Six months later #2
Tony, who’d decidedly shrugged off any trace of his Monaghan accent, spoke in a slight American drawl and held out a brown hand, sporting a hefty gold signet ring with a sizeable diamond embedded in it.
He gazed at her appraisingly. ‘Very nice to meet you, Ally.’
Tanya reached out a long manicured hand with a whopping pink diamond that Ally felt sure was real. She’d never met anyone like this – so groomed, so polished, so fake.
‘Hi,’ she said in a tone that sounded like ‘fuck you’. ‘Nice place. Fun. I gather you were a waitress here.’
There was no mistaking it – despite her carefully curated smile, this woman was raging. She reminded Ally of the most popular girl in the class, who people secretly feared, yet longed to be close to.
One thing was clear: Tony and Tanya had one thing in common – hunger.
Ally glanced at Pete to gauge his reaction, but his gaze was fixed on Tony and he seemed not to have noticed. What part of him related to these people? she wondered. Was there a part of Pete she didn’t know?
Suddenly, Tanya’s mood seemed to lift, and her high-gloss, engaging persona slipped back into place. ‘This place is wonderful! Congratulations, of course, Pete is so clever.’
She reached out an artfully manicured talon and stroked his arm. It was for Ally’s benefit, nobody else’s. Ally felt a jolt of impatience. Enough of this crap, she wanted to shout, but somehow there wasn’t the opportunity.
‘Right, guys, we’re off,’ said Tony abruptly, as Ally spotted Kathleen’s eyes boring into his back. ‘We’ll see you both again soon, I hope.’
Nothing untoward had taken place to the casual observer, but Ally felt like she’d been crawled over by spiders.
‘OK?’ Pete smiled at her.
‘I’ll talk to you later,’ Ally gasped before Dave dragged him away to talk to some friends.
‘You OK, girl?’ Rosemarie put her arm around her shoulders.
‘I’ve never met anyone quite like her before, Ros.’
‘Me neither. People like that don’t tend to hang around these parts.’
‘I mean, you and Fergus, you’re normal, Pete’s normal . . . at least when he’s with me. But those people, honestly, they scare me.’
She looked at Rosemarie, who could normally cut everyone down to size, but this time she just nodded.
‘They’re what my granda used to call high-rollers.’
Ally nodded back, grateful for her friend’s presence, even if she didn’t have any answers.
‘By the way, newsflash . . . You haven’t forgotten, have you? Next Saturday at noon we’re going wedding-dress shopping.’
‘Are you kidding, Ros? That’s what’s keeping me going. True love.’
‘Yep, when you know, you know.’
Just then Mum rocked up, a few Proseccos over the speed limit.
‘Darling, this is the best night ever,’ she hissed. ‘Your dad and I have been doing the tango. We cleared the floor. He’s such a sexy mover. We were magnificent.’
Uh, that was just a teeny bit more detail than Ally needed, but still, she was delighted to see Mum and Dad glowing.
Mum pulled her aside and whispered, ‘I can come back with Allegra Carmichel on Thursday night, since I’m a VIP now that my fabulous daughter is the proprietress! It’ll be a hoot. Darling, I always knew you were going to show them all!’
‘Right, we’re off, love,’ boomed Dad. ‘The taxi is at the door . . . Very proud of you!’
As they wove out the door, Ally felt a pang of affection for her bonkers, life-loving parents, and for the first time felt like she’d found her place in the family.
* * *
Gradually, everyone drifted away. Dave had gone home with Fia; Francis had left, still deep in conversation with Eloise.
Finally, there was only her and Pete, surrounded by party debris.
Ally sank onto a purple velvet banquette; Pete handed her a Prosecco as he sat down beside her, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
‘I know what you’re going to say to me,’ he said at last.
‘That this was a massive success and everyone loved it?’
‘Apart from that . . .’
‘What’s going on, Pete? Why didn’t you tell me you’d invited them?’
‘Because . . . we’ve squared things up, Tony and myself . . . and I wanted them to meet you.’
‘Pete, I know you all have a history together but . . . you don’t seem . . . the same. Is there a part of you I don’t know?’
He was silent for a moment, while Ally prepared herself for the worst.
‘The opposite. There’s a part of me they don’t know. That night we spent here in the tent, when this place was just a shell . . . that’s me. Us walking on the beach with Patsy, throwing stones . . . that’s me.’
She felt the country boy inside him.
‘Me too.’
‘Ally, will you marry me?’
‘What . . . are you serious?’
He grinned. ‘Of course I’m serious, I’m hardly saying it as a joke . . .’
She laughed and gave him a playful tap on the cheek, but his face had grown solemn. ‘I mean it. I don’t want my life without you.’ He took her face gently in his hands and pressed his forehead against hers.
‘Yes. Yes, Pete, of course I will.’
And in that moment, all of her doubts fell away. Being with him felt like home – all the other stuff was just window dressing. He kissed her gently, as though they had all the time in the world.
‘So, will we go home?’ he murmured.
‘We’d better – we need to feed the fish, even though Patsy’s been keeping an eye on them . . .’