‘I don’t know how…’
‘I know how,’ Guy said. ‘Jenny, the time to be taken for the ceremony needs to be taken up with something else. I want a map of the way to the beach-that’s about half a mile from here, isn’t it? Down through the hills? An easy walk? I thought so. As every guest arrives they’re to be handed a champagne cocktail, a tube of sunscreen and a bathing costume and sarong if they don’t have their own. Jenny, get onto the local store owners now. Tell them we’ll pay ten times face value if they have the stuff we need here in half an hour. Oh, and the camping store. I want as many folding tables as they have, plus beach umbrellas. Same price applies. Double it if you need to. As the workers arrive-our people are due here at four-they’ll start ferrying the wedding breakfast to the beach. I want people toddling over the sandhills, cocktail in hand-we’ll have people along the way replenishing glasses-arriving at the beach and seeing Anna in all her glory.’
‘All my glory?’ Anna said, gulping and looking awed.
‘You’ll be floating on a sea of flowers. You’ll be wearing a tiny bikini and holding a fruit cocktail-something non- alcoholic, but no one need know-something that looks truly splendid. We’ll have your bridesmaids-minus one, who I trust will take herself the way of your bridegroom-floating round on air mattresses. We’ll use all the wedding flowers and make them look sumptuous. And you’ll be saying Welcome to the rest of my life. This is who I am. A woman who can put on the best party in the world. It’ll make Barret look stupid and you look magnificent.’
‘But…’ Anna whispered. ‘But…’
‘But what?’
‘There’s still the celebrant,’ she whispered. ‘There’s all the pink tulle. I have editors from the top celebrity magazines flying in especially to see a wedding.’
‘They will see a wedding,’ Guy said.
‘Whose?’
He took a deep breath.
‘Mine.’ And then he looked at Jenny. ‘Ours.’
For a moment there was nothing but silence. Jenny stared at Guy. Anna stared at Guy. And then Anna turned to Jenny.
‘You’d pretend to get married? But…’
‘There’d be no pretend about it,’ Guy said softly. ‘Anna, I love this woman.’
That’s me, Jenny thought dumbly. He’s talking about me.
‘I’ve already said I wouldn’t,’ she whispered, and Guy nodded and reached across Anna and took her hand.
‘I know. I was dumb.’
‘Excuse me, but you don’t want me sitting in the middle here,’ Anna said, sounding close to hysterics, and Guy grinned.
‘I’ve already proposed to the woman in moonlight. It didn’t work. I’m trying again. Stay where you are.’
‘Harumph,’ said Max from below, and Guy nodded.
‘You, too. I need witnesses.’
‘What…?’ said Jenny, and paused.
‘You mean what am I asking?’ Guy said. He hesitated, then ploughed on, a man making a confession before all. ‘This morning I opened my stocking and found a boat made with ice lolly sticks.’
‘So what?’ she whispered, and he smiled.
‘Let me finish,’ he said. ‘I need to. Jenny, fifteen years ago I turned my back on a career in law and used my savings to buy what must have been the most battered van our side of the Mississippi. I was so proud of that van. I used to walk round and pat it. But then…’
‘Then Christa was killed.’
‘She was,’ Guy said. ‘And the shock of her death made me think…well, that her values were true. I wanted to show myself that the sacrifice was worth it, and some warped, twisted part of my brain said the way to do that was make money.’
‘And you have,’ Anna said. ‘You’re such a success.’
‘Not a success if I can’t have my Jenny,’ he said, and his eyes were holding Jenny’s and they might as well be alone. ‘I met Jenny a little more than a week ago, and I love everything about her. I love her bravery and her honesty and her caring and her laughter. I love her son and her son’s puppy, and her mother-in-law and her father- in-law. I love the place where she lives. I was dumb enough to think maybe I could marry part of that and cart it back to New York, set it down as a possession. But it’s not like that, is it, Jenny? You refused me for all the right reasons.’
‘I…’
‘I’m not asking you that same question now,’ Guy said softly. ‘I’m asking if you’ll let me share your life. If you’ll let me take over where Ben left off-loving you, loving what you are and where you are, just…loving.’
‘Guy…’
‘I’ve been thinking,’ he went on, as if he was nervous that she’d say no before he’d fully explained. ‘After the Christmas stocking…all the way round Sandpiper Bay with Santa beside me…I thought.’
‘What did you think?’ Anna asked, awed, and Jenny thought she’d asked the right question. She should have asked it herself, but the words wouldn’t quite come out.
‘I thought I could move my base to here,’ he said. ‘I thought we could make Sandpiper Bay the wedding capital of the world.’ He grinned. ‘Though I think we’d need two sets of premises. We’ll take over the haberdashery and use part of it to incorporate Bridal Fluff. For any bride who wants fluff. And we’ll have a special rate for locals-kids who’ve lived in the district for years and can’t afford normal rates.’ He hesitated. ‘Maybe we could extend that idea to our other smaller premises, too,’ he said. ‘It takes thinking about, but then I’m not going to be working so hard in the future. I’m going to be doing a lot of lying on the beach, with our son and our puppy, and I can think things through then.’
‘Our son?’ Jenny said, astounded, and Guy’s smile became almost shamefaced.
‘It’s not my right to share Henry’s life,’ he told Jenny. ‘But if you’ll let me…I want to so much. You have no idea how much I want to share.’
‘You love Henry?’
‘Almost as much as you,’ he said, still gripping her hand, still holding her eyes, while Anna sat hornswoggled in between. ‘I thought I loved Christa, and my shock at her death left me thinking I didn’t know what love was. But I do know what it is. I know who it is. It’s you. My love. My Jenny.’
There was a moment’s stunned silence while everyone held their breath. Jenny didn’t move. It was left to Anna to respond.
‘Well,’ Anna said. ‘Well!’
‘Well,’ echoed Jenny. She shook her head, as if shaking off disbelief. ‘My thoughts exactly.’
‘Are you going to accept?’ Anna asked. ‘I only ask because…’
‘Time’s getting on,’ Max said from below, grinning broadly. ‘And I’ve thought of something. You can’t just swap from one wedding to another. There’s laws in this country. Four weeks’ notice before a wedding can take place.’
‘But we could make our promises today,’ Jenny whispered, and the whole world held its breath.
‘You mean it?’ Guy asked at last, and she smiled.
‘Of course I mean it. I shouldn’t. I loved Ben so much. But these last few days…I’ve been thinking and thinking, and the more I think the more I know Ben would say to grab life with both hands.’ She hesitated. ‘And I’ve been following your logic. Does this mean you want a shonky van again and not a Ferrari?’
‘It might,’ Guy said, cautious, and Jenny beamed.
‘Hooray,’ she said. ‘Then let’s do it. We’ll write it into the wedding vows. You get my wagon and I get the Ferrari.’
He lunged at her across Anna’s knees-and Anna, movie idol of millions, a woman who’d just been betrayed and whose wedding plans were in the dust, dissolved into helpless laughter while Guy Carver of the Carver corporation reached across her and kissed his intended bride as if there was no tomorrow.
