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Jobe came and stood beside her. ‘I used to bring Abe and Ethan to the pier when they were little. We’d get pizza and watch the world go by.’
‘A family day out?’ Merida kept her smile pasted on her face.
‘Oh, Elizabeth didn’t come. It wasn’t all gentrified around here then. No, just me and the boys. Not often, mind... I was always working. Still am.’
She really looked at him then. He was probably sixty, and with streaks of silver in his black hair he was elegant and handsome. To Merida’s surprise, he was kind, too. For not only had he come to check on her but he now took out a handkerchief and gave it to her.
‘Thank you.’
‘Emotional things, weddings,’ Jobe said.
‘Yes.’
‘I bet your family’s upset to miss it,’ he said, and when she started to cry again he added. ‘Whoops, I’ve set you off.’
‘It’s fine,’ Merida said. ‘I’m a bit of a leaky tap at the moment.’
‘You’re allowed to be. I hear that I’m going to have to stick around for a while longer if I want to know whether I have a granddaughter or a grandson.’
‘You will.’ Merida gave a small laugh as he put her at ease over the painful topic of his health.
‘You’re not going to find out before?’
‘I didn’t plan to.’ And then she wondered if perhaps she should. And then, although it should be Ethan she first told about the baby moving, she chose not to keep this moment from Jobe. ‘I just felt the baby move for the first time.’
‘Seriously?’
Merida nodded.
‘Then the baby must approve of the marriage,’ Jobe said. ‘I know that I do.’ He gave her a smile. ‘Are you ready to come and have a seat inside?’
She nodded.
‘I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell need one.’
Merida had never expected to find one tonight, but she felt as if she had a friend.
An unlikely one.
‘What were you and my father talking about?’ Ethan asked when she joined him again at the pretty round table. ‘I told him not to talk about the shareholders’ meeting tonight...’
‘He was telling me that he used to bring you here,’ Merida said. ‘And I told him that I’d just felt the baby move.’
‘You felt it move?’
Merida nodded and she watched a rare smile stretch his lips. ‘He asked if we were going to find out what we’re having.’
‘And are we?’ Ethan asked, his face moving in close.
‘I don’t know,’ Merida said.
And then she was feeling the graze of his lips on hers, and she simply forgot where they were as they shared in a soft tender kiss.
Glasses clinked as they were hit with knives, and the guests at the table called for more. Merida blinked and pulled back. The taste of him was still on her lips and the flush in her cheeks was real.
She caught Jobe’s eye and saw him smiling, and—stupid her—she started to believe there might really be hope for them. It was a beautiful wedding.
Eventually they headed for another photo opportunity to the decking outside, with the skyline stunning behind them.
