ‘What do you mean not the bridesmaid?’ He’d been thinking the wedding was going to be much easier to handle if he got to tease her about having to be a bridesmaid.

      ‘I’m about to be fired from the role.’

      ‘Emma isn’t going to fire you from being her bridesmaid.’

      ‘She most definitely is.’

      He watched her carefully. ‘You look a little sad about that.’

      ‘It’s for the best,’ she replied, nibbling at the apple.

      Deliberately he plucked the fruit from her hand so she had nothing to hide behind when he asked, ‘Are you sure about that?’

      Gloria’s eyelids slid swiftly down to cover her eyes and when they lifted again her expression was emphatic. ‘Who wants a bridesmaid with the ability to go rogue at the drop of a wedding hat? Have you ever in the history of bridesmaid tales heard the one about the bridesmaid arbitrarily picking out a wedding date for the engaged couple, and then telling everyone else about it before them?’She looked thoroughly unimpressed with herself. ‘I proper stuffed up, Seth.’

      ‘Emma is not going to sack you, okay? Have faith.’

      She shrugged and lifted her determined gaze to his. ‘At least now I won’t have to be all high-school cheerleader “Oh, my God, this is, like, SO exciting” about every little wedding detail, when what I’d really be fighting to stop myself saying, is “I lost interest in this conversation the moment you lead with, “Off-white or Ivory: discuss.”’

      ‘You wouldn’t do that.’

      ‘I would. You know absolutely that I would. No. It’s for the best.’

      ‘What if you could let the wedding cynic come out when Emma and Jake aren’t around?’

      ‘And who would I unleash it on?’

      He pointed to himself.

      ‘You?’

      ‘Not exactly a subscriber to the Joy of Matrimony here, either, remember?’

      ‘The Joy of Sex however?’ Gloria snorted and added, ‘Sweet Beth my arse.’

      He didn’t dare tell her that he’d turned down Sweet Beth’s offer for fear of being ripped to shreds in two or three easy sentences from the woman he was sitting next to. She’d been telling him to get back out there for months. Apparently Daniel Westlake’s and Emma Danes’ arrival in Whispers Wood was a fluke. Appropriately-aged human beings of good character and relatively normal baggage didn’t flock to quaint villages in West Sussex. If he was determined to make his home here, he needed to be ready so that on the off-chance someone decent came to town he wouldn’t still be divorce-damaged and miss out on the opportunity.

      ‘So when do you think this firing is going to take place?’ Maybe he could get to Emma first and prepare her that Gloria was feeling … feeling … well, actually feeling and Emma could reassure her.

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