He Ditched Our Wedding, I Married His Wealthy Uncle novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Arrivals
At JFK, Jody's runaway groom finds her and announces he's back to marry her; she asks who he is, kisses her husband his uncle in front of the crowd, and Dylan asks if Ramsey ever mentioned paying him fifty thousand dollars to leave her at the altar.
I was at JFK to pick up my husband when the man who left me at the altar walked out of the crowd.
Two years and three months.
That was how long it had been since Dylan Gannett skipped our wedding to chase elephants in Kenya with his foster sister.
He'd texted me from this same airport while I stood in my dress in his mother Darlene's garden in Rye.
"I can't do the small life. Kyla and I are going to Kenya. Don't wait."
I hadn't waited.
I was standing at the rail in Terminal 4 with a cardboard sign that said MR. GANNETT in red marker.
I'd drawn a little elephant in the corner.
I had my sunglasses on and my braid stuffed under a ball cap.
He spotted me anyway.
He was tan and bearded now, in a linen shirt and safari boots.
A woman with platinum hair walked beside him, holding a phone up at his face.
Kyla.
Of course she was filming.
Dylan stopped dead in front of me.
Then he smiled the smile that used to make me forgive him for being late.
"Jodes," he said, loud enough for the whole rail. "I'm back to marry you."
A woman next to me gasped and grabbed her husband's arm.
Somebody behind me said, "Oh my God, that's the elephant guy."
Kyla stepped sideways to get my face in her shot.
I pushed my sunglasses up onto my cap.
I looked at him for a long second.
"I'm sorry," I said. "Who are you?"
His smile wobbled.
"Jody. Come on. It's me."
"I don't think so."
"We were engaged for a year."
"Were we?" I tilted my head. "I was engaged to a guy who had the decency to hate airports. He'd never set foot in one again after what he did in the last one."
A teenage girl at the rail put her hand over her mouth.
Dylan laughed, the easy laugh he used on waiters.
"Okay. I deserve that. I deserve all of it." He put his hand on his heart. "I was a coward. I was lost. Africa changed me, Jodes. Those elephants taught me what loyalty is."
"Elephants," I said.
"I came straight here to find you. I'm going to do it right this time. Rye, the garden, everyone we love."
Kyla moved closer with the phone.
"Say yes for the people at home," she said sweetly.
I looked right into her camera.
"No."
"Jody," Dylan said.
"No. Not later. Not if you cry. Not in your mother's garden. No."
The woman beside me started clapping.
Two more people joined her.
Dylan's ears went red under the tan.
He leaned in and dropped his voice. "You're still upset. That's fair. But who else is going to marry a girl who smells like hay, Jodes?"
"Funny you ask."
The doors from customs slid open behind him.
A tall man came through them pulling one black suitcase.
Dark hair, short beard, a black shirt with the sleeves shoved up.
An oak tree tattoo ran down his right forearm.
He'd been gone six weeks.
We'd talked every single night of them, him in a London hotel and me on a hay bale with my phone propped on a bucket.
He saw my sign and the little elephant and grinned.
Then he saw who was standing in front of me, and the grin went away.
I ducked under the rail.
I walked past Dylan without looking at him.
Ramsey let go of the suitcase.
I took his face in both hands and kissed him.
Not a hello kiss.
He made a sound low in his chest and his arm came around my waist and hauled me up against him.
His beard scratched my chin.
He tasted like airplane coffee and he kissed me like he'd been counting the days, because he had.
I forgot the rail, the crowd, the phone.
When I pulled back his eyes were dark and a little dazed.
"Hi," he said against my mouth.
"Hi. Welcome home."
"Jo. What's going on?"
"I'll tell you in the car."
Behind me, Dylan said, very slowly, "Uncle Ram?"
Ramsey kept one arm around me.
He looked over my head at his nephew.
"Dylan."
"What the hell are you doing with my fiancée?"
"I'm not your fiancée," I said. "I'm his wife."
The crowd made a noise.
Kyla's phone swung from my face to Ramsey's to Dylan's, greedy.
"Seven weeks," I said. "City clerk's office. A Friday. Clyde was our witness."
Dylan stared at my hand on Ramsey's chest.
At the plain gold ring on it.
"You married my uncle."
"I married a man who showed up."
Ramsey's hand tightened on my hip.
I thought that was the end of it.
I thought Dylan would do what Dylan always did when he was losing, which was leave.
Instead he started to laugh.
He laughed until Kyla lowered her phone and looked at him.
"Oh, Jodes," he said, wiping his eye. "Oh, that's perfect."
"Let's go," Ramsey said quietly. He reached for the suitcase.
"No, wait. She should hear this." Dylan stepped closer. "Did he ever tell you about the check?"
I felt Ramsey go still.
All of him, all at once.
"What check?" I said.
Dylan smiled at me.
"The night before our wedding, your husband handed me fifty thousand dollars to get on that plane."
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