Mission accomplished. I think I may have just saved my own wedding day.
‘Of course, we want to say a huge thanks, not only to the bridesmaids, but also to a few other people who’ve helped make our day special,’ Luke says. He’s standing up beside me, a microphone in his hand, and he has the whole room in the palm of his hand. His speech had not only me snivelling but seventy-five per cent of the guests too.
He waits while his best man and a couple of the ushers form an orderly queue, gifts in hand, and then he passes the mic to me. Crap. I forgot I insisted on doing the talking for this bit first time around. I stand up and clear my throat.
I thank Lola and Diane for the dresses and the cake and then I turn to my mum, who is scowling, as if she’s already got it into her head that she’s going to get offended. ‘And I want to say thanks to my Mum too,’ I say, smiling widely, ‘for … ’ I feel time slowing down, the way it does before a car crash or an accident of some kind. I don’t know what to say! Quick, Jess … Make something up. Anything! ‘For all the help she’s been in preparingfor this wedding, giving her opinion on … ’ Oh, Lord. There must besomethingshe had some input on. ‘On the colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses … ’ (She suggested teal instead of green but it’s close enough!) ‘And for … for … ’ I can feel my face going red. It’s starting at my collarbones and working its way up. I’m losing the power of cohesive thought.
‘For giving birth to her in the first place!’ Mum suddenly shouts from her seat, raising her half-drunk champagne for the toasts. Everyone laughs and Mum looks pleased with herself, so I smile nervously too, drop back down to my seat and give the mic back to Luke. He’s going to have to handle the rest.
After the meal has finished and things are being set up for the evening reception, I ask the hotel if we could keep the doors to the terrace locked, leaving a side entrance into the formal garden as access to the outside for those wanting fresh air or a sneaky cigarette. No fifteen-foot drop, no problem, right?
And my plan works. Even though Mum says I wasn’t as glowing in my thanks to her as I was to the other mothers, she’s pleased with her flowers and chuffed everyone thought she was funny. When the music starts later on in the evening, she gets up on the dance floor and lets loose, having a grand old time, and I can’t help hoping her love of Seventies and Eighties hits will keep her out of trouble for a bit.
But just after 9 p.m., right after I’ve finally let myself relax and enjoy the evening, I notice a group pointing and laughing at something outside the large windows. A few more people turn to look. The sinking feeling I get in my stomach is horribly familiar.
‘What’s going on over there?’ Luke says beside me.
‘Don’t know,’ I reply hoarsely.
He frowns and begins to walk in that direction. I trail after him, but when I reach the windows that look out over the garden, I see exactly what the cause of all the hilarity is. There, in the middle of the rose garden, is my mother … and she is not alone. She is most decidedly not alone, seeing how one arm is wrapped round the guy’s waist and the other is cupping his left buttock.
And that’s not the worst of it. The man my mother is snogging as if her life depends on it is not only fifteen years her junior, it’s the minister who performed our wedding ceremony, and he seems just as much a willing participant as she is!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JESS
I close the card and put it back in its envelope. Luke waited until we were alone to give me my wedding present – a beautiful pendant in white gold that echoes the style of my wedding band, and along with it, a card full of heartfelt promises. But then I think about the aftermath of what happened in the hotel garden and the glow his words put in my heart dims slightly.
Once Mum and Scott, the minister, realized they’d been spotted, they sprang apart with red faces – although I’m guessing Mum’s complexion was more from the flush of the alcohol than embarrassment. The onlookers were distracted by the announcement that the evening buffet was ready and drifted back inside or away from the windows. To their credit, most of the guests tried to pretend it hadn’t happened and carried on as normal.
Luke encouraged me to eat something, but I hadn’t been able to face it. What a mess. In trying to avoid one disaster, I’d just created another. Different events but the same outcome: a cloud of shame hanging over my wedding day.Thanks, Mum.
I was exhausted, ready to check out emotionally and run away from it all. However, when I suggested to Luke that we departearly, he looked pensive. ‘Don’t you want to toss your bouquet? And there are friends and family we haven’t had a chance to talk to yet. Yes, this is our day and, technically, we can do whatever we want, but it’s also a day for the people we love to celebrate with us. I’d feel bad leaving earlier than planned.’
I nodded mutely. He was right. I knew he was right. Wanting to leave was selfish, but that didn’t stop a part of me wishing he’d said, ‘You want to leave now? Let’s do it! Nobody else matters but you!’ But I can hardly be cross with Luke for being the good son, good brother, good friend I’ve always known him to be. Isn’t that why I married him in the first place?
It’s after midnight, and I’m sitting on the bed of our room in a cute one-storey cottage at the edge of the Lubbock’s grounds. Many of the guests are staying overnight in the hotel proper, but we opted for hiring out the gatehouse to give us a bit of privacy, and I’m very glad of that now.
Luke emerges from the en suite bathroom. A towel is slung round his waist and he’s rubbing his wet hair with another. He takes one look at me, throws the towel he’s holding onto a chair and comes to stand in front of me. ‘You look sad. Why?’
I shrug. I really don’t know how to define what I’m feeling at the moment.
He sits down beside me, slings an arm around me and pulls me against him so I can rest on his shoulder. ‘Is it your mum?’ He presses a kiss to my temple. ‘I’m sorry that that happened. You did your best to hide it, but I know it took the shine off the rest of the day for you.’
I take a breath and hold it. The truth is, I don’t want to talk about that now. It’s too raw, too upsetting. I’m not ready to rip myself open and bear my soul to him. Not in the middle ofthis crazy nightmare of an experience, not while I’m jumping through the days of my life like that guy fromQuantum Leap.
‘How on earth did the pair of them end up like that anyway?’ I ask as I pull away to look at him.
He shakes his head, a bemused smile on his face. ‘I have no idea!’
‘Is he … Is he going to get in trouble?’ I have no idea about these things. Mum has never exactly been a churchgoer, which only makes the whole thing more surprising.
Luke ponders this for a moment. ‘I shouldn’t think so.’
The minister is a family friend of the Harrises. I’m aware they go to a local church that isn’t part of a big denomination, although I’m not really sure what that means.
‘I mean, he’s single,’ Luke adds, ‘and all they did was kiss. I’ve known Scott since we used to be in the youth group together. He comes from quite a sheltered background and doesn’t normally drink very much. I don’t know … maybe it shows that ministers can be human too, that even they can be caught out by constant topping up of champagne glasses?’
