Page 123 of The Bad Wedding Date

I turned on the cold water to clear away the mess and drown out the noise.

That didn’t stop the cold sweat that ran down my spine and across my forehead.

Penn Ridgely hired them.

My ex-boyfriend. A man I’d once laid beside and allowed to touch my body. A man I’d once shared my life with, telling him things I didn’t tell anyone else.

He’d put me in danger.

My body didn’t believe it.

Neither did my mind.

But my heart…

My heart knew.

The way Penn had spoken to me at the wedding, mocking Fraser for being my date. The fact he’d looked at Fraser in a way that had made me think he knew him before that night, as though he hated him. Penn’s need to track me down at work and warn me about… what? A false threat? Had all that been made up as part of his sick plan? The photographs of Fraser and I together. That had Penn written all over it. He always had had a thing for taking pictures and using them to his advantage—something I’d experienced already when our relationship ended, and he threatened to use private pictures we’d taken to humiliate me if I didn’t tell people that he’d ended it with me, not the other way around.

He’d even made sure he ‘bumped into’ my father to play his games.

I felt fuckingstupidfor not having thought of him sooner.

All our attention and focus had been on Matteo. I hadn’t even imagined it could be anyone elsebuthim.

Bile rose in my throat again, forcing me to lean forward and empty it into the sink while I felt a strong hand running up and down my back. And there I was thinking things couldn’t get any worse.

Resting my elbows on the edge of the bowl, I let my head fall into my hands, and I groaned.

“Are you okay?” Fraser asked, his hand moving in a way that made it feel like he had magical powers that could heal me.

“That’s a stupid question,” I grumbled.

“I think it’s valid.”

“Really?” I stared into the sink. “Well, okay then. Here goes. I’ve been sitting here for hours, not knowing what you were doing or if you were safe—if I was safe. Then, when you do return, you tell me that my ex-boyfriend, who has been out of my life for six very long and peaceful years, has now hired someone to break into my apartment and… what? Scare me? Threaten me? Who even knows?” I begrudgingly spat out a little of the nasty taste, grateful for the tap being on and washing it away. “There’s a creepy former chef out there terrorising women, too, and my family and my sister’s new family just so happen to be involved with him in whatever capacity I know nothing about. He could also be out there trying to frighten me because he knows I’m involved with you. And to topallof that off, I’ve just emptied the entire contents of my stomach into a gorgeous porcelain sink in front of the guy I’m actually a little crazy about. He heard me retching, he saw me spitting, and I’m pretty sure he saw something coming out of my nose, too. So, no, Fraser. I’m not okay. I’ve never been less okay. I’m actually pretty fucking terrible right now.”

His hand stilled on my back, and he reached over to brush my hair away from my face, allowing me to look up at his reflection in the mirror. It was a new kind of torture seeing how perfect he looked while I no doubt had mascara smudged under my eyes and remnants of vomit across my lips, but that look he gave me made my heart pitter-patter anyway.

Or maybe I was going to throw up again.

“What can I do?” he asked, his voice as calm as ever.

“Not look so handsome. That would be a start.”

He laid a look on me that told me not to be ridiculous, but I saw the smile he tried to hold back.

Pushing up from the sink, I filled my hands with cold water and poured it over my face, letting the icy coolness of it take over before I shook out my palms. Before I could reach for a towel, Fraser had one in my hands, and I ran it down over my face and mouth, dragging it down to my chin and holding it there as I looked at myself in the mirror.

I’d seen better days.

Fraser came to stand behind me, wrapping his hands around my waist and resting his chin on top of my head. I caught his gaze in the mirror.

“How did my life become this much of a mess?” I asked him.

“You met me.”

I blew out a breath, already feeling better from having him wrapped around me. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

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