Epilogue
New Year’s Eve, the following year
Dan bent to help Max with his bow tie. Maybe it was more usual for an eight-year-old to have one on a piece of elastic, but Max had turned his nose up at the ones in the shop. I want one the same as yours, Dad. So now Max, too, had a cobalt-blue silk tie.
‘There you go, son.’ He turned them so they both looked in the mirror. ‘What do you reckon? A pair of handsome dudes, yes?’
Max’s reflection grinned back at him, and the sight brought a lump to Dan’s throat. He hadn’t really noticed before, but looks-wise, Max was like a mini version of himself. The blond hair, the blue eyes, even more vivid now, thanks to the bow tie.
‘So, best man, anything else we need to do before we head to the hall and greet the guests?’
Max dug into the pocket of his mini tux and drew out a sheet of paper, frowning as he read the instructions Anna had neatly typed out for him. ‘It says we need to have a flower for our lap . . . lapel. What’s that?’
Dan pointed to the buttonhole on Max’s jacket. ‘The lapel is the part of your jacket that’s below the collar. Apparently it’s considered smart at a wedding for men to wear a flower there.’
Max pulled a face. ‘Do we have to?’
‘We don’t have to.’ He smiled down at his son. ‘But Anna and Maisie are going to look beautiful, and it’s up to us to make sure we don’t let them down. Putting up with a flower in our buttonhole seems a small price to pay to make them happy.’
Max nodded. ‘Okay. Let’s get them.’
He started towards the door but Dan put a hand on his arm. ‘Not so hasty. Anything else on the list?’ He knew there had to be something dodgy on it because, when she’d handed it to Max yesterday, Anna had winked and told him not to show his dad until they were getting ready.
Max looked down at the list again. ‘It says we have to brush our hair and clean our teeth.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Duh, we know that. And I have to make sure you’re not late.’
Dan glanced down at his watch. ‘Wedding is due to start at four. It’s now half past three. We’ve aced that one.’
Max continued down the list. ‘I have to tell you to make sure you’ve booked the taxi to take us to the airport tomorrow.’ Max let out another beaming smile. ‘Disneyland is going to be epic.’
‘It certainly is.’ If he was honest, having spent the first half of the year filming in LA, Dan would rather not be going back to the US for his honeymoon.
And if he was pushed on it, Disneyland in Florida wouldn’t be his number one pick for a honeymoon destination, either.
But then this wasn’t just a honeymoon for Anna and him.
It was their first family holiday; Anna, Maisie, him and Max.
He felt a band of tightness across his chest. Yeah, when he considered that, putting up with Mickey Mouse for a few days before they all headed off to the Keys was a very small price to pay.
Max’s giggles took Dan back to the present. ‘OMG, Dad, the last one says we have to put bow ties on Nip and Tuck.’
‘What?’ He reached across for the sheet.
‘Let me see that.’ As he scanned the final item on the list, he acknowledged his son could read perfectly.
‘Something tells me we should have done that before we got dressed in our tux’s.
’ He swallowed as his mind played back a vivid showreel of the times over the last year when they’d visited the Old Mill Hotel.
Nip and Tuck eating his favourite Gucci loafers.
Nip and Tuck peeing in the back of his Range Rover.
Him trying desperately to chase after Nip after he’d accidentally dropped the lead when they’d taken the mutts for a walk.
Anna must have known exactly what she was doing when she’d given them that little task, and put it at the end of the list. It seems his very-soon-to-be wife had a wicked sense of humour.
It was just one of the many intriguing things he’d learned about her over the last year.
Yet, like her obsession with vivid coloured sofas — she’d purchased two more since they’d moved into the house they’d bought together — it only made him love her more.
Max snorted. ‘Come on, Dad. They’re just two small dogs.’ He gave him a beaming, toothy grin. ‘What do you always say? How hard can it be?’
* * *
Anna stood with Maisie in Faith’s bedroom.
They’d taken it over for the afternoon to get ready, though it was fair to say it hadn’t been the relaxing pre-wedding time with her daughter she’d planned.
Not with Faith’s eleven-month-old crawling in every ten minutes for the first hour.
Faith, not just trying to get ready herself but also trying to make sure everything was going as planned downstairs, had been getting more and more harassed until Owen had swooped in and saved the day.
Leave this little monkey to me, he’d told them, grabbing hold of the wriggling George. She’d been very impressed, until she’d later heard he’d farmed the babysitting duty out to Zoe, who though technically wasn’t his daughter, was in every real sense of the word.
‘How are you two doing?’ Gabby popped her head round the door and placed a hand on her heart when she saw them.
‘Oh wow, don’t you both look gorgeous. Dan is going to trip over his tongue.
’ She smiled over at Anna. ‘Your parents are downstairs, helping themselves to the champagne and chatting to Bob. Val is here and would like to have a quick word.’ She held her hand out to Maisie.
‘Would you mind coming with me? Dan and Max are having a wee bit of trouble getting Nip and Tuck to sit still long enough to put bow ties on them.’
‘Bow ties?’ Maisie’s eyes grew the size of dinner plates. ‘On the dogs?’
‘But of course. The boys don’t like to miss out on dressing up. It’s something of a tradition now at Old Mill weddings.’
As Maisie scampered off with Gabby, Val poked her head around the door. On seeing Val’s eyes glisten with tears, Anna swallowed down the lump of emotion that flew into her throat. God, how was she supposed to get through this without crying?
‘Come here.’ The moment Val stepped inside, Anna run up to her and they hugged. Anna knew they were both remembering her first wedding day.
‘I didn’t come to make you cry,’ Val whispered, slowly drawing away and wiping furiously at her tears. ‘I came to tell you how happy I am for you.’
‘I know.’ Anna smiled, and though it was a wobbly mess, the action of it halted the flow of her own tears. ‘Just as I hope you know me marrying Dan won’t change anything between us. You’ll always be part of our family.’
Fresh tears stole down Val’s cheeks. ‘I knew that the moment you showed us the barn in the grounds of that stunning new house of yours.’
‘The barn we’re going to make into a house for you and Bob. When you’re ready to move.’
Val squeezed Anna’s hands. ‘Oh, don’t you worry. We’ll be moving in the moment the builders say it’s habitable.’
Anna felt another wave of emotion hit her. How lucky she was to have been loved by Chris, and now to be loved again by a man who’d taken one look at the barn in the house they’d been viewing and immediately suggested they could convert it for Chris’s parents.
Luckily, just as she felt the tears prick again, Faith knocked on the door. ‘How’s it going in here?’ Her gaze travelled from Val to Anna. ‘Either of you in need of a little make-up repair?’
They both laughed. ‘No, we’re good, thank you.’ Anna nudged Val. ‘At least we would be if this woman stopped making me cry.’
Val held her hands up. ‘I do believe it’s the other way around.’
Smiling, Faith opened the door wider. ‘Well, come with me. I’ve got the perfect antidote.’ She glanced at Anna. ‘Don’t worry, nobody is going to see you. You’re just going to take a peek over the bannisters.’
The moment they reached their vantage point on the first floor, overlooking the hall dominated by the giant tree, they both burst out laughing.
Dan, looking devastatingly handsome but more than a little harassed, was crouched down with Nip — or was it Tuck?
— under his arm, trying to place a bow tie around his neck.
The moment he got close, the dog squirmed out of his arms and Dan threw his hands up in the air, clearly exasperated.
A few feet away, Max was having a similar problem.
Behind them both stood Maisie who was bouncing up and down next to Gabby, both of them giggling and wincing at the same time.
‘They’ve been at it for ten minutes.’ Faith beamed at Anna. ‘Maisie’s itching to help but I told her to wait until you’d had a chance to watch. Now I think it’s time to take pity on the men and let the girl help them out.’
Faith disappeared down the stairs, and moments later she and Maisie had Nip and Tuck sitting obediently.
Anna’s heart swelled as she watched her husband-to-be plonk himself down on the floor, put his head back and laugh.
Was there anything sexier than a man who didn’t take himself seriously?
Who was only too happy to be the butt of a joke?
Once Maisie had fixed the bow ties, she grinned over at Dan, who raised his hand for a high-five.
Then Maisie did something that had Anna touching at the ache in her chest. In a gesture so natural it made Anna’s heart feel almost too full, she wrapped her arms around the still prostrate Dan and whispered something in his ear.
Anna could see the ease, the tenderness between them — and yes, the love — even from her first-floor vantage point.
‘Chris would have approved of him,’ Val said quietly next to her. ‘He would be happy to know Maisie had such a good father figure in her life.’
Anna swallowed, feeling the burn of tears again as she put her arm around the person she saw as her second mum. ‘Oh God, thank you for that, but please, you have to stop making me cry.’
Val laughed softly and hugged Anna back. ‘No more tears from now on. I’m going downstairs to find my husband and a glass of champagne. Then I shall have the joy of watching my beautiful daughter-in-law get married to a very lucky, but very lovely, man.’
* * *
What a day it had been. Filled with everything Anna had hoped for when she’d first voiced the idea of getting married in the hotel that had meant so much to her over the years; laughter, emotion, family, special friends.
Slipping into bed beside Dan, she felt his eyes on her and smiled.
‘Hello, husband. What are you thinking?’
‘I’m thinking my wife was a stunning bride, but right now without her make-up, without her clothes, she’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.’ He shook his head, reaching out to cup her face. ‘And I can’t believe she’s mine.’
Anna placed a hand over his, smiling into his eyes. ‘You, Daniel Ramsey, are a smooth talker.’ She bent to kiss him. ‘And it’s just one of the many things I love about you.’ The touching moment from before their wedding flashed through her mind. ‘Like your inability to put a bow tie on a dog.’
He chuckled. ‘I was stitched up by your friends.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Or perhaps by all three of you.’
She recalled the hen night when they’d cooked up the plan. Following more tequila shots than she could count. ‘Guilty. So, what was it Maisie said to you after she’d done your job for you?’
His beautiful blue eyes twinkled back at her. ‘She told me not to worry, it wasn’t that I was bad with dogs. Just that Faith had told her the trick to keep them still.’
‘Oh yes? And what’s that?’
‘Cheese,’ he said disgustedly. ‘Apparently they’ll do anything for a lump of cheddar.’
‘Oh wow.’ She giggled. ‘If only you’d known, huh?’
In a flash she was on her back in the bed, his large frame over her, his sparkling eyes staring down into hers. ‘Yes, if only.’ His gaze wandered over her face, and she saw the moment his amusement turned to something hotter, darker. ‘So, this honeymoon of ours.’
‘In Disneyland.’ She bit into her lip, wanting to giggle again.
‘With our kids.’
‘Yes.’ The need to giggle vanished as a huge lump made its way into the back of her throat. The way he’d said it, our kids.
As if aware of her thoughts, his eyes softened.
‘Our kids,’ he repeated. ‘It sounds good, doesn’t it?
’ She could only nod, her emotions in danger of overwhelming her as they had so many times today.
Especially when he looked down at her like that, his expression full of adoration, of love.
‘I can’t wait to take my family on holiday.
’ His lips touched hers, gently, tenderly.
‘But I also can’t wait for the time when they’re asleep, like now, and I get to have my wicked way with you. ’
Her heart bursting, she drew his head down and kissed him. ‘And I with you,’ she breathed. ‘Happy New Year.’
He returned her kiss, deepening it until she was a breathless, writhing mess. ‘And Happy New Life,’ he added huskily, before silencing them both.
THE END