The auctioneer blew his nose again. And then everyone started clapping.
EPILOGUE
SHE was the happiest woman in the world.
Jean MacCulloch paused for a moment longer in the bathroom, dampening her hand to smooth the grey corrugations of her newly permed hair. Then she pushed her wire-rimmed spectacles more firmly onto the bridge of her nose and went back outside to join her family.
Her family now. All of it.
She stopped on the terrace of this wonderful old house to admire the garden and soak in the party atmosphere. There were balloons everywhere. Rainbows of colour attached to tree branches and joined by twisted streamers. The shiny new red swing and slide set that was Emily Earnshaw’s first birthday present was also adorned with decorations. Not that wee Emily was getting a chance to sit in the soft bucket seat of the swing because her cousins were making the most of their ten-month superiority in age.
‘Me!’ Angus was shouting. ‘Me now!’
‘No!’ It was Amy’s new favourite word. She was gripping the sides of the swing seat, resisting her mother’s attempt at prying those little fingers loose. ‘No!’
‘One more swing,’ Julia relented. ‘But then it’s definitely Angus’s turn.’
Emily’s parents were smiling at Julia losing the battle temporarily. Anne was busy arranging a party picnic afternoon tea on the child-sized table and chairs that had been set up on the lawn. Pretty cup cakes with pastel icing and marshmallow butterflies on top. Gingerbread people with bright candy-covered chocolate buttons. Platters of fresh fruit pieces and plastic tumblers of juice. There was a cake, too, of course. Pink and white with pretty pink bows and icing flowers and a single candle.
David was holding his tiny daughter who looked every inch the birthday princess in a ruffled pink dress with white socks and sandals and a soft pink headband with a bow to hold back golden curls that were just getting long enough to get in her eyes.
‘What do you think, Emily?’ he asked, lifting the little girl so that she was in the air looking down at her father. ‘Is Amy being a wee bit naughty?’
Emily gurgled with laughter and waved chubby fists.
‘Mac!’ Julia was trying not to laugh as Amy thwarted new efforts to unclamp her fingers. ‘Do something…’
But Mac had spotted his mother and was almost at the terrace steps. ‘You all right, Mum?’
‘Never better, lad,’ Jean assured him. She met him at the bottom of the steps.
‘Not too much for you? All these noisy little people?’
Jean smiled. ‘It doesn’t seem that long ago that you were one of them, Alan MacCulloch. And look at you now.’ She had to look a long way up. ‘I do wish you’d stop growing.’
Mac laughed and drew her towards the swing. Jean walked slowly. Not because she didn’t have more than enough energy but because she wanted to make this moment last a little longer.
‘Do you remember when I came to visit with Doreen when you and Julia were first married?’
‘Aye. Of course I do.’
‘I was so happy for you both but Doreen was trying to spoil it for me. Lording it over me, she was, all the way back to Glasgow, and you know what a long trip that is.’
‘I certainly do.’ Mac was frowning. ‘What was Doreen doing to spoil things?’
‘Oh, you know, going on and on about how wonderful her Lachlan’s family was. Saying that, of course, Julia was a wonderful lassie but wasn’t it the greatest shame that you’d never have any bairns? That I’d never be a grandmother?’ Doreen clicked her tongue. ‘If only I’d known then what Anne had offered as your wedding gift.’
‘We didn’t tell you because it took us a long time to decide to accept it. It was all too amazing, really.’
‘Aye,’ Jean said softly. ‘So it was. And now I am a grandmother. To the bonniest wee bairns in the world.’
‘I’ll bet that put Doreen’s nose out of joint.’
‘Aye. And then I told her that I was going to come out here to live.’
‘What did she say to that?’
‘That I needed my head read. That I was too old to be helping to raise babies and being an adopted grandmother to your wee ones’ cousin was just plain daft.’
‘You don’t mind, though, do you? You’re the closest thing to a gran that wee Emily is ever going to have.’
‘I’m thrilled, lad. You’re all like one family, anyway, what with Julia looking after all the babies on the days that Anne and David are both working.’
‘Dadda!’ Angus had forgotten he was waiting his turn for the swing. ‘Pick me up, Dadda.’
‘No,’ Amy cried. ‘Me!’ She gave up the battle to stay in the seat and lifted both arms so that Julia could lift her out. Then she toddled as fast as she could towards Mac, leaving Julia shaking her head.
David had put Emily down. She was standing in front of him and he was holding both her hands. Tentatively, the birthday girl stepped towards her mother who had finished setting out the picnic and was kneeling on the grass, her arms outstretched.
‘Look at you.’ Anne beamed. ‘Clever girl, Em.’
Mac had a toddler attached to each leg and was moving, with difficulty, towards Anne and the table.
‘Food, guys,’ he told his children. ‘Look…cake!’
Julia caught up with Jean and they both followed, smiling.
David let go of one of Emily’s hands when she was close to her mother. Then he let go of the other one. For three whole steps Emily managed to stay upright and then Anne caught her. She cuddled and kissed her daughter but was looking up at her husband to share the joy of the moment.
‘Time to light the candle,’ David said. ‘I reckon we can all make a wish.’
‘I don’t have anything to wish for,’ Anne said. I’m the happiest woman on earth.’
Julia was watching Mac as he gave up and sat down on the lawn to let the twins clamber on top of him.
‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘I think I am.’
‘Nonsense,’ Jean said firmly. ‘I am.’ She gazed around at her newly extended family. ‘Look at you all.’ She beamed. ‘And here I am instead of being thousands of miles away. No one could be happier than me.’
But no-one seemed to be listening. Mac had a small child under each arm and he was looking up at Julia, sharing a smile that excluded everyone else.
Anne and David were smiling at each other, too, over the blonde curls of their daughter.
Secret smiles. Full of the kind of love that could make anyone feel like the happiest person in existence.
Jean’s nod was satisfied. She was getting to share it all and she knew she was right.
She was definitely the happiest woman in the world.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6935-8
THE MARRY-ME WISH
First North American Publication 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Alison Roberts
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