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Chapter One

Lacey Garrity—soon to be Clee it—corridor between the reception hall and the bar,bouquet, but her grooht have gone, jotted neatly on a cocktail napkin, she’d made the rounds and so far? Nada

Pausing, she jabbed at the green call button of her cell phone and held it to her ear

In the reception room behind her, the strains of “Twist and Shout” faded It was only that brief absence of music that allowed her to hear thefrom behind a door at the end of the hallway Bah dum Bah dum Bahdum bahdum bahdum…

Relief flooded her, and she beelined toward the sound She tugged the door open and—

“Marty?” Lacey stared down at her husband of two hours, total shockthe scene before her The slightlyfrom the pants around her husband’s ankles kept ti from the receiver of the telephone she still had cupped to her ear

“Lacey! I can explain,” Marty said as he frantically tried to extract hi and yank up his pants at the saiven the restrictive confines of the filled-to-bursting storage closet In his struggle, he knocked a mound of snohite linens off the shelf behind hi her torso flat into the table she was draped over

“Shit!” she wailed, floundering until the cloths fell to the floor in a heap

Lacey focused more intently on the woed in an updo, a tasteful navy dress bunched around her bare thighs Navy chiffon, to be exact The very same chiffon she’d picked out for her bridesmaid dresses

Shock gave way to a gut-wrenching sense of betrayal “Becca?” Her brain thrashed around in search of a stronghold, a port in thisthat came to mind “But you said he had woman-hips”

“Hi, this is Marty Leave a e,” the oh-so-familiar voice chirped in her ear

“Hi, Marty?” she said into the previously forgotten phone “This is Lacey You’re a lying piece of shit asshole” She disconnected and hurled it against the corridor wall, where it connected with a satisfying crunch

Marty flinched “Honey, it’s not what it looks like”

Why do people always say that? she wondered dully

Becca tugged at the hem of her dress and stared at the floor, sluaze

“What it looks like is that you’re having sex with one of my oldest friends in the linen closet of our reception hall Unless, of course, she’s lost soh to try and fish it out for her With your penis If that’s the case, I suggest using a larger lure”

A whispered “Ouch” over her shoulder clued her in to the fact that the three of theer alone Her skin prickled like she’d been dipped in rubbing alcohol, but she kept her gaze locked on Marty

He winced, his cheeks turning a fiery shade of red “No need to be rude, Lace” The ensuing silence was so absolute that when he fastened his tuxedo pants, it sounded like a grizzly bear traveling down a zip line

“Please tell ht now Because if I thought that were true, I just et one of those stupid shrimp forks your mother insisted we have and jam it into your eye”

He gaped at her as if he’d never seen her before and wasn’t all that thrilled with the view Well, bully for hi

“Lacey, ere going to tell you But things got out of hand, and then the er…” Becca’s blue eyes pleaded with her For what? Understanding? Forgiveness?

She was fresh out of both

Tears pricked the backs of her lids, and she stared at two of the people she thought she could count onand engageless symbols of commitment carefully on the table

“That’s it?” an outraged voice bellowed fro to let them off that easy? Oh, no way Not on my watch” Her maid of honor and sister from another reen eyes were a bit bleary as she treated the couple in the closet to a death stare “I should kick your prissy little ass”

She was probably talking to Becca, but it was a fitting threat for both of the evenLacey over a table, never mind one in the linen closet of a public place, but there he’d been, doing exactly that with her friend On their wedding day

“Cat, stay out of it,” a low male voice murmured

Lacey closed her eyes and bit back a groan Of all the people to have witnessed her shame, Galen Thomas would’ve been her last choice Cat’s brother had been away for the past eight ht, and he’d just returned to Rhode Island Lacey had been so sure he would still be at ho