The Duff guy. This made Sean laugh. Jamie might have married into a celebrity family, but his knowledge of anyone famous could barely be considered as such. He didn’t own a TV and made sure his priorities were what he considered real-life matters – the distillery, family, love. Not that different from Sean, in many ways. It was refreshing. His advice was like the cool coastal wind in the warm evening air.
‘Aye, I’ve half the A-list on speed dial. What it boils down to is I need this poker tournament to happen, and I need Cherry to sort it. I’ll have to accept the pain of living with, but not being able to, touch my smoking-hot wife. Which is a whole new kind of frustration.’
‘I can imagine.’ Jamie’s concerned older-brother facewas back. ‘Who knows, she might be lying in her bed, wishing you’d knock in Morse code and ask her to come through.’
‘Ha. Is there an app for learning Morse code? I’ll download it tonight.’
Chapter 19
Cherry
‘This is where you grew up?’ Cherry stared up at the handsome house with its historic stonework, spotless Georgian windows and rainbow of neat window boxes on the outer sills. There must be at least ten bedrooms inside. It was a far cry from the small colonies house that she’d grown up in. The place her mum had always said there wasn’t room to swing a cat. ‘It’s stunning, Sean.’
‘Aye. I can’t complain about growing up here. And down that way are the old barrel store and the distillery.’ He gestured to a path that led down to a smaller, lower stone building, the Buddhist-temple-style pagoda roof of the distillery rising up dramatically in the distance.
‘I’d love to have grown up somewhere like this.’ Cherry was still marvelling at the house and grounds. ‘It’s like something out of a soap opera about a Scottish distilling family. Kintyre’s answer to one of those glossy American shows.’
Sean chuckled. ‘Sign me up to play the evil heartbreaker.’
Evil wasn’t in Sean’s playbook, but heartbreaker couldeasily be. He scrubbed up exceptionally well in jeans and a light blue button-down shirt, stubble trimmed neatly for a respectable, casual look.
Cherry’s express order of ‘impress your mother-in-law’ clothes had arrived that morning. She sported a deep-red sundress offset with a cream cardigan, soft nude nail polish, red wedge sandals and the same nude polish on her toes. It was strange being dressed up in Kinshore, but surely it was better to overdo than under-do things on an occasion such as this.
‘You look absolutely beautiful.’ Sean allayed her fears, not for the first time that evening. ‘Come on.’ He reached for her hand – all part of the marriage sham, of course, but reassuringly strong and steady around her own. With his other hand, he pushed open the solid front door of the Butler family home.
Inside the house, the temperature was several degrees cooler than out, but warmth enveloped them. This was a home. Dependable and safe. Was it the smell of statement wooden furniture? The cushions upholstered in durable luxurious fabrics? Or could it be the shift in her husband’s demeanour, the confidence in his gait, as he walked through the hall of a place he undoubtedly felt most comfortable?
A place he was raised with love to be the incredible man he was today.
Cherry cast a sideways glance at Sean. To think she’d married him. And into this amazing family with its history and achievements. She could be part of this forever if she knew how to stop feeling every day like she didn’t belong here, believing that she was too different. A factory second, standing on the outskirts as the other wives and girlfriends lived up to ideals.
As if reading her thoughts, Sean smiled. ‘Don’t worry, it’s just my mum, and she’s going to love you.’
‘It’s so calm in here.’Like the calm before the storm?
‘Aye, weirdly so.’ Sean upped the pace a little. ‘Normally, there’s a radio on or something.’ He dipped his head into a room that Cherry could see was the kitchen, called out to his mum, but no response came. ‘Place looks like a bomb’s hit it, but no one is here.’
‘Could she be in the garden? It’s a lovely evening.’
‘Maybe… Come on.’ Sean led Cherry further down the corridor and into a large drawing room with Georgian French doors. Closed blinds masked the view, and he reached for the cord. ‘Why has she got the blinds down?’
‘To stop the furniture from getting faded?’
‘Hmm.’ He yanked up the blind, simultaneously pulling at one door.
As it swung open, it brought into view the most vibrant and riotously coloured garden Cherry had ever seen. Trellises of exotic white jasmine, beds of yellow and purple pansies, as well as trails of pink honeysuckle, to name but a few, bordered a perfectly manicured lawn.
It also spilled with nearly every single member of Sean’s immediate family and their respective partners, each one of them beaming radiantly and holding aloft a filled champagne flute, the chime of their ‘congratulations’ bouncing off the garden walls.
And Amanda Butler was in the middle, looking the happiest of them all.
Oh my God!
‘Oh fuck!’ Sean’s utterance would only be audible to Cherry. ‘Sorry, Cher. She said it was just the three of us.’
A quick glance at his stunned face, and Cherry knew Sean was telling the truth. He wouldn’t put her or himselfin this position on purpose, meeting all the family who wouldn’t be her family in a few months. He appeared more devastated than she felt. And she was monumentally terrified.
‘It’s okay.’ She massaged his knuckles with her fingers, wishing she had someone to massage her own. ‘I’m a big girl. Come on, take me to meet the clan.’
