Love Is a State of Mind: Nobody's Life is Perfect (36 page)
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Authors: Sarah Catherine Knights
Tags: #relationships, #retirement, #divorce, #love story, #chick lit, #women
As we sit there, talking and laughing, it strikes me that this time, a bench has led to something wonderful. The fateful bench in the rec is best forgotten – the place where this whole saga began. Now, though, here I am, sitting next to the man I love, with a snoring puppy on my lap.
Benches can be happy places, after all.
The Epilogue
The morning started at 6 am and has been a succession of dresses, hair and make-up, champagne, emotions, nerves and laughter, ever since.
Ben and I are staying at the hotel, along with lots of other guests, including, Laura, John, Rocco and Jake. Ben has spent the morning with Marcus, Adam and Daisy, while I’ve been on bride-support duty, with Jane alongside me and Holly’s best friend and only bridesmaid, Fiona.
I’ve been with Holly every step of the way since I came back from Australia – we’ve had our fair share of emotional ups and downs, as you do with any wedding, but on the whole, it’s gone smoothly. She didn’t want all the fuss that brides go in for these days – both she and Jed were completely in agreement about the kind of wedding they wanted: a Christmas wedding in church, followed by a nice meal, and that’s all.
She was adamant there was no need for canapés (‘too expensive’); no need for little favours for the table (‘it’s not a kids’ party’) or themed tables and co-ordinating colours (‘it’s not Hello magazine’). No wedding present lists (‘that just seems presumptuous’); no swanky gimmicks like photo booths, horses and carriages (‘Dad can take me in his car, can’t he?’). No expensive wedding photographer (‘just throwaway cameras for everyone – far nicer to have everyone’s snaps’). No wedding band, just music played from a computer playlist (‘all our favourite songs’.) And certainly no pre-practised first dance (‘if Jed and I did a Dirty Dancing type thing, I would run and jump at him, miss and we’d both fall over in fits of laughter’). They wanted a kind of ‘stripped down’ wedding, where they didn’t get lost in all the detail.
When she finally emerges in all her glory, I’m the proudest mother-of-the-bride … ever. I know I’m biased, but she looks like an angel, in floaty chiffon. Her bouquet is small and perfect – lily of the valleys – her hair, natural, flowing down her back. Her eyes are shining, her skin radiant.
“Dad will be here in a minute. Are you ready?” I say, standing in the hotel bedroom, staring at her, with a silly grin on my face.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she laughs. I look at the heart-shaped gold locket she’s wearing – the ‘something borrowed’ I’ve lent her – it looks perfect. David gave it to me on our wedding day – a day I remember so well and one that I can file in that folder, ‘Happiness’ now.
“Can you just help me on with this blue garter thing?” She hands it to me and sits down carefully, holding out one leg to me. I push it over her shoe and together we manage to get it above her knee. “God, the things we do for tradition …” she says.
“Well, it’ll bring you luck …” says Fiona, as Holly stands up and shakes down her dress.
“Do you know what? I don’t think I need luck, with Jed. He’s the most perfect man …”
“You two are sickening, you really are,” laughs Fiona. “Have you absolutely
no
qualms?”
“Nope … none,” says Holly. “He’s the one for me. End of. Where’s my champagne?” she laughs.
We all chink glasses and toast Holly’s happiness.
There’s a knock on the door and I go to answer it …and there’s David.
It still comes as a shock when I see him. The man I spent so long with; the man who’s so familiar, but yet who feels separate from me now.
He smiles at me, a shy smile, and putting his hands on my shoulders, kisses me on both cheeks. I haven’t seen him at all since I got back. We’ve emailed each other about the wedding arrangements and I sent them a card when Noah was born, but apart from that, nothing.
The touch of his lips on my cheek, the smell of him, awakens the past for a few seconds. I remember, for some reason, Holly’s christening, when we were such proud parents. We held her in her beautiful christening gown, like a piece of cut-glass that could shatter at any minute. We stood together, promising to protect her.
And now, here we are, standing together again … Holly, in a white bridal gown, moving away from us, down the road into her own future, under the protection of Jed, not us.
Still proud parents, but with a gaping hole between us. “Suzie and the children have gone ahead to the church,” he says. “They’re so excited. Gemma’s holding a bag of confetti – she can’t wait to throw it.”
David walks into the room and seeing his daughter, a look of wonder lights up his face.
“Holly, you look so … beautiful … so … grown up.” He goes slowly towards her and kisses her cheek. “I’m such a proud Dad,” he says.
She takes his hands.
He turns back to me, smiling, his eyes shining with love, and suddenly, the chasm between us shrinks.
I see the man I loved … still love.
“Doesn’t she look … amazing, Anna?” he says. “Our daughter. Our wonderful daughter.”
I go over to him and put my arm through his. “We were clever, weren’t we David, making her?”
“We certainly were … we certainly were,” he says and he takes my hand, squeezing it, as he always used to do.
THE END
Other work by the Author
If you enjoyed this book, why not try Sarah Catherine Knights’ other books:
Aphrodite’s Child and its sequel, Now Is All There Is
Available at
www.amazon.co.uk
Aphrodite’s Child
When her RAF husband is posted to Cyprus for three years, Emily Blackwell jumps at the opportunity to escape her cosy life in the Cotswolds. Embracing everything the island has to offer, she reinvents herself, only to find that this new life brings its own heartache and tragedy. In a modern take on the myth of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, Emily’s experiences on Cyprus change her, and she comes to questions everything she thought she knew about herself and her former existence.
But the choices she makes will affect not only her, but everyone she loves …
Now Is All There Is
In the sequel to the hugely popular, Aphrodite’s Child, Emily Blackwell returns to Cyprus to try to mend her broken marriage. She befriends and helps Beth, a young airmen’s wife, whose own life is in turmoil.
Their paths lead them back to England, where they meet again in the rugged surfing world of North Cornwall. Just as the Mediterranean influenced her life in Cyprus, so too does the Atlantic cast its spell over Emily’s fortunes. Her tangled life eventually implodes and she has to face a drama that Fate has planned for her all along.
But she finds that her Destiny is not written in the stars. It’s within herself…
Twitter: @Sarahknights
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sarahcatherineknights
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Table of Contents
Copyright and Publishing information
About the Author
Dedication
