‘I’m landing the Saturday before, and staying for two weeks.’ Annie grinned. ‘My clients will have to manage without me.’
‘How lovely that Greg will be finally taking some time off!’ Mum beamed. ‘That man works too hard,’ she said to Moses, as if she didn’t say the same thing every week.
‘Oh, no, Greg will join us the day before the wedding,’ Annie said, inspecting her perfectly polished nails. ‘He can’t get two weeks off that time of year. Or any time of year, to be honest. And I don’t want him getting in the way of my sister time.’
‘What? Is this normal in New York, for wives to gallivant across the world on holiday without their husband?’ Mum was indignant. ‘What will he eat?’
‘Whatever he cooks!’
‘Mum, it’s perfectly normal for people to visit their family while their husband or wife has to work. He’s joining her later. It’s fine,’ I said, patting her hand. I wasn’t at all sure it was fine, but there was no point worrying about it until Annie got here. Or at least until Wednesday Wine, when we stood a better chance of getting her to open up.
‘Ah, yes!’ Mum exclaimed, gripping my wrist. ‘Emma has news to share! Do it now, while Annie is here.’
I braced myself, knowing that I had to tell them sometime, and it might as well be now.
‘I applied to the compatibility study that Bridget’s doing at work and it turns out I’m the best match so the wedding is in two weeks, on May eleventh. A Saturday. Sorry, Annie, I know that’s another plane ticket, and it’s really short notice so I’ll completely understand if you can’t make it. It’s going to be really small and low-key, you won’t be missing much.’
‘Wow! Well. That is news. But as for missing my big sister’s big day? I wouldn’t dream of it. I also might have to come over in good time to SHAKE SOME SENSE BACK INTO YOU! What the hell are you thinking?’ Annie shrieked. ‘And more to the point: Bridget! What the hell are YOU thinking? Emma’s in a vulnerable state right now. I can’t believe you’d take advantage of that to drag her into your insane work project. We’re talking about marrying a STRANGER! Can somebody who is actually there please stop this insanity from going any further? Why is nobody else saying anything?’
‘Excuse me, what is this? I don’t understand. What stranger? Who’s getting married? Emma, are you making a cake for strangers to get married?’
‘No, Mum. That’s not it.’
By the time everything had been explained, the remaining food was congealing on our plates. Annie hung up after another frustrated rant, and Sofia and Moses brought out dessert and coffee. We always handled things better with a proper cappuccino and a bowl of homemade mint ice cream.
Dad carefully hauled himself up from the table, reaching for his stick. ‘Thank you for a lovely dinner, Gabriella. But I’ll take my dessert later. I need a wee lie-down.’
‘Excuse me?’ Mum was indignant. ‘Do you have nothing to say on this matter, Bear Donovan?’
In answer, Dad plodded around the table until he reached me. He bent down, kissed the top of my head and straightened up again. ‘Do you think that Emma would do this lightly, without considering what she’s letting herself in for?’
‘Up until today I wouldn’t have believed she’d do it at all! But she is broken-hearted. First Jake and Helen Richards, then Orla and Sofia and Annie and now Bridget. She’s a desperate woman, and desperate women do stupid, desperate things. They forget their heads, listen only to their hearts. And hers is broken.’
‘And is that such a bad thing, listening to your heart?’ Bear asked. ‘Did we listen to our heads, thirty-five years ago? Come now, woman, the moment I saw you I’d lost my head. I gave up looking for it decades ago.’
‘This is different! We must stop her making this mistake! How can you even consider letting her do this?’
‘We can’t stop her. She’s a grown woman,’ Dad replied, gently. ‘Emma, are you sure?’
‘Yes, Daddy.’
‘Then I’m sure too. We’ve raised some fine, wee girls, Gabriella. They know what’s what. Trust in that, trust Bridget. Trust Emma. Like we trusted Orla to raise a wean with Sam, and trusted that Sofia knew what she was doing at twenty-one when she gave up her nice, cosy future to take care of the downtrodden. And we trusted Annie, didn’t we? To marry some old fella she barely knew, on the other side of the world? Trust that there is more to this than you know.’
‘Will you trust this strange man with our daughter?’
Dad winked at Bridget. ‘I will.’
And on that note, I decided it was time to go home so I could stress about the whole thing in peace.
It was very noble and touching that my dad had such absolute faith in me. Right then, and for about a zillion more moments over the next few weeks, I really wasn’t sure I trusted myself.
12
Cooper
Sunday morning, Ben and Cooper headed out along the river Trent for an eight-mile run, stopping to grab a bacon cob from a café on the way back.
Cooper almost felt like a normal person. It was as they stood eating, watching a clutch of ducks bobbing about on the river in what Cooper hoped was a companionable silence, that he decided to go for it.
