Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 07

Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 07

Ian stopped where he stood. “What do you mean, changed the venue?”

“Iknow this hotel. They only do one wedding a day, and somebody else is already having theirs

here.”

Jake’s voice was fast and rattled.

“What is going on? We’re all here and now you’re telling us it moved?”

Ian’s hand tightened around the phone.

Somebody else was having theirs?

But he hadn’t canceled the booking.

The wedding had only been pushed to today, and the planner hadn’t said there was any problem.

He hung up, scrolled to Lindsey’s number, and called.

It rang three times and connected.

“Mr. Cole?”

“What’s going on at the hotel? I booked that space, and somebody else is having a wedding in it?”

Lindsey paused, like she couldn’t follow.

“Mr. Cole, didn’t you say everything about the wedding was up to Ms. Hart?”

Ian’s brows pulled together. “I did say that. But it was only a one–week delay.”

“Right, a one–week delay.”

Lindsey sounded confused.

“Ms. Hart said the week gave us time to redo the décor, rework the run of show, and change the catering over to Mr. Doyle’s guest list.”

“She also paid us extra, and she said she was sorry for the trouble.”

“Mr. Cole, maybe you should talk to Ms. Hart and see whether there’s been some misunderstanding.”

Ian’s throat worked.

A one–week delay, so the whole thing could be reworked?

What was that woman up to?

He swallowed the anger and dialed her number.

But the number he hadn’t called in a week was still sitting on her block list.

Then Jake called again.

“Man, more family and friends keep showing up and they’re all standing out on the sidewalk. Send

me the new address.”

Ian didn’t know what to say.

He hung up, grabbed his car keys, and headed out.

They’d spent three months on that wedding, start to finish.

Everything had been the best, the most fitting, the kind of thing nobody would regret.

He didn’t believe she’d throw it away just by saying so.

When he pulled up at the hotel, he could see the welcome board from a distance.

Gold letters on white. The Doyle and Lane Wedding.

Guests drifted in a few at a time, and laughter and music came out of the ballroom, warm and full.

His friends stood on the steps outside, and every face was worse than the last.

Jake saw him and came over fast, keeping his voice down.

“I asked. This is Faye’s business partner, Doyle.”

“She gave the ballroom to Doyle for free? Where is she?”

Ian didn’t answer.

Jake asked another question beside him. “Stop standing there. Where does Faye live? We’ll all go

over.”

“If she’s still upset about that game at the party, we’ll go apologize together.”

That was the line, but the looks on their faces gave them away.

Every one of those faces said this was overkill, that it was nothing, that she was blowing it up.

They thought she was throwing a tantrum, being difficult, using a wedding to make a point.

But Ian stood there looking at the Doyle and Lane sign, and it hit him with a kind of horror.

She wasn’t throwing a tantrum.

When she was angry, she yelled and fought and asked him with red eyes what he actually thought She was to him, and he’d dreaded those times.

But now she didn’t yell, didn’t fight, and didn’t speak at all.

He’d always thought her fights gave him a headache. Now he understood that the silence was the

end of it.

“Come on, we’ll go to her parents‘ place. She went home to get ready…”

He turned toward the car, and when he opened the door, he stopped.

Seven years, and he’d never once learned the way to her parents‘ house.

Every time she’d sat in the passenger seat, telling him to turn right at the next light, telling him the house was behind the big maple at the end of the street.

He drove, and she gave directions.

Now she wasn’t there, and he couldn’t even remember which corner the maple she was always

mentioning was on.

“Everybody go home,” he said, and his voice came out wrecked. “There’s no wedding.”