Morgan placed her hand on top of Brett's and patted it. ‘You are a wonderful father, Brett. Now come and sit down and we’ll order our food before we open the boxes. I dare say I’ll be a blubbering mess in minutes.’
Brett picked up his pint of Guinness and took a sip. ‘I’ll go and order for us before I sit down. Do you want your usual and another glass of wine, sis?’
Morgan looked at her glass. It only had an inch left. She hadn’t realised she’d already guzzled it down. ‘Yes please, only make the next one a large one please.’
Brett smiled warmly at her and turned away, walking towards the bar. Morgan lifted the glass to her lips and finishedits contents. Normally, she only had one glass of wine at lunchtime, but today was an exception.
Pippa entered the bar from the side door and Morgan noticed her face brightened when she saw her aunt. She immediately made a beeline for her. ‘Hello aunt.’ She dipped her head to the shoebox on the seat next to Morgan. ‘I see you have your photos, too.’
‘Are you alright love? I know it upsets you to see photographs of your mum.’
Pippa nodded. ‘Actually, I was this time aunt. I was just a little upset thinking mum won’t get to see her first grandchild.’
‘Oh, but she will Pippa. Her presence is all around us, just like my Bren.’
Pippa smiled and her features relaxed, as if she was genuinely comforted by her aunt’s comment. ‘I’d love to think that is true aunt.’
Morgan could still sense sadness surrounding her niece. She wanted to change the subject. ‘Pippa, I need to have half an hour with you when you have chance to tell you about my plans to hold a folkdance in a barn on Poppy Farm for my sixtieth.’
Pippa gasped. ‘Oh my goodness. Really?’ Morgan nodded. ‘I’m so glad you told me aunt, I was about to plan a surprise party for you here at The Cheese Wedge and Pickles.’
‘Oh Pippa, that truly is a wonderful gesture, but I really want to organise something myself. I want my birthday party to benefit to all Seagull Bay residents, I want it to be something to entertain everyone, young to old. A pub might not be the best venue to hold because of the sheer number of people I intend to invite, that’s why I’ve asked Pamela if I can use a barn on Poppy Farm.’
‘It’s fine aunt. I just didn’t want you tonotcelebrate it. I remember you not wanting us to make a fuss of your fiftieth birthday, but this time I was determined to do something.’
‘Well this time I’m going all out. I’m going to have cocktail and mocktail competitions, lots of little game stalls for the young, and of course, there will be a live band and dancing all night long.’
‘You do realise you have to book bands months in advance aunt, don’t you?’
Morgan nodded smugly. ‘I do. I have a band booked with a non-returnable deposit. I thought it was better to lose out on a couple of hundred pounds if my party didn’t come to fruition, rather than not be prepared. Pamela and I have a meeting with the fire chief tomorrow, and I have portaloo's to book and heaters to hire. Then it’s just the food and decorations to sort out. I’m on it, Kiddo.’
‘Wow. You are my hero Aunt Morgan. You’re Superwoman.’
Morgan laughed and Brett appeared by Pippa’s side, sliding an arm around her shoulders. ‘Did you get that bit of something out of your eye Pippa?’ Brett winked secretly at Morgan.
‘Yes dad.’ Pippa kissed her father’s cheek and then turned her head to wink at her aunt. Morgan had to stifle a laugh.
‘Right, I’ll let you two have a wander down memory lane.’ Pippa turned around and headed for the door leading into the pub’s kitchen.
Brett settled into the seat alongside Morgan. ‘Shall we look at my photos or yours first?’
Morgan breathed in a deep breath to draw courage. ‘Yours Brett. Let’s both think of a memory associated with something from each photograph, shall we?’
Brett nodded and took a drink of Guinness before pulling the lid off the box he’d brought along with him.
The first photo on top of the pile was of Brett and Marie’s wedding day. It was a shot of all the family members, with their friends standing on either side of the bride and groom. The first person Morgan saw was her lovely sister in her wedding dresslooking as radiant as any bride next to a dashing young Brett, but her eyes tugged left. She remembered exactly where she was standing when the photograph was taken, and knew Bren was close by her side with his arm proudly wrapped around her shoulders.
This photograph was most unexpected. She hadn’t wanted to see any photos of her husband until she’d built up a protective barrier around her heart, but here she was about to look upon his face again for the first time in years.
Her eyes roamed slowly over the faces in the photograph. She knew each and every one of them, but she wasn’t taking in any details, her eyes were hungry to see only one face. Finally, they stopped on a toothy grin and kind green eyes as Bren stared up at her.
Her next breath caught in her throat and for a few seconds, her body refused to breathe again, her heart contradicted her other physical reaction entirely by hammering wildly in her chest.
Brett was talking, but whatever he was saying was not transmitting. She was frozen and deaf to the world, her mind suspended to that time when Bren and she were standing side-by-side.
Another photograph was suddenly thrust in front of the wedding one breaking the trance. ‘And this was at the wedding reception. Do you remember when Marie spilled wine down the front of her dress, and she was panicking it was going to stain? You took her into the lady's room and sorted her out didn’t you, Morgan.’
Morgan blinked, the episode with the wine suddenly coming to the forefront of her mind. ‘Yes-yes, I did. I had to use white wine to erase the red wine stain.’
