Never the Bride (Dilbury Village #1)

by Charlotte Fallowfield

  ‘What does she … no, I don’t want to know if she’s pretty. Of course she will be, it’s Miller,’ I said quietly as I looked down at my feet. ‘I can’t believe he’d do that, just turn up with someone else without even telling me.’

  ‘I don’t agree with what he’s done, Abbie, but he did try and stay in contact and you rebuffed him. Maybe he figured you’d moved on.’

  ‘I wish I had. I wish I could, Georgie, but he was the one. He’ll always be the one. I just … I really believed I was his too, that he’d realise that and come back to me to try living here, you know?’

  ‘Ok, unless you want to see them, don’t turn around. They just walked in. What do you want to do? We can call Andy and get out of here right now, and you never have to see him again.’

  ‘Part of me wants to, so badly,’ I told my friend. ‘But I don’t want to let Tracey down, or give Fi-Fi, Miller, or his new … strumpet, the chance to see that they’ve got to me.’

  ‘So how are you going to handle this?’ she asked with a worried expression.

  ‘With plenty of glasses of champagne,’ I stated firmly. I swiped two off the tray as a timely waiter passed. I handed her one and knocked the other back immediately.

  ‘I’ve got a feeling I’m going to regret encouraging this plan, but here, have mine as well, you look like you need it,’ Georgie said, as she swapped my empty glass for her full one. ‘Just promise me if I manage to corner him, I can slap him and give him a piece of my mind.’

  ‘As long as I’m not embarrassing myself for the third wedding in a row, I have no objections to you doing whatever you like,’ I replied. I gulped back a third glass of champagne and pulled a face as the bubbles tickled my nose and made my head feel slightly tingly already. ‘Do I …’

  ‘You look gorgeous, and from the looks he’s trying to sneakily cast your way, he still thinks the same, too,’ she said softly. I smiled at her, she always knew what I was thinking. I was completely torn. Part of me was curious and wanted to turn around and see him, to check out my replacement, while part of me was devastated and wasn’t sure I’d survive it. ‘Right, if we’re doing this, I’m going to need some liquid courage to handle you drunk. Let’s do it in style, two at a time,’ she announced.

  She grabbed another two glasses of champagne off a second waiter for herself as I set the three empty glasses on his tray, then reached for two more full ones for me. Who needed a floral bouquet? A glass in each hand was a much better accessory.

  Quite how I managed to avoid seeing Miller or his strumpet, as that was what I was going to call her because I already hated her with a passion, I wasn’t sure. But we were called to take our places and I still hadn’t seen them. I was on the far right of the top table, and when I saw Fi-Fi had taken her place at the chair next to mine, I stalled, admiring the five-tier wedding cake that my friend Jess of Yummy Cakes by Jess had made. It was incredible. Some of the lace effect detailing, which seemed to flow down the sides, was so intricate. I took my place and swallowed hard as I finally did a scan of the room. He wasn’t hard to spot, even sitting down didn’t take away from how tall he was or that mop of dirty-blond hair that I knew so well. My fingers flexed, wanting to run through it and pull the strands on the nape of his neck. His focus was on strumpet as they talked, and it took all of my courage to drag my eyes from his side profile to look at her.

  ‘Stunning, isn’t she?’ Fi-Fi announced gleefully. I reluctantly nodded as I studied her, wondering why I had the feeling that I knew her, that I recognised her face from somewhere. She wasn’t the glamorous type I’d been imagining, cut from the Fi-Fi style of trying too hard. Instead she was cool and edgy. She had one of those haircuts that only certain girls could get away with, shaved on one side with jagged long layers on the other, and it had been dyed such a light blonde, it was almost white, with various bright shades of turquoise, green, purple, and pink dip-dyed tips. Her face was classically beautiful, in perfect symmetry, and she had a pair of rich hazel eyes that suddenly met mine. I gritted my teeth as she had the audacity to smile at me, then she said something to Miller. He looked up at me, holding my gaze for a fraction of a second before he turned back to her and nodded. ‘Seems like they’re talking about you, Abbie. Not like she has to be scared of the competition, is it?’ Fi gloated.

  ‘Oh shut up, Fi-Fi!’ I bit, turning to give her a glare. ‘Do you know how pathetic it is that you’re so miserable in your own life, you have to try and bring everyone else down?’

  ‘You shut up!’ she shot back.

  ‘No, you shut up, or I might be forced to do something else that I won’t regret,’ I warned.

  ‘It was you! I knew it,’ she said, her tone full of venom.

  ‘Owww, what the hell was that?’ I exclaimed, as she pinched my thigh really hard under the tablecloth. She smirked, so I pinched her back and made her squeak, then she replied with a hard punch to my leg. I glared at her and grabbed my side fork off the table, then jabbed her in the side with it, and all hell broke loose.

  ‘Bitch!’ she yelped as she shot out of her seat, clutching her newly pronged ribs. She grabbed her glass of champagne off the table and before I had a chance to react, the cold liquid was flying across the air between us and splattering all over my face as a collective ‘Oh’ rose up from the guests. Without thinking, I stood up and slapped her across the face as hard as I could, her returning slap resonating in the now virtually silent ballroom.

  ‘Harpie,’ I bit back as I shoved her, my cheek and palm smarting. She stumbled, and Julia grabbed her before she landed on her lap and pushed her back upright.

  ‘I hate you, Abbie Carter,’ she shrieked, shoving me so hard, I staggered and fell backwards onto the corner of the cake table. I heard the gasp of horror from everyone in the room right as I saw the top tier of the cake flying through the air, smacking straight into a gloating Fi-Fi’s stunned face.

  ‘Crap,’ I moaned as the table collapsed, taking me down to the floor with it, and the remaining four tiers of cake smashed down on top of me to the chorus of shocked ‘Ahhhs’ and the distraught scream of poor Tracey. I didn’t have time to recover from the shock of the fall, or being smothered in icing, marzipan, sponge, and lemon ganache filling, before Fi-Fi was launching herself at me like some kind of WWF wrestling champion. She landed on me with a thud, her eyes barely visible through her cake facial, and started screaming at me while she pulled my hair. Well, that did it, I was not going down without a fight, so I grabbed hers and pulled it back, and all of a sudden we were rolling around on the floor, lashing out with our hands and feet, not to mention a few obscenities that flew from her mouth.

  I gasped for air as someone hauled her off me, and I wiped some of the cake away from my eyes to see her struggling in Miller’s arms. He’d got her around the waist, and her legs were kicking and her arms flailing as she screamed at him to let her go.

  ‘Are you ok, Abbie?’ he demanded, flashing me a concerned look. How dare he! How dare he ask if I was alright when he knew I wouldn’t be, with him flaunting his new girlfriend in my face, publicly humiliating me. What he’d done was worse than what psychotic Fi-Fi had. Georgie ran over and stretched out her hand to me, helping me up as I shot him a cold look. I straightened my shoulders, the eyes of three hundred guests on me in my green taffeta, white icing, and lemon cream outfit, then flicked my hair over my shoulders, dollops of cake shooting off.

  ‘I’m just peachy, thank you, Miller. So I guess it didn’t take long to get over me either, huh?’ I enquired, throwing back the words he’d used on me when Heath had answered my door.

  ‘Get over you?’ he replied, a look of panic crossing his face while Fi-Fi continued to writhe in his arms, trying to get back to her cat fight with me. ‘Wait, Abbie, it’s not what you think. Quinn’s–’

  ‘I don’t want to know,’ I responded firmly, putting one of my sticky palms up in front of me. ‘Fi-Fi, you ever do anything like this to me again, and ruin someone else’s wedding, I will call Dave a
nd let him know what a money-digging, cheating, lying, despicable little … cow, you really are. Tracey, I don’t know how to apologise for what we’ve just done. Please bill me for the cost of the cake, which is absolutely delicious by the way,’ I nodded as I licked a smear of cream from the corner of my mouth. ‘But I think it’s best I leave now, with what’s left of my dignity.’

  ‘Mess with my best friend again, and I mess with you,’ Georgie growled, pointing a finger at both Fi-Fi and a shocked Miller. She grabbed my hand and pushed her way through the people who’d crowded around to see what was happening as I blinked back some tears, not least from the citrus cream that was smearing my vision and stinging like hell. ‘Come on, let’s get you cleaned up first, then we’re going home.’

  I couldn’t say anything. It was taking everything I had to try and hold it together right now. All of the pain and humiliation had built up inside of me, and that had been the final straw. I felt like I was about to break and I wasn’t sure any amount of glue was ever going to put me back together again. Georgie hurried me down the marble corridor as other hotel guests gasped and pointed at me, just making me feel even worse. She swung open the heavy door to the ladies’ room as I heard Miller’s distinctive accent calling my name. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows, but I shook my head. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t face him right now. So she led me inside, letting the door swing shut behind me, cutting him off as he pleaded with me to talk to him.

  ‘Oh, Abbie,’ she sighed as she sat me down and turned to the marble countertop to grab some rolled-up facecloths and fill a sink with hot water. I just stared at the floor-to-ceiling mirror opposite me as she gently started to wipe my face, cleaning all evidence of the cake and my make-up away, then tried to get as much as she could off my hair and dress, followed by my neck, chest, shoulders, arms, and hands. ‘Walk away,’ I heard her warn as the noise of heels on the floor echoed when someone entered the ladies’ room.

  My eyes drifted over, expecting to see Fi-Fi coming to finish what she started, or maybe even a distraught Tracey to haul me over the coals. Who I didn’t expect to see, or want to see, was the strumpet, whose name I didn’t even remember. Especially not when she was dressed in some fancy hip designer outfit, looking amazing and smelling like a Parisian parfumerie, and I was in a cake-stained dress, make-up free, with damp lemon-scented hair.

  ‘I came to see if Abbie’s alright, and I need to explain,’ came her heavy American accent.

  ‘Funnily enough, no, she’s not ok, and whatever you have to say, she doesn’t want to hear it. Isn’t it enough you’re with the man she loves, the man who said he’d be faithful until he was ready to give her more? Georgie said, in full protective mode, as she moved between us and folded her arms across her chest.

  ‘But that’s just it, I’m not with him. I’m not Miller’s girlfriend, I’m his twin sister, Quinn,’ she stated earnestly. I heard a small gasp from Georgie as I just blinked a few times, not sure if I’d heard her correctly.

  ‘Miller doesn’t have a sister, he doesn’t have any family, he’s an orphan. He was abandoned as a baby, so try pulling the other one,’ Georgie shot back.

  ‘He thought he had no family until he tracked me down last month, just like I thought I had none, too. He’s been searching for our parents for years. Turns out they’re both dead, but he found me. That’s part of the reason he didn’t want to leave New York, because he was hoping to find someone who could give him answers to his past. We’re still not sure how or why we got separated as infants, but we’re trying to make up for lost time now.’

  ‘Say I believe you, and I’m not saying I do,’ Georgie said firmly, ‘why couldn’t he tell Abbie that himself?’

  ‘That’s not for me to say, I’m only just getting to know him. I’m sure you probably know him a hell of a lot better than I do. But I know what it’s like to be raised in the foster system. Kids like us, well, we’re not big on trust. We find it hard to let people in and sometimes, if we think we’re getting too close to someone, we like to test them by pushing them away.’

  ‘Yeah well, Miller’s not a kid anymore. I’m sorry he got a rough deal in life, you too as you seem ok, but that’s not Abbie’s fault and she’s the one who’s hurting right now. So thanks for your concern, but right now I’m taking my friend home. Come on, Abbie, let’s get out of here,’ Georgie urged, turning to offer her hand to me again.

  I nodded and took it, keeping my eyes on the floor as we walked towards the door. Quinn was still talking in the background, and as soon as Georgie opened the door, I heard Miller’s voice urging me to stop and talk to him, but I kept walking with my head down. He’d wanted time and space, but now I needed it. Right now, I felt like I was drowning and I just wanted some time and space to come up for air, breathe, and regroup.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Great Escape

  April

  ‘OH GOD, I SOOOO needed this break,’ sighed Georgie contentedly as she sipped a Mojito on the sun lounger next to me. I trailed my hand through the powdery fine white sand below me, drinking in the view down the beach and out to the stunningly clear blue ocean.

  ‘Tell me about it,’ I confirmed, shaking the sand off my hand and grabbing my Mai Tai. I took a decent guzzle through my straw and stretched out my legs, admiring my freshly pedicured feet, complete with appropriately tropical, bright coral nail polish.

  I’d left the nightmare of the last few months behind me in England. I’d convinced Georgie to pack up the day after Tracey’s wedding and come with me on a last-minute two-week trip, refusing to allow all of that baggage to board the plane with me. I’d factored out my year-end accounts to a freelancer, on the proviso that I’d work my butt off when I got home to check everything was to my satisfaction, and I’d booked this exclusive, luxury spa resort on the Riviera Maya in Mexico, with the second largest coral reef in the world. The fact that I was willing to run away at the busiest time of year for an accountant, a time when I normally thrived, thrilled to be doing the job I loved at such a pivotal time, only proved to me how close I was to breaking and how much I needed to recharge.

  We’d arrived a few days ago and were so tired that we’d decided to laze around the infinity pool for the first week, snoozing between cocktails, snacks, and some saucy reading courtesy of our new best friend, Charlie. We’d asked her to come with us, but she had a few author-type commitments that she couldn’t get out of. I was kind of relieved in a way. Much as I loved her, I was glad it would just be Georgie and me. She knew me well enough to know when to leave things alone and when it was the time to push me to talk. And that time hadn’t arrived yet.

  ‘Hello again,’ I purred, dropping my sunglasses down my nose to peer over them at the dishy and very fit specimen of male jogging past. He was wearing a pair of seriously tight trunks, and as he ran by, he flashed a smile Georgie’s way. I’d spotted him the first day we’d sat here, then multiple times since, and each time he couldn’t help looking at my best friend. I gave Georgie a surprised look when she made no comment and put her nose back into her e-Reader. ‘Cat got your tongue?’ I enquired.

  ‘What?’ she replied, not looking up. I frowned, sure she had a hint of a blush on her porcelain cheeks, which was unusual for her.

  ‘Hot totty alert. He just jogged right in front of us, looking like some kind of bronzed Olympian, then smiled at you, again, and you didn’t bat an eyelid. Again. He’s gorgeous, so your type. Didn’t you see him just now? Or all the other times he’s jogged past in the last few days?’

  ‘Hmmm,’ she nodded, her eyes still scanning her screen. ‘He’s ok, I guess.’

  ‘You guess?’ I set my cocktail down and swung my legs off the bed as I turned to face her. ‘Ok, what’s the deal?’

  ‘No deal,’ she shrugged, avoiding eye contact by picking up her cocktail and chasing the straw around the glass with her lips before catching it and slowly sucking a load down, trying to stall a reply.

  ‘You little liar, Georgie
Basset! I know you too well, what gives?’

  ‘Ok, I saw him. Every. Single. Damn. Time. He’s gorgeous. So hot I had to check my bikini hadn’t burst into flames from where my body heated up. Happy now?’

  ‘No. Why were you trying to hide the fact that you fancy him?’

  ‘Because … oh, you wouldn’t understand.’ She dismissed me with a flick of the wrist, set her cocktail back down, and picked up her e-Reader again. I leaned over and snatched it out of her hand.

  ‘Uh-uh, sweetie. This is one discussion you’re not wheedling your way out of. Come on, talk.’

  ‘Fine,’ she sighed. ‘You know me really well, Abbie.’

  ‘Well, I should hope so, best friend and all.’

  ‘And you are, you so are, but you’ve only known me with Greg, or the Georgie who’s single and totally uninterested in men.’

  ‘Your point being?’ I finished my cocktail and raised my hand to one of the waiters who was hovering nearby.

  ‘You don’t know Georgina, the girl who’s super shy when she sees a guy she likes. Who gets so flustered that she can’t speak, let alone look him in the eye. That’s why I haven’t smiled back, because I think he’s gorgeous. I got butterflies in my tummy the first time I saw him.’

  ‘Ok, colour me confused here. When you like a guy, you make out that you don’t, thereby ensuring he won’t approach you and saving you the embarrassment of admitting you fancy him? Hold that response,’ I suggested when she opened her mouth to reply. I ordered two more cocktails and some slices of watermelon, then gestured for her to continue.

  ‘Seriously, Abbie. I’m totally bashful when a guy I like comes to talk to me. I say stupid things and make myself look like a fool and they can’t back away fast enough. Best to just save myself the humiliation and not let them know I like them.’