Page 20 of Italy and Forever

‘Oh, it’s no extra work for you. We have organised the stealing of the bride and the obstacles at the church.’

‘The… what? When is all of this supposed to happen?’ Ginny imagined her carefully curated schedule going up in flames.

‘After the ceremony, we steal the bride when the groom isn’t looking and he needs to go searching for her – and there is drinking involved.’

‘Uh… you do realise⁠—’

Marco nodded. ‘We will be drinking, not Sophie.’

Ginny’s mind raced for ways to prevent this from becoming a disaster. ‘Maybe you could kidnap her somewhere nice, where we can take some photos? I can see that being a good photo opportunity.’

Lucas scowled in thought. ‘The point is to make Andreas suffer.’

Marco elbowed him in the ribs. ‘He’ll suffer enough after the wedding day!’

Ginny met Kira’s gaze urgently, but her friend didn’t appear as alarmed as she was.

Lucas continued. ‘You will need to do the waking of the bride before sunrise on the wedding day. It’s a measure against bad luck.’

‘I’m starting to feel a little sorry for Sophie,’ Kira commented. ‘She’s going to be woken before sunrise and kidnapped – plus, she’s marrying Andreas.’

Even Kira was behaving as though marriage were a life sentence.

‘Why can’t they be lovely traditions like the money dance or the Nordic bridal crown?’ Ginny muttered in reply.

‘Because we say love is blind,’ replied Lucas, leaving a pause before delivering the punchline, ‘but getting married makes you see again!’

Marco roared with laughter. Lifting his own hand to show off his wedding ring, he said sagely, ‘The secret of a happy marriage is forgiving each other… for agreeing to the marriage in the first place!’

He clinked his beer with Lucas’s and they downed half all at once.

The lobby doors opened and a young woman rushed in, with golden brown hair like Andreas’s in a knot on top of her head, followed by an older couple with the unmistakable pride tinged with overwhelm that marked them as the parents of the groom.

‘Hey, bro, sis.’ The young woman kissed Andreas’s cheek and wrapped Sophie in a hug, holding tight. This must be Andreas’s sister Caro.

Andreas’s mother greeted Sophie in a more dignified manner, but Ginny could see the sheen in her eyes from across the room. She couldn’t look away. They were all so beautifully bewildered by how much they loved each other, by the miracle of the next generation on the way.

With a gulp, she scolded herself firmly for the twinge of envy. How odd, she was jealous of Sophie’s mother-in-law. Those were not supposed to be a perk of marriage.

Willard, Laurie and Rhys approached to greet Andreas’s parents as though they’d met before, and Reshma was introduced. Kira had disappeared from Ginny’s side without her noticing and she hugged Caro as well.

Even Lucas and Marco drifted over to say hello, leaving Ginny swinging her feet at the bar. When she caught sight of Caro wrapping her arms around Rhys, she ordered another drink and called her own sister.

‘Hey, you,’ she said when Elspeth connected the call with video.

‘Why are you calling me instead of doing wedding stuff?’

‘It’s good to see you too,’ Ginny grumbled. ‘I have a small window of time before dinner and I thought I’d call my only sister. There’s a lot of family around.’

‘Sometimes I think you want your own wedding just to have a big family event,’ Elspeth joked. ‘You can just have a thirtieth-birthday bash instead. Harry and I will organise it for you.’

Ginny fought the urge to be offended, when it would be rather nice of her sister and half-brother to throw a party for her. She wouldn’t have been sensitive to a statement like that a few months ago – not before that damn hypnotherapist had told her she didn’t actually want a partner and she’d started the dating ban. Now she was worried Elspeth was right.

‘It’s over a year until my big birthday,’ Ginny reminded her sister tartly. Rhys would already be forty, she thought in alarm. ‘And we’ve got your wedding before then. Maybe that will scratch my itch for a big family event.’

Elspeth studied her. ‘Are you agreeing with me?’

She shrugged. ‘I’m starting to see I’ve been unhelpfully fixated on dating for too long. I can sow some wild oats before settling down.’