Mother of the Bride

‘Besides,’ he was saying, ‘your place is so much easier to get to, and you’ve got more parking. Our place is a bit tucked up for all those cars.’

All those cars – two more at most. Molly wondered just how many reasons Jonathon would be able to come up with before she put him out of his misery. On screen she had found a really beautiful oyster-coloured suit with a hat – apparently a complete snip at nine hundred pounds.

‘Fine,’ she agreed.

‘Fine?’ said Jonathon.

‘Look, I’m at work, Jonathon, I’ll email you. Have a nice holiday.’

‘See you when we get back, then.’ Jonathon sounded crestfallen at not having managed more sparring. ‘So you’re all right about everything?’

Molly looked heavenwards. What was that supposed to mean? She decided not to ask him. ‘I’ll ring Jess when I get home and then we can arrange a time for you to pop over.’

‘Oh,’ said Jonathon.

‘Oh? What do you mean, “Oh”?’

‘Well, I’d rather assumed I’d be coming over for lunch. We’ve got a lot to talk about. And I am going to be coughing up the lion’s share for the wedding.’

The sheer gall of the man took Molly’s breath away. What she wanted to say was, ‘In that case maybe you should invite Jess and Max over to your place instead and count me out. You could arrange it between yourselves – after all, it is your only daughter who is getting married.’

But she knew from years of experience that the resulting hissy-fit wouldn’t be worth it, so what she actually said was, ‘I have to go, Jonathon. I’ll let you know what Jess says.’ And with that she hung up, which was perfect timing as she could see their boss, Rob Harwood, making his way into the conference room.

Picking up her notepad and clipboard Molly hurried over to catch him up. For all his apparent bonhomie and great show of just being another one of the station crew, one of the team, no one was under any illusions about who was top dog or what would happen if you ever made the mistake of treating Rob as just one of the boys.

In the conference room Stan was already sorting out a drink for Rob, Nina was there to ensure no one forgot budget or logistics, a girl from the front office was there to take notes while someone up from the sales department was there to talk about advertising.

Molly had already emailed her outline plan for next month’s shows, although it was fairly academic; the framework for programme content in the broadest sense was more or less the same every year, give or take a public crusade or two.

In the summer they rolled out some kind of seaside special in August, finishing up on Bank Holiday Monday, before heading towards back-to-school and then autumn themes, beginning in September with harvest festivals and late-season breaks. October there were debates over Hallowe’en versus Bonfire Night, then there was Christmas and all that that entailed – the presents and pantomimes and cookery tips and how-tos. And then the New Year, with lots of phoneins about presents you hated and resolutions made or broken, followed by the January blues and sales, segments on credit cards and canny ways with money, and the year rolled slowly into a new spring with lambs and farm visits and the first snowdrops, how this February was the wettest, driest, coldest, hottest or sunniest since records began, and before you knew it they were round to planning holidays on air, with a mix of local destinations and travel companies who had bought air time, and before you knew it, it was summer all over again.

Molly quite liked the slow seasonal rotation in programme planning; while some people saw it as dull, for her it had all the comfort of visiting old friends.

Rob looked up from his notes as Molly came into the conference room and smiled broadly. ‘I hear congratulations are in order,’ he said, as she pulled out a chair. ‘Phone lines are still buzzing. Marvellous news, please pass my best wishes on to your daughter and the groom-to-be. Max, isn’t it?’

Inwardly Molly groaned. Whoever was it said only bad news travels fast?

Chapter Four (#ulink_36ca16f5-d0e5-5940-9f3e-0b318a6cab78)

‘I know that I promised not to turn into Bridezilla,’ said Jess. ‘But there are things we ought to talk about, things I need to ask you, and want your opinion on. We haven’t got that long to sort everything out – so what sort of wedding do you think we should have?’ She paused. ‘Max, you are listening, aren’t you?’

The two of them were curled up under the duvet in bed in the little cottage with its view out over Watchet Harbour. Outside it was raining hard, but Jess couldn’t have cared less about the weather. She had barely had time to catch her breath since Max had gone down on one knee and now the full weight of what he had asked her was beginning to sink in.

If Jess could have planned exactly how she wanted to be proposed to she would have been hard-pressed to top Max’s efforts. It was breathtakingly romantic and so unexpected that, despite it being a horrible cliché, she had to keep from pinching herself to check that she wasn’t dreaming.

At first Jess had thought Max was kneeling down to tie his shoelace and then just when she was going to ask him if he was all right he had caught hold of her hand. And even then Jess hadn’t guessed, she just thought he might need a hand up because it was cold and they had walked for miles with her dog, Bassa. Then Max had said, ‘Jess, I want to ask you something.’

And before she could think what it might be, Max had asked her to marry him.

Although replaying the scene in her head – and Jess had replayed it many times since Max had said it – Jess wasn’t sure exactly whether Max had asked her so much as told her. She seemed to remember that what he had actually said was, ‘Jess, I think that we should get married.’ Because it didn’t seem as if there had been any question that she could answer yes or no to. But it didn’t matter, because it had all been so magical and so very special and incredibly romantic and then Max had said, ‘I was thinking December – maybe Christmas, certainly before the New Year. What do you say?’

And although Jess hadn’t said anything to Molly, it had been a surprise. In fact it was so unexpected that for a few moments Jess thought she must have misheard him.

All the time they’d been going out together Max had said things about how much he liked his own space, and how he wasn’t really good with girlfriends, like they were some kind of pet, and how, although he really enjoyed being with her, he was a happy bachelor – which, although they seemed to get on fairly well and however smitten Jess was, hadn’t given her much hope that the relationship was going anywhere.

And when on girly nights out Jess had expressed her concerns, her friends – who hadn’t met Max yet because he was usually busy midweek – had said that maybe he was just playing with her, that whole protesting too much so he wouldn’t get hurt when she finished with him kind of thing.

‘He’s got that little-boy-lost look. You can just tell he’s been really hurt,’ Jess had said to them. ‘And he’s gorgeous and is so mature – he makes me feel all fragile and feminine. And he is such a gentleman – a proper grown-up.’

One of other girls from her office had giggled. ‘God, he sounds perfect, shame I was away when he came in. I’d hang on in there, sweetie.’ And so Jess had.

Jess just hadn’t thought Max was that serious, even if when they first started going out together he’d done things like whisk her away to Paris on Eurostar for the weekend, and when she had been feeling a bit down had a dozen red roses delivered to the design office where she worked. But then he’d come over all Mr Darcy and be preoccupied and prickly, which sometimes Jess saw as a challenge and other times was just bloody annoying. Then again no one was perfect and he always apologised. When he did and looked at her with those big brown eyes, she could feel herself melting.

Recently it had all slowed down a bit and they’d both been busy and tired and finding it hard to make time for each other. In fact until he’d gone down on one knee Jess had begun to wonder if maybe they had already peaked and whether there was any future in the relationship at all. Well, apparently there was. Jess grinned. Not just a future but a happy ever after.

She turned over and snuggled up against him. ‘Are you awake?’ she whispered.

They had been drinking champagne and talking and leaving garbled messages on answer machines the length and breath of the known world, and now more sober and very slightly hung over, it was all beginning to sink in.

Jess ran her fingers down his arm. She had always imagined eventually marrying someone like Max – the classic older man, someone urbane, mature, slightly distant, calm, generous, someone who would take care of her, look after her. Someone who was already established. If she had had a list Max would tick almost all the boxes. She suppressed another giggle.

Up until now she hadn’t even been sure that Max loved her. I mean how mad was that? She knew that Max liked her but he had never mentioned the ‘L’ word, not at all, not once. Not ever. And now they were getting married. The grin was back. Married.

Mrs Jessica Peters – it had such a nice ring to it. Mrs Jessica Peters – she rolled the words around inside her head. She was going to get married. And it would be fine, just fine. After all Max was sensible and he was kind and exactly what she needed. Someone strong and understanding – an old-fashioned man, someone who had seen a bit of life, someone who knew what he was doing.

As she lay there Jess made an effort to quell any little flurries of doubt that surfaced. After all, everyone was nervous about getting married. It was only natural, marriage was a big thing and okay, maybe she had just got a little bit swept along by the moment, but who wouldn’t?

Obviously Max hadn’t got any doubts about it or he wouldn’t have asked, or maybe he could see something in her that she couldn’t? The idea made her smile. It was quite exciting to think that he could see her hidden depths.

Down on the beach, when Max had asked – or told – her, there had been this funny, awkward silence and then he’d said, ‘So what do you say then?’

It was all Jess could do to stop herself from laughing because it sounded ridiculous that anyone wanted to marry her. Then, without really stopping to think about it, she’d said, ‘Yes, please.’ Which, on reflection, made it sound as if he had just offered her an ice cream or something.

In amongst all her thoughts and feelings there was a terrible sense of being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the plans that needed making to make a wedding happen. They had sixteen weeks tops to get it all together; she’d worked it out in the back of her diary. The biggest thing Jess had organised up until now was a table for fifteen at the local curry house. At the same time she had a funny sense of joy and excitement and anticipation. There was part of her that was ready to settle down. ‘There is so much to get organised, you will help, won’t you?’

Max yawned and stretched. ‘What did you say?’

‘Plans – we’ve got to make plans. And lists. You will help, won’t you?’

He blinked and then rubbed his eyes and reached out to brush the hair back off Jess’s face. ‘You worry too much,’ he said.

‘And I was thinking – does this mean I’m officially moving in?’

He grinned. ‘Well, I certainly hope so.’

‘I meant when we get back. After all it would make life a lot easier and my lease is up.’

‘I’d kind of assumed we’d wait until after the wedding,’ Max said after a few seconds. ‘I know it’s a pain in the arse but would you mind waiting? It’s not long and I’d really like to get the house sorted out. Decorated.’