It was August 15th and Grace had been banished from her home. She had completed her last course of chemotherapy and in the main was feeling good. Last week she had been told her cancer was in remission and Liam had decided they needed a party. It was also Grace’s birthday in a couple of days, so it was a joint celebration. He was at their apartment with Jack finalising everything and she was with Tara and Sean.
‘You look good, Grace,’ Tara said to her friend. ‘Better than I’ve seen you in months.’
‘Thanks pet. I feel great too. It’s such a relief to finally have finished the chemotherapy. What do you think of my new wig? Catherine bought it for my birthday.’
Before Tara had a chance to respond, Sean walked in the door whistling at Grace as he did.
‘Looking foxy Grace!’
Laughing, Grace turned to Tara and said, ‘How do you put up with all his cheesy lines?'
‘I don’t know; they’re getting worse the older he gets!’ Tara replied with a laugh.
‘Speaking of Catherine, any further word from her on your father?’ Sean asked.
‘No, it’s a no-go area for us. I’ve realised that if I want to keep seeing Catherine I need to avoid that subject. As soon as I mention it, she gets up and leaves, then goes to ground for a couple of weeks.’
‘That’s terrible. How do you feel about that?’ Tara asked with concern.
‘Well to be honest, I can live with the fact that I’ll probably never know who my father was. And I don’t really need to know either. It would be nice to get some history I suppose, but no one could ever replace Daddy for me.’
Grace smiled at her two friends. She meant what she had said. Finding out who her father was didn’t seem to matter anymore. She felt blessed that Catherine had come into her life, and at a time when she really needed the support. She was in remission now and felt great, so a bone marrow transplant wasn’t on top of her list, like it had been a few short months ago. Her doctors still felt it was the best long-term option for her, but unless a suitable match came along, she couldn’t do anything about that. One thing this cancer had taught her was that she couldn’t control everything that happened in her life. Sometimes you had to just roll with the punches.
‘Has Tom come up with anything further?’ Tara asked.
‘No. He reckons that unless Catherine spills, its one secret that will never be unveiled,’ Grace answered.
Tom and Gerry had further questioned Mr Murtagh in Rose Tree Manor about Catherine while she worked there. According to him there was never even the hint of scandal that she had may have had any kind of relationship with one of the guests. Apparently it was a sackable offence back then and one that Catherine – or Kitty – as he called her, respected totally. No matter who Tom talked to, he got the same response: Kitty was a lovely woman, who didn’t drink and didn’t have any romances, except a brief one with Garda Hegarty, she worked six days a week at the hotel then spent one day at home with her parents, even finding the time to do the flowers in the local church.
Grace had gone over and over all of things the guys had told her. She had loads of theories about why Catherine was keeping quiet. The two that Tom thought were most likely were Catherine had got drunk, as she had alleged, and didn’t know whom the father was. Because it was so out of character for her, she was too embarrassed about it to discuss. Or the second possibility was that Catherine had to keep the father’s identity secret. Maybe he was married. Maybe it was Robert Hegarty and because he had later married her cousin Mary, she couldn’t reveal it was him. So in the end, Grace had decided to let it drop. It was using up much needed energy.
‘How’s love’s young dream?’ Sean asked with a smile.
‘Very happy, I can report, thank you very much,’ Grace answered with an even bigger grin. ‘I know it’s corny, but I seem to be falling more in love with Liam every day. He’s just been amazing with me while I’ve been ill. He spends all his time making sure Jack and I are both secure and happy.’
‘He’s very good with Jack,’ Tara concurred. In fact she really couldn’t fault Liam at all over the last few months. He had been there for Grace every step of the way and never once fell out of line.
‘I think that’s the first positive thing you’ve said about Liam since we got back together!’ Grace said in amazement. ‘Don’t tell me you actually approve?’
‘Don’t look so surprised, Grace Devlin,’ Tara said indignantly. ‘You know I only want what’s best for you and Jack. And I can see that’s Liam. As it happens, I actually like him. I always did, it was just his drinking that did my head in.’
‘Thanks Tara, I really needed to hear that,’ Grace said with a smile. ‘It’s important to me that you two get on.’
‘Just don’t tell Liam what I’ve said,’ Tara said with a wink. ‘I like keeping him on his toes!’
‘Right you guys, time to go, Liam was adamant that we shouldn’t be late!’ Sean said to the girls, shooing them out the door to his car.
****
Arriving at the apartment Grace wondered what was in store for her. Just as she walked up the steps to her front door, Jack opened it, shouting, ‘Happy Birthday Mommy!’ Grace started to laugh as she took in her son’s appearance. He was dressed as Robin Hood and looked just adorable.
‘How do I look, Mommy?’ he asked earnestly.
‘You look so handsome, sweetie-pie,’ Grace replied adoringly, planting a big kiss on his head.
‘It’s a fancy dress party, Mommy! Daddy says go upstairs straightaway. Put your costume on!’
Grace couldn’t believe it. Turning around to face Tara and Sean, she started to laugh. Sean held up a bag. ‘And these are our costumes. We couldn’t put them on, as it would have given the game away. Can we use your room, Jack?’
The three of them went upstairs led by Jack in front.
‘Don’t come out until I tell you Mommy, okay?’ Jack ordered.
Agreeing, Grace walked into her bedroom and let out a squeal of delight. Lying on the bed was a Marilyn Monroe costume, consisting of a blonde wig and the white halter-neck dress made famous by the iconic shot in The Seven Year Itch. She loved it. Liam knew that she had always admired Marilyn Monroe and he couldn’t have picked a better costume for her. She got changed quickly, taking her own wig off and swapping it for the platinum blonde one. She ran to the bathroom mirror to check out her appearance and was delighted to see that she looked okay. She needed to change her make-up though. She put bright red scarlet lipstick on and pencilled in a beauty spot over her lips. Then the obligatory lashings of black mascara and eyeliner were applied to complete the makeover. She looked great! After a few minutes, Jack came in and announced, ‘You look beautiful Mommy. I love your lellow hair!’ He had never been able to pronounce his Ys and they always came out as Ls. It was so cute.
Bending down, Grace gave him another big kiss. ‘I love you sweetie-pie. Have I ever told you that before?’
‘Not since yesterday, Mommy!’ Jack said with a smile. ‘I love you too, Mommy.’ He reached up and threw his two little arms around Grace and gave her a big hug.
‘Can we go downstairs now?’ Grace asked her son.
‘Yep, everyone is waiting.’ Jack caught his Mommy’s hand and led the way. ‘Wait till you see Uncle Tom!’
When they got to the sitting room door, Jack screamed, ‘Prise! Mommy’s here.’
Opening the door, Grace couldn’t believe her eyes. The room looked so beautiful. Liam had placed hundreds of fairy lights around the room, which were now twinkling. Banners of ‘Happy Birthday Grace’ were aligned on the back wall over the patio doors and their dining room table was laden with trays of hors d’oeuvres of every kind. It was too much to take in. She looked around at her friends’ faces one by one, all smiling at her, ending last of all on Liam’s face. She felt tears sting her eyes and noticed his were the same. She had never felt so happy in her life.
‘You look gorgeous, babe!’ Liam said to her. It was only when he spoke that she actually took in the costumes everyone was wearing and she started to laugh.
‘Never mind me, look at the cut of all of you!’ Grace said with a laugh.
Liam was wearing a fireman’s outfit and gave Grace a big wink. He knew that it was always a fantasy of Grace’s to see him dressed in this particular uniform. He was looking forward to the after-party they were going to have!
‘What do you think, Marilyn?’ he drawled suggestively.
‘I think you’re going to have to put some fires out later on tonight,’ Grace said with a laugh, giving her boyfriend a kiss. ‘Thank you for this. The room looks amazing!’
‘You’re welcome babe. You deserve it. This is only the beginning!’ he promised with a wink.
Grace then turned to Sean and Tara. They were dressed as Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.
Sean shuffled over to Grace in Ozzy mode, saying, ‘Those dogs have pissed over the floor again, Sharon.’
Tara responded in an over-the-top English accent, ‘Well wipe the piss up then Ozzy!’
Grace felt tears coming out of her eyes. Then she saw Abby looking absolutely stunning as Wonder Woman. She had a long wavy brown wig on and the complete red, navy and white costume. Only Abby could get away with red hot pants! She did a twirl for Grace, to which Sean and Liam both murmured their appreciation.
‘Down boys,’ Grace and Tara said together with a laugh!
‘What about us?’ Gerry squealed. ‘Look at us!’
Grace looked at Tom and Gerry and literally fell to the floor laughing! Sean and Tara were doing the same, as they hadn’t time to get used to them either. Gerry was Batman and Tom was his sidekick Robin. Gerry looked resplendent in the Batman costume complete with six-pack and Tom looked like he was going to die of embarrassment in his Robin gear! His potbelly was exaggerated in the red robin top, hanging over his big black belt and green tights!
‘I told you I should have been Batman!’ he said sulkily to Gerry.
‘Darling, I told you, you couldn’t pull it off!’ Turning to his friends, he said, ‘Doesn’t he look cute as Robin?’
‘I wanted to be the Joker!’ Tom continued. ‘He wouldn’t let me!’
Jack walked over to Tom and said in a really loud whisper, ‘I think you look really funny, Uncle Tom. It’s my favourite costume!’
Tom looked mollified at Jack’s statement and took another sip from his bottle of Bulmers.
Then the door opened and Catherine walked in dressed in a long flowing green robe with a gold tassel belt. She looked gorgeous and much younger than her years.
‘Happy birthday, Grace.’ She did a twirl for everyone then said, ‘When Jack told me he was going to be Robin Hood, I decided I’d be Maid Marian!’
‘You look beautiful Catherine.’ Grace walked over to her and gave her a hug.
‘So do you honey. Stunning!’
Liam ran around getting everyone drinks and turned the music up. Soon the party was in full swing and he even had the theme music to Robin Hood, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, The Osbourne Show, Backdraft and lastly Marilyn singing Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend! Whenever he played one of their songs, the relevant people had to get up and do a dance. It was hilarious.
‘How did you get all this pulled together?’ Grace asked him incredulously.
‘Well I hired the costumes, Catherine did all the food, and I downloaded all the music from the Internet onto my iPod! Abby, Tom and Gerry called round this afternoon when you left to help decorate the room! Easy!’ Liam said with a shrug.
‘I love you.’ Grace looked up into his eyes and felt truly and absolutely happy.
‘I love you too, babe,’ Liam replied. They got embarrassed then as they realised the whole room was looking at them.
Jack piped up, ‘I love you Mommy!’ as he threw his arms around both their legs. Everyone laughed at that.
Liam had even hired a karaoke machine and soon everyone was up having a go. It was the best party Grace had ever been to and it made up for all of the bad times of the previous six months. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking and singing, everyone was taking a breather.
‘Daddy, is it time yet?’ Jack asked his father.
‘Yep, buddy, I reckon it is!’
Grace looked questionably at her friends, but they all shrugged.
Liam opened the closet under the stairs and out came a bundle of helium balloons! Each one had a scroll tied to the end of it. Liam explained to the group, ‘Jack decided he wanted to give everyone a present tonight. So he’s been busy drawing a picture for each of you.’ Liam handed the first balloon to Jack who walked over to Tom and Gerry with it. They opened the scroll and laughed with delight. Jack had drawn Tom looking like a sheriff and Gerry with loads of shopping bags around him!
‘Fantastic!’ Tom roared, grabbing Jack into him for a cuddle.
‘Darling, it’s a masterpiece!’ Gerry said, joining in for the cuddle. ‘Imagine a genuine early masterpiece from Jack Ryan! It’ll be worth a fortune in years to come! I’m going to frame it and put it in our bedroom!’
Jack was delighted with their reaction. He had worked so hard at these pictures. Next he handed one to Abby, who he had drawn as a fairy. Then Tara and Sean got theirs which was a picture of them working in a hospital as a doctor and nurse. Lastly he handed a picture to Catherine and she started to cry when she opened it. It was Catherine baking a cake and said ‘I love you Nana Kitty’ on it, which is what he called her. Everyone was laughing and complimenting Jack on their pictures. They couldn’t get over how talented he was for a three year old.
‘Daddy did the writing,’ Jack informed everyone. He thought it was only fair to be honest with them. They seemed to think he was a genius or something.
‘Now Mommy’s!’ Jack said with a big grin. Grace had been itching to see hers and thought her turn would never come. Jack walked over to her very importantly holding the balloon out. Grace looked at Liam and smiled with pride. Their son, what a star! Opening her scroll, Grace couldn’t believe her eyes. Written on the scroll was, ‘Mommy, will you marry my Daddy?’
‘Read it Mommy!’ Jack demanded.
Grace did as she was asked in a small shocked voice. There were gasps from the room. Nobody had known that this was planned. Liam walked over to Grace and knelt on one knee in front of her.
‘Grace, I love you. Have done for over ten years now. I never want to live another day without you and Jack. I want to grow old with you. Please do me the honour of marrying me?’ Liam made his speech as tears flowed from his eyes. He didn’t care. He knew that only people who loved him and Grace were watching. Taking a small ring box from his pocket, he opened it to display the most amazing ring Grace had ever seen. It had a single emerald stone in the middle, surrounded by diamonds, and was absolutely perfect. He picked it because he thought the emerald matched the colour of her eyes exactly. The room was silent, waiting for Grace’s answer. She too was crying.
‘Grace?’ Liam asked softly.
‘Yes, I’ll marry you,’ Grace answered, throwing her arms around him.
The room exploded then with everyone shouting their congratulations. The girls were all crying, and Abby said it was the single most romantic moment she’d ever seen. It was a magical night and one that would stay with each of the friends for the rest of their lives.
As Grace looked around her friends, she thought to herself, if this is as good as it gets, then I’m one lucky girl.