Luke took his daughter by the shoulders. ‘Nina and I are both okay with it.’
‘Well, then what the bleedin’ ’ell are ya waitin’ for?’ Alf shouted into my ear. ‘Go!’
I looked around me and all I could see were the beaming faces of my support system cheering me on, telling me I was making the right decision. And in my heart, I knew they were right.
‘Car! I need a car,’ I panted, and a sudden burst of cheers echoed throughout the church as Father Briarley shook his head and crossed himself.
‘Go, go, go!’ Emma cried, pushing her keys into my hand, while Alice hung on to me like in a tug of war.
‘Nina, no! Are you nuts?’ she shrieked.
‘Yes, Alice!’ I shrieked back. ‘I’m nuts! But now at least I know what I want!’
And who I wanted. It had taken me three years to realise it. Maybe I had been testing him, familiarising myself with the idea of him being in my life, I don’t know. All I knew was that when I had heard Jack was leaving, my heart had hurt so much I thought it would shatter into a million pieces. And now I knew why.
I scooped up my haute couture and made a mad dash for Emma’s van that was still full of wedding paraphernalia, wedding presents and oh my God, what was supposed to have been my wedding dress.
As I drove up to the top of Crooked Hill, my heart in my mouth, I saw Jack stop the engine, jump off his tractor and make his way towards the edge of the field. All this time I’d had the perfect man right under my nose and failed to see the wood for the trees, as he always said.
‘Jack!’ I cried. Really cried, tears gushing down my cheeks all over again. I could barely see where I was going.
He looked up, and froze, and oh, the look on his face!
‘Nina…? What are you doing here? It’s your sodding wedding day.’
‘A sodding wedding you tried to ruin!’ I cried.
‘Did I manage?’
‘I’m here, aren’t I?’
‘Are you here to give me a bollocking?’
‘Absolutely. Why didn’t you ever tell me before?’
‘I did – but you told me to never do that again.’
‘You should have explained things to me!’
‘You never gave me the chance!’ he shouted.
‘Well, here’s your chance!’ I shouted back.
‘Nuh-uh,’ he said. ‘The ball’s in your court, now. It’s your move.’
‘What is this, a game of chess?’ I quipped through my tears.
‘An extremely long one, Nina. I’d like to kiss you and marry you before I turn eighty. Do you think that might be possible?’
‘Then go ahead and propose,’ I challenged.
He took my hand and guided me through a gap in the hedgerows.
‘Is this your idea of a proposal?’ I asked. ‘A romp in the hay?’
‘No,’ he said as we emerged to the other side. ‘But this is.’
I turned from him and started. And there it was, in the lower field, ploughed into the earth, another message:
Will you marry me?
I gasped. ‘How did you know I’d say no to Luke and come up here and see this?’
His eyes twinkled as he grinned and ducked to look into my face. ‘I didn’t. But I thought I’d pull out all the stops just in case. Did I do good?’
I turned to look at the message again and ran to his tractor.
‘What are you doing?’ he called after me.
‘I’m giving you an answer,’ I shouted over my shoulder as I scrambled up onto his tractor in my Versace. ‘Jack! How the hell do you start this thing?’
‘A verbal answer would suffice,’ he said, as he ambled over, stretching his arms up towards me. ‘What do you say, Nina? Will you let me love you for the rest of our lives?’
In response, I stepped down from the tractor and he caught me, just as he always did, Jack. My Jack. ‘Yes, Jack! I’ll marry you!’
‘Not so fast, Nina. First, let me hear you say it.’
I rolled my eyes and laughed. ‘Okay. I love you.’
‘That’s it? Try a little harder.’
‘Okay.’ I took his hands, my heart beating like never before. ‘I love you, Jack Marrak. I love you like I’ve never loved any other man in my life and it’s taken me much too long to realise it. But I don’t want to waste another second. You make my knees shake, but you also make me stronger, if that even makes sense, and I’d be thrilled – and honoured – to marry you.’
At that, he pulled me into his arms and delivered me another one of those knicker-melting kisses that made me dizzy with excitement.
‘What did Luke say when you left the church?’ he asked as an afterthought.
‘He’s okay with it.’
‘Oh, how nice for us all,’ he said, half sarcastic, half relieved.
I punched him lightly. ‘You like him.’
‘I do,’ he admitted. ‘But I don’t like him enough to give you up, thank you very much.’
‘Jack, why the hell did you not say anything after Luke left for California?’
He shrugged. ‘I figured I had time. But then, after I kissed you, I realised I had scared you away.’
‘Because I thought you were sneaking around with Emma. And I thought that our kiss was just, you know…?’
He cocked his head. ‘Emma?’
‘I know, I know,’ I said, hiding my eyes. ‘She told me about Paul. I misread the situation.’
‘I’ll say. So you thought that kiss was just the heat of the moment?’
‘And then, you never said anything again,’ I said.
‘Because Luke arrived and swept you off your feet…’
‘Not exactly. I was in absolute hell after you kissed me.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘Silly. I was just so confused about us. You were my best male friend. All this time, you’ve been watching over me.’
‘What does that tell you? I wanted to win you, fair and square, even if Luke was around. I wanted you to choose me because you wanted me, not win by default.’
‘Default? Oh, Jack…’
‘I’m no Hollywood star, nor
