Assault and Batter(3)

“Three days! Why the rush?” I asked, standing as well. And then I thought of the one reason there might be urgency to the pending nuptials. “Emily, you’re not…” I just couldn’t seem to bring myself to finish asking that particular question.

“What? No, of course not. I just don’t see any reason to wait. I want to be his wife right now, Suzanne. Don’t worry about the details. Mom has already said that she’s willing to pitch in, and Dad’s been saving for this for years.”

“Then I suppose we’d better get started,” I said as I looked at my watch. “I’ve got another fifteen minutes until I close the donut shop. Why don’t we grab lunch at the Boxcar and talk about it there?”

“That sounds perfect,” she said. “There’s just one more thing. Max insists that his old college roommate be his best man. I hope that won’t be a problem.”

“You’re not talking about Peter, are you?” Peter Hickman was the last person in the world I ever wanted to see again, let alone be with in the wedding party. While I knew that most of Max’s sins over the years had been committed out of sheer thoughtlessness, Peter could be malicious in his motivations. He’d been the best man at our wedding, too, and I still woke up in horror sometimes in the middle of the night reliving his drunken speech at the rehearsal dinner.

“He’s changed, too, Suzanne. Just you wait. You’ll see.” Emily frowned for a moment, and then she said, “I really must be going. There are a million things I have to do. I’m so glad that you’re going to be a part of it all. Do me a favor, would you? If you’d keep this quiet for now, I’d appreciate it.”

“How long do you need?” I asked. “I hate to keep anything from Momma or Jake.”

“I need an hour, and then you can tell whoever you’d like to about it. I’ll see you soon at the Boxcar.”

“Bye,” I said. As I walked back into the donut shop, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. It was too late to back out now though, even if I wanted to.

It appeared that I was not only going to be present, but I was also going to be a part of my ex-husband’s wedding.

If I’d known that morning what was going to happen that day, I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed, but it was too late for that now.

Apparently I had a wedding to plan and cater, and just a few days to do it.

Ten minutes after Emily was gone, a man I hadn’t seen in ages came into the donut shop.

“Hey, Jude,” I said, trying not to smile. I wasn’t a big fan of Gabby Williams’s nephew, but I couldn’t help myself from repeating the Beatles song every I saw him. We’d gone to high school together, but we’d never been all that close. Jude had been a bit of a bully back then, and I hadn’t seen anything over the intervening years to show me that he’d changed. He and Max had been close for years, but in the past several months I heard that they’d had a falling out, which just proved to me yet again how much my ex had changed for the better. I especially wasn’t thrilled to see Jude because Emily had gone out with him for awhile six months earlier before she’d gotten tired of his antics. When she’d dumped him, he hadn’t taken it well at all.

“Hey,” he said gruffly. He wasn’t a fan of the greeting, but what could he do? It was his name, after all. “Give me three glazed and a coffee to go.”

“What brings you back to town?” I asked him as I got him his order. I knew that he and his aunt had a tumultuous relationship. When his folks had died, Gabby had taken him in at sixteen. He’d left on his eighteenth birthday, but he still came back to April Springs on occasion.

“Are you kidding? There’s no place else I’d rather be,” he said, but his grin told me that he was up to something. “I heard a rumor that something was going to be happening here, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I wondered how Gabby felt about him just showing up?

After he got his change and his order, he left without another word. Trouble usually followed him around.

I hoped that this time things would be different, but I wasn’t counting on it.





Chapter 3


“There she is, Little Miss Sunshine herself,” I heard an old familiar voice say as he walked in the door of Donut Hearts three minutes before we were supposed to close for the day. Why hadn’t I locked the doors when I’d had the chance?

“Hello, Peter.” At least there was a counter between us. Blast it all, he was even more handsome than he’d been the last time I’d seen him. If there were any justice in the world, his exterior would reflect his rotten interior, but no such luck.