‘I love you too.’
And then I lean across the table and kiss her on the lips, and it’s perfect.
EPILOGUE
FREYA
Three years later
‘You may kiss the bride.’
There’s cheering from the congregation as I turn to Jake and he very tenderly lifts my veil and then brushes my lips with his.
Then he kisses me again, for a little longer. The kiss is beautiful, holding the promise of all the things we’re going to do later on when we don’t have to go full PG for the benefit of our audience, not least our wonderful eighteen-month-old daughter, Zara, who’s on the front row being held by Jake’s mother.
‘I’m Mrs Jake,’ I whisper to him.
‘And I’m Mr Freya.’ He grins at me and I beam back at him. I can’t believe how lucky I am.
We’ve both learnt a lot more about ourselves over the past three years since the evening we agreed to officially date. Jake’s learnt that hedoeshave the right to be happy. And I have learnt that I really am good at loving people (Jake and Zara for a start) and that they loveme.
We’ve also learnt that we both took averysurprise pregnancy in our stride. I did not adore pregnancy but Ilovemotherhood, and Jake was wonderful while I vomited my way through not just my first trimester but also my second and most of my third, and is equally wonderful as a father.
‘Looking forward to tonight when everyone’s gone,’ Jake murmurs into my ear.
‘Shhh,’ I admonish him. ‘I’mlooking forward to having a fab day and evening with our family and friends.’
‘Are younotlooking forward to tonight?’ He leans in and tells me some of the things that he’sparticularlylooking forward to and laughs when I squeak out loud, because a couple of them arenaughty.
‘Maybe,’ I say. ‘Butfirst, it’s time toparty.’
We’ve chosen to get married in the Devon village where Lizzie and I now have an alpaca farm business. We both still have our day jobs, so we have a farm manager, but we both visit as much as possible, and it’s doingverywell combining wool and milk production with alpaca experiences. We chose the village for the wedding partly because it’s gorgeous and on the coast and we love it here, and partly because Sonja was threatening to gatecrash if we had it in London.
We’ve reached a truce with her. She’s stopped trying to shit-stir (she was such a nightmare that we honestly both almost suspected her of somehow getting me surprise-pregnant so quickly just to test us) plus she finally gave me the autograph for Maudandagreed to meet her for lunch, which Maud adored, and in return we’ve agreed to go on her show every few months with a little update. Something that helped us a lot was that there was a huge public backlash against her nastiness to us andshe had to fight to keep her job and promise to be a lot nicer from then on.
She and her producer did suggest that she attend our wedding and that they show footage of it onWake Up Britain, to which Jake and I both had an immediate and massive reaction ofno way. (I also refused point-blank to let her video me in labour. Obviously. And won’t let her show photos of Zara. Obviously.)
Jake and I are in the middle of dancing in a group on the beach, me and Lizzie waltzing together, and Jake and Dan together (Lizzie and Dan are engaged and have three-month-old twins) when Max – whose debut thriller just came out tohugeacclaim – wheels over to us. (The first time we spoke and he said he couldn’t go places by himself because of his disability was a little lie to get me to visit him, a visit for which I never cease to be grateful.) He’s in the wide-wheeled beach wheelchair that he treated himself to out of his advance, going at top speed (seriously impressive).
‘That bloody woman’s here,’ he says.
‘Not…’ we all chorus.
‘Yep. Sonja.’
‘Fuck me,’ Jake says.
‘Later, sir,’ I reply (okay, fine, Ihavehad too much champagne, but in my defence it’smy wedding day). ‘And focusing on the essentials, I donotwant cameras.’
And up pops Sonja in our faces with her phone camera held towards us.
I do my best smile while trying to put lots of other people between us and her, and then oh my goodness, the bliss, she’s so intent on getting her photo that she doesn’t notice a big wave coming behind her. It drenches herandwashes her phone out of her hand.
‘Wow.’ I’m in awe. ‘Karma in action.’
‘I’m always grateful to Sonja and the programme, though,’ Jake says as he begins to jog forward to haul her back onto her feet. ‘For introducing us.’
‘Me too,’ agrees Dan.
