Page 63 of For the Promise

I wave my wedding ring at her. “Newly married.”

She starts to speak but I hurl questions at her before she has a chance to spout another nasty remark.

“Did you pick out your wedding rings together? Or is it a surprise? Alan does love giving surprises.”

Crappy surprises delivered by a process server. The asshole.

The door behind Stacey opens up and a woman I recognize from the rehearsal dinner as one of Stacey’s bridesmaids pops her head out. “They’re ready for us.”

Stacey whirls around and stomps to the door. I debate escaping but the temptation of annoying Alan’s fiancée all morning is too much for me to resist. I follow her into the spa, where three other women are waiting for us.

“Who’s this?” one of them asks.

“This is Alan’s ex-wife,” Stacey says. Damn. I thought she believed our charade.

“I’m not Alan’s ex-wife. We were never married.”

“Really?” Stacey crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. “You didn’t own a house together?”

“You don’t have to be married to own a house together.”

“You acted as husband and wife.”

Someone obviously thinks she can somehow get me to trip up, and therefore, Alan will win the lawsuit. Not on my watch.

“Nope. Alan was never my husband. He never proposed. He never gave me a ring. We never said our vows. Unlike Jaxon.” I sigh as I study my ring. “He whisked me away for our wedding.”

“Sounds romantic,” one of the bridesmaids says.

“Oh, sorry.” I pretend to startle. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Blossom.”

“I’m Jenny. And this is Amy and Tiffany.”

“We’re the bridesmaids,” Amy says.

I scan the room. “I thought there were five of you.”

Tiffany giggles. “Emily and Paula are indisposed.”

“Indisposed how?”

Jenny rolls her eyes. “Emily can’t handle her tequila, and Paula picked up one of the groomsmen.”

“Which one?” I ask as I sit next to her. “Do you have a picture?”

She digs her phone out of her purse and flips through the pictures until she finds the image. “I don’t remember his name.”

Unfortunately, I recognize him. “It’s Glen. He’s one of Alan’s best friends.”

Tiffany peers over Jenny’s shoulders. “He’s cute.”

“He’s a player.” Glen always gave me the creeps. He was not discriminate about where he’d stick his dick. In fact, he hit on me more than once. Pretty much every time he got drunk, he’d corner me and try to get me to give him a ‘taste’.

“Glen isn’t a player anymore,” Stacey says.

“He picked up Paula.” Picking up a bridesmaid the night before the wedding is the definition of player.

“They’ve been circling around each other for months now.”

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