Ex on the Beach by Kim Law Read Free Book Online

she needed something from him.
    Yet knowing Rob, he’d probably told her another story entirely. Something that would have hurt her even more than the fact that Mark didn’t bother to show up and have the conversation himself.
    Which made Mark a grade-A jerk for sending Rob to begin with. Which he’d been aware of at the time.
    Ginny nodded as if reading his mind.
    “What did he tell her?”
    She merely watched him with steady eyes. “Another good conversation for you and Andie to have, my dear.”
    “If she’ll hang around long enough to talk to me.”
    Earlier, after greeting the wedding party at the beginning of dinner, she’d disappeared without another word, leaving Ginny and the wedding coordinator in charge.
    “The way I see it,” Ginny began, chuckling a little with her words, “is that you can sit around moping for a couple weeks, whining about how Andie won’t talk to you. Or you can hunt her up and make sure she does. She’s always liked the beach in the evenings, you know? Maybe this is fate telling you it’s finally time.”
    “It doesn’t sound like fate to me, Ginny. It sounds like manipulation of the moment.”
    Ginny sat quietly for a good thirty seconds before she placed a hand on his knee. Her touch was gentle, and as he looked down at her arm, he couldn’t help but notice the contrast of the outrageously colored bracelets she wore to the more sedate, beige dress she had on. It reminded him Andie. Though she’d dressed conservatively in appropriate situations, she’d often paired her attire with a bit of flair. Either a unique ring, an eccentric clip in her hair, or maybe just hot undergarments that were totally opposite the clothes she wore on the outside.
    “When did you find out she was here?” Ginny’s tone was soft, but probing.
    Odd question. “Last winter.” When he’d been supposed to be helping Beth find a location for them to get married. Instead he’d been Googling his old girlfriend. “Why?”
    “Why not before then?”
    “I don’t know. It just …” he paused. He hadn’t let himself look before then. Hadn’t been sure he wouldn’t hunt her up.
    “Fate,” she said. “Everything happens when it’s supposed to. You were meant to find her last year. At least, locate her last year. But you still had some issues to work through, didn’t you? You weren’t yet ready to face her again.”
    “I had no intention of facing her at all. I was — ” He cut himself off. He didn’t want to tell her he was supposed to be marrying someone else. How would that make him look?
    “I know about Ms. Ryan. You and she should have been married already. Yet you’re not.”
    He narrowed his eyes at her. “How do you know all this?”
    The wrinkles on the woman’s face weren’t extensive, but were enough to indicate she was no wallflower when it came to living. “The man who shattered my only niece’s heart is scheduled to come to my home. What would you expect me to do? Let that happen without looking into the facts myself?”
    Of course she’d looked into his life. He would have done the same thing. “And if you’d found that Beth and I had gotten married?”
    “Then Mr. Masterson and Ms. Jordan would have found another venue for their wedding.” With those words, she rose, reaching around to swipe at the sand on her backside. “People may think I’ve done nothing my last thirty years but hang out on the beach and play bridge with my friends, but I also protect what’s mine. And that girl, she needed me. She doesn’t so much anymore; she’s done a lot of growing. But I’m still taking care of her just the same. And just like the last time you and I talked, I’ll say it again. You do not go near her without making sure you don’t hurt her again.”
    “I didn’t come here to hurt her.” Mark had risen with her, but didn’t know what to do next. He wanted to head down the beach and search for Andie. Instead, he caught Ginny’s eye. “I swear I didn’t,”