‘You’re going to come travelling with me?’ Violet was gripping the tickets so hard, I feared the paper would rip. ‘What about the stall? The bike rental? You can’t just up and leave everything behind.’
Barnie stood, wrapping his hands around hers to steady their trembling.
‘I told you. You’re my everything.’ His voice was soft. ‘I mean, that’s if you want me to come. You did say you’d miss me more than anything.’
‘Of course I want you to come, you daft oaf.’
‘And you’ll marry me first?’
‘Give me your cap.’
Barnie looked confused, but he did what she’d asked.
‘There. Coming from you, that’s more of a commitment than a ring.’
‘Well, if I’d known it was that easy, I’d have saved my money for hotels,’ Barnie said, whipping a ring out of his jacket pocket, and holding it out to his fiancée. ‘Shall I take this back, get a refund?’
‘Don’t you dare.’
And then he pushed the ring onto her finger, she wrapped her hands around his neck and they were snogging in the middle of barn surrounded by cheers.
Pip gave me a wry glance, and then caught sight of his mother, squeezing through the crowd to get outside.
‘Ma.’ He moved across, catching her wrist as she reached the doorway and gently tugging her to a stop. ‘Hey, it’s okay.’
Rosemary’s face crumpled as she fell against her son’s shoulder. ‘She’s really going.’
‘We always knew she’d be going. At least this way, she won’t marry an Australian and end up settling thousands of miles away. You can trust her and Barnie to keep each other safe, and there’s twice the reason to keep coming home.’
She sighed. ‘I know she’s got to go. And I will be happy for her. But for now, let me weep a wee minute for my child who is leaving.’
‘Okay.’ Pip pressed a kiss against her hair and stepped back. ‘Only a minute, mind. This is Iris and Hugh’s day, and they’re stopping five miles down the road.’
If I hadn’t already fallen for this man, seeing the tenderness towards his mother would have done it. I had so much to learn about love and family, and the thought of discovering those things with Pip sent shivers through me.
The walk – and potential kiss – presumably forgotten, I grabbed a glass of wine and joined the other guests in toasting the new couple, waiting until the gaggle of well-wishers had thinned before moving over to offer my own congratulations.
‘Emmie,’ Barnie said, offering me a sweaty hug once Violet had turned to chat with Celine, who I’d done a great job of managing to avoid so far. ‘Precisely the woman I was hoping to see.’
‘Oh?’ A prickle of trepidation scampered up my spine. Had Celine done something else to make me appear incompetent? At least Pip was hovering nearby so he would hear it, if so.
‘How do you fancy relocating to a new airport?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Well, there couldn’t be a better person on the island to take on Barnie’s doughnuts and bike rental.’
‘Maybe one who lives here?’ Celine, rudely breaking off from her conversation, said with a tight smile.
‘Ah, sure, Pip said he was talking her into staying, now that she’s closed down the kiosk in Sherwood Forest. Isn’t that what the whole conversation in the doorway was about? That’s what inspired me to get on with my proposal.’
‘No. It wasn’t about that,’ Pip said, sounding strained.
‘Oh. Well. The offer still stands. Think about it and let me know, aye?’
Barnie turned aside, as someone else came to clap him on the shoulder and kiss Violet on the cheek. Pip glanced at Celine, whose narrowed eyes made my stomach clench like a concertina as I wrestled between fury and fear.
‘Excuse us, Celine,’ Pip said, politely. ‘Emmie and I were about to take a walk.’
