she said patiently. ‘I’m in the middle of dinner and I haven’t got time to discuss this now. It’s not as if you’re short of dates. Grab your little black book and pick one of your girlies from there. I’m sure any one of them would love to go with you.’
There was a soft click on the end of the phone as she hung up.
That went well. Not.
THREE
‘Let me just recap. You’re in a relationship with Alistair Woods—the Alistair Woods, the man who looks a dream in Lycra—and you’re not planning on mentioning it to Mum and Dad?’
Adam’s eyebrows practically disappeared into his sleek quiff hairstyle and Emma took a defensive sip of coffee. The fantasy she’d had of disappearing around the world on Alistair’s arm and calling up her parents from Cannes/LA/somewhere else that screamed kudos, to tell them she would be featuring in next month’s celebrity magazine, had turned out to be just that. A fantasy.
Because Adam was getting married.
Her big brother, Adam—who never failed to make her laugh, and who was so bright and sharp and funny that she’d never for a moment questioned her role in family life as the forgettable backing act to his flamboyant scene-stealer. Of course she had paled into insignificance in her family’s eyes next to Adam—not to mention in the eyes of schoolteachers, friends, neighbours... But only in the way that everyone else had faded into the background next to him in her own eyes. He was simply someone who commanded success and attention without needing to put in any effort.
She couldn’t exit her life without telling Adam, and she’d asked him to meet her for coffee to do exactly that. She’d even tried to sweeten the news by buying him an enormous cream bun, which now sat between them untouched. If she’d thought he’d simply scoff the bun and wave her off without so much as a question, she’d been deluded.
‘You’re not going yet, though, right? You’re at least waiting until after the wedding?’
‘Erm...’
He threw his arms up theatrically.
‘Em! You can’t be serious! How the hell am I going to keep Mum under control without you? I can’t get married without my wingman!’
‘Woman,’ she corrected.
He flapped both hands at her madly.
‘Whatever. You saw what Mum was like the other night. The wedding is in Ernie’s home village. He’s got a massive family, they’re all fabulously supportive, and if you don’t come along our family’s big impression on them will be Mum telling everyone I’ll get over it when I get bored with musical theatre and meet the right girl.’
‘Dad will be there,’ she ventured. ‘Maybe you could talk to him beforehand, get him to keep Mum on a short leash.’
‘He’d be as much use as a chocolate teapot. We both know he’s been beaten into submission over the years. Since when has Mum ever listened to him? She just talks over him. I need you there.’
His voice had taken on a pleading tone.
‘It’s not as simple as that. Alistair’s covering another cycling race in a few weeks’ time. We’re meant to be having a break before it starts because it’s pretty full-on. I’m flying out to the States, meeting some of his friends and family, relaxing for a couple of weeks. It’s all been arranged.’
She looked down at her coffee cup because she couldn’t bear the disappointment on Adam’s face.
Adam had never made her feel insignificant. Any inability to measure up was her failing, not his. And she was the one who let it bother her.
‘Then there’s no problem! Bring Alistair to the wedding,’ Adam said, clapping his hands together excitedly. ‘You’ve already said he’s got time off from work. The guy’s probably got a private jet. You could zoom in and zoom out on the same day if you had to.’ He made a soaring aeroplane motion in the air with his hand.
She suppressed a mirthless laugh.
‘You mean introduce him to Mum and Dad? A whole new person for Mum to drive insane?’ She narrowed suspicious eyes at him. ‘It would certainly take the heat off you and Ernie.’
He held his hands up.
‘You’ll have to introduce him at some point anyway. OK, so you might travel with him for a while, maybe even settle in the States with him, but you’ll have to come home to visit, won’t you?’
She didn’t answer. Visiting wasn’t something she’d thought about much in her excitement about getting away. It hadn’t crossed her mind that she’d be missed that much.
‘Bloody hell, Em.’
She sighed. She couldn’t say no to Adam any more than the rest of the world could. He just had that gift.
‘It’ll be a nightmare if I bring Alistair,’ she said. ‘Mum will be all over him like a rash, demanding marriage and grandchildren and mentioning my biological clock. He’s a free spirit. He’ll run a bloody mile.’
Adam was on the comment like a shot.
‘Then you definitely should bring him. You’re talking about leaving your whole life behind to be with him—don’t you think he ought to prove himself a bit before you take that kind of plunge? If he’s really the guy you think he is—if he’s really going to put you first above everything else in his life—then he’ll love you no matter what crazy relative you introduce him to, right?’
She couldn’t help latching on to that thought—that desire for a level of regard where she would come absolutely first with someone for a change. Was that what this was really about? Was she afraid to bring Alistair to the wedding because of some stupid subconscious conviction that he might see through her? Might see that she really was a plain and inferior mousy girl, despite all the years she’d put in on breaking away from that persona?
‘He does love me,’ she insisted, mainly to bat away the prickle of unease that had begun in her stomach. It was all Adam’s fault for questioning her perfectly laid plans.
‘Great. Then put your man where your mouth is. Introduce him to Mum and watch him prove it.’
* * *
Dan clicked his phone off with ill-suppressed irritation.
Cancelling a working lunch at a moment’s notice was extremely bad form. Focused to a pinpoint on work performance himself, he found it difficult to tolerate lateness or bad planning in others. Especially when it meant he’d interrupted his day to turn up at a restaurant when he could have eaten lunch on the run or at his desk.
He gave the menu an uninterested glance and was on the point of calling for the bill for the two drinks he’d ordered while waiting for the no-show client when he saw Emma cross the restaurant. A waiter showed her to a table by the window and she sat down alone, so engrossed in scrolling through her phone that she didn’t even notice he was in the room.
The news that she was leaving seemed to have given him a new heightened perspective, and he picked up on tiny details about her
