Page 102 of The Love Haters

“See what coming?”

“They’d been dating a few years, so I’d met her a few times—mostly just in passing. I’d been stationed in Kodiak for four years, so I didn’t get down to the lower forty-eight that much.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling like this was a slow start.

“On the night of their rehearsal dinner, she got really drunk and grabbed the karaoke mic and made an announcement to everybody there that she… wanted me, instead.”

“I’m sorry—what?”

Hutch sighed. “She said she’d fallen in love at first sight. With me. The first time we met. Seeing me again at the wedding party, she didn’t think she could go through with marrying Cole. She said she couldn’t spend her whole life withthe next best thingand then she called Colea poor man’s Hutch.”

“Oof,” I said.

“I know.”

“That is harsh.”

“I agree.”

“Did Cole hear her say all that?”

“He was right there. Next to her. On the stage.”

Another crack of thunder. George Bailey started panting.

Hutch went on. “Then she said she wanted to switch.”

“Switch what? Switchmen?”

Hutch nodded. “And then she proposed to me. Right there. From the stage. In front of everybody.”

“So what you’re saying is that Cole’s fiancée dumped him at their rehearsal dinner and proposed to you—all in the same sentence?”

“Effectively—yeah. But she never dumped him. She just wanted to trade up.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then she took a run at me. But a bunch of groomsmen tackled her and hauled her out of the room, writhing like a caught tuna and shouting, ‘Hutch! Come find me later!’ Then adding that she wasn’t wearing panties.”

“I’m guessing you did not go find her later.”

Hutch nodded in confirmation. “I did not.”

“I take it they didn’t wind up getting married?”

“No, actually—theydid.”

I looked over. “Theydidget married?”

Hutch nodded. “They talked that night after she sobered up—and decided to go ahead with everything.”

“Must have been a heck of a talk.”

“She told him that I’dentrappedher. That was the word she used. And somehow, after that, her no-panties karaoke became all my fault.”

“But itwasn’tyour fault!”

“My brother disagrees.”

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