Mother of the Bride (3 page)

‘Tell him to shut up.' Jess laughed. ‘It's not every day my best friend gets engaged.'

‘No, I'd better go.' Amy sighed happily. ‘Anyway, I'll see you the minute we get home. There's so much to talk about.'

Jess sat on the side of her bed in her pyjamas. She really was happy for Amy, delighted for her. Daniel Quinn was drop-dead lovely, the ideal boyfriend, and would make a perfect husband. Amy was so lucky to have met him. They were a perfect pair and were meant for each other. Being Amy's bridesmaid was an honour, and one that she would take seriously. She'd have to organize Amy's hen weekend! Help with the wedding! She wanted everything to go smoothly for her best friend.

Looking out at the dark street Jess thought just how differently their lives were running now, both going in different directions: Amy getting married and settling down with Daniel, while she was resolutely single. She could hardly remember the last time she had gone on a decent date, let alone had a romance with someone. She met guys all right, in bars and discos, and they seemed interested in her, but usually she never heard from them again. In teacher training college she'd dated a guy called Brian Carson for a year, trying to convince herself that he was special, but she hadn't been surprised when he'd told her that he had met someone else, a girl from Cork, and had got a job in a school down there. There had been a been a few guys that she had seen briefly since then, but nobody special, and her heart ached to meet someone and love them just the way Amy loved Daniel.

She glanced at herself in the bedroom mirror, seeing a broad face with brown eyes, framed by wavy fair hair. She was wearing an old Mr Men T-shirt and red and black doggy print bottoms. Hardly attractive! Who'd love someone who looked like she did? Guys only wanted to date girls who were anorexic and thin! This wedding was a wake-up call . . . time for her to be not only a bridesmaid but to get herself in order, get focused on finding her own Mr Right. She would lose weight, at least a stone! There was no way she was walking up any aisle the size she was now. She had no intention of looking like an elephant dressed in a bridesmaid dress beside skinny Ciara O'Connor, who hadn't a pick on her. She would get fit. Go for
long walks every weekend. Let her nails and hair grow. Set up a file on her laptop immediately called ‘Amy's Wedding'. This would be her bible, with lists and plans of all kind. She was a good organizer, all her friends knew that, and first thing in the morning she would text them all and tell them the good news.

Helen slipped out of bed, pulling on her dressing gown and slippers quietly, so as not to disturb Paddy. How could he sleep with all the excitement of Amy's engagement! Her mind was racing, filled with plans and lists and ideas! Trying not to wake him, she went downstairs to the kitchen and plugged on the kettle. She liked it when the house was still and quiet, sleeping. It gave her time to think, the only noise the sound of a thrush singing somewhere out in the trees.

As the pale sun began to rise she curled up on the window seat with the warm mug of tea in her hand. She still couldn't believe that Amy was all grown-up now and was engaged! It only seemed like yesterday that the kitchen had been littered with a high chair and a playpen and baby toys; then there had been Lego sets and Barbies, My Little Ponies and Sylvanian Families, Nintendos and Amy's rollerblades! Where had those years gone? Soon Amy would be married and creating a family of her own!

All the birds were leaving the nest: Ronan, their twenty-six-year-old, was living with his Polish girlfriend, Krista, in a house in Ranelagh with a few friends. And Ciara, their youngest, who was still in college, had made it quite clear that as soon as she was able to leave home she'd be gone, too. Soon there would be just Paddy
and herself and Barney the dog left rattling around the house. Helen suddenly felt old, as if a big chapter of her life was beginning to close while another one opened.

She glanced at the clock. It was only 6.55 a.m. She made another cup of tea and some toast for herself. She was dying to phone Fran Brennan with the news. She'd give her best friend another hour. When Paddy was up and dressed they'd phone Dan's parents. She had met Eddie and Carmel Quinn only once, briefly, when they had bumped into each other at a charity fund-raising concert with Amy, but they had seemed nice. Hopefully they were equally pleased about the engagement, and the fact that they were all going to be in-laws. She was dying to tell everyone the good news. Her eighty-four-year-old mother Sheila would be thrilled with the romance of the proposal in Italy and news of her first grandchild's wedding. It would give Sheila something to look forward to: at her age, births, marriages and deaths became huge milestones.

From her friends, Helen knew that a daughter's wedding was fun but also a lot of work. It was going to be such a happy time, and she couldn't wait till Amy got home to sit down and talk about their wonderful wedding plans! It was so exciting!

Helen put Barney on the lead as she crossed over to Fran's house. Fran, in her navy tracksuit, congratulated Helen with a big hug as the two of them set off for their regular morning walk through Linden Crescent and down through the big public park close by.

‘Go on, tell me all about it. I love news of engagements and weddings!' Fran encouraged. Katie, her eldest daughter, had got married only three years ago. She had enjoyed every minute of organizing the wedding – and now was the proud granny of two-year-old Saoirse.

‘Well, it was very romantic,' Helen began, retelling the whole story about the proposal overlooking the canal in Venice.

‘Lucky Amy,' said Fran enviously. ‘When Tom and I got engaged
it wasn't very romantic! I was twelve weeks pregnant with Greg. Poor Tom nearly had a fit. We were terrified telling our families. I think Gladys Brennan thought that I was a brazen hussy and had trapped her son and forced him into marrying me. Funny, because when Greg was born she was mad about him. He was her favourite out of all her sixteen grandchildren.'

‘I remember when Paddy asked me to marry him it was coming up to Christmas and my family was upstairs in bed. You could hear my dad snoring!'

‘Talk about romance.' Fran laughed.

‘We were sitting at the fire with the Christmas tree lights on and Paddy took me totally by surprise when he proposed. We bought the ring the next day in town, and came home and told my parents. It's so different to now. Couples fly off somewhere exotic, like New York or Paris or Venice, to pop the question!'

‘Engagements are great! But they're nothing compared to the wedding, as that's what it's all about!' insisted Fran. ‘You know me, I love weddings.'

‘You are such an old romantic,' Helen teased. Fran couldn't see a wedding car pass or watch a bride going into a church without getting emotional.

‘But when it's your own daughter's wedding it's so much fun, Helen, I promise. I know there's a lot of work and stress organizing things, but it's great. I loved it! It's just such a special time. I really enjoyed helping Katie organize her wedding, and I'm sure that Amy's wedding is going to be wonderful. You're going to have such fun!'

‘I hope so.'

‘Have you met Dan's parents yet?' quizzed Fran.

‘Only very briefly, but I think we should have a family get-together dinner when Amy and Dan get home. The dad, Eddie, seems grand, but Carmel . . . I'm not that sure about her. She's tall and very elegant and rather full of herself. A bit intimidating!'

‘Do you remember I had the mother-in-law from hell?'

Helen laughed, remembering Fran's mother-in-law, Gladys, who had visited every Sunday and always complained about the dinner Fran had made.

‘She was a right rip! She had me scalded. Nothing I could ever say or do was good enough for her. She criticized my cooking, my cleaning, my childrearing, my weight.'

‘At least she spoke to you.' Helen laughed. ‘Bridey O'Connor didn't speak to me for years. She thought I wasn't good enough for Paddy. She rarely visited, and made me feel so unwelcome when we used to go down to Cork that eventually I stopped going.'

‘But you were good to her in the end, Helen.'

‘She was Paddy's mother. I wouldn't have it on my conscience not to be good to her.'

‘God, I hope we don't end up like that with our daughters-in-law,' worried Fran.

‘You and Sandra get on like a house on fire – although of course she isn't actually married to Greg,' teased Helen. ‘Anyhow, I don't think Carmel's that bad. It's just she's rather distant and caught up in her own life.'

They walked along the leaf-strewn paths, turning down by the lake, where Barney barked at the ducks dabbling in the muddy water. Then they passed by the new playground, where a few mothers watched toddlers playing on the swings and slides.

‘Pity they didn't have that here when ours were young,' said Helen aloud.

‘Are you mad? We'd never have got them out of it! I brought little Saoirse here when I was minding her one day last week, and I had to bodily lift her, hysterical, from the swings, and she screamed the park down. A woman came over to check that I wasn't kidnapping her.'

‘Things have changed so much.' Helen laughed. ‘We used to let our kids run around this place on their own. The only worry was
that they'd fall in the water with the ducks. We'd be called unfit mothers these days for letting them loose in the park without an adult.'

‘Do you remember the time my Lisa walked to the shopping centre? She can't have been more than three years old and the security guard brought her home.'

‘You hadn't even missed her,' said Helen. ‘God, it was so easy and uncomplicated then.'

After doing another circuit of the park they turned for home and a celebratory cup of coffee back in Helen's place, with Fran promising to give her an idea of how to start planning a wedding.

Amy and Dan decided to hold a party to celebrate their engagement a few days after they got back from Italy, but when Amy looked around their two-bedroom apartment in Milltown, she wondered how in heaven they were going to squeeze so many friends and family into such a small space!

As they were one of the first of their group to get engaged there was great excitement, and having a party seemed the perfect way to announce it. Both sets of parents were coming to the party, Dan saying it was a chance for them to meet in a relaxed, informal way. Amy worried that they wouldn't hit it off.

All week everyone had been congratulating them. Norah Fortune and the crew in Solutions, the marketing company where Amy worked, had made a great fuss and bought a big chocolate cake.

‘You came home with more than a tan from Italy,' Jilly had joked, admiring her ring.

‘Do you think there are enough candles?' Amy asked.

‘Enough? The place looks like a church!'

‘Candlelight is romantic!' she teased, slipping into his arms.

‘I'm feeling romantic, then.' Daniel mussed Amy's freshly blow-dried
hair as she tried to stop him. Undeterred, he ran his hand sensually over her hips in the silky blue and grey wrap dress she had bought especially for the occasion.

‘Dan,' she teased, kissing him slowly. ‘We don't have time! People will be here any minute.'

‘Later, then!' he promised, reluctantly letting her go.

She mentally did a run-through: the champagne and white wine were chilling in the fridge, the crates of beer were out on their narrow balcony, and a case of Bordeaux was sitting at room temperature in the corner of the spare room. Both of them had been to scabby engagement parties which hadn't even provided one drink for the guests, an early harbinger of wedding guests having to shell out a fortune to see friends marry in some out-of-the-way location. Neither of them wanted anything like that!

Amy had made some canapés and finger food for the party, and her mum was bringing some quiches.

‘People are not coming for the food!' murmured Daniel, wandering into the kitchen and grabbing two cheese and mushroom vol-au-vents. He stuffed them into his mouth.

‘They're for later,' she warned, smacking him on the fingers as he tried to pinch a few more. Then the bell rang downstairs and she pressed to open the door.

‘Take these, Amy love.' Her mum and Ciara arrived laden down with four massive home-made quiches – which they would serve later – and a basket of crusty sliced French bread. Meanwhile, her dad and brother lugged another big crate of beer into the apartment.

‘Thanks, Mum, here's some wine. You deserve it.'

Helen O'Connor grabbed the reviving glass and glanced around the apartment approvingly. Amy and Daniel had done a great job on the place, and it was a true reflection of both their styles, with two big red comfy couches and a mixture of family photos and quirky art prints decorating the walls.

‘Do you have any vodka?' asked Ciara, rooting through the kitchen cupboards.

‘No!' said Amy, glad that their bottles of vodka and rum and gin had been secretly stashed away. She had no intention of having her younger sister get plastered drunk tonight in front of her friends. ‘There's plenty of wine and beer, though, so help yourself.'

Looking disgruntled, Ciara contented herself with a can of chilled Heineken, then she joined Ronan and his girlfriend Krista, and Dan's friend Jeremy, who were smoking out on the balcony.

Amy watched, amused, as her mum automatically began to serve drinks and introduce people, dragging her dad over to meet Dan's brother Rob and his girlfriend Hannah. Rob was a taller, bigger, fatter version of Dan, and had been going out with Hannah for years. Hannah stared enviously at Amy's ring, and Amy wondered why they hadn't got around to getting married.

‘We should all try to get to know each other before the wedding,' she coaxed, as her dad did his best to be polite and friendly.