The Sister-In-Law(10)

‘We met a while ago, in Manchester actually,’ I heard him say. ‘We bumped into each other in a bar. I fell in love in the first five seconds. It took her a little longer.’

‘An hour!’ Ella laughed from behind them, a reminder to him that she was still there.

Jamie gently pulled away from Joy and turned back to his new bride. ‘Anyway, we were both planning to head off to India, and I suggested we go together.’

‘Not like you,’ Joy said pointedly. I detected a flash of anger in her eyes at his abandonment of her. ‘Jamie usually likes to travel alone, don’t you, darling?’ she continued, addressing them both.

‘Not any more.’ Ella beamed, and I wondered if perhaps Joy might have met her match.

‘Yeah, I knew I couldn’t live without her so I asked her to marry me and when she said yes we headed for Italy to get married… and also to meet up with you guys,’ he said, like his family were an afterthought.

‘I always wanted to get married in Positano.’ Ella glanced dreamily at her new husband.

‘Oh, I wish you’d waited so we could all be there, Jamie,’ Joy sighed, with a sad, loving look at her son.

‘Sorry, Mum, we just wanted to get it done.’

Ella nodded enthusiastically at his side.

‘So how did you sort it all so quickly?’ Dan asked, as he manhandled Alfie, who’d suddenly gone shy and was swinging from his dad’s leg. ‘Must have been one hell of a rush to get it all done in time,’ he continued, always the practical one. Dan didn’t see the mad urgency of love, just the problems of planning a wedding in a short time in a different country.

‘Easier than you’d think,’ Jamie said. ‘Just a case of getting the right papers and knowing what to do. Turns out my new wife isn’t just a pretty face, and within a few days we’d signed the forms and booked the wedding.’

‘We wanted to have a quiet wedding, just us…’ Ella added, looking at Joy, who raised an eyebrow before softening this with a smile. A rather stiff one.

‘I didn’t want to hang around and let this one get away,’ Jamie said, for once oblivious to his mother’s disapproval. He didn’t see anyone but his new wife. He was smiling at her, lost in her eyes.

‘Of course, of course.’ Joy was rallying in the face of all this. ‘We can always do something for family and friends when we’re back home, perhaps the golf club?’ She looked at Bob, who shrugged.

I was sure the very reason Jamie and Ella had eloped was to avoid places like ‘the golf club’. With its wooden tables and beige buffets, it wasn’t exactly Instagrammable. No, these two were made to marry in the glamour and beauty of the Italian Coast.

‘Oh Jamie,’ Joy sighed again. She seemed flustered, no doubt torn between delight at her son’s arrival and panic at the fact he’d just introduced a complete stranger as his wife. ‘I just wish you’d mentioned it. I didn’t even know you would be bringing… anyone.’

‘It doesn’t matter, we’re all together now, and you’ve got ten days to get to know Ella and for her to get to know you.’ Everything was always so simple and straightforward to Jamie, he just saw what he wanted and took it without ever having to consider anyone else.

‘I’m looking forward to it,’ Joy said. She clearly wasn’t. I could see by her face this had blindsided her – well, it had all of us. ‘And now I feel awful because I put you in the small single room, Jamie.’

‘No worries,’ he said, picking up his rucksack and grabbing Ella’s Gucci holdall. ‘We can sleep anywhere, we’ve slept outside… under the stars, haven’t we, babe?’

‘Yes, babe.’ Ella nodded, smiling at the memory and looking up at him, gently pushing her arm through his, reclaiming him once more from his mother.

I put my arm around Violet, who was now staring at Ella as if she was in the presence of a real-life Disney princess.

‘No, no, you can’t sleep outside. I mean, technically this is your honeymoon,’ Joy said, with a sideways glance at me, knowing I would share her discomfort at all this. I looked at Bob to see if I could gauge his reaction to the news, but he was on autopilot and was now picking up Jamie and Ella’s other bags.

‘Oh, there’s still stuff in the boot too,’ Jamie said, which caused the kids to dash around the back of the car and scramble in the open boot. I think they were expecting their usual gifts from Uncle Jamie. As he only saw them several times a year and he’d usually just returned from somewhere, he’d buy them a souvenir from wherever he’d been. But maybe this time Ella was the only souvenir he’d brought back.





CHAPTER FIVE





‘OMG! This is SO heavy,’ I heard Violet say, as she dragged a huge Versace shopping bag along the gravel.

‘Is it a present for me?’ Alfie asked, in his adorable lisp, looking up at Jamie big-eyed and questioning as Jamie looked down at him. Then I saw it register on his face – in his loved-up, newly married bliss, he’d totally forgotten to bring the children something.

‘Sorry, mate,’ he said, with a smile. ‘I was going to pick you something up this morning, but your Auntie Ella took too long in all the dress stores.’ Then he bent down, ruffled Alfie’s hair, and lifted Freddie onto his shoulders, much to my younger boy’s delight.