Tears spilled out before I could catch them. I wasn’t prone to crying, it wasn’t my style, but the wedding and Christmas in general was making me feel more emotional than usual.
“Thank you. I am sorry he won’t be here. He’d have loved Max.”
“Max is wearing your grandfather’s cufflinks for the wedding, isn’t he?” Marie stood up and went over to the large wardrobe that I’d heard Grant suggest held more clothes than Macy’s.
“He is. It was his suggestion. I didn’t want to interfere with what he’d chosen, but he asked if he could.” He’d asked when we’d been in bed, of course, just after he’d managed to coax three orgasms out of me – it had been a stressful day at work, and I’d needed the relief. I had asked why he’d been thinking of my grandfather at that moment in time, because it had seemed a little irregular.
He just told me that he was thinking about how to make me happy.
I hadn’t known how to answer after that.
She opened a drawer and pulled out a box. “This was mine on my wedding day. My mother couldn’t be there, much to her disgust, as Grant and I got married quickly. She had these couriered over from New York.”
I opened the box and found a bracelet, gold links with blue stones set in them. It was dainty, stunning but not brash.
“They’re blue diamonds, because my mother was nothing if not a lover of expensive jewellery. I’d like you to wear it, if you’d want to. Something borrowed and something blue. It’s also pretty old too, so it ticks most of the boxes.” She sat back down. “Don’t feel that you have to, though.”
“I’d love to wear it. Thank you.”
“Let me put it on you.”
I went over to her and offered my wrist, imagining what it would’ve been like if my motherhadbeen here. To be honest, the chances were she’d have been too busy with work to do more than turn up just in time, but I pushed that knowledge from my mind.
“Maxwell is lucky to be marrying you.”
“Thank you. That means a lot given how you pretty much brought him up.”
She smiled. “He was a page boy at our wedding. I remember having to bribe him to wear a suit. We got married quickly, within a few weeks of me getting here, and the kids were half unsure and half relieved to have someone nagging them who wasn’t a nanny. I think the wedding was a bit of a shock to Max and Claire though. It was very quick.”
“What did you wear?”
“A white wedding dress, but one that was off the rack as there wasn’t time to get anything made and altered. We were married at the same chapel where you’re having your wedding.” She smiled.
“Max didn’t mention that.”
“I’m not surprised. I think he’s pretty much forgotten about that day. So much happened in their early lives that I think it became a blur. And he had a lot to get his head round, going from being the sole person caring for a baby sometimes to having someone who could do it for him.” She glanced out of the window. Snow was coming down hard now.
“I hope he gets the chance to be a father.”
Marie got up and walked over to me, pulling me in to a powerful hug. “It will happen. By hook or by crook, it will happen.”
6
Six personal training sessions – from Marie to Grant
Seph
“I can’t believeMum kept this.”
A homemade tree ornament was thrust into my face by my darling youngest sister, followed by a peel of hysterical laughter.
“You might be the fairy on top of this tree if you’re not careful. And I’ll tell Santa you’re mean and you won’t get your presents.” I tried to glare at her, but she looked the happiest she had done for days.
Ava shook her head, long blonde hair falling everywhere. “Seph, if you’ve managed to get presents for everyone sorted, I’ll eat Dad’s stuffing.”
“You’re eating Dad’s stuffing then.”
She raised her brows. “You’ve bought presents. Actual presents to open on Christmas Day?” Her hands went to her heart and she gasped. “Oh Seph, don’t tell me you’ve wrapped them! I shall have a conniption!”
