‘I think so,’ he hedged.
‘Well, Kenzie is booked in with a client here today, what was your name?’
‘That sounds right, what time was it?’
‘Ten-thirty, but if you let me know the party name, I can make sure—’
‘Thanks so much for your help. You’ve been great,’ Ewan cut in quickly before hanging up. Now he knew where she’d be, he could speak to her and sort this mess out.
Ewan spotted Kenzie’s car parked nearby, breathing a sigh of relief. He’d hoped to time it so he’d be able to catch her after the meeting and, at eleven-thirty on the dot, he spotted her shaking hands and smiling as she farewelled a young couple with the kind of warm smile shehadn’tshared with him.
He forced himself to remain in his car until she’d almost reached her own vehicle before opening his door and calling out her name.
He felt bad for the shock he read on her face when she saw him, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, surprise rapidly turning to wary disapproval.
‘My phone calls weren’t working, so I was forced to resort to other measures. I have onevery unhappyfiancée who is determined to keep you as our wedding planner. What will it take to fix this?’ he asked, getting straight to the point.
‘There’s nothing to fix. Under the circumstances, I can’t in good faith continue to work with you and your fiancée.’
‘I don’t see why not. What happened between us was years ago.’
‘Have you told Sasha?’ she asked pointedly.
The question caught him off guard. ‘No,’ he admitted.
‘Sasha doesn’t strike me as the kind of woman who would react too kindly to finding out her fiancé and her wedding planner have history.’
‘She doesn’t have to find out,’ he said, then cringed as he heard how that sounded.
‘So you’re just going to lie to her?’
‘Of course not. There’s just no reason she needs to know about something that happened so long ago. I mean, we spent a night together. It’s not like it was serious.’ Her face changed to something like fury, and he immediately regretted his words. ‘I didn’t mean … that is—’ he stammered until she cut him off.
‘Of course it didn’tmeananything. But I have my reputation to think about. I don’t need an irate bride going around telling everyone that her event manager hid the fact she’d slept with the groom.’
‘I’m not sure the alternative will be much better if you dump her and she has to find someone else,’ he pointed out. ‘I think the only way to solve the problem—for everyone—is to continue, without bringing up the past.’
He saw her anger dissolve in a flash of something that looked suspiciously like fear. It was gone in an instant, so perhaps he’d misread it?
But a lingering niggle remained, which made him wonder what it was about all this he didn’t yet understand.
Five
Kenzie swore silently. This whole situation was impossible. Why couldn’t this guy have just remained some nameless, faceless stranger from her past? Why had he turned up now, stalking her while she worked?
He seemed nice enough, if clearly desperate to placate his bride-to-be, but they were still stuck in the same ridiculous position as before. She couldn’t work for him, but it seemed like she couldn’t not work for him either.
‘Can we go and have a coffee or something?’ he asked, surprising her. ‘I just feel like we got off on the wrong foot and if we had time to sit and get everything out in the open, it would clear the air and get us back on track.’
God, if he only knew how much more complicated his life would get if they goteverythingout in the open. Still, she reluctantly found herself agreeing.
They found a table inside a small cafe a few doors down, and Kenzie tried to ignore the bubble of anxiety-induced nausea in her stomach. She took the opportunity to study him while he was ordering their drinks. She’d thought she’d forgotten what he looked like, but she’d instantly recognised him the other day. It was funny how the mind worked. Maybe she just hadn’twantedto remember him? The shock of a positive pregnancy test, and realising her carefully planned future had been completely turned upside down, hadn’t done much to endear him to her.
Looking at him now, memories of their night together flooded back. Admittedly, much of it had been spent in the dark; the lights strobing in the nightclub had made it impossible to tell what colour his eyes were, but she’d still been able to see his strong features. Those cheekbones and his strong chin were exactly the way she remembered, but in daylight, there were so many other things that she could instantly recognise, and knew by heart—because they were the traits she saw every day in her daughter.
She has his eyes.They were the same shape and the same colour exactly—that was probably the most striking similarity—but the way he had held his head when he was listening? She was sure Poppy did that exact same thing too.
