The Starlight Hotel looks stunningly beautiful on this crisp autumnal day.
There couldn’t be a more perfect venue for Clemmy and Ryan’s wedding reception, I reflect, as I step gingerly across the gravel from the car in my high heels. Jake grabs me round the waist and kisses my neck and I give a little squeal of delight.
‘Looking gorgeous,’ he murmurs in my ear, and I silently thank Rosalind for helping me choose this lovely silky dress.
‘Oh, Daisy, the turquoise goes beautifully with your dark hair,’ she’d enthused in the shop. ‘I won’t speak to you again if you don’t get it!’ she joked.
Thankfully, Rosalind and I have been speaking a lot since Toby and I split up. I was so worried our lovely friendship would naturally fizzle out without Toby there as the mutual connection. But, actually, the opposite has turned out to be true.
As soon as she heard the news of our break-up, Rosalind was on the phone to me making sure I was all right, and saying she hoped that I was still free for coffee on Saturday as planned. I said of course I was, and I hung up feeling so relieved.
We don’t talk about Toby much but, from what I can gather, he seems happy with Chantelle, although I can tell Rosalind doesn’t feel quite the same affection for her as she did for me as a possible daughter-in-law. (I have to admit, I’m secretly very pleased about this!)
‘Wasn’t it a gorgeous ceremony?’ says Gloria at my shoulder, and I turn to find her brushing some fluff off Ruby’s sleek black dress.
‘It was absolutely beautiful,’ I agree.
The interior of the little parish church was decked out with pink and cream roses and lots of greenery, and when Clemmy walked down the aisle, she was a vision of happiness in the most glorious cream silk fishtail-style dress, sculpted to enhance her curves. Poppy, sitting next to me with a sleeping Keira in a sling, leaned closer and murmured, ‘Have you ever seen such a delicious bride?’
I had to agree.
‘Respect to Ryan for blubbering at the sight of his lovely wife-to-be,’ comments Ruby, batting Gloria’s hands away. ‘Stop fiddling with my dress, Mum. I’m not five years old.’
‘Well, why you had to wear black at a wedding I have no idea!’ grumbles Gloria. ‘You look like Morticia from the Addams Family.’
Ruby nods. ‘Thanks. I always thought she was quite a style icon.’
‘It’s when people say you look like Uncle Fester that you’ve got to worry.’ Jake grins.
Laughing, we walk through reception to the room where drinks are being served to the wedding guests.
‘There’s Roxy and Alex!’ says Ruby, waving at a couple looking all loved-up in the corner. She turns to me. ‘They fell in love at Christmas but Alex was working in Australia. So he’s moved back here so they can be together. Romantic, eh?’
I smile. ‘Very. And what about you, Ruby? Is there a special guy for you on the horizon?’
She snorts. ‘Not for a very long time. I’m off to uni in a few weeks. I fully intend to enjoy myself before getting lumbered with a long-term relationship.’
‘Very sensible,’ agrees Jake, and we exchange the sort of smile that makes my heart leap in my chest.
We’ve spent every weekend together since the book signing and I’ve never been happier, although I wish we didn’t live so far apart. I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with Jake. But I’ve no idea if he feels the same …
‘That dress looks amazing,’ says a voice and I turn to find Sylvia smiling at me.
‘Thank you.’
She’s looking smart herself, the efficient manager, organising Clemmy and Ryan’s day to perfection. There’s a lightness in her face, though, that wasn’t there before. She no longer scrapes her hair back in a bun for work. She wears it loose and she looks much more relaxed. And happy.
My mum!
The word bursts into my head, taking me by surprise.
She looks at her watch. ‘Time for the wedding breakfast. See you later.’ She presses my arm and is swept up in the crowd.
All through the meal, I keep thinking about the letter Mum left me. I know Sylvia would love me to think of her as ‘Mum’ but I also know she would never, ever ask me to. She’s far too perceptive and caring for that …
Much later, after we’ve eaten the delicious meal and danced to the music of Ryan’s favourite local band until we’re fit to drop, Clemmy and Ryan disappear upstairs to get changed.
Jake is at the bar, chatting to Jed and Poppy, and I’m sitting at a table with Gloria, Ruby and Bob, Gloria’s lovely fiancé.
I’ve never met Bob and, after being introduced, we start chatting. He currently lives and works in London, although he tells me that once he and Gloria are married he’s going to wind down his work commitments and they’re planning to set up home on the south coast.
‘So you knew Clemmy from university days, is that right?’ he asks.
I nod. ‘And I caught up with her again when I stayed at her glamping site in the summer.’
‘And you’re here with your boyfriend?’
‘Yes. That’s Jake over there, at the bar.’ Just saying it fills me with a lovely warm feeling.
Sylvia comes over at that moment to give me the key to the room Jake and I are staying in tonight.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ she says, laying a hand on my shoulder and smiling at Bob.
I shake my head. ‘You’re not. I’m just telling Bob how I know everyone.’
I swallow and look up at Sylvia. ‘Bob, this is my mum.’ My voice cracks but Bob doesn’t seem to notice.
Bob immediately gets to his feet. ‘Pleased to meet you at last,’ he says, shaking Sylvia’s hand. ‘I know you’re the manager here, but we’ve never actually spoken.’
Sylvia is smiling and chatting away, but only I would be able to detect the glint of a tear in her eye, the slight wobble of her chin.
Before she sweeps off, we exchange a smile that says everything …
And then, when I think I can’t feel any more emotional, Clemmy is coming down the elegant staircase, on Ryan’s arm. They look so happy and relaxed, eager I guess to be on their way to the airport and their flight out to the Maldives.
Clemmy is holding her bouquet and when she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she shouts, ‘Okay, ladies. Are you ready?’
Everyone gathers round, laughing and chattering, and Jake comes over from the bar to join me. Clemmy ramps up the suspense by making us all wait.
And then she lobs the beautiful bouquet, full of pink and cream roses, over her head.
It soars surprisingly high in the air before coming down inches from my nose. Astonished, I grab it and a great cheer goes up.
‘Ooh, it’s you next, then,’ says Ruby, nudging me and grinning.
I look up at Jake, feeling decidedly awkward, wishing Ruby could be a bit more subtle sometimes.
Jake grins. ‘If that’s the case, maybe we’d better think about moving in together,’ he murmurs, close to my ear. ‘Or am I being too eager?’
I smile as a great tide of happiness swells inside me. I reach up on tiptoe to kiss him. ‘I can’t think of anything I’d love more.’
He grins wolfishly and pulls me behind a handy pillar. And after that, all logical thoughts flee from my mind as Jake kisses the life out of me …