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“He doesn’t agree.”
“Well, no, he wouldn’t,” Bree said. “He’s been on emotional lockdown ever since she left.”
Jordan sat up a little bit straighter, helped herself to an onion ring, and tried to play it cool. “She?”
“Eva,” Bree said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
“Bride number three,” Tawny explained, her tone indicating she was no more fond of the mysterious Eva than was Hailey. “Total bitch.”
“Tawny!” Hailey scolded.
“She was going to be my sister-in-law, so I’m allowed to say that.”
“But he left her…right?” Jordan clarified.
“Yeah. Because she was a bitch, like I said,” Tawny muttered.
“We don’t know what happened there,” Hailey admitted. “Not like we did with the first two weddings.”
Jordan noticed that Stacey and Isobel exchanged a glance at this before both looking at the table, and she wondered if Stacey and Luke’s breakup wasn’t quite as amicable and simple as it seemed.
One bride at a time. She refocused on this Eva woman.
“What happened to her?”
Hailey shrugged. “Disappeared after Luke was a no-show. Nobody’s seen her since, but we’re assuming she went home.”
“She wasn’t from around here?”
Stacey shook her head and topped off glasses with what was left in the bottle. “Nope; from Texas. Passed through town on a road trip or something. Came into this bar, sat at that very stool.” Stacey pointed.
“She met Luke, and just…never left,” Tawny added, her tone making it clear that she did not love this fact. “Well, at least until he got smart and stopped things before I do.”
“And nobody knows what happened?”
They all shook their heads no. Even his sister.
“Is that why he’s so…”
“Closed off? Emotionally barren?” Bree said with a smile. “Yeah, he was different after that.”
Hailey nodded. “He’s always been a little quiet. Gruff more often than not, but he used to know how to be fun. He could be sweet.”
Stacey nodded. “She ruined him. Then with what happened with Gil, happening so soon after she left…”
The sadness at the table was palpable, so though Jordan had no idea who Gil was, she didn’t think it was her place to ask.
“Okay, enough sadness,” Hailey said, shaking her head. “Let’s help Jordan figure out how to get Luke to say yes.”
“So you guys do want him to do this?”
“Absolutely,” Tawny said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think the chance of him meeting his one true love is, um, nil. But the guy needs to be woken up in a big way, and it’s not going to happen when he’s hiding out here in Lucky Hollow.”
Jordan sat back and studied their eager, caring faces. “An odd stance for a small town. Aren’t you usually trying to figure out how to get your people to stay?”
“Spoken as a small-town girl who didn’t stay?” Bree asked, lifting her eyebrows.
Jordan laughed, realizing that Simon had been right. These people did seem to smell the small town on her.
