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Freya had overheard the question. She looked at her mum and dad. ‘Shall I tell them, or shall you guys?’
Alice smiled at her daughter. ‘Why don’t you?’
Alice’s hand closed around Jeffrey’s. When he’d heard Omar was coming on the Nile cruise too, he hadn’t been happy. Alice realised it was the first argument they’d had since they returned to Cambridge. She’d called him a silly man for thinking there was anything other than friendship between them. But she knew why he felt that way. After all, she had practically spent a week with Omar, at the guest house, getting to know him all over again.
However, what Jeffrey had come round to understand was that although in that week a great friendship was borne out of their shared passion for Egypt, that was all it would ever be. Unlike Freya and Tarek, who had found love, that was not where Alice and Omar’s relationship would ever lead. For there was more to love than a shared passion for something. It was something indefinable, that special something Omar had found with Fatima and Alice had found with Jeffrey.
And besides, she hadn’t just spent that week with Omar. She had taken wonderful walks along the cove with Hester. She had bought some paints and a canvas and had sat in her room for hours, trying to paint, often interrupted by Marley stealing her little paint tubes and her brushes. She’d even woken up one morning and found a paint paw print on her canvas. Alice could laugh about it now, but she was so happy to return home and step into another room, away from Marley’s mischievous antics.
Thinking of home, her life hadn’t changed so radically in the last six months like Wendy and Gerald’s had. They hadn’t sold their house in Cambridge. Their buyers had been disappointed by their decision to withdraw from the sale of their house, but they’d both come to the realisation that selling their home wasn’t going to change anything. Freya had a life now in Egypt, and they strongly suspected she would not return to Cambridge. As for them, they had decided to focus on themselves and their relationship before they made any big decisions – like moving house.
They’d been to marriage counselling, just like they’d promised Freya, and had been open and honest about what had happened in their marriage. Although they’d both had to work through each other’s infidelity, and the fallout that was Jeffrey’s child, Freya, there was a huge upside to going through all that together. It was the realisation that they were, and always had been, very deeply in love. It was just that they’d never put aside the baggage they’d carried around in their marriage – baggage about children and the family they thought they were meant to have – and it had stopped them from figuring that out.
But they had now, and it had made their lives all the richer for knowing they were, like Tarek and Freya, Emily and Joss, and Gerald and Wendy, meant to be together. For Alice, and for Jeffrey, it was the best feeling in the world; knowing that despite all the mistakes and setbacks in life, their marriage wasn’t one of them.
Freya smiled affectionately at her parents. ‘Mum formally adopted me.’
Alice reached across the table and squeezed her hand. Freya’s biological mother had given her permission years ago for Alice to legally become Freya’s mother, but there had been a complication – Jeffrey. For this to happen, he would have had to tell Alice the truth. But now that was all behind them, and to Alice’s utmost relief, Freya had agreed. Although it seemed so silly now that Freya was an adult, it meant so much to her, and Freya, that she was now officially her mother. It was what Alice had dreamed of for so many years. Nothing could make her happier – or so she thought.
‘Shall I tell them the other piece of news?’ Freya asked.
Alice smiled affectionately at her daughter. ‘Oh go on, then. I know you’re dying to.’
Freya grinned as she looked around the table. ‘Mum and Dad renewed their wedding vows at the church where they got married in Cambridge.’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful news.’ Emily clapped her hands. ‘It’s like a double celebration!’
‘Congratulations,’ Wendy said, smiling happily.
Gerald held up his hand, ushering over a waiter. ‘I think this calls for a round of drinks.’
‘We’re thinking of this trip as our second honeymoon,’ said Jeffrey, smiling at his wife.
‘That we are,’ agreed Alice. ‘And soon, someone else will be on their honeymoon too.’ Alice wasn’t looking at Emily, whom she knew was engaged, but at Freya.
Freya held up her ring. She had tears in her eyes. ‘Tarek proposed.’
Everyone was suddenly talking at once, congratulating the happy couple. Alice, Emily and Wendy each gave Freya a hug.
As they all took their seats, and the waiter appeared with a large bottle of bubbly in an ice bucket, Freya turned to Emily. ‘I know this might be a lot to ask, so I won’t be offended if it’s just not possible but …’ she took a breath, ‘I was thinking of having our honeymoon at the guest house. I know it’s not a guest house anymore, but I wondered if you could make an exception, just for us?’
‘Oh, my goodness. Of course you can. You can come and stay any time. There’s plenty of spare bedrooms. In fact, I’ve got a brilliant idea. Have you considered having your wedding reception there? I don’t know where you intend to marry. I bet you don’t either right now, but you must consider it. There’s plenty of room, and wouldn’t it be a great excuse for us all to get together again at Shingle Cove? I’d love that.’
‘So would I,’ Freya agreed.
Gerald poured everyone around the table a glass of bubbly, just as Omar appeared, looking a little bleary-eyed. ‘Omar,’ Gerald called out. ‘Come and join us.’
Omar walked over. Gerald thrust a glass of champagne in his hand.
Omar looked at the glass and cast a glance at everyone around the table. ‘Are we celebrating something?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Jeffrey. He stood up. ‘Let’s raise a glass.’
They all raised their glasses.
He turned to his daughter and Tarek. ‘To the happy couple. Congratulations on your engagement, sweetheart.’
Freya said, ‘Thank you, Dad.’
