Chapter Six #3
“Tell me everything,” Maddie said, gesturing for Marley, Autumn and Benjamin to join James and her parents at the kitchen table.
She put a cafetière of coffee and a pot of tea on the table, a bottle of juice for Benjamin, a packet of biscuits, and gave everyone their favourite mug — except for James, who didn’t as yet have one.
As she worked, Marley told her the story.
“I couldn’t bloody believe it when the car broke down.
I’d hired out the whole restaurant, they’d filled the place with flowers, I’d booked a room at the hotel over the road and had an overnight bag in the boot, everything was set!
I was really worried she was going to insist we call it a night — she was so desperate to go home and so mad at me for insisting we go out.
.. until she walked into the restaurant, of course!
She knew right away what was happening, so I got down on one knee there and then. ”
Marley reached for Autumn’s hand and they stared at each other like they always did, as though there was nobody else in the room, in the world, even.
It made Maddie feel a little teary. Until recently, Maddie had never anticipated her older brother getting married.
When he had been young, Marley had avoided commitment like it was an affliction.
Tormented by Bowie’s illness and in constant search of distraction, he must have taken hundreds of women to bed over the years.
He had never been interested in any of them, but there was something different about the way he felt about Autumn.
She was pretty, of course, but Marley had never had an issue attracting good-looking women.
She was also intelligent, funny and kind, but there had already been many clever, amusing and charitable women in Marley’s bed.
Autumn did have some rarer qualities, however.
She was very emotionally intelligent, knowing exactly who she was and embracing the good and bad parts of herself at all times.
She’d spent a lot of time getting to know herself and accepting her flaws — especially in the wake of Bowie’s death, when she had undergone extensive therapy.
Autumn talked about the bad parts of herself and how they limited her fairly often.
Most recently, she’d openly admitted she found it harder apologising to Marley than she did her friends after they’d had a fight, and it was because she unconsciously resented men as a collective.
Her father had been indifferent to her since she had been a little girl and, when she’d been a teenager, her stepfather had tried to sexually assault her.
She’d had to explain to Marley that she was struggling to say sorry for her part in their arguments because she struggled to be vulnerable enough to admit her mistakes in front of any man — even one she loved, and who she knew loved her back.
Being vulnerable had once put her in danger, so Autumn didn’t feel safe enough to let down her guard.
Maddie knew working that out couldn’t have been easy, and that Marley would appreciate the tremendous thought and effort Autumn had needed to expend to come to that conclusion and then apologise anyway.
Her brother adored Autumn’s self-awareness, it was a quality most people generally didn’t care to possess.
But, as far as Maddie was concerned, none of that was enough to explain his love for her.
It had to be fate. Autumn and Marley loved each other endlessly because they were supposed to spend their lives together.
It was written somewhere, it had to be. Marley leaned forward and pecked Autumn on the lips.
She put her hand to his cheek and stroked his face, then kissed the end of his nose.
“Aw!” Emma, Ben and Maddie chimed together. Autumn blushed, and Maddie laughed. Even after all these years, it didn’t come easily to Autumn to be the centre of attention, especially if there was something soppy going on.
“Anyway, we’d really like to get married here, in the garden in the spring, before you open the recovery retreat,” Marley said. Maddie blinked theatrically at him, her mouth hanging slightly open. “If you don’t mind, that is. We’ll help set stuff up. I promise we won’t add to your workload.”
“You’re not joking?” Maddie asked. Marley shook his head, wincing guiltily. Maddie sat down at the kitchen table, feeling suddenly weak on her feet.
“We can find somewhere else, Marley, this is too much trouble,” Autumn said.
“No, we can do it!” Emma insisted. “I think that sounds like such a lovely idea.”
“It’s not you who’ll have to do most of the work, Emma, it’s Maddie,” Autumn said.
“And me,” James chimed in. “I can do a lot of it. It’ll take me no time at all.”
“We can pay you extra,” Marley said. “To work overtime if you need to, so we’re not taking you away from Maddie’s project.”
“Sounds great,” James said, catching Maddie’s eye. “It’ll be fine. I can handle it.”
“I want to get married at home,” Marley said. “This is where we fell in love. It’s where all of my favourite memories are. It’s where Bowie is...”
Marley’s voice caught in his throat and he busied himself pouring his second cup of coffee.
Maddie caught Autumn’s teary eye and felt herself relent.
She knew Autumn and Marley were blissfully happy, and that they believed Bowie was one-hundred-per-cent responsible for the state of their lives today.
Without his intervention, there would be no Benjamin and there would be no them.
She understood why they wanted to get married here, and she would move Heaven and Earth to make sure it definitely happened, despite her reservations.
“Give me a date and we’ll do it.” Maddie sighed. Marley stood up and reached his hand out for hers, pulling her into his arms.
“Thanks, sis,” he said, rocking her gently.
“Don’t thank me.” She rolled her eyes at her brother. “You’re doing ninety per cent of this on your own — I’m just giving you permission to do it. So, you’d better get James to teach you how to use a fucking drill properly.”
Marley laughed.