Chapter Seventeen
“Good news! His wife doesn’t care, as long as she can watch.”
“CRAP.”
Coffee slopped over the table, soaked under Nate’s notebook, and puddled muddily in the shallow saucer. Nate snatched his book and held it out of the way in one hand as he scooted the chair back to avoid the spillover. The legs of the chair scraped on the polished wooden floor. He glanced around for something to mop up the mess with and found nothing.
The little coffee shop was tucked into a sea-view corner of the Granshire. It had excellent coffee, an eclectic aesthetic of surfboards and bleached wood, and apparently no napkins.
Nate grimaced as coffee dripped down his arm, and he glanced toward the counter to catch someone’s attention. The girl behind the counter nodded, held up a finger for “just a second,” and rattled through ringing up an order of two hot chocolates and a huge slice of cake.
By the time she got finished with that, grabbed a cloth, and ducked out from behind the long, confectionary-laden counter, most of the coffee had migrated to the floor.
Nate shook his notebook out—the pages were already stained and wrinkled along the edge—and rescued the rest of his things from the table. The shell of his well-chewed Bic was half full of coffee, but his phone had gotten away unscathed.
“I’ll get this, sir,” the barista chirped. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Sorry,” Nate said as he stood up. He glanced at his pen, sighed, and tossed it toward the bin. It dropped into the metal case just as Katie walked in arm in arm with her maid of honor. It took a second for Nate to scrape her name up out of his mind, but he got there—Hannah Daley. Both of them were exfoliated and beaming. He’d told reception to give the bridal party a free pass to the spa when they arrived. Cynical, maybe, but he wanted them in the best mood possible. He raised a hand to acknowledge her and gave the barista an apologetic grimace. “I’ll have to change tables. I have a meeting.”
Her smile slipped a little bit—that meant one more table to clean up at the end of the workday—but she nodded agreeably.
“Of course, sir,” she said. “I’ll get you a refill now.”
Nate left her to soak up the spill and went to greet Katie. He touched her arm and leaned in to kiss her cheek. Her skin was peachy soft and smelled of salt and lavender.
“You look lovely,” he said.
“We had a wonderful time at the spa,” she said as she gave him a hug. “Thank you so much for booking us in. It was just what I needed.”
“That’s good,” Nate said.
Hannah gave him a curious look. “Is everything all right?” she asked. “You look a bit stressed.”
“Well, he’s making my wedding go perfectly,” Katie laughed. She nudged her friend. “Imagine if this were all down to you.”
Hannah raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Imagine if I’d said no.”
Well, that was the perfect opportunity to break the news. Natehadbeen hoping for a bit more time to ease into the conversation, but he supposed it wouldn’t make a difference in the end.
“Actually, that was what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said as he put his hand in the small of her back. “Come and sit down.”
Worry creased Katie’s face. “Is it the dress?” she asked. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth. Her eyes were huge over the cage of her fingers. “Oh God. Did Bradley lose the rings?”
Next to her, Hannah sniffed and crossed her arms. “More likely that mother of his.” The wordmothercame out as if it were a curse. “She probably shaved his head.”
“Ah, no,” Nate said. He pressed gently on Katie’s back to get her moving. “Nothing like that. We did have a bit of a situation, but I think I have it resolved.”
A huge sigh escaped Katie as she walked toward the window. “Youthink?”she said.
Nate led her to a table tucked next to the window. It had a sweeping view down to the rocky shore and the high tide that covered the sand. He pulled out a chair for her and then turned to do the same for Hannah.
“That’s up to you,” he said. “Just let me explain.”
“Please,” Katie said. She clutched Hannah’s hand on the table tightly enough that her knuckles poked white and bony against moisturized skin. “I knew this was going to go wrong. Ever since Brad was delayed, I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
She looked on the verge of a panic attack, despite the reassuring noises Hannah made. Nate glanced at the barista, mouthed “tea” at her, and held up three fingers. While she went to make that, Nate turned his attention back to the table.
“We had a flood,” he said. “In the wedding chapel.”
