The Wedding Invite (Lakeview) (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 6) (13 page)

“
O
h
, it was just amazing, Lynne. Like paradise in your mouth. And I could feel the pounds creeping on as I swallowed it down. Oh, I
know
I’m not heavy, but I still
have
to be careful … I don’t want to look like a giant snowball on the day.”

Hearing Dan come in, Chloe sat up. “Lynne, I have to go, Dan’s here and he’ll be dying to know how I got on with it. Talk soon!”

Chloe hung up and turned to face her fiancé. “Dan, I picked out the most amazing cake for us today – it was just unbelievable …”

She stopped short when she saw his face. “What is it?” she asked, taken aback by his bloodshot eyes and shaken demeanour. “Dan, you look awful.”

“I feel awful,” he said, laying his briefcase on the floor and flopping down on the sofa. “I’ve just spend two hours in town in bloody bumper-to-bumper traffic, and my head feels as though a kanga hammer has been doing overtime in my brain.”

Chloe bristled. “I take it that dinner is off, then.”

“What dinner?”

“Dan, we agreed!” Try as she might, Chloe couldn’t keep the whinge out of her tone. Dan was
always
tired these days. “You promised
that we’d have dinner in the Four Seasons tonight – just to make sure that the food is up to standard before the wedding, remember?”

“Ah, Chloe, we can do it another night, can’t we? I’m just not able for it right now, I’m sorry.” Dan loosened his tie, and ran a hand through his hair.

“Right.” Her tone did nothing to conceal her annoyance.

“Ah hell, Chloe – I come home after a humdinger of a day, I’ve got a splitting headache, and now you expect me to get all trussed up, and go gallivanting with you!”

“Gallivanting? Dan, this is our wedding – doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

She had been looking forward to this for ages. Being fussed over in the Four Seasons, discussing the wedding preparations so far … it would be better than sex. Well, almost. But now Dan had to go and ruin it.

“Chloe, of course it means something. But if I had known how much hassle it was all going to be, I don’t know if I –” He broke off.

“You don’t know what, Dan?”

Dan relented. “Look, love, I said I’m sorry. What more can I do?”

“Well, now that you ask, there’s a hell of a lot more you can do, actually. First of all, you could try showing just a modicum of interest in what is supposed to be the most important day of our lives.”

“Chloe –”

“But of course, I forgot,” she continued, putting a hand on her hip, “I forgot that this is all old hat to you – this is all just one big nuisance to you, isn’t it?”

“For goodness sake, Chloe, calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down?” Chloe blinked as she desperately tried to stop the tears from appearing. “Do you think I don’t notice? Do you think that I don’t see how disinterested you are in all of this? Well, remember something, Dan,
you
were the one who proposed to me. You were the one that wanted to get married, to make it official. And up until a few weeks ago, everything was fine.” She stepped back, shaking her head from side to side, as Dan stood up to comfort her. “I don’t know what the hell is going on with you lately. Have you met someone else, is that it? Well, if that’s the case, Dan, you can go jump –”

“Chloe, stop it, please, it’s nothing like that.”

“Nothing like that … then there
is
something.”

Dan nodded, and with a sigh, slumped back down on the sofa. “You’re right, there
has
been something on my mind lately, but it’s not what you think. I mean, I haven’t met anyone else.”

“What, then?”

“It’s Nicola, my ex.”

Chloe felt her stomach constrict as she sat down beside him. She didn’t know much about Dan’s first marriage, other than the fact that he and his ex-wife had parted on unpleasant terms. Dan was loathe to talk about it, and she wasn’t sure who had initiated the divorce, but reading between the lines Chloe knew that something major must have happened back then. She had always privately suspected that the ex-wife had been a bit of a cow. But she had never been completely sure of Dan’s feelings towards this Nicola. Had she tried to contact him? Was she still in love with Dan, or maybe trying to get even more money out of him?

“What about her?” she asked, realising that she was holding her breath while waiting for his answer.

“Remember the mix-up with our wedding invites that time?”

Chloe nodded, frowning.

“Well, the ones we got by mistake were Nicola’s best friend’s.”

“What?” So much for Amazing Day Designs being original. Now the whole world and his mother were using them. She tried to recall the name. “The ones for that other girl, Fanning?”

“Laura, yes.”

“And?”

“And, because they mistakenly got
our
invites, there is a very good chance that Nicola – or at least Laura – knows about our wedding”

Chloe shrugged. “And why is that a problem?”

Dan began to knead his temples with one hand. “I haven’t told Nicola that I’m getting married again. I didn’t want her to find out like that, or to think that I was trying to keep it a secret.”

Chloe was confused. “So what if you didn’t tell her? What does it matter now?”

“I’m not sure it does,” he answered softly. “I just didn’t want her to be hurt by it, that’s all.”

“And why would it hurt her? You two are divorced. For all you know, she could be married herself. Dan, sometimes you can be way too considerate.”

“She’s not married,” Dan said quietly.

“How do you know that?” Chloe asked, unsure as to whether she wanted to know the answer. Had Dan been keeping tabs on this woman? And if so, why?

“Because, believe it or not, I came across an article only yesterday about her in one of your magazines. She’s back in Ireland, and she’s running a leisure centre in Lakeview.” Chloe saw him smile then, as though he was silently adding ‘fair play to her’.

“What? What magazine?”

Dan shuffled through some newspapers on the coffee table. He found a copy of
Mode
, opened the page, and pointed at a small head and shoulders photograph.

“That’s Nicola.”

“
This
is Nicola?” Chloe repeated, staring at the photograph. The famous Nicola was a fair-haired, pasty individual, who to Chloe looked as though she could do with a few sessions in the gym herself. Somehow, she had always imagined Dan’s ex as that bit more glamorous. The fact that Nicola was an overweight plain-Jane was rather gratifying. “So why the big deal, Dan?”

“What?”

“Why is all of this bothering you?”

Dan looked strained. “Look, I know it’s hard for you to understand, but you don’t know how things ended with us.”

“You’re right,” Chloe said, seizing the opportunity to find out what this was all about. “I
don’t
know how it ended with you. So maybe you’d like to tell me.”

Dan’s expression clouded. “Look, like I told you before, we just grew apart – I don’t really like to talk about it.”

“But why not? You’re divorced now, what difference is it going to make?”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Nicola and I … we … we just couldn’t make it work. I’ve never liked to talk about it because … well, I suppose I blame myself that we couldn’t make it work.”

Chloe wasn’t sure she liked where this was going. Of course she was curious about the break-up, but she didn’t want Dan thinking about it too hard.

She tried to move the subject along. “So if you’re so bothered about Nicola finding out about our wedding, why don’t you just set the record straight?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the number of the leisure centre is plastered all over that article – they must be desperate for business – why don’t you give her a ring at work?” Chloe didn’t particularly want Dan being all pally with his ex, but if his conscience was giving him that much trouble, it would surely be better to get it over and done with.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Dan looked unsure.

Chloe was flippant. “Nope, go right ahead.”

“OK, then – I think I will,” Dan looked relieved but, Chloe thought, a little nervous.

While he showered and changed, Chloe studied the photograph in more detail. Judging by the state of her in that picture, Nicola was nothing to worry about. Unglamorous, overweight and no make up – Chloe thought she was the
last
person you would expect to be promoting a fitness centre.

Let Dan contact her and have it out with her. She didn’t like it, but what could she do? Better that he got it out of his system and stopped worrying about it, and then maybe
she
could stop worrying about it.

Trust Dan and his principles. Sometimes her fiancé was too considerate for his own good.

Chloe picked up the phone, and redialled her friend’s number. “Lynne, hi, it’s me again – listen, I’m coming over.”

“
I
don’t understand it
,” she said, sitting back on her friend’s luxurious Italian leather sofa. “Why the obsession with what
she
thinks – after all this time?”

Chloe had gone straight to Lynne’s, all thoughts of wedding cake abandoned, leaving Dan snoozing happily on the sofa in front of the television.

Lynne poured milk into her coffee. “Well, maybe it’s just good manners on Dan’s part,” she said. “After all, it’s only right that he should let her know about you two. They were married for what – a couple of years before they separated?”

“Yes, but if he’s that worried, why didn’t he let her know about me sooner?”

“You said she was out of the country – maybe he didn’t have an opportunity.”

Chloe sat forward. “Look, I wouldn’t mind, but you should have seen Dan these last few weeks. He hasn’t been himself at all. He has absolutely no interest in the wedding. I asked him the other day what he thought of the seating plan and he just blanked – as if he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. He seems – ” she paused, “I don’t know, obsessive or something.”

Lynne raised an eyebrow. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Me neither.”

“Well, why did Dan and what’s-her-name split in the first place?” Lynne asked, echoing the thought that had been going around in Chloe’s brain, since she first learnt of this Nicola business.

“I’m not entirely sure,” she replied, feeling silly as she said it. Dan had always been so dismissive about his first marriage. Chloe hadn’t asked, because up to now, she didn’t really care. As far as she was concerned, the former Mrs Hunt was well out of the picture and out of the country to boot. Why
should
she care? As long as it didn’t affect her, Chloe wasn’t all that interested. But now, Nicola’s return and Dan’s reaction to it was beginning to fill Chloe with a very strong sense of unease.

“Well, I’m sure you could find out,” Lynne continued. “The official reason, at any rate.”

Chloe sat forward. “What? How?”

“Chloe, you work in a solicitor’s practice,” Lynne laughed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If anyone is ideally placed to get their hands on legal documents, then you are. Find out from Dan, casually mind, who handled his divorce, and then phone around and see what you can find out.”

“Lynne, you’re a genius!” Chloe would never have thought of that. In spite of her friend’s apparent dimness, there was a sharp mind at work in there somewhere.

Lynne smiled beatifically. “I’ve always thought so. The separation agreement may, or may not tell you anything, but there will have to be a cause stated in the divorce papers.”

Chloe’s mind raced. Dan wouldn’t appreciate her going behind his back like that, but what did he expect? He wouldn’t tell her anything.

No, she needed to find out what it all meant and, more importantly, if this Nicola was going to pose a threat to her wedding. And there was no way Chloe was going to let that happen. She had waited long enough for Dan to propose, long enough trying on all those wedding dresses (although that had been great fun), choosing the flowers, the wedding cake, the invitations – everything. She was determined not to let anything or
anyone,
disrupt this wedding.

“I wouldn’t stop there, either,” Lynne continued. “What about Dan’s friends? Surely that’s the most obvious place to start.”

Chloe made a face. “Dan doesn’t really have all that many friends, Lynne, not many that I know of anyway. I think he and Nicola were all part of the same circle, so when they split up …” She shrugged and trailed off. “You know we only socialise with you and Nick and the others now.”

It was true. When she thought about it, it was kind of odd that Dan didn’t have that many close friends. She hadn’t really noticed before and, in a way, was glad that she had him all to herself, but this fact didn’t help her when she needed someone who had known Dan and Nicola together.

Then it hit her. “I could always try John,” she said. John O’Leary, Dan’s creepy partner, would have been around at the time. She was sure that he would have no problem at all filling her in on the gory details of Dan’s first marriage. Dan had said before that John was always great for gossip. While he was a lecherous creep whom Chloe didn’t like, she would put up with it if it meant she might learn something to put her mind at ease.

Chloe sat back and smiled at Lynne, relieved that she had a plan of action.

She’d phone Dan’s partner first thing in the morning.

J
ohn answered
his private line on the second ring. “O’Leary Hunt, Accountants – John speaking.”

“John? Hi, it’s Chloe – Dan’s Chloe,” she clarified.

“Chloe, babe. How are you?” John spoke as if they were old friends. They weren’t that close – in fact she could count on one hand the number of times she had met the man. According to Dan, John O’Leary was not an ideal business partner, something he had discovered shortly after going into practice with him, and as a result they rarely socialised. “Listen, Dan’s in a meeting at the moment, I’ll get him to phone you later, will I?”

Chloe cleared her throat. Wow, she was actually nervous. She had spent all night thinking about what she was going to say, and how she was going to phrase it but now she didn’t know if she could go through with it.

“Um, I’d like to talk to you, actually, if you have a minute.”

“Oh. Fire away.”

She could almost picture his bemused expression.

Chloe decided to get right to the point. “You knew Dan’s ex-wife, didn’t you?”

“Nicola? Of course. I hear she’s back in Ireland now, living down the country somewhere I hear. Why’re you asking me?”

Chloe’s stomach tightened. Dan must have told John that Nicola was back. But why would he do that? Why would he say anything about it at all unless … All of sudden, Chloe began to feel very threatened.

“No real reason, I just wondered what she was like, that’s all.” She tried to sound offhand, but despite herself Chloe’s hands shook. “I mean, of course Dan told me a watered-down version of it, but I just wondered about the real reason they split up.”

“Chloe, if you ask me that was doomed from the very beginning,” John said in a tone that suggested he wasn’t all that enamoured of Nicola. “They were having problems since day one, as I’m sure Dan told you.”

“Um, yes.” Chloe couldn’t admit that she hadn’t a clue. Dan was right about John enjoying a bit of gossip. She said nothing, suspecting that it was better to let him warm to his subject.

“Yeah, that whole thing with his parents and everything, a nasty business.”

Chloe’s ears pricked up at this.
Dan’s parents?

“They didn’t approve of her?” she volunteered, imagining the most likely scenario.

“That’s putting it mildly. The mother was hard work, as I’m sure you know yourself,” John added with a laugh. “And as for the father – don’t ask.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. She knew that Dan didn’t get on with his parents, but now she could understand why. Dan was obviously afraid that the same thing might happen with them as it had with Nicola. She sniffed. Dan was a fool if he thought that Chloe would let his mother, or indeed any woman, get in the way of their relationship.

John continued. “Being honest, Chloe, I don’t know a great deal about how it went in the end. Of course, I felt sorry for Nicola and everything, but … well, she and I, we didn’t exactly gel.”

“Oh?” She was surprised by the admission. John O’Leary loved to give the impression that he was everyone’s best friend, that he was a ‘sound man’.

“Yeah. She and Carolyn got on well, but when me and Dan set up the partnership, she got this notion that Dan was the one doing all the work, and I wasn’t doing enough. But Dan’s like that, you know, he likes being the one in control. I was happy enough to let him.” Chloe sensed him shrug. “It wasn’t my fault that Dan stayed late at the office five nights a week in the early days. Maybe if he had someone a bit more relaxing to go home to, he wouldn’t need to,” he added bitterly.

“Nicola was uptight, then?” Chloe probed, pleased at this image of her predecessor. “Uptight? Compared to Nicola back then, the bloody taxman is relaxed, and believe me I should know!” John laughed at his own feeble joke.

Chloe clarified what she had just learned. “So Nicola and Dan were under pressure from the beginning, what with Dan working hard at the partnership, and the thing with his parents?”

“Yeah, with all the stuff that was going on, it was always going to be difficult. It’s a pity, I suppose, and they were a great couple, but you need a very strong marriage to survive these things.”

These things?
What
things?

“John –”

“Anyway, why the sudden interest in Nicola, Chlo? Want to see how you measure up, is it? Well, I can tell you that Nicola was a looker in her day, but now … well, I don’t think there’s any comparison.”

“Thanks, John.” Chloe was hugely gratified by this. She already knew how Nicola looked these days – obviously the break-up had taken its toll on the woman. Still, that was no excuse for letting herself go. Chloe idly wondered whether or not Dan would have any old photographs hidden away anywhere – a wedding photo, perhaps? “It’s just Dan doesn’t talk about her all that much, and I wondered what she was like.”

“Ah, you’ve nothing to worry about, babe,” John said condescendingly. “Dan’s well over her now.”

Over her?
Chloe didn’t like that. It could only mean one thing, that
Nicola
must have been the one who ended the relationship. She had always hoped somehow, that Dan had dumped
her,
and she certainly didn’t like the image of her fiancé pining over his ex-wife.

Was
Dan over her? Or had Nicola’s return sparked something in her fiancé other than guilt? She thought about how distracted and impatient he had been over the last few weeks, until he had finally told Chloe what was bothering him. How had he felt when he discovered Nicola was back in Ireland again? And worse, how would he feel when he made contact with her? Was Chloe a fool to suggest that Dan contact her?

“Listen, Chlo, I really should go, I have a ten o’clock I need to prepare for and –”

“Sure.” Chloe was about to say goodbye, but instead found herself asking “John, can you remember who initiated the divorce? Dan told me, but I just can’t recall at the moment. I think it was her, wasn’t it?”

“Well, of course it was her.” John said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “She claimed domicile in England, and got the papers drawn up from there. You know they didn’t get married here in Ireland?”

“Yes, they did it abroad somewhere?” Dan had mentioned that.

“Yeah, so it was a quick divorce, no long separation period, or anything like that.” Chloe made a face. If it had been an English divorce, it would be almost impossible to get her hands on the divorce papers. She’d have to strike that one off of her plan of action.

“Chloe, again, I’d love to stay and chat, but I really have to go.”

“OK, thanks John – listen, you won’t say anything to Dan, will you?”

John laughed. “Are you mad? That fella is still so touchy about Nicola that I wouldn’t dare risk it.”

Chloe hung up, her unease multiplying with each passing minute. John’s information hadn’t exactly assuaged her curiosity; if anything, it had made it worse. She had learnt a little about Dan and Nicola’s problems, but nothing to suggest a valid reason for their marriage break-up.

And what had John meant when he said: ‘You need a very strong marriage to survive these things?’

She wasn’t sure. The wedding was only a few months away, and Chloe was damned if she was going to let Dan’s ex-wife get in the way of her Big Day.

She might not know the reason for Dan and Nicola’s break-up but Chloe was determined
to find out.