‘Nope,’ Eva smiled.
Maddy blinked. ‘Who are you?’ she asked.
Eva smiled, a little breathless, a little reckless. ‘I don’t know.’
Something shifted in Maddy’s expression. ‘You’re serious,’ she said.
Eva nodded. ‘Yeah. I am.’
Maddy let out a slow breath, like she was testing the idea, turning it over in her mind.
‘Okay,’ Maddy said.
Eva blinked. ‘Okay?’
Maddy nodded, a small, disbelieving smile tugging at her mouth. ‘Okay.’
Something bright and giddy sparked in Eva’s chest. ‘Okay,’ she echoed. ‘Let’s go.’
They were still talking, half-laughing, half-processing, when they reached the car park.
But the fun stopped abruptly. They weren’t alone.
Adam stood near the cars, jacket off, sleeves rolled up. Beside him was Mary, holding a very large steaming cup of what was hopefully strong coffee. Maddy’s mother, Kelly, stood a little apart, arms folded, her expression flat. Hannah was telling her it could still be fine, the bloody lunatic.
Adam’s dad, Harry, was holding up his phone, set to the calculator app, which showed a number. ‘This!’ he was saying to Ralph. ‘This is the proportion of the day that you need to refund. My son was only responsible for twenty-five percent of the problems.’
Ralph, who looked more tired than anyone in all of human history had ever been, was shaking his head. Nearby, Adam’s mum’s eyes were rolling.
Eva and Maddy came to a quick halt, the gravel crunching underfoot. All eyes turned toward them, side by side and suddenly very visible.
Fifty-One
Maddy stopped so abruptly that Eva nearly walked into her.
The car park, which had seemed like simply a space they might pass through on their way to whatever lay ahead, was rammed full of no one Maddy wanted to see just now.
‘Maddy,’ Adam said. He sounded like someone trying very hard to keep things from getting worse than they already were. ‘Can we just talk about this for a second?’
Maddy opened her mouth. Nothing came out. Because whatwasthere to say? Where did you even start when the last twenty minutes of your life had included cancelling a wedding, discovering infidelity, kissing your wedding planner, and agreeing to run away together?
Mary, unfortunately, had no such hesitation.
‘I’m leaving the library and going to rehab,’ she announced, to no one and everyone at once. ‘I owe us both that, Maddy.’
‘Mary,’ Adam said tightly, ‘please.’
‘But secrets are what cause these things,’ she ploughed on. ‘And if I’d just kept quiet, then—’
‘Youshouldhave kept quiet,’ Adam snapped.
‘She knew what happened, Adam,’ Mary said. ‘The cat was out of the bag. So don’t pretend I ruined your wedding.’
‘I didn’t know,’ Maddy said.
Mary froze. ‘You didn’t?’
‘No,’ Maddy replied. ‘That wasn’t…’ She stopped. Because everyone was looking at her.
