17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
In the Ship Inn, May sulked into her drink, desperate to leave.
She wouldn’t give her mother the satisfaction.
Thank God Paige was with her, for between Paige, Sylvie and Margot, they’d managed to hold the night just the right side of bearable.
Without their valiant efforts, it would have been a disaster.
After Maz’s characteristically spontaneous appearance, the group had gone through the motions of eating their meal and even played a few half-hearted drinking games and the Mr and Mrs quiz.
The masks, however, lay unused on an empty chair, and no one had bothered to reattach the bunting when it slipped from its pins.
Kitty’s cheery efforts to enjoy herself slipped quickly into strained smiles, and she failed to hide her confusion about the family dynamics derailing her hen do.
‘I hear you’ve finished university now,’ shouted Maz from the far end of the table.
May nodded, refusing to turn her head in her mother’s direction.
‘Isn’t that a turn-up for the books, eh, Sylvie?’ She cackled. ‘My daughter with a Cambridge degree. I must have done something right.’
Maz’s drunken hoots sliced through May like someone running their fingernails down a blackboard.
She stood, her chair scraping against the floor, grabbed her drink, and half walked, half ran outside.
The terrace was mercifully quiet, and May leaned against the balustrade, closing her eyes and letting the gentle sea breeze, the sound of the waves and the tang of salt in the air calm her.
‘Are you alright, May?’
May turned to see Kitty and Alice walking towards her.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ve been trying really hard not to ruin your night, but I couldn’t take it anymore.
To hear that woman claiming credit for all you’ve done for me, Alice …
it was either punch Maz in the nose or come outside for a breather. ’
‘I’m pleased you chose the second option.’ Alice rested her drink on a table and wrapped her arm around May’s shoulders.
‘Did you know she was coming?’ May regretted the question as soon as it was out.
Alice didn’t take offence. She laughed. ‘What do you think?’ She turned to Kitty, her eyes anxious. ‘I’m so sorry. I bet you’re regretting the decision to do all this together.’
Kitty pulled the sisters into a hug. ‘No, quite the opposite. I don’t have a clue what’s going on here, but you’re both my friends, and I’ll do whatever I can to support you.’
‘Thank you.’ Alice pulled away, sighing. ‘Do you think anyone’ll mind if we sit out here for a bit?’
‘It’s your hen do,’ said May, ‘and Kitty’s. The pair of you can do whatever you want.’
They took seats around a table and spent a few minutes sipping their drinks in silence.
‘Am I right you haven’t seen your mum in five years?’ asked Kitty eventually.
‘Yes.’ Alice wrapped her hands around her glass. ‘I’ve had emails, and more recently the occasional phone call.’ She shrugged. ‘Not what you’d call a close mother-daughter bond. I should never have told her about the wedding, but it felt wrong to keep her in the dark.’
‘Did she say she’d be coming?’ asked May.
‘No, she didn’t even reply to my last email. I had no idea she’d turn up here.’
‘Is she staying with you?’ asked Kitty, and even under the dim outside lights May could see Alice pale.
‘She can’t.’ May was adamant. ‘There’s no way she can stay with us. It’s not fair, not after everything she’s done. And anyway, I can’t see Daniel being too happy to find her in Seashell Cottage, can you?’
‘I can’t think where else she can go though,’ said Alice. ‘And God knows how Jack will react when he finds out his estranged daughter is back in Saffron Bay.’
‘Could she stay with Sylvie and Solly?’ asked Kitty.
‘With the two lovebirds?’ Alice laughed and shook her head. ‘Anyway, Solly is so loyal to Jack, I can’t see him wanting Maz under his roof.’
‘Then she’ll have to stay with me,’ said Kitty. ‘She can’t stay here at the Ship as Rita won’t have the room refurbishments finished until next week. She can’t stay with any of her family, so that really doesn’t leave any other option, does it?’
‘You’ve only got two bedrooms and you’ve already got Cillian staying,’ said Alice.
‘I said she could stay, I never said she’d get an actual bed.’ Kitty’s eyes twinkled. ‘The sofa bed in the living room is notoriously uncomfortable. That might teach your mother an important lesson about turning up unannounced.’
May grinned. ‘I like your thinking.’ She bit her lip, serious now. ‘Sofa bed or not, she’ll still be in your space. And you don’t know what she’s like.’ May wasn’t happy for her selfish mother to upset the lovely Kitty right before her wedding. There was no choice, though.
‘I’m sure I’ll survive,’ said Kitty. ‘Now, do you feel ready to go back in? The others might be ready to send out a search party.’
They were heading back into the pub when the rest of the hen party spilled out onto the terrace, their sequins glittering beneath the outdoor lanterns.
‘Can’t have a hen party without the hens!’ yelled Maz, stumbling towards them.
Alice groaned, and May gripped her hand.
‘Tilly … sorry, Maz, suggested we move the party to the beach.’ Sylvie’s look of panic suggested she’d lost complete control of the situation.
‘I said it was a bad idea,’ said Margot. ‘No one listened.’ She folded her arms, unused to her requests being ignored.
‘The beach sounds fun,’ said Paige, and May glared at her.
Before May could protest, the sound of male voices reached them, and Nick, Luke, Cillian, and Daniel staggered onto the terrace. When they saw the hen party, they giggled like schoolboys.
May waited. It was Daniel whose laughter died first, the colour draining from his face as he spotted Maz among the group.
‘You?’ His voice was unnaturally quiet. ‘How dare you come back here after all you’ve done?’
Cillian, Nick and Luke stopped laughing and stared from Daniel to Maz.
‘Who are you?’ hiccupped Nick, pointing to Maz.
She straightened as best she could, and fixed him with a wavering stare. ‘I am the mother of the bride, and perfectly entitled to be at my daughter’s hen party.’
‘You’re Kit’s mum? You should be Irish.’ Nick swayed, squinting at Maz.
‘She’s not my mum.’ Kitty placed an arm around Nick to hold him up. ‘She’s Alice and May’s mum.’
May loved the way Luke scowled at Maz. He grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled her towards him. ‘Are you OK with her being here?’ he asked quietly.
‘It’s not like I’ve had much choice,’ she muttered, leaning her head on his shoulder.
The tension on the terrace threatened to kill off the already badly wounded hen do. May wished she could walk away. She couldn’t, not without Alice.
‘Cheer up, everyone.’ Maz broke the heavy silence.
‘No one’s died, and I’m not the devil.’ She wagged a wavering finger at her ex-boyfriend.
‘Daniel, you and I need to talk, but not tonight.’ Waving her hands in the air, Maz shouted to the stunned group, ‘Come on, everyone, the night is young, and we’re at a hen and stag do. Let’s take this party to the beach!’
Paige was the first to follow, with a shrug of apology to May, closely followed by Margot and Sylvie, who seemed too befuddled to do anything else.
‘We may as well go.’ Alice pointed to the beach. ‘This hasn’t been the hen do I imagined, but I doubt it can get much worse.’