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Megan nodded. ‘That’s right.’
‘How on earth are you going to plan a wedding in two months’ time, when you’re not going to be in the country?’
Her sister unleashed one of her kilowatt smiles. ‘That’s where you come in.’
Alarm bells began to ring. ‘Me?’
Her sister sidled closer. ‘I thought maybe you could help Zac plan it. You know, like inDon’t Tell the Bride, where the groom is tasked with arranging a surprise wedding for his fiancée.’ Megan squeezed Beth’s hand. ‘It’ll be so much fun.’
Fun was not a word that sprang to mind.
‘Exciting, too!’
For her sister, maybe. As for her, she was experiencing a rush of pure terror. ‘But don’t you want to plan your own wedding? I thought most brides relished the prospect of organising their big day?’
Megan shrugged. ‘Ordinarily, yes, but it’s not possible with the timings. And besides, why shouldn’t the groom do all the planning? It’s the twenty-first century, equal rights, and all that.’
Beth tried to stem the building panic. ‘And Zac’s on board with this?’
Megan glanced away. ‘Well, the thing is… I haven’t actually told him yet.’
‘About the job? Or the wedding?’
‘Both.’
Oh, hell.
Megan grabbed Beth’s hand. ‘But he’ll definitely be okay with it, especially if he knows you’ll help him.’
Beth’s head was reeling.
‘Oh, say you’ll do it. Say you’ll help. Pleeeaase, pretty pleeeaase.’ She made kissing sounds and nuzzled into Beth. ‘I’ll love you forever. You’ll be my hero. My absolute favourite sister.’
‘I’m your only sister.’
‘And how lucky am I?’ Megan was buzzing with excitement. ‘What a sister you are.’
Sure. The best. The sister that mediated family arguments. The sister who got called out at two in the morning to deal with their druggie brother. The sister who searched for Grandma when she disappeared on a dementia walkabout. The sister who was lumbered with refereeing parental fights. And now, it seemed, the sister who was expected to arrange her sibling’s wedding.
‘Megan, I really don’t think—’
‘Besides, we only want a small wedding.’ Megan cut her off. ‘Close family and friends only.’ She turned her wide hazel eyes on Beth and blinked innocently. ‘I mean, how hard can it be?’
Beth stared at her sister.
Was she for real?
Chapter Two
Sunday, 31stMarch – 10 weeks till the wedding
There had been a time in the not-too-distant past, when Connie Lawrence would have relished the idea of having her family over for Sunday lunch. All of them, chatting animatedly away, eating her out of house and home, and generally getting under her feet as she tried to cook.
But that was before Kenneth had absconded. Before the rug had been swiped so cruelly from underneath her and she’d been unceremoniously dumped for a woman more than thirty years her junior.
There was no getting away from it. It still smarted.
Life was now split into two distinctive sections: Before and After. Pre and Post that fateful Friday night when her husband had returned home late from work and announced he’d ‘met someone else’ and was leaving her. From that moment on, life had been severed in two. As though an axe had hurtled down from above and sliced through her heart, casting her adrift from the reality she’d once known.
