Someone Like You (35 page)

Barbra guffawed and Julia went white, both at the same time. ‘Harri!’ they cried out together.

‘Oh don’t sound so shocked, ladies,’ Harri hooted in response.

‘It’s also very important that he’s handy with a power tool,’ Barbra called. ‘Or at least he should look good wearing a tool belt.’

‘And he absolutely, definitely, positively has to love Middle Point!’ Julia said with glee.

‘Too true,’ Harri said, her voice growing serious. ‘I was lucky. I had one like that. If you’re lucky enough to find a man who is not only as handsome as sin, but one who loves you right back with all his heart, one who runs towards you when you’re sick instead of running away like a scared rabbit, you’ve got a keeper.’

Lizzie felt herself drifting away from the conversation, a strange buzzing in her head. She couldn’t think.
A keeper
. They may as well have been talking about Dan.

The man who hadn’t run from her.

The man who understood her.

The one who was waiting for her.

Dan was all those things.

Dan was everything.

‘Darling,’ Barbra patted the sofa next to her and Julia plonked herself next to her. ‘This has been so much fun. I want to thank you for letting me be part of this, with you here. It means so much to me, you can’t possibly know.’

Julia dropped her head on Barbra’s shoulder. ‘Barbra, it means so much to me too. To have you here, and Harri, and especially my wonderful Lizzie.’

When the three women looked up and glanced around the room, Lizzie was gone.

Best. Idea. Ever.

‘You are crazy, Elizabeth Blake,’ Lizzie muttered and she could only agree with herself as she stomped over the low fence to Dan’s house, crushing the daisies underneath the soles of her feet as she rushed the dozen steps to his front door.

Crazy? For sure.

Best idea she’d ever had? Abso-fucking-lutely.

A few quick raps on the door and she tried not to hold her breath. Her memory did a quick rewind to the first time she’d stood there, when Dan almost ripped it off its hinges and had gone all surly wild man of Borneo on her. Slamming it in her face. That day felt like a million years ago.

When she heard footsteps, her heartbeat picked up and pounded in her temple. Her palms grew sweaty the closer they came and when she heard the lock click, she squeezed her eyes shut.

‘Hey, Lizzie.’

Damn it. It was the groom.

She cleared her throat, unclenched her lacquered fingers, which were digging nail marks into her palms. ‘Hey Ry.’ A quick glance revealed he was still wearing a T-shirt and his boardies. Typical. She tried to peer over his shoulder, and then decided around his chest might be the best option. ‘Is Dan here?’

‘You want to see Dan?’ Ry narrowed his eyes and if they could have laughed at her, they would have.
Smug bastard
.

‘Yes. I need to see…I need to talk to him.’

‘Sorry, Lizzie. He went to grab some more beers. All this wedding preparation is thirsty work, you know.’

She huffed out loud; the frustration she felt was too strong to hold back.

Ry looked her up and down with a friendly smile. ‘Hey, you look fantastic by the way.’

‘Thanks.’

‘How’s JJ? Everything ticking over next door?’

‘Good, she’s good. When’s Dan going to be back?’

Ry checked his watch. ‘He’s just hopped in the car so about ten minutes, I guess. You want me to send him over when he gets back?’

Lizzie shivered at the thought. Send Dan over into that pack of women? He’d never make it out alive. She was fast losing her window of opportunity. If she didn’t get back there to resume her bridesmaid duties, the bride and the two wise sages were likely to get very pissed, very quickly. And that could lead to all sorts of unintended consequences at the ceremony. She had a duty to Julia first and she would have to see to it.

‘No Ry. I’ll see him at the wedding. And do me a favour? Please don’t tell him I came by?’

‘You sure?’

‘I’m sure.’ Lizzie looked him up and down. ‘You gonna get your suit on anytime soon?’

He shrugged. ‘Ten minutes before the wedding. No biggie.’

‘One hour to the wedding!’ Lizzie’s time call had an immediate effect on the bride. Julia jumped to her bare feet and her face went as pale as the stylishly painted white walls behind her.

‘Shit shit shit. I’d better get my dress on. Oh God.’ Julia’s fingers flew to her cheeks, pressing tight. She’d squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I’ve got a headache. I’ve drunk too much champagne. Where are my shoes?’

Lizzie gently pressed Julia backwards onto the king-sized bed in the all-white bedroom. Julia didn’t fight it, but sat, shoulders slumped, her chin dropped to her chest.

‘Jools, you haven’t had too much to drink. This is just nerves.’

Julia opened one eye carefully, then the other. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Don’t worry. Just relax and take a deep breath. Or maybe three.’

‘You’re right. I need to stop. Breathe. And not hyperventilate because that would be bad. Very bad.’

‘What a good idea.’ Lizzie dropped to her knees in front of her best friend. ‘Stop with the panicking and keep breathing. Everything is here. I’ve made sure of it. All you have to do is get dressed, check your lipstick, and then go marry that man of yours.’

Julia reached out, gripped Lizzie’s shoulders. ‘You make it sound so simple. Tell me again that I’m doing the right thing, Lizzie. I need to hear that right now.’

Lizzie realised that Julia might be harbouring more than a slight concern over whether her dress matched her shoes, so she plonked herself down on the bed next to Julia, her arm about her shoulders, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. It now seemed it was her job to steer Julia through this bout of collywobbles, too.

Dan had called her the guardian angel of Middle Point. He’d accused her of assuming it was her role in life to try and fix things for everyone else. Maybe he was right. Was it such a bad thing to want to help people? Especially the people she loved?

‘Breathe, Jools.’ Lizzie pushed Julia’s head between her knees.

‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m absolutely crazy about Ry. Have been since I was eighteen. I want a life with him, the whole shebang, including babies.’ Her voice was wobbly and half muffled by her robe.

‘Beautiful babies they will be, too.’

‘But I’m feeling…’ Julia pulled herself upright and looked Lizzie squarely in the eyes. ‘…kind of scared to death.’

‘Jools, he’s the one for you. Always has been. Always will be. You know that in your heart, don’t you?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘So what’s so scary about marrying Ry?’

Julia blew out a deep breath, clutched her hand on her heart. ‘I think I’m scared of being so happy. Of being right here on the brink of getting everything I never knew I wanted. All those years away from Middle Point, away from Ry, were all years of absolutely, definitely
not
wanting any of this. And now look at me.’ Julia sniffed and smiled at Lizzie. ‘I’m sitting here about to put on mother’s wedding dress and about to get married, old school.’

‘You are getting married in a pub with a celebrant and absolutely, positively no mention of the word “obey”. That’s not totally old school.’

‘True,’ Julia laughed. ‘But the promises Ry and I will make to each other will be old school. You know, that one about forever? And that other one which mentions for better, for worse. ’Til death do us part and all that. That’s the scary part.’

Julia’s words spun around in Lizzie’s head. For better, for worse.
Worse
. That was the hard part, she knew. Making the decision to share your life with someone meant you had to share everything. She knew that in her head. And now, she felt it in her heart, too.

‘It is scary,’ she finally said in a whisper. ‘But, Jools, any time you take a chance in life, step out of your comfort zone, it’s a little scary, isn’t it? But good scary. And it can be life-changing scary as well and, you know, full of all the amazing possibilities of what tomorrow might bring. We’re all scared sometimes, Jools. It’s what you do with it that counts.

‘Just think about where you are. You changed your life, came home to where your heart is. You’re about to marry the guy you’ve loved since you were a teenager. All that’s worth being a little terrified, isn’t it?’

At the sound of her own advice, Lizzie felt an unwinding in her own heart. What had she done with her fear? She’d let it lock her away. She’d never been brave enough to conquer it, to do something worthwhile with it. She’d let it imprison her. Once again, she’d been free with advice but not so free that she was willing to follow it herself.

Lizzie startled a little when Julia’s arms gathered her in a tight hug. She held on for a long while and they sat in the quiet of the white bedroom, enjoying these last few minutes together. Finally, Julia patted Lizzie’s knee.

‘Do I need to check the make-up?’

Lizzie gave her a careful inspection. ‘A little smudgy from tears.’ She grabbed her best friend’s hand, tugged her to the bathroom. ‘Let’s go get you looking beautiful.’

Dan checked his watch. Ten minutes past five. He figured Julia and Lizzie had to be arriving any minute, so he did his best to settle the groom. He tried to talk cricket and even cracked a joke about the fact that Ry was about to become an old married bloke who might never have sex again, but Ry didn’t seem to be paying any attention.

Because his bride had entered the building.

And then Dan realised he wasn’t hearing what he was saying either because right behind the bride was the bridesmaid.

Lizzie looked like a blonde angel, her baby blues bigger than ever, alive with excitement, her smile a hundred megawatt scorcher. She was following a couple of steps behind the bride, walking towards them from the lane at the side of the stone pub. The crowd uttered a collective sigh as they realised things were about to get underway and damn it if Dan’s eyes didn’t get a little misty. The two men came to their senses at roughly the same time, judging by the way they surreptitiously elbowed each other.

‘Good luck, mate,’ Dan whispered through tight lips.

As Julia began the slow walk towards the rest of her life, Ry blew out a sigh.

‘Look at her, will you?’

Dan was looking, but not at the bride. And when, for just a moment, Lizzie glanced at him, something strange happened in his chest. All the panic that had lived there for so long was replaced by a dead-set certainty about what he wanted for his life. All the uncertainties about what he might face, the unanswered questions about his future all locked into place. One by one.

Dan’s eyes were like burning summer sun on Lizzie’s skin. She’d allowed herself a fleeting glance at him, just a little one, as she’d followed Julia into The Market, and he’d been looking at her, too. She almost tripped over her feet when she realised what he was wearing. Black tuxedo trousers skimmed his strong thighs and a blindingly crisp white dinner shirt hung from his broad shoulders. But the whole outfit was flipped on its head. He wasn’t wearing a jacket or a tie, and his shirtsleeves were folded up casually to mid forearm, setting off his tanned arms. His hair was pushed back off his forehead in a strong wave and his eyes shone. Lizzie bit her tongue at his all-over killer gorgeousness. When he saw her appreciation, his eyes did a quick once-over of her dress, and then the look in his eyes transformed from lustful appreciation into something so unexpected that she had to look away fast before she melted.

How she made it through the ceremony, she didn’t know. The wedding celebrant, a remarkably young woman with a perky attitude and a warm smile in her voice, conducted the proceedings with aplomb. Lizzie managed to take the bouquet from Julia at the appropriate time for the exchange of rings. Everything else was a complete blur and, before Lizzie realised it, the ceremony was over and Ry had bent Julia backwards in a dramatic kiss that had all the wedding guests hooting with happiness and clapping until their hands hurt.

Being so close to Dan, after weeks of avoiding him, was unbearable. All the happiness in the atmosphere around her had seeped into Lizzie’s heart, willing her to want a piece of it for herself. And maybe, just maybe, her share of it had been standing two bodies away from her, looking entirely too fine-looking in the closest thing to a suit she’d ever seen him wearing.

Immediately after that kiss, Ry and Julia were surrounded by guests, all wanting to congratulate them. She found Barbra at her left elbow, swallowing a sob of happiness and dabbing at her face with a tie-dyed handkerchief.

‘Oh Lizzie,’ she sighed, ‘Look at them, will you? How gorgeous are they? What beautiful grandchildren they’re going to give me.’ She shot a cheeky wink at Lizzie. ‘Will you be next?’

And then Harri was there too, her walker a handy device to part the crowd and barge to the front.

‘You all right, Harri?’ Lizzie asked, reaching out to hold her elbow and guide her forward.

‘I’m bloody marvellous, Lizzie. I just need to congratulate the happy couple.’ She raised her eyebrows quizzically and smiled broadly. ‘This giving you any ideas?’

Where the two mavens in league with each other or something? Lizzie shook the comment off with a playful glare and stood on tiptoe to see where Dan was. Barbra had found him and was hugging him within an inch of his life.

‘Hey, Mosquito.’ Joe leaned in to whisper in her ear. ‘I need a hand with something.’

‘What is it?’ Lizzie had one eye on her brother, the other on Dan.

‘I just saw someone head into the ladies. She looked a little…upset.’

Lizzie turned, gave Joe her full attention now. ‘What do you mean upset?’

‘Like tears running down her face upset.’

Lizzie did a quick scan around to see if she could pick who was missing. ‘Who was it? Someone from the wedding?’

Joe nodded. ‘About this tall.’ He held a hand up to his chest. ‘Long black hair, incredibly shiny, and she’s wearing killer high heels. Leopard skin. Big round earrings and red lips.’

Lizzie let out a sigh. She knew exactly who that was. She turned on her heel and took two steps before stopping, turning around to scrutinise Joe’s expression.