Page 12 of My Ex-Best Men (Ex Marks the Spot #4)

***Claire***

J ake shot me another look and I swear I heard him muffle a giggle. I reached over and smacked his arm. “Shut up, Jake. You know Uncle Sal.”

He cleared his throat and nodded. “Sorry. I’m just… I didn’t expect you to look so… Well…”

“Spit it out, Jake.”

“I wasn’t prepared for you to look like you’re heading out for a date with Richard Gere…” He snorted and then gave into his laughter.

“It’s not funny!” I flipped down the visor and looked at myself in the small mirror. “Oh, my god. Tell me that this mirror is a circus mirror and I don’t actually look like a carbon copy of Julia Roberts in a movie where she played a hooker .”

“I don’t want to lie to you, Claire. I think Uncle Sal is trying to tell you something.” He turned into the parking lot for the hotel and suddenly winced. “Oh, hell. I was supposed to be telling you about the current situation happening here. I was too distracted by your…everything.”

“What is it? Just spit it out really fast while I try to take off some of this eyeliner.”

“Your ex showed up.” He saw my deadpan expression and winced even harder. “Okay, I messed up about Zane. I don’t mean him, though. I mean the one who was also invited to the wedding as your plus one. He showed up.”

My jaw dropped and I forgot all about how I looked. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. He’s probably still in the lobby, trying to check in.” Jake parked the car and patted the top of my head. “Wow. Your hair just kind of…bounces.”

I slapped his hand away and managed to get out of the car without showing my entire vagina.

I wobbled in the heels Uncle Sal had forced me into and then strutted across the lot to get to the front office.

I heard a car honk and heard a man yell out of his window and turned to glare at Jake. “He better have been honking at you.”

Jake was bright red from laughing. “I think he asked how much…”

I growled and had to catch myself as the front door was opened for me before I could grab it.

Jake helped steady me and then he had to push me inside once I saw what was waiting for me.

The cold air felt frigid compared to the heat outside and I could feel my nipples pebble inside the thin white top I wore.

Just like that, Uncle Sal and Cassius had turned me into a sideshow to Soph’s wedding.

Sophia rushed over to me and stared at me with her mouth hanging open. “Holy shit.”

I groaned. “I’m going to kill Uncle Sal.”

“Add him to the list. Look who decided to show up.” She stepped aside and I had to look at the horror show in front of me once more.

My most recent ex, Jordan Welsh, editor at the publication house I worked at, was standing with a suitcase and a grin within fifteen feet of Zane and Will.

And they were all looking right at me. Sophia grabbed my hand. “How do you want to handle this?”

Jordan answered that question for me. He came towards me with that same stupid grin on his face and a pair of roaming eyes that I wanted to stab out. “Well, darling, if I’d known this is how you dress in Florida, I would’ve had us make the trip ages ago.”

Not wanting to put on a show in front of everyone, I grabbed his arm and tried to tug him to the side of the lobby. We moved but so did everyone else. If anything, Zane and Will were closer than ever.

I suppressed my groan of embarrassment and focused on the first problem at hand. “What the hell are you doing here, Jordan?”

He held his hands out to gesture around us at the hotel. “We may have broken up but if you think I’m giving up a vacation, you’re nuts. Things went sideways with Mary and I needed to get away for a while. This happened at the perfect time.”

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head. “No. Sorry. This isn’t a vacation. It’s my best friend’s wedding. You need to leave.”

“No can do, Claire. Don’t you remember that we booked the room in my name with my credit card?”

“I already changed the card on file, Jordan. I’m paying for it.”

He smiled. “It’s my room, babe, and I’m taking it.

If you want to stay with me, you’re more than welcome.

We always did share a bed pretty well. Just so we’re clear, though, I’m not trying to double dip in the Claire dating pie.

I’m here for a vacation, not you. If you’re open to a little open fun, though… ”

Will stepped forward. “Do you need help getting rid of this asshole, Claire?”

“I’m not staying in a room with you! You cheated on me and I dumped you! That means you don’t come on the trip we planned together!” I was going to lose my mind. “Oh, my god. This is not happening. I left you in London for a reason.”

“Oh, shit. What’s he doing here, Jake?!” Sophia’s panicked voice stole my attention and I followed her gaze to the entrance of the hotel.

My stomach bottomed out and I swayed. Standing there, staring back at me with such an intense focus that I couldn’t catch my breath, was Anthony Carter.

He was Anthony, but he wasn’t. The man I’d dated the year before I moved to London had been the exact opposite of Zane.

He’d been safe and sweet and everything comforting that I needed.

The man striding towards me looked dangerous and hard, like the billionaire CEO that he now was.

The few times I’d allowed myself to stalk my exes online, I’d never spent much time looking at pictures of them. That was a mistake, clearly, because the man coming at me was so damn hot that I was going to need Will to put the fire out.

Anthony wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me to his chest, lifting me off my feet as he did.

His scent had changed. He no longer smelled like clean soap but something much, much more expensive.

There was an edge of spice to it that made me want to inhale more to figure it out.

I was so shocked that I just let him hold me while I breathed him in.

“Long time, no see, Claire.”