‘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.
‘Hey, Stinkface.’
‘Yeah?’
‘You certainly paid a lot of attention to this mysterious woman with the tears.’
Later Lizzie thought she must have imagined it, but it seemed like Joe was actually blushing. Blushing. Her big, old, cynical, hack, journalist brother.
‘It’s my job. I notice stuff.’
When she raised her eyebrows at him playfully, he replied, ‘Oh, fuck off.’
Lizzie found all the toilet cubicles in the ladies empty, except for one.
‘Hello?’ she called, to no answer. ‘Anyone in there?’ She dropped to her knees on the cold ceramic tiles and peered under the small open space where the door didn’t quite meet the floor. Sure enough, two leopard-skin stilettos pointed back at her, one leaning at a crooked angle against the other.
Lizzie stood and leaned back against the basin to give herself a moment to think about how to handle this situation. She didn’t really know Anna and had spent most of the time since they’d met believing she was sleeping with Dan. She’d instinctively tried to hate her but couldn’t. And now, she was standing in front of a locked toilet cubicle worrying about her. This woman she barely knew.
She also knew that no one ran into the ladies crying for no reason. Nope, Lizzie decided, she couldn’t leave a suffering sister to wallow in misery. It just wasn’t in her DNA.
She reached over and tapped on the door. Two times to be polite. ‘Anna, it’s Lizzie.’
There was a muffled cry from inside the cubicle and the distinct sound of someone scrunching cheap toilet paper in their hand.
‘I know it’s you, Anna. No one else in Middle Point has the balls to wear shoes like that.’
‘Hi Lizzie,’ came a small, sad voice from behind the door. ‘Go back outside to the wedding. I’ll be fine.’
Lizzie took a deep breath. She knew herself. She could no more leave a woman in trouble than she could pull up stumps and move to the city.
Damn it. She was Middle Point’s guardian angel, after all.
‘Anna, why don’t you open the door? I can sneak you a glass of champagne from the bar if you need one. Or…’ What the hell, she thought, and let the cheeky idea travel from her brain to her lips. ‘…I can make that a vodka if you want something stronger.’
There was a giggle and then a loud sniff from inside the cubicle. ‘I’m never going to live that down, am I?’
‘Probably not. Middle Point’s a small place, you know.’
‘And a beautiful place, Lizzie.’
‘You’re preaching to the choir here, Anna.’ Lizzie waited and listened. Anna sounded like she was trying to catch her breath. There was a click of stilettos on the floor and then the lock slid open.
‘Hey.’ Anna appeared from around the door.
Lizzie found a smile. ‘Hey yourself.’ She lowered her head to look directly into Anna’s brown eyes and could see that she wasn’t fine at all. ‘God, what’s happened?’
Anna’s mouth twisted and a string of Italian flew out of her mouth. Lizzie didn’t need a Berlitz course to know what she meant. Anna’s big eyes glistened with tears as she clickety-clicked on her heels to the hand basin and leaned over it, her hair a shiny curtain around her.
‘You might not believe this, Lizzie, but I’m an educated, professional woman. With skills.’
‘Of course you are.’ Lizzie smiled, grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and passed it over.
‘Thanks.’ Anna widened her eyes and dabbed underneath them to blot the tears. ‘I swear, Lizzie, I don’t spend my whole life shit-faced or crying. I can’t imagine what you think of me.’
‘I’ve worked in this pub a long time. You’re not the first person to hide out in the ladies loo. And you know what I think? I think something big happened to make you so upset. Am I right?’
Anna’s face hardened. ‘Absolutely right. My husband is what’s happened. Four weeks ago, I found out he’s been having an affair with one of the other partners at his firm.’
‘Oh no.’ Lizzie now understood the tears and the swearing.
‘For a whole fucking year.’
‘How awful, Anna.’
‘So, three weeks ago I kicked his sorry arse out of the house. A rather nice house it is, too. Fortunately, it was already mine before we got married. That’s one benefit of having Italian parents.’ Anna seemed to regain some composure relating that particular part of the story.
‘You mentioned you had skills. You go, girl.’
‘And today I’m here. At a fucking wedding. Excuse the French.’ Anna sniffed and tried to wipe away her tears. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled for them and I hope they’ll be deliriously happy, I really do. But it’s all just a little too much to bear, to be honest. I tried to hold it together as long as I could, but that big kiss at the end, when Ry dipped Julia and kissed her?’ Anna held a hand to her heart and fresh tears welled in her eyes. ‘I saw that look on his face, like he would never let her go, and well…I had to get out of there before I made a complete fool of myself.’
Lizzie felt an ache in her heart for this woman she barely knew. ‘That’s a terrible thing to happen to anyone. Beyond terrible.’
Anna looked at her reflection in the mirror, shook her head ruefully. ‘God, what a mess. I should go home. I can’t go back out there looking like this.’
Lizzie wished her mess was half as gorgeous as Anna’s.
‘Go home? Absolutely out of the question. What you need to do tonight is have fun. When’s the last time you let loose? Danced until your feet were sore?’ Lizzie glanced d
own at Anna’s kick-arse shoes. ‘Probably more recently than I think. Wouldn’t having fun, celebrating the first day of the rest of your life, be the ultimate revenge?’
As Anna considered it, Lizzie had already picked the perfect person to dance with her. Someone else she knew who was in desperate need of a little no-strings-attached fun.
‘Revenge, I can do. But fun? I’m too old for fun.’
‘Oh you are not. C’mon Anna. Stay here, with us, and have a party. You can hang around in here until you feel ready to face the world again. Space to think. Do your make-up. You’re safe here in the man-free zone.’
Anna looked at Lizzie with a wistful expression. ‘God, I haven’t had one of those since forever. I like that idea. A man-free zone.’
Lizzie heard familiar footsteps and the entrance door to the women’s toilets swung wide open.
This wasn’t a man-free zone anymore.
CHAPTER
30
It was Dan.
Tall, sexy, ten kinds of handsome Dan McSwaine. When he found Lizzie, he stopped and threw her a big time, happy, heart-breaker of a grin. In return she kept her mouth in a straight line, trying not to respond to him, because out of the corner of her eye, Lizzie noticed Anna turn away from him and begin excavating in her enormous handbag.
‘Dan McSwaine!’ Lizzie blurted, trying to distract him. Clearly Anna hadn’t wanted Dan to see her tears, and Lizzie knew her job was, first and foremost, to protect the sisterhood. ‘This is absolutely, positively a man-free zone. What the hell do you think you’re doing in here?’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Seen one, seen ’em all. Although this is a little bigger than some I’ve been into. Want to try it—’ Then he stopped talking. Maybe it had something to do with the fast shake of her head and the air stabbing motion Lizzie was making with one pointed finger. In Anna’s direction.
‘Oh. Hey Anna,’ Dan said with a nod of awareness to Lizzie.
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