AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Before we go…’ began Dad, so nervous his Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down as if it were looking to escape. He cleared his throat, which settled it slightly. ‘I have something I want to give you,’ he said, fumbling awkwardly in the pocket of his suit jacket. ‘It’s from your mum and me.’
I could already feel the prickling threat of tears as I reached for the small velvet jeweller’s box. The beautician’s carefully applied bridal make-up, complete with ‘tsunami-proof’ mascara, was suddenly in jeopardy.
I took the box and held it in my trembling hands for a long moment before springing open the lid. The chain of the necklace was silver and delicate, but it was the pendant hanging from it that came close to undoing me.
‘It’s Mum’s stone, the one from her engagement ring,’ I breathed, recognising it instantly from a kaleidoscope of memories.
‘She would have wanted you to have it,’ Dad said, his voice suddenly gravelly and scratchy. ‘I thought if we had it made into a necklace, it would feel as though she was still with us today.’
I turned to the hallway mirror and lifted the hair from my neck to fasten the chain. The pear-shaped diamond dropped like a falling star and settled on my bare skin, just above the curve of my cleavage. I felt the weight of it close to my heart as I hugged my father tightly. ‘I love it. I really do. But Mum wasalwaysgoing to be here today, even without this. Wild horses couldn’t keep her away.’
Dad held my hand tightly in his as he led me down the crazy-paved pathway to the car, climbing in carefully behind me and settling himself on the small section of seat my dress wasn’t occupying. It felt as though we were being swallowed by suds of tulle, but it was only a thirty-minute drive to the church.
‘Nervous?’ Dad asked. It was the same question he’d put to me when he’d dropped me off for my first day at school, and then again, thirteen years later, at university.
This time the answer was an easy ‘No’.
‘Just excited for this next chapter of my life to begin,’ I said, leaning across the ocean of ivory fabric to kiss his cheek.
‘That’s my girl,’ he said, his voice laden with love and pride.
*
Having a big white wedding had never been high on my wish list. But life has a funny way of changing your plans. You meet someone you love, you lose someone you love, and suddenly you’re trying on meringue dresses and booking a church and a venue. This wedding was very much a homage to Mum, for this had beenherdream for me.
‘She would have loved you,’ I remember telling Finn. We’d left the cities and towns behind and were now streaking through the villages and hamlets towards my childhood home for his first meeting with my dad.
Finn had taken one hand from the steering wheel and warmly squeezed mine. ‘If she was anything like you, I’d have loved her too. But it’s your dad I’m more worried about. I have a mental image of him patrolling the hallway tonight in case I stray out of the guest bedroom.’
I’d laughed, although in reality he might not have been too far off the mark. ‘Well, you know what dads are like.’
‘Not so much,’ said Finn.
If I’d had just one superpower, it would have been to rewind time and take back my unthinking comment.
‘I’m so sorry, Finn. I—’
‘It’s okay,’ he said, cutting me off and changing the subject, the way he always did whenever his parents were mentioned. ‘So, do you thinkonebottle of Scotch will be enough to charm him or should I have gone for a case?’
‘Dad’s going to love you,’ I’d said. ‘Everyone does when they first meet you.’
Finn’s eyes were on the road, but there was no mistaking the wry twist of his mouth.
‘Youdidn’t.’
2
THEFIRSTMEETING
Seven years earlier
‘Hair up or down?’ I asked, walking into our flat’s tiny kitchen, where Hannah was busy scrolling through something on her phone. She set it down and scrutinised not just my hair but my chosen outfit. The smart black trousers and tailored white shirt had looked good in my bedroom mirror two minutes earlier, but they weren’t getting the reaction I’d hoped for.
‘It’s a waitress job you’re going for, right?’
I pulled a face at her snarky comment and released my grip on the makeshift bun at the top of my head. My hair tumbled down over my shoulders, softening the whole look.
‘Better,’ declared my friend.
