‘Thanks, Martin.’ Rosie held on to one of the poles. ‘That looks very sturdy. You’re a lifesaver.’
She could hear Grace calling to the guests, ‘I’ll set up the bar, you can all have a swim!’
‘You sure you can take it from here?’ Martin was saying to Rosie.
‘Quite sure…’
‘Remember to tie the gazebo down.’ He handed her a piece of rope that had been with all the poles. ‘Slip it through the bottom there and you could find an anchor.’
‘Everything all right?’ It was Teddy, slipping down off the wall beside the beach, and dropping onto the sand. ‘Did I see flames?’ He looked at Rosie, half-smiling but concerned.
‘You may have done.’ Rosie could feel her skin was damp, her mouth was dry. ‘But everything’s under control.’
Teddy gave her a quick smile. ‘It’s a lot to take on,’ he said, beginning to add more coals to the barbecue as Rosie and Martin found the weights to hold down the gazebo. ‘It’s looking okay now. I can stay if you want me to?’
Rosie shook her head. ‘Honestly, Dad, it’s grand. Just a technical hitch.’
‘Life is all about technical hitches,’ said Teddy. ‘It’s learning how to manage them.’
‘You’re so right, Teddy,’ said Martin. ‘My life is one big one. Should have read the manual to life when I was born, rather than thinking I could wing the whole thing.’
Teddy chuckled. ‘What do they say? RTFM? Read the fecking manual? We’re all guilty of winging it.’
‘But I’m flying now,’ Rosie assured them, hoping they would both leave so she could get on with tending the barbecue and pretending that all was well with the world.
Teddy gave the coals one more poke. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?’
‘Aren’t you going to clean the trolley?’
‘Ah, yes.’ He smiled at her. ‘Nice to have a little job to do. Especially as it looks like rain up there and I can’t be in the garden.’
‘Rain?’ Rosie looked up at the sky. Yes, there were a couple of extra clouds, but it was still blue. ‘I’ll bring you back a sausage sandwich,’ she promised. ‘No need to panic.’
‘If there’s one going,’ said Teddy, ‘I wouldn’t say no.’
He and Martin hopped onto the wall and back towards the minibus. Patrick and the rest of the party were quickly changing into their swimsuits. Was someone invisible if they had a hood up? She felt invisible as she slipped the rope into her pocket and tried to concentrate on the food. She actually couldn’t remember ever cooking a sausage on a barbecue before. They hadn’t been one of those barbecue families growing up, the ones with the dad in the apron and his many marinades and home-made burgers and brioche buns. Her family had been too busy with the hotel to fooster about with coals and tongs and whatever else.
‘What the flying feck is going on?’ said Grace, in a panicked whisper. ‘What is this, I thought we were meant to be having a pleasant beach barbecue, not a re-enactment from aMad Maxpost-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.’
‘I know, I’m sorry!’ The tables really had turned. Rosie felt humbled. She wasn’t so much an assistant as a liability.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the wedding guests were all heading for the water. And there was Laurence, catapulting himself towards the sea, shouting, ‘CHAAAAARRRGGGGGE!’
After head-bombing into the water, he emerged with a Godzilla-like mighty roar. The other guests were also in the water, making their way in tentatively.
‘He said he was now part of the party,’ said Grace, with a shrug. ‘He didn’t stop talking all the way down in the minibus, giving everyone a guided tour, pointing out landmarks and everything. We even saw Lucinda on the way and he made everyone cheer out of the window at her. She almost fell off whatever bench she was on.’
Rosie and Grace managed to get the table up between them and Grace flicked open the linen tablecloth and laid it over before setting out the glasses. The barbecue was thankfully smouldering and glowing the way it was meant to.
There was a beep from the minibus as Teddy pulled away, leaning out of the window as he drove past. ‘I’ll be back down at 5p.m. Have a good afternoon, girls.’
‘I brought extra ice,’ Grace said to Rosie. ‘And I have three types of cocktails and the beer keg is in the back of the Land Rover.’
She and Grace set up the bar, and Grace mixed up the cocktails in the three large pitchers she had brought.
‘You lay out the canapés,’ she told Rosie. ‘I’ve got the cocktails.’
In the sea, Laurence was now slamming the water with his huge hands, creating a wave-machine effect. Some of the guests were shrieking and rushing away from him.
