Page 95 of The Bad Wedding Date

I sat up straighter, my thoughts going straight to Jonah’s dad, who’d had a lot of bad health in recent years. “Is Gerry okay?”

“He’s good.”

My sigh of relief floated between us. Jonah and his father were exceptionally close, and I dreaded the day he had to endure the phone call that would no doubt shatter his world. “You had me worried for a moment there.”

“Nothing to be worried about.”

But his words didn’t carry the same conviction I was used to, and something about his voice made me frown.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You sound different.”

He cleared his throat. “I got your texts this week. I meant to reply to them all, but I barely had my phone on me.”

“That’s not like you.”

“I know.” He laughed, not quite as sincere as he usual. “London life just got me down for a while. I was dipping in and out mentally, not sure what I wanted or didn’t want anymore.”

“With work?”

“With everything,” he said, those two words sounding like the first honest ones he’d parted with since I’d answered the call. “That’s partly why I couldn’t go to the wedding.”

“It’s okay, I understand. But have you been struggling and not telling me? Because you know I’m always there for you, even though I use you as a sounding board way too often. You know I always appreciate having you listen to me and offering me advice, but… I can do the same for you. Iwantto be there for you.”

“You already do enough.” I visualised the forced, flat smile he would be wearing, seeing him so clearly in my mind as I stared at the wall in front of me.

“You don’t sound like yourself, Jonah.”

“Sometimes, all it takes is a single day to change us, right?”

Fraser’s words came flooding back to me, making my chest tighten. “Sometimes even less than that.”

“Speaking of… how was the wedding of the year? I want all the gossip.”

“I’m surprised it’s taken you this long.” My smile returned when I heard Jonah shuffling around, no doubt getting comfortable before he asked for the gossip I knew he’d be desperate to hear.

“Then don’t leave me waiting any longer. I want to know everything, including what an epic bitch Emelia was.”

Letting my head roll back on the sofa, I looked up at the ceiling with a smile on my face, and I told him all about the big day itself and what had happened after I’d got Jonah’s texts. Who had walked into my life unexpectedly, making me a part of something I never dreamed I’d be a part of, only to win me over without much fight. The details about the bigger picture were left out, obviously. That wasn’t my business, let alone Jonah’s, and I knew it would only freak him out and send him into a tailspin—something I wanted to avoid since he clearly had some things of his own going on now. Things he didn’t want me digging too deeply into.

But I couldn’t help it; I told him about the first kiss, about the time Fraser and I had spent together in the hotel. How I’d had the best sex of my life in the last five days, and I wasn’t sure where to go from here if I never saw Fraser again after saying goodbye to him earlier, and while I gushed and sighed and waxed lyrical about this new man who’d walked into my life, Jonah listened, making the right noises in all the right places.

It was all so very strange for my best friend who usually had so much more to say.

“I guess it turned out you were a psychic after all,” I said after I’d finished explaining how I’d ended up at home tonight.

“I am? What did I do?”

“You told me that if I bumped into a man in a nice suit, I owed it to myself to have fun with him. That’s what I did, Jo. I did it for you, and in the end, I got something pretty amazing for myself.”

There was a moment of silence. “I only ever want what’s best for you, Char. I hope you know that. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me the most.”

“I could say the same thing.”

“You weren’t to know the trouble I was in.”

After a few more minutes of mindless chatter, we ended the call, with Jonah promising to be back at work next week. It wasn’t until after I’d tossed my phone down on the sofa beside me and I let my shoulders relax that I realised just how tense I’d been about Jonah’s weird vow of silence over the last few days and how relieved I was to know that he was safe.

Satisfied, I made my way to bed, stopping off to brush my teeth and wash my face on the way. Climbing under the thick duvet in my pyjamas felt strange after days of slipping beneath hotel sheets in nothing but my skin. I’d always loved being cosy in bed. I’d always adored curling up in soft, brushed cotton fabric, with nobody around and no one to steal my space or my peace.

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