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Skylar opened her mouth to reply, but his fiancée didn’t give her a chance.
“Franky, I think we should address our guests now.” Ivy slid her arm around his.
He shrugged his shoulders at Skylar. “Duty calls. We’ll talk later, okay?”
Skylar nodded. “Yeah, later.”
Franky glanced over his shoulder as they walked away and locked eyes with Skylar. He would’ve much rather stayed there talking to her than stand in front of a room full of mostly strangers.
Ivy guided him to stand by the cake table and handed him a microphone. He attempted a few jokes, which made the guests laugh, before Ivy took over and thanked everyone for coming, then turned the microphone over to her father, who gave a heartfelt toast.
The rest of the evening was filled with dancing, cake, and more mingling than Franky had ever done in his life. But he was distracted the entire time because he didn’t see Skylar anywhere. They really needed to talk. Everything had felt off since the day she bolted after hearing of their engagement. Since then, their conversations—if you could call them that—had consisted of a few brief text exchanges, but Skylar always cut them short because of work.
He hadn’t been sure she’d show up for this party, but seeing her walk through that door meant everything to him. He couldn’t go through with this if he didn’t have her support. And not being able to talk to her lately was starting to get to him.
Honestly, he was worried about her. She’d been acting strangely for a while now, and he didn’t like feeling as if something was going on with her that she wouldn’t talk to him about.
Franky approached Sebastian, who was talking with their old private school buddy, Ashton.
“Hey, have you seen your sister?” he asked.
Sebastian shook his head.
“I saw her talking to your fiancée earlier,” Ashton said.
Franky scanned the room to find Ivy and made a beeline when he spotted her. “Hey, do you know where Skylar went?”
“I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“I was told you two were talking earlier, and I need to speak to her.”
Ivy shrugged. “I think she left.”
“She left?” His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“I saw her walk out the door, so I’m pretty sure she’s gone.”
“Why?”
Ivy’s gaze shifted side to side, and he had the sense that she was hiding something.
“What did you two talk about?”
“She told me she liked the decorations.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
She eyed him. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing, babe.”
Ivy tilted her head disapprovingly, and her lips twisted to one side at his use of that word.
“Sorry. I forgot.” He took hold of her hand and squeezed it, and she softened, moving into his arms to give him a hug.