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He turned to find her father alone. Scanning the area, Laurel was nowhere in sight.
“Bert, have you seen Laurel?”
“Slugger? I mean—” Her dad shook his head before scanning the room. “She’s here somewhere. I just talked to her.”
“Slugger.”
Jake was dying to know. “Why do you call her?—”
“There she is.” Bert started to point out her location when his face fell. “Oh. She’s talking to that jackass.”
Jackass?Jake immediately turned to see who he was talking about.
Who the fuck’s with my girl?
“He wasn’t on the guest list,” Bert grumbled. “And if he had been, believe me, Patricia would’ve removed him.”
Jake zeroed in on Laurel in the crowd. She was talking to a lanky guy in a pinstriped suit who was standing too close to her for Jake’s liking.
“He must’ve slid in as someone’s plus one,” Bert surmised. If protective father was an actual facial expression, Bert was wearing it.
“Who is he?” Jake asked, narrowing his eyes. If the guy was bad enough her dad didn’t like him, Jake instantly hated him.
“Ethan.” Bert sneered the name. “The prick who cheated on my baby girl the night before their wedding.”
Jake’s gaze shot to Bert.“What?”He knew some guy had to have screwed Laurel over, but he had no idea it was to that extent. He knew she’d had a relationship that ended badly, but hadn’t known she’d been engaged, or that the jerk had cheated. Then again, she didn’t know everything about his past either, but he needed to tell her.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was that piece of shit had hurt Laurel. Cheating in itself was bad enough, but fucking someone else right before you got married? That was a rank ass thing to do.
“She called off the wedding and dropped him. Literally.” Bert chuckled as he made the same motion an umpire would use tosignal a runner safe at home base. “I wish I had it on video. You should’ve seen…”
The rest of Bert’s words faded into the background, eclipsed by white-hot fury when Jake saw the prick grab Laurel’s arm.
“Excuse me.” Eyes never leaving Laurel, Jake didn’t wait for a reply before he started her way.
The asshole let go of her arm, but Jake could tell she wasn’t comfortable by her rigid stance. He picked up his pace until he was close enough to hear their conversation.
“Laur, you have to know I never meant to hurt you,” the prick said.
What a fucking load of crap! You cheated on her! Of course, you meant to hurt her!
“Sure you didn’t,” she told him. “Because there’s no way you could’ve known that sleeping with someone else the night of our rehearsal dinner would hurt me.” Her voice was laced with pain.
The sound cut Jake to the core. Everything in him was screaming to intervene and protect her, but he forced himself to hold back. He didn’t want Laurel to think he didn’t believe she could take care of herself, because he did. So, as much as it went against every fiber of his being, he remained where he was, standing just within earshot.
“You’re so full of it,” Laurel spat.
That’s my girl!
“I’m sorry. I feel terrible.”
The fuck you do.
“So terrible it took you four years to apologize.”
There ya go. Let him have it!
“I wanted to call you,” the prick sniveled. “I meant to. I was going to.”
