Before I Do(98)
“What’s that smell?” Josh asked, leaning into her neck.
“The perfume Miranda made me as a wedding present. It’s called Jodrey.”
“Not sure about the name, but it smells good. Are you excited about next week?” Josh asked.
“I can’t wait,” she whispered into his shoulder. They were planning an extended honeymoon. They were going to spend two months in Kielder Forest while Audrey did an Introduction to Astrophotography course at the observatory. Then they were going traveling for a month. Josh had suggested they do it “Audrey style”—stick a pin in a map and see where they ended up.
“I feel like astrophotography is going to be your thing,” Josh said into her hair as they slow-danced in the clearing. “What you were meant to do.”
“Maybe. I don’t know if anything is meant to be, certainly when it comes to love. There could be a million versions of us out there in the multiverse where none of this worked out. Aren’t we lucky that we get to live in the world where it did?”
“I’ll send back the matching ‘soul mate’ bracelets I had made as a wedding present then, shall I?” Josh asked, a smile playing on his lips.
“You didn’t?” she asked, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.
“No, I didn’t. I did get you something, though.”
Josh pulled a small velvet bag from his jacket pocket and emptied something into his palm. It was a silver bracelet with a tiny silver acorn charm.
“I love it,” she said, holding out her wrist for him to fasten it to.
“I got it for you because I think love is a seed. We choose to plant it, nurture it, and at the end of our lives, if we end up with a glorious old oak tree, with huge branches and plenty of shade, then that’s on us, not the cosmos.”
“Well, I choose you, James.”
“I choose you, Amy. Do you think we got it right this time?” Josh asked, kissing the top of her head and looking back at the small wedding party dancing beside the firepit.
“I do,” said Audrey. “I really do.”
Epilogue
Fifty Years After I Do
New Scientist Magazine
Dame Audrey Parker, world-renowned astrophotographer, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Science. Parker came to fame when she utilized the Hadron Pale space telescope to capture images of uncharted regions of deep space. Her legacy of photographs, specifically of the Andromeda Galaxy, are groundbreaking in the level of detail they reveal about previously unknown planets and star clusters.
Parker once famously described herself as a “late bloomer.” She did not embark on a career in astronomy or astrophotography until her thirties. When asked the secret to her extraordinary success, she often credits her supportive family. While collecting her award at the Royal Observatory last week, she said, “I have always loved to look up. Astronomy helps us understand where we are from and where we are going. It teaches us humility. As my life has progressed, I have been privileged to see further and further out into space, capturing images of many millions of stars. As yet, not one has outshone the love of my life, my guiding light, my husband.”
Acknowledgments
This novel was such a jigsaw puzzle to write. As soon as I started thinking about Audrey’s story, I knew it was going to be as much about Audrey’s past as it was about the wedding day itself—an unpacking of all the emotional baggage she’d been carrying up to this point. As such, the novel naturally evolved to have numerous timelines and became the most complicated edit I’ve ever done. On more than one occasion, I found myself sitting at my desk with various chapter Post-it notes all over the floor, swearing to myself, “I’m never writing a book with multiple timelines EVER again!” For steering me through this complicated edit, I must thank my editors, Kate Dresser at Putnam and Kim Atkins at Hodder. They both did an amazing job of helping me pull all the strands together to find the heart of Audrey’s story.
A huge thank-you to Naz Jahanshahi at Kielder Observatory for fact-checking some of the astronomy references in the book. I am hugely grateful for your time and expertise. I must caveat that any errors or mistakes are entirely my own. I knew nothing about astronomy when I started writing this book, and now find myself looking for the Northern Star whenever the stars are out, so thank you, Audrey, for teaching me something new. Thank you to Reverend Paul White for answering my questions on what would really happen if the vicar had a heart attack during a wedding service. Again, I have taken some artistic license here, so any errors are mine, but I appreciate you taking the time to discuss it with the archdeacon!
A few more thank-yous—Traci O’Dea, my brilliant friend and literary sounding board, whom I trust implicitly with a first draft. Bizzy Brooks, who invented the trademarked Sausage Fandango dinners. Alex McGurk, who furnished me with the “nactors” idea after telling me stories from her own childhood. Clare Wallace, my ever-supportive agent, and the phenomenal rights team at Darley Anderson. The Bookstagram community, who have been so supportive of my work, and who have created a little corner of the Internet that still manages to feel kind and uplifting. To all the authors I know online, too many to list here, but who I regard as the most wonderful colleagues. I wish a women’s fiction staff room existed in real life and we could spend our tea breaks together.