“You seem to have quite a fan,” Adam mused, as he snuggled up to me. It was two A.M. and he’d been home for an hour, most of which had been spent making love. I was never going to turn that down, especially after we’d been apart for four days, and he’d no doubt had every imaginable temptation put in his way in between times. But now I was tired and needed to get some sleep before the alarm went off at six.
“Mmm,” I murmured. “Who?”
“Mum,” he said jubilantly. “She said she had a great time, and you made her feel really welcome.”
I drew in a deep breath, waiting for the sarcasm to pass before he told me what she’d really said. God, had she got to him that quickly? Spoken to him even before I had? He’d only been on English soil for a couple of hours.
“So. Thank. You,” he whispered, in between planting kisses on my cheek.
I turned to face him.
“What?” He laughed.
I thought back to the vow I’d made—to never see her again after the wedding—when she’d questioned my relationship with Seb.
Her comment had come out of nowhere, while I was sunbathing by the pool, the morning after our fight. “You do realize that you won’t be able to see so much of Seb once the wedding’s been and done with, don’t you?” she’d said.
I hadn’t even realized she was up, let alone lying next to me by the pool. I didn’t move a muscle, just opened my eyes under my sunglasses to see Tess and Pippa snorkeling in the shallow end.
There was no one else around.
“Is that so?” I’d replied.
“Yes, it is so,” she’d sniped. “It’s not right, you having such a closeness to another man. Adam is prepared to put up with it until the wedding, but once you’re married, Seb is going to have to go.”
I still didn’t move, though my muscles were twitching beneath my skin and all I really wanted to do was jump up and tear her eyes out.
I kept my voice steady. “Adam said that, did he?”
“Yes, he’s always had concerns. He told me at the very beginning how unhappy he was about it.”
“I don’t know if it’s slipped your attention, Pamela, but Seb’s gay.” As soon as it came out, I wanted to suck it back in again. It felt like I was justifying our relationship to her by saying that him being gay made it okay.
“I fully appreciate that,” she’d sniffed. “But it’s not right. He shouldn’t be here. Adam was horrified when he realized you were inviting him.”
Adam had not so much as breathed a word of it to me. He wouldn’t dare. But now, thinking about it, I realized we’d never had that conversation, ever. Mine and Seb’s relationship was just what it was, had always been, long before Adam had come along, and I’d thought, assumed, that he’d accepted it, but perhaps he hadn’t.
“What did he say, then?” I’d asked confidently.
“He just couldn’t believe it,” she’d said. “Gay or not, he’s still a man, and he’s cavorting with his girlfriend, going on her hen weekend. It’s embarrassing for him.”
I took my glasses off then and sat up, but if Pammie noticed, she didn’t let on. She stayed horizontal, with a floppy hat covering the top half of her face.
“Adam actually told you I was embarrassing him?” I’d questioned. I hated myself for falling into her trap.
She’d smiled then, warming to her theme. “Yes, but who wouldn’t be? It’s not Adam’s fault, it’s just a man’s natural reaction. I don’t know a man alive who’d be happy for you to spend as much time with another man as you do with Seb. It’s not how a woman betrothed to be married is expected to behave.”
“We’re not living in the eighteenth century,” I’d said, biting my tongue to stop the words I really wanted to say from spilling out. “Times are different from your day. Women are different.” I was still trying to justify our relationship to her.
“That may be so,” she’d said calmly, the smile still playing on her lips. “But all I’m saying, as a favor, really, to save you getting into an argument with Adam, is that it’s going to have to stop. He won’t put up with it after the wedding.”
“It won’t be Seb I stop seeing,” I hissed, “it’ll be you.”
Her hat fell onto the floor as she struggled to raise herself on the sunbed. “What?”
“You heard. And if I refuse to see you, you know what that means?”
She looked at me, her face contorted with hatred.
“It’ll make it so much harder for Adam to see you.”
“Good luck with that,” she said calmly, her voice masking any fear she may have felt. “Do you honestly think he’s going to choose you over me?”
“Who does he live with? Who does he share his bed with? Who does he make love to? I’d say your chances are pretty slim.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” she’d said, before getting up and walking slowly toward the house, her paisley caftan billowing in the breeze. “You kids having a good time?” she asked Tess and Pippa as she passed the pool, seemingly without a care in the world. Psychopath.
Now she was telling Adam that she had a great time and that I made her feel welcome? I immediately felt wrong-footed, as if she were playing a cat-and-mouse game. No prizes for guessing who the mouse was.
Adam pulled the duvet over our heads and I could feel him hard again as he pulled me tighter toward him. “It’s been four days.” He laughed as I tutted. “I can’t help it.”
“Go to sleep,” I said wearily. “We’ve got to get up in a few hours.”
“I will, I promise. I’ll bash myself with a hammer and won’t bother you again, but only if you do me a favor.”
“For God’s sake, what?” I laughed.
“Mum’s asked if she can come with you to your final fitting.”
“What?” I gasped, sitting up abruptly and turning to face him. “Seriously?”
“She said that you both got on so well while you were away that she wondered if it would be all right to come along to see your dress.” He screwed his face up, as if expecting a retort.
My mouth dropped open.
“Please, Em. It’d mean the world to her. As she said, she doesn’t have a daughter, so will never be able to share that special time with her. You’re the closest she’s got. She’d be so chuffed.”
“But—” I began.
“Your mum’s already seen it, so it’s not as if she’d be stepping on anybody else’s toes, as such.”
“But Pippa hasn’t seen it yet, nor has Seb. The four of us were going to make a day of it on Saturday, go for lunch and that.”
Adam propped himself up on an elbow. “Seb?”
I stopped breathing.
“Seb’s going with you?”
I slid back under the duvet with my heart hammering through my chest. Had I imagined the change in the atmosphere? I must have, because Seb was a problem that Pammie had created in her head, not Adam’s. So why did it feel like I’d just stepped on a land mine and was waiting for a delayed explosion?
“Of course,” I said nonchalantly. “Why wouldn’t he?”
“Because it’s a girls’ thing,” he said curtly.
I turned to face him and snuggled into his warm chest, sliding an arm around his back. “You’re being sexist,” I said, laughing.
I felt him pull away, both literally and mentally. “So Seb’s going to sit in a bridal shop with a gaggle of women?” he asked incredulously. “He’s going to see your dress before I do?”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” I remonstrated. “It’s Seb, for goodness’ sake.” Had she got to him? Had she planted this absurd seed in his head?
“It just seems a bit much, to be honest,” he said sharply. “Still, if he’s going, I really can’t see a problem with my mum going, can you?”
There was no answer to that, and I felt myself sink into the mattress, beaten and dejected. What did I have to do to get this vile woman out of my life?