Page 103 of How to Ruin a Wedding

He blinks. “You know me?”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Bethany shouts, storming over. She grabs the bouquet of flowers in his hands, slaps his face with them, then tosses them to the side.

Valerie hesitates behind her aunt, her eyes wide, her body moving like weights hold down every muscle.

“Valerie—” He tries to approach, but Bethany blocks his path.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?”

He looks Bethany up and down in a way that makes me inch closer to them. “I was invited.”

“The hell you were,” Bethany says.

Valerie finally moves at a normal speed, grabbing Bethany and pushing her to the side. Her expression is unreadable as she looks up at him. “You brought flowers,” she points out. “I’m getting married soon. This is my Jack and Jill. What are you trying to do here?”

“I want you back,” he says. “I don’t care that you’re getting married. I don’t care about the age difference. I don’t care what your family thinks. We should have never broken up.”

A hush settles in the room as every single person stops what they’re doing to watch.

I cannot help but insert myself. “How old are you?”

He glares at me, probably wondering who the hell I am and why I would ask that during his confession, then brings his attention back to Valerie.

Jennifer whispers beside me. “He’s pushing fifty.”

“Fifty.” I’ve lost all sense of control. “Isn’t he in his twenties?”

Jennifer frowns at me. “Do you mean his son? They have the same name. Are you confused?”

There’s a sudden pounding behind my eyes. A hammering of different bundles of information bouncing around in my head, trying to make sense of things, but the nails loosen as soon as they are pounded into a board. Taina is so thorough when checking someone’s info; I’m not sure how she could have messed this up.

She must have seen the younger Nick and assumed that was Valerie’s ex. Not the man who could have been her father. Daddy issues or not, that age gap is something I’m not entirely sure I can get behind.

Thisis who Valerie keeps thinking about?

“Get out”—Valerie shoves him—“and don’t ever show your face here again.”

Olive, who apparently has a sixth sense for too-adult conversations, appears dragging something behind her. When she tries to pass Valerie, I see she’s holding a bat.

“Jesus.” I hurry over and snatch it before she takes one of us out.

“Yeah, you’re stronger,” Olive notes. “You hit him.”

I pry the bat from her and toss it away from anyone’s reach. “I think we all need to regroup here.”

Nick steps forward. “How are you going to invite me, then take it back now that I’m here?”

“I didn’t invite you,” Valerie snaps, looking back at Bethany with wide eyes. “I swear I didn’t!”

Nick snatches his phone from his pocket and holds out the screen, showing the messages Taina and I sent back and forth with him. My cheeks burn. This is not at all how I envisioned this happening. This was supposed to be a warm reunion between two age-appropriate adults who were meant to find their way back to each other.

Valerie jerks back. “That is not me.”

“What?” he stammers, then he types into the phone and holds it to his ear.

I take a step back, ready to leave. I’m too slow to realize before it’s too late. Before Olive pulls my phone from her pocket, the screen lit up with Nick’s phone call.

“Olive?” Valerie shouts.