They were far more preoccupied with their own lives and dramas, anyway.
‘You ran off with your best friend’s husband?’ her mother shrieked, because clearly this whole situation wasn’t embarrassing enough as it was.
‘Widower,’ Ash corrected calmly. ‘And all I did was help Zoey find some time and space to decide what she wanted to do next.’ Which wasn’t entirely true, unless Ash counted fantastic sex as some sort of decision matrix.
Which it might have been, really. There was no way Zoey could go back to the same old boring sex she’d had with David after one night with Ash.
Her parents weren’t listening to him, though. Or to her, really. They’d turned the whole event into the Hugh and Tanya show, as usual.
‘I always knew you were just like your father,’ her mother, Tanya, said, looking accusingly at her husband.
‘Oh, really?’ Hugh replied, his tone sharp. ‘Because I was just thinking she was just like her mother. Which one of us was it that ran off with the waiter at our anniversary dinner?’
‘And who had a three-year affair with my best friend?’ Tanya shot back.
‘You know, I can’t help but think sometimes the world would be a better place if one of you hadn’t shown up at the church on your wedding day,’ Zoey said, safe in the knowledge that neither of them were listening to her. They were too busy throwing past misdeeds in each other’s faces.
They’d make up later, Zoey knew from bitter past experience. They’d be all over each other in the bar for at least an hour or two before something else set them at each other’s throats.
‘Except if they hadn’t married you’d have never been born,’ Ash pointed out. At least someone listened to her.
Then Zoey caught sight of David, pale and with huge circles under his eyes, approaching them on the jetty.
‘Even so,’ Zoey murmured, ‘it might have been for the best.’
* * *
Ash watched, helpless, as David led Zoey away, back towards the hotel.
Their wedding venue, if she’d stayed. Was he taking her back to the bridal suite right now? What would he do? Say?
Ash knew he had absolutely no right in the world to feel jealous, but that didn’t seem to be stopping him.
Zoey couldn’t go back to him, could she? Not because of last night, or what they’d shared. But because he wanted her to be happy—and he was more sure than ever now that David couldn’t give her that.
Mr and Mrs Hepburn were still at each other’s throats, filling the air with accusations and curses that Ash didn’t care to hear. Leaving them behind, he headed towards the hotel, hoping a hot shower would help wash away some of the emotions last night had raised.
‘You.’ The word—spat at him with real venom—gave him pause.
With a small sigh, he turned to the speaker. ‘Benji. Hi.’ David’s best man was a small rat of a guy who seemed to want to compensate for his lack of size with sheer volume and theatrics. Not unlike Zoey’s parents, Ash decided, hiding a lack of love with an excess of showy passion.
‘David always said that you were trouble. That you had a thing for Zoey.’ Benji was trying to get up in his space—at least that was what Ash thought he was doing. Being a full head shorter than him meant that Benji had to maintain some distance just to be able to look him in the eye.
Ash thought about crouching down to make things easier for him, but figured that would just be patronising. Tempting though it was.
‘Look, Benji, whatever you think was going on here...’ Ash trailed off. How could he truly complete that sentence without lying horribly? Sure, maybe his intentions in taking Zoey away from the island had been entirely honourable, but that didn’t change what had actually happened next.
‘I think you wanted Zoey for yourself, so you stole her away when she was vulnerable. David says you never liked him, never thought he was good enough for Zoey—as if she wasn’t the one with the track record for destroying lives!’
‘Hey,’ Ash snapped. ‘That’s enough. Zoey made a decision—I just helped her out.’
‘I’m sure you did,’ Benji said, with enough sleaze in his voice to make Ash feel even dirtier than he already did.