Falling for you

Den shook his head. ‘Congratulations. That’s fantastic.’

It was also interesting, Marcella felt, that he clearly hadn’t been expecting it, which meant that Kerr McKinnon hadn’t warned him.

‘Shall I tell you something stupid?’ Den was smiling now, crookedly. ‘Before the accident, I used to wish you were my mother. I’d seen the way you were with your kids. I really envied them. I thought you were fantastic.’

Overcome, Marcella hugged him tightly. ‘Thank you. I hope I’ll carry on being fantastic. Now, let’s talk about your brother.’

‘Kerr?’ Den gave her a blank look. ‘What d’you want to know?’

He didn’t have a clue.

‘Kerr and Maddy,’ said Marcella.

Den gave her a doubtful look. ‘Your Maddy? Why, does she like him?’

‘Just a bit.’ Amused, Marcella realised that he was picturing Maddy as she had been eleven years ago with her metal braces, bony knees and those funny NHS specs. All in all, an unlikely contender for his brother’s attention.

‘Kerr hasn’t told you.’ As they turned and began to walk across the grass, Marcella tucked her arm companionably through Den’s. ‘Know where he is?’

‘What, right now? At work.’ Den looked surprised. ‘He’s lent me his car.’

‘Excellent. Posh one?’

‘Very posh,’ said Den.

‘Even more excellent. So,’ Marcella said brightly as another thought struck her, ‘does he know about me coming here today?’

Den shook his head. ‘I didn’t tell him. This was what I wanted to happen. He might have tried to talk me out of it.’

Almost certainly, Marcella thought with secret amusement.

As they headed for the car park – she really hoped Kerr’s was the gleaming midnight-blue Mercedes – Marcella said, ‘Why don’t we go and pay your brother a little visit?’

‘Now?’

She gave Den’s arm a complicit squeeze. ‘Right now. Come on, it’ll be a laugh.’

Realising what she was planning, Den said, ‘He’ll be scared witless when you walk in.’

‘But we’ll find it hilarious.’ Marcella broke into a dazzling, ear-to-ear grin. ‘Anyway, if your big brother’s serious about my darling daughter, he’s just going to have to get used to it.’

Blowing up several dozen balloons had taken it out of Maddy. She was exhausted, but the back garden of Snow Cottage was looking sensational enough for it all to be worthwhile. There were balloons at the front of the cottage too, along with a huge handmade Welcome Home banner and enough curly streamers to tie up an entire herd of wildebeest. Should a herd of wildebeest choose to stampede through Ashcombe.

‘Looking good,’ said Nuala, carrying out a pile of rugs and cushions.

‘Thanks.’ Maddy smiled.

‘Not you. You look appalling. I was talking about the garden,’ said Nuala. ‘Poor Tiff’s going to take one look at you and have a relapse. Go and put some make-up on or something, before everyone gets here.’

As if moving house and organising the party wasn’t enough, Maddy thought, she was expected to get creative with mascara too. And where was everyone else, anyway? Tiff was coming home from the hospital at three o’clock. Jake had driven into Bath to pick up Tiff and Juliet. Marcella had disappeared hours ago, blithely claiming that she needed to buy maternity knickers and promising faithfully to be back before three. Similarly, Kate and Dexter wouldn’t be over until after the pub was shut for the afternoon. Sophie had spent hours colouring in the Welcome Home banner. Bean had leaped about like a mini Tigger-on-springs, doing her best to burst the balloons as fast as they were inflated.

Quite a few other people from Ashcombe were coming along to the party but none of them had seen fit to offer anything in the way of practical help, evidently more than happy to leave all the boring hard work to her and Nuala.

And what exactly had Nuala done in the last couple of hours, apart from take a long hot shower, paint her toenails turquoise and spend a ridiculous amount of time faffing over what to wear?

‘I needed to shower,’ Nuala had protested when Maddy had pointed this out. ‘We moved house this morning! I had to wash all the dust off, didn’t I? For heaven’s sake, I was a complete mess.’

It hadn’t taken long to move house, and Jake had helped. Juliet and Tiff’s belongings had been brought over to Snow Cottage, and in return Maddy and Nuala had lugged their things over to the flat above the Peach Tree. It was like a neat chess move. Now that there were going to be three of them working in the deli itself, Maddy had resolved to increase the sandwich delivery side of the business. Last night she had designed a flyer to be printed and sent to businesses throughout the city.

Next week she planned to follow this up with visits to the various companies, taking along samples as she’d done with Callaghan and Fox. By this time next year, the Peach Tree delivery service could be a national, international, possibly even a global phenomenon .. .

Oh well, anything to take her mind off the disaster that was the rest of her life.

‘Go and have a shower this minute,’ Nuala bossily announced. ‘And do something with your hair. It’s got cobwebs in it.’

* * *

Den waited outside in the car while Marcella headed up the stairs to the offices of Callaghan and Fox. Entertaining