Page 137 of Summer with the Single Dad

“From your mouth to the universe’s ears.”

“How’s Justine today?” Dom asked, mopping up a wet spot on the bar.

“I don’t know. She was off last night, and I didn’t know why. Then I found out she spoke with that douche. I went to talk to her this morning, but she’d already headed to yoga with Brooke.”

“They’re spending all day at the spa though, right? Like she’s not coming back here?”

“No. She’s not coming back here until later. I’m glad she’s going to the spa. I just wish we’d had a chance to speak first.”

He sipped his club soda, relishing the way it cooled down his entire body. He hadn’t noticed until he set his glass down on the bar that Tad wasn’t that far away anymore. He was standing on the fringes, easily within eavesdropping distance. How much of Dom and Bennett’s conversation did he hear?

The bride’s mother, dressed in a long, light-blue gown with—in Bennett’s opinion—way too many sequins, came into the dining room. “It’s almost three. Why aren’t people down at the beach?”

Tad glanced at Bennett. “Isn’t it your job to let us know when it’s time?”

The crowd began to funnel out the front door and head to the chairs on the beach.

Jagger and Bennett fell in line behind the stragglers, ushering them around the corner of the pub and down to the sand, where white folding chairs were set up in several rows with an aisle between them. A cute altar made of driftwood, which Bennett borrowed from a generous islander, sat at the end of the aisle, adorned with flowers from another generous islander’s garden. The minister was already there, waiting.

Once the guests were seated to the music of a string quartet off to the side, the procession started.

First, Tad was escorted down the aisle by his mother, who kissed him on the cheek, then found her seat beside Tad’s father in the front row. Then it was the Best Man with the Maid of Honor. And finally, the song changed, everyone stood, and out came Ashli—with a fucking crown—on the arm of her father.

“Is the Princess actually wearing a crown?” Jagger murmured to Clint as they stood at the back in the shade, with their hands clasped in front of them like good marines.

“It would appear so.”

“I cannot wait for this day to be fucking over.”

“Amen, brother.”

Ashli’s dad kissed her cheek and passed her off to Tad, then he went to the other side of the aisle to sit with Ashli’s mother.

The bride’s dress was flowy enough that you indeed couldn’t see her baby bump. If they’d waited another few weeks, that might not have been the case.

Even though it was probably no more than five minutes, the minister’s speech seemed to last forever. Nearly every guest fanned themselves with the program, as the sun beat down on all their heads with zero remorse.

“And now,” the minister started, “I must ask if there is any reason in which these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony, that you speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

The only sound heard was the chirp of a nearby bird and the soft lapping of the waves at slack tide.

Maybe Bennett was imagining things, but he could have sworn he saw Ashli exhale in relief.

The minister smiled and nodded. “All right then, we may—”

“Wait!” Footsteps thundered down the earth and onto the sand, and a man with dark hair, a gray T-shirt, and jeans ran to the back of the aisle. “I have something to say.”

Gasps echoed through the guests.

“Joey, no!” Ashli pleaded.

“You can’t do this to me, Ashli. That could be my baby. I deserve to know if I’m going to be a father. And you deserve to know that I love you and want to be with you.”

Bennett’s jaw nearly hit the sand.

“Oh, this is so fucking good,” Jagger said with excitement. He already had his phone out and was turning on the video recorder. “I should have brought popcorn.”

“What the hell is going on?” Tad demanded. “Who is this guy? What is he talking about?”

---