AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He pulls his sunglasses off and rubs his eyes wearily, before replacing them.
“You haven’t been neglecting me,” I tell him softly. I just … oh, I think everything’s just been getting on top of me a bit, you know? The wedding, your parents being here… It’s just… it’s a lot, I suppose. And, if I’m honest, I’ve been feeling a bit out of place. Like the cuckoo in the nest. Your family is all so close, and so different from mine. I feel like I don’t really fit in with them, and I guess it’s made me feel insecure. I know that sounds pathetic.”
“It’s not pathetic,” says Jack, putting an arm around me. “I know Rose and Mum can be pushy. I can see they’ve not been giving you much say in things when it comes to the wedding. They mean well, of course, but they have a habit of taking over. I’ll speak to them.”
“No, don’t, please,” I beg, wriggling closer to him. “They hate me enough as it is. I don’t want to make things worse.”
“They don’t hate you,” Jack says, frowning. “Of course they don’t hate you. Rose thinks you’re amazing. She wishes she could be just like you.”
“She doesnot,” I protest, thinking of Rose, who always looks like she’s beenpolished, somehow, and me who … well, whodoesn’t. “I’m thelastperson Rose would want to be like.”
“Nah.” Jack shakes his head. “You’re wrong. She’s not as confident as she seems. She just over-compensates, to make up for it. That’s why I thought it would be nice for her to be in the wedding. She’s been having a bit of a rough time of it lately, I think. She just needs something to focus on.”
“She can be a bridesmaid,” I say, wondering what counts as a ‘rough time’ for Princess Rose. Probably a chip in her nail polish or Hermes bumping her down the waiting list for their latest bag. “But Frankie is Maid of Honor. Deal?”
“Sounds fair to me,” he says, solemnly shaking my hand. “And now that’s cleared up, do you think we could maybe try to forget about the last few days and get back to the important stuff?”
“Like poodle cake toppers, you mean?” I ask innocently.
“Like you and me, and trusting each other again,” he says. “Although, if poodle cake toppers are what you want, then I’ll buy you them all. You can have an entire pack of poodles on the wedding cake, if it’ll make you happy. And I want you to be happy, Emerald, I really do. That’s all I’ve ever wanted since I met you.”
“I don’t need poodles to be happy, Jack,” I tell him seriously. “Well, not alotof poodles, anyway. I just need us to be okay again. To be a team, like we were before all of… well,this.”
I gesture vaguely with my hands, hoping he knows what I mean.
“I want that, too,” he says, pulling off his sunglasses so he can look me in the eye. “But that means you have to trust me, Emerald, and stop fixating on those stupid messages. You’ve always trusted me before; I just don’t understand what’s suddenly changed?”
“Nothing’s changed,” I say immediately, firmly stamping down the little niggle of doubt that crept in when he mentioned the messages. “Nothing’s changed, Jack. Like I said, I’ve just been overwhelmed with everything. Last night… I wasn’t expecting so many people, is all. And you know how clumsy I can be when I’m nervous. I’ve apologized to Rose and your mum, though, and I’m apologizing to you, too. I really didn’t mean to ruin the evening.”
“You don’t have to keep apologizing for spilling a drink, Emerald,” says Jack. “It was what you said after it; how suspicious you were. It wasn’t like you.”
I want to tell him itwaslike me, actually; that my ex-boyfriend, Ben, used to complain about what he described as my “suspicious nature” all the time. “Paranoid delusions,” he called them. But, then again, Ben stole all my money and ran off to California with it, so maybe I was right to be “paranoid” in his case.
Jack isn’t Ben, though. In fact, he’s as un-like Ben as it’s possible for a man to be. Which is why I know I need to put all the doubts I’ve been having about him aside, and do everything I can to get this relationship back on track.
And in any case, the messages seem to have stopped. There haven’t been any more since that one I got at the library, which makes me wonder if whoever was doing it has gotten bored and given up.
Maybe I should take the hint and do likewise?
“I trust you,” I tell him, reaching out and taking his hand. “I’m sorry for making you feel like I didn’t. Those messages—”
“Those messages are absolute rubbish,” says Jack firmly. “I have nothing to hide from you, Emerald. Like I said, I’ve had stuff like this happen before. It’s usually just someone wanting money, and the best thing to do is to completely ignore it. Don’t even give it head space.”
I nod, remembering what Brian said about rich people and pet-napping, or whatever the hell it was.
I clearly have a lot to learn about rich people and their lives. And honestly, it’s not even the stuff I’d havewantedto know; like if they pack their own suitcases for a trip, and whether they ever just fancy a Big Mac, instead of whatever their personal chef’s prepared for them. No, it’s stuff like text-message extortion, and people trying to kidnap their hamster. Which isn’t quite as glamorous, is it?
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I tell Jack. “I’m not going to give it another thought. Can you forgive me for being so weird about it, though, do you think?”
“It’s already forgotten,” he assures me. He pulls me in for a kiss, and suddenly everything is right with the world again. Suddenly I’m not thinking about anonymous messages, or heather-themed cupcakes, or even the fact that Jimmy the farmer is sitting a little way along the beach right now, blatantly listening in to our conversation. All I’m thinking about is Jack, and how his kiss is so familiar, and yet still so exciting, all at the same time; about how these are the lips I want to kiss for the rest of my life, and how I would 100% dress as a shepherdess and cheerfully herd an entire flock of sheep down the aisle if that was what it was going to take to make that happen.
“What do you think?” asks Jack when we pull reluctantly apart at last. “Should we go back inside?”
“Do we have to?” I groan, pulling him back towards me. “Can’t we just stay here forever?”
“There’s nothing I’d like more,” says Jack, kissing me on the tip of my nose. “But I’m getting a bit worried that Rose might have booked an ABBA tribute band for the reception, or signed us up to do one of those ‘couples dances’ she keeps trying to show me, while we’ve been gone.”
“A tribute band might be quite cool, actually,” I reply, letting him pull me to my feet. “Although Frankie’s really hoping for karaoke; her and McTavish do a great ‘Sonny and Cher’. Rose has been on TikTok a lot recently, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to organize a flash mob.”
