Epilogue
‘It’s not that long ago that we were last here with a home-made sign,’ Toni said cheerfully as she helped fetch the roll of butcher’s paper out of the minivan with ‘Great Heart Adventures’ on the side.
‘And look how well that turned out,’ Reshma replied with a pointed glance across the car park to where Ginny and Rhys had paused for a quick kiss while unpacking the photography equipment from the boot of Ginny’s blue Fiesta.
‘You’ve assembled a wedding dream team here,’ Kira commented as she locked the minivan. ‘Now you’ve got adventure guides, a singer, a florist and a photographer, all part of the family.’
Reshma glanced from Toni to Kira, now her good friends. Family. It was a surprising word.
Cillian rushed to his mother’s side, holding a phone she guessed was Gabri’s. ‘Come on, Mum! This says the flight’s landed!’
‘We’d better get to the terminal,’ Reshma said indulgently.
Ginny was positively skipping as they made their way to Arrivals. ‘How fun to be on the other side of the sign this time,’ she said with a grin.
‘It looked pretty fun on your side of the sign back in November,’ Toni pointed out. ‘Particularly the part where you two were making out like teenagers.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Cillian piped up. ‘Why is it always teenagers? It’s grown-ups at weddings who are the ones who kiss a lot.’
‘Yep, no idea, kid,’ Ginny responded drily. ‘And people in their forties and fifties kiss loads as well.’ She winked at Reshma and reached back for Rhys’s hand.
The two of them seemed to have an exceptionally high tolerance for each other, living and working together, now Rhys was their most popular photographer.
For a man who’d barely tolerated anyone and a woman who’d always been ‘too much’, they made unexpected sense together.
Ginny had requested six weeks’ leave to travel with him to Patagonia for an assignment later in the year.
With Kira and Toni on board, Reshma had been happy to approve it.
Toni had travelled to two more weddings since last summer and Reshma suspected, now she’d eased into it and seen Cillian managing fine without her for a few days, that she’d be willing to take on more.
Gabri still did the occasional job for I Do, despite having his own business to look after.
He’d moved into a new house with Toni in the spring.
Every time Reshma saw him, he seemed to be speaking to Cillian.
Kira was leaving for Naples soon to spend three weeks with Mattia’s ‘scary, overprotective’ mother.
The dear man seemed to think she was joking whenever she said that, although Reshma could see Kira’s unease at the prospect.
But Kira didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do, so Reshma suspected she was keen to make a good impression – and a lasting connection – with the woman who’d raised her partner.
Tita, who’d been with Reshma right from the beginning, had just returned from a long overdue Caribbean cruise with a new enthusiasm for weddings, which might have had something to do with the end of her constant struggle to find photographers.
It was Tita who’d put today’s plan into action, drawing the banner and organising the gift, and her anticipation now was infectious.
When Reshma had started I Do fifteen years ago, she’d planned a business, dreaming of success and expansion, keeping sight of what mattered most: finding the right human resources.
But the business had only really taken off when those human resources had turned out to be so much more than that.
Now she was planning a different kind of expansion – something that would foster and nourish this family, while also exceeding her wildest dreams.
Willard jogged over, late as usual. She guessed he’d been late to the top of Mount Everest the couple of times he’d reached that summit.
But as usual, his energetic manner, the way the words ‘I’m glad to see you’ were in his eyes, soothed the jumpy place inside her that had never quite recovered from the poor decisions of her youth.
‘Sorry! I’m glad I made it.’
‘The flight has landed already,’ Cillian chided him, earning a ruffle of his hair.
‘Hang on, we were in Departures last time,’ Kira said with a frown as she scanned the airport signage.
‘You were completely unnecessary last time,’ Rhys pointed out.
‘They just wanted to be here in case interference was needed,’ Ginny defended – ever the kind one. ‘And because they’re nosy,’ she added.
‘We care, all right?’ Kira said with a huff. ‘Be thankful we were there in case either of you had screwed up. It was a finely balanced thing. You nearly let him leave the country!’
‘At least there’s no suspense this time,’ Toni pointed out.
‘There will be if we can’t get the sign unrolled before they come through the doors!’ Kira pointed out.
‘Do you think this welcome will mean she comes back to work?’ Ginny asked, falling into step beside Reshma. ‘I know it’s probably too early to think about it and they’re only back for a visit.’
‘Ah, I have some ideas about that. Don’t worry.’
They bickered about where to stand so the sign would be immediately visible and Rhys could get a shot of the happy family, and it was only when passengers began filing through the sliding doors that they quieted and got into their final positions to wait.
And wait.
Finally, when Kira’s foot was tapping and Ginny was fidgeting for England, the fussy cry of a baby alerted them a few seconds before Sophie and Andreas emerged.
Although it had been only five months since Reshma had last seen them, they’d aged at least a year.
Sophie’s hair was shorter, Andreas’s look wilder.
On his chest, he was juggling the tiny form of his daughter, who was throwing her arms out and grizzling. When Sophie saw her gathered colleagues, she burst into tears. She rushed straight into the sign, something ripping when she curled her arms around Ginny and Tita and held on.
‘It’s so good to see you.’
‘We missed you,’ Ginny said emphatically.
‘There, there, sweetheart,’ Tita soothed her.
‘I’m sorry we’re in a bit of a state. Flying with a baby is… Well, you can see.’
‘Don’t the rest of you want to meet her?’ Andreas called out, affronted. Only Rhys was taking any interest in the baby, nudging her tiny hand with his finger and then lifting his camera to take some shots.
Sophie smiled indulgently. ‘He’s completely smitten. I just know I’ll have to be the disciplinary parent.’
As Kira, Toni and Tita left their partners to hold the banner while they went to meet the baby, Sophie turned to Reshma. ‘Hey, boss. It’s nice to be back.’
Reshma held out both of her hands and was more touched than she’d ever admit when Sophie took them and squeezed. ‘I’m just glad to see you. Later on, when you’re ready, we can talk work, hmm? You’re keeping okay?’
Sophie nodded. ‘It’s intense, but I was aware of that. She’s settling in all right.’
‘One more addition to the I Do family,’ Reshma said softly, making Sophie look up with a watery smile before she returned to her husband and daughter.
A nudge at her side told her without looking that Will had approached. She leaned into the light press of his shoulder.
‘The kids are all right,’ he murmured, making her laugh.
‘You feel a familial responsibility to them?’ she asked him.
He nodded effusively. ‘Don’t you?’
‘I suppose we’re parents, in a strange way.’
It was Will’s turn to laugh. ‘We gave birth to something very special.’ His arm slipped around her for a subtle squeeze. ‘And I think… the baby’s growing up?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You want Sophie to start an office in Italy, right?’
She turned to him in indignation. ‘How did you know that? Do I talk in my sleep?’
‘It makes sense. You want to grow the business.’
‘Of course.’
‘And help Sophie and Andreas,’ Will added in a whisper.
‘I don’t want to lose my best talent,’ she insisted, but she glanced at him with a nod and a small smile. ‘And perhaps Ginny will be ready to run the office here.’
He lifted his brows. ‘And what will you do?’
‘If we’ve got an office in Italy, we’ll need one in the Caribbean too. Or maybe Australia.’
He shuddered. ‘Very hot there.’
Reshma stilled, wondering what he could mean by that, whether his mind was racing with the question of whether they’d leave together – or their comfortable situationship would run its course.
He was motionless too, waiting, as he always did.
She imagined it was this patience that had conquered all those mountains.
She licked her lips. ‘We’ve had quite a few enquiries about the Arctic Circle as well – you know Iceland, Lapland, Northern Lights and all that.’
‘Ah,’ he said, a twitch of a smile on his lips. ‘That sounds like an… adventure.’
‘Will! Get over here!’ Andreas called to his old climbing partner and mentor.
With a light clutch to her elbow and a kiss to her cheek – more affection than he’d ever showed her in public, as he knew her boundaries well – he went to join the others, now gathered around the tiny, wriggling form of Sophie and Andreas’s daughter.
Reshma glanced back to see their banner abandoned, the giant letters spelling ‘Welcome Back, Family’. They’d debated whether to put ‘Hinterdorfer Family’ on it, but they’d all recognised that it would never fit.
Reshma mused that she could have added ‘to the’.
A few tears might have threatened, if she’d been anyone else.
She was proud of what she’d built here. The best parts hadn’t even been intentional.
She’d set out to make a living and in the process, somehow created space for her precious people to grow.
Here was a lesson she’d unconsciously learned, but she would now hold onto.
After all, they’d made space for her too.
She rolled up the banner and then went to join the boisterous group of friends and colleagues from I Do Destinations and Great Heart Adventures.
Andreas turned proudly to show off his little girl.
She was mostly bald with a light fuzz of blonde hair.
Chubby wrists emerged from the soft cotton of her romper.
It was difficult to believe that two years ago, when I Do first took over Great Heart, she’d existed only as a tiny, abstract probability and yet here she was now, her parents’ old love rekindled by the merger.
‘She’s a marvel,’ Reshma whispered, her voice alarmingly rough.
Will met her gaze with a smile, before dropping a kiss to the baby’s wrinkled forehead. ‘Welcome to the world, Marie-Louise Hinterdorfer. You’re much loved.’