‘I can’t let there be.’
‘I wasn’t talking about yours; I was talking about his.’ Gabi looked at her sternly, wishing above everything that she could help her friend find happiness before she left. Etienne and Isabella started to sing the words out loud beside them.
‘That’s it,’ Amber fumed. ‘I’m putting my playlist on.’ She picked up her phone to change the music. Gabi found herself looking for Walker again and spotted him pushing Alex in their direction. Wren and Rosie joined in with the lyrics, arms around each other’s shoulders. Gabi rested her hand on Amber’s forearm to get her attention, seeing the look of determination on Alex’s face as he approached them, but Amber kept scrolling. Alex was almost to them, but at the last minute, to Gabi’s confusion, he cut towards Jayden standing on the patio.
‘Got it!’ Amber said, and Gabi nudged her, hard, to stop her changing the music when she saw what was happening.
‘What?’ Amber said, rubbing her side.
‘Look.’ Gabi pointed to where Alex stood in the middle of the lawn, facing Jayden. The song played and everyone sang along; even Toby and Jesse knew the words. Alex sang too, but it wasn’t the words he was singing that had everyone’s attention. It was the fact that he was signing at the same time. His hands flashed through the words, his fingers moving swiftly as though he’d been signing his entire life. He knew each and every sentence, every last word, in sign language. Amber gasped beside her.
Jayden’s face was a picture. Tentative. Hopeful. Surprised. He watched Alex singing and signing to him, just him, so that he could understand the words. Looking at him, Gabi felt her own heart in her mouth. Anyone could see how Jayden felt about Alex. It was written on his face. Everyone was watching now, a circle formed around the two.
The chorus started and Amber clutched at Gabi’s hand.
‘You might not hear these words, but you know what I’m saying,’ Alex sang and signed simultaneously. Suddenly the words had a different meaning. Gabi began to understand and knew Amber did too as she clapped her hand to her heart.
‘You’re deep in my heart and that’s where you’re staying.’ Alex continued to sign, and Gabi watched Jayden’s smile break through. It lit his face like a firework display.
The song finished a moment later, Alex signing to the very end. And then when it had finished, he very clearly signed three words that everyone recognised.
‘That damn song wasn’t even about me,’ Amber said incredulously.
‘Seems not,’ Gabi said, feeling tears prick her eyes for the millionth time that day. Walker slid his arms around her from behind and she rested back against the strength of his chest.
‘Go.’ She pushed at Amber and watched as she stumbled into the middle of the circle. You could have heard a pin drop in the garden as everyone parted to let Amber through. She stopped in front of Alex, and he blinked at her, as though waking from a trance.
‘You wrote it about Jayden.’ It wasn’t a question. Her blue eyes were wide with understanding.
‘I did,’ he said. ‘I’ve always loved Jayden. Just as I’ve always loved you. I only needed you to believe it.’
Amber bit her lip and glanced at Jayden, whose brown eyes were bigger than Gabi had ever seen. He moved towards his mum and lifted his hand. The number two. The roll of a dice. Gabi gasped. Second chances. Everyone deserved second chances. Amber put her hand out towards Jayden and he went to her. She kissed his little hand in hers and they smiled at each other, in complete agreement. They moved together, to Alex, who opened his arms to them both.
‘Oh my God! Yes!’ Wren shouted, tears pouring down her face. ‘It’s the hormones. . .’ she added, trying to swipe them away.
‘I can’t blame it on hormones!’ Isabella said, wiping away tears of her own.
‘Nor can I!’ Jesse said, catching his as they dripped off his perfectly trimmed beard.
Gabi watched Alex and Amber kiss, the sweetest and most loving of expressions on their faces, before Alex conducted a long and complicated high five handshake with Jayden. She turned to look up at Walker and saw him fighting back tears too. Her tummy flipped and her heart swelled to bursting in her chest. Damn, this was so much harder than she’d expected.
Etienne clapped his hands loudly, and everyone looked his way.
‘While we’re on the subject of good news,’ he said, pulling a beaming Isabella to his side. ‘I’m happy to say that Isabella Tucci has finally agreed to marry me before the year is up and we are looking forward to a winter wedding!’
Reggie and George shot more party poppers and Riley cartwheeled across the lawn again.
‘And you’re all invited!’ Isabella shouted and everyone roared in delight. Gabi felt a rush of love for her cousin and flew across the garden to smother her with kisses.
‘Photograph!’ Toby shouted, setting his phone up on the table and herding everyone with his hands towards the lawn. Everyone surrounded Amber and Alex and Jayden, arms around backs, children in the front. Walker tucked Gabi under his arm, and kissed the top of her head as he held her tightly against him. Wren turned sideways so that the photograph would catch the tiny, almost non-existent, curve of her baby bump, and both Rosie and Toby put a hand on it. Jesse sneezed as the photo was taken and it was caught for ever as everyone laughed with tears in their eyes from what had gone before.
The photo was circulated to the group chats and a moment later, Gabi was zooming in on the faces of her friends and their children, marvelling at the happiness contained in one single shot. She distanced herself from the group to the bench at the bottom of the garden, and sat with her back against the ivy-covered wall.
She looked at Amber and Alex, hands entwined, and knew she was moving out at exactly the right time. They would want to be together, night and day, having wasted so much time already. She could imagine them at the wooden kitchen table over breakfast, Alex in his pyjama bottoms, Amber in a vest top and shorts, exchanging contented, satisfied smiles over coffee. She suddenly wanted to cry.
Walker spotted her and raised his chin in a question. She tried to smile but her lip quivered, and she bit down, hard, to keep it under control. She lifted a hand instead and beckoned him over. A second later, he was there, beside her on the bench, arm around her shoulders.
‘What is it, baby?’ Walker asked, the hazel of his eyes clouded with worry. She knew what she wanted to say, but for a second the words blocked her throat. She clasped his hand and pulled it onto her leg.
