Gabby grinned, feeling a little more relaxed, but she was still scanning the crowd, feeling further disappointed when no one fitting Chad’s description jumped out.
Eventually, they made their way to the table, which was already filled up with a few women she knew from town, and a few she didn’t. A portly man was sitting in the chair beside hers, and she was just about to kindly ask that he find his assigned seat when he looked up and she realized with a shock that she was looking at Chad. Those eyes were unmistakable even if the rest of him was…different.
“Gabby Conway?” He grinned that same grin that was certainly resistible now and motioned for her to sit down. “Thought that was you.”
Had she changed that much? She laughed nervously. No, she had not. Her hair was still the same, her style too, whereas Chad… So he had doubled in size, she told herself. It wasn’t just his good looks that had caught her attention all those years back. It was his laugh, his good nature, his achingly charming demeanor. He had charisma, something not many boys back then had. Certainly not Doug.
She swallowed hard and pulled back her chair, noticing the surprise flit through Doug’s eye as he did the same. It would seem that it had taken him a moment to recognize Chad, too.
She heard the low rumble of laughter beside her as Doug took his seat. She kept her chin high, inhaled and exhaled. Slowly.
“And Doug Monroe!” Chad said loudly. “Remember the nickname we used to have for you?”
Gabby saw Doug’s mouth set. “Oh, Chad, after all these years, I’m sure you have better things to do with your time than think about high school.” Though his tone was good-natured, there was a decided edge to it.
“I can see you haven’t changed at all!” Chad laughed heartily, as if expecting everyone else to get the joke, but seemed unphased when they didn’t and politely went back to their own conversations.
Gabby looked at Doug, but he refused to meet his eye. His jaw tensed when he reached for his glass.
Chad slurped his wine and set it on the table with enough force to cause some of the red liquid to slosh onto the formerly crisp, white tablecloth. Gabby felt her blood pressure rise. The reception had only just begun and already this table was stained. This was how wedding gowns were ruined. It was a good thing Brooke wasn’t here to witness this; Gabby was fully aware that Brooke had to resist asking everyone who entered her shop to wear gloves.
She darted a glance to the head table, hoping that the bride stayed away and that Chad was the only inebriated guest, especially this early into the reception.
Chad casually flagged the waiter over and accepted a fresh glass of wine from the tray, and then he extended his other hand, grabbing a second glass.
For a moment, she thought it was a chivalrous gesture—even though she would never run the risk of drinking red wine at a wedding—until she watched in horror as Chad triumphantly set both glasses in front of him.
He winked at her. “Best part of a wedding, if you ask me. Free booze.”
Gabby felt her back teeth graze.
“So, Chad, what have you been up to? You went to Penn, right?” She told herself that it wasn’t sad she remembered this fact. Blue Harbor was small and details like this were shared, even if years had passed since Chad had been back to town.
She saw Doug’s eyebrow twitch when she reached for her wineglass. So yes, she’d remembered this detail. She’d remembered a lot about Chad. Sadly, she could probably still recite his senior year schedule if she tried, because of how many days she’d orchestrated passing by his locker at the exact right time.
“For a year,” Chad said. “Got injured at the end of my first season. Didn’t have the grades to keep my scholarship either, so, I was out.”
She blinked at him, then tried to take extreme interest in her salad course. “Oh, did you transfer?”
“No, just started doing odd jobs here and there. Eventually got married. Had a kid.” He wiggled his left hand. “Divorced now.”
She gave him a look of sympathy. “I see. I’m sorry.” She waited for the hope to build in her chest the way it might have once, but nothing was there.
His eyes narrowed, and his gaze drifted somewhere into the distance. “Better off. She was bad news, but not as bad as my second wife.”
Gabby felt her eyes widen as she reached for the breadbasket, which Doug all too eagerly passed to her without having to be asked. It was going to be another comfort food night. No sense in worrying about getting lettuce stuck between her teeth either.
Through the remainder of the salad course, she listened to the details of Chad’s first marriage, from the brief run-ins with the law for unpaid parking tickets and other “misunderstandings,” as he was sure to tell her, to the child he never saw, to the support payments he was still expected to send.
By the time the main course had been set before her, Chad had moved on to the details of his second marriage…and his next set of wine, because she didn’t know what else to call it. A pair?
She sipped her drink miserably and looked over at Doug, who was supposed to be her wingman, after all, only to realize that he was seated beside a woman who wouldn’t stop adjusting her hair and batting her eyelashes, giggling nervously.
While pretty enough, it was clear that she was eager and didn’t have very much to say, and that Doug was having about as miserable a time as Gabby was.
He caught her eye, seeming to exhale in visible relief.
“Excuse me,” he said politely to the woman beside him as he started to stand, “but I’ve ignored my date all evening and I promised her a dance.”
The woman looked so disappointed
