Confessions of a Bad Bridesmaid by Jennifer Rae

Author:Jennifer Rae [Rae, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

With an angry scrape, Edward moved his chair back.

‘I’d like to say a few words...’

Everyone stopped and looked up at him.

‘This weekend we’ve all come home to celebrate something special. A wedding. Between Will and Fiona. Two people who love each other so much they can’t stand the thought of not being together. They’re going to spend a lot of money giving you a good party so you can celebrate their love for each other with them. What they don’t want is a bunch of whingeing, whining ungrateful sods telling them where they should have their wedding and making them bend over backwards to make you lot happy.’

He went around the table and looked each of them in the eye. Even Olivia. Until he reached his mother.

‘But there’s someone missing tonight.’

His mother looked up and he saw the tears well in her big sad eyes. He almost stopped, but he didn’t. Olivia wanted the truth and he was going to give it to her.

‘James. My little brother. He should have been here tonight. He always loved a party. And even though we fought sometimes the four of us did everything together. And I miss him. I miss his laugh and I miss the way he thought he was invincible. And on the day James died something broke. This family. James would never have wanted that. He would have wanted us to remember him at times like this. Not be sniping and swiping and acting like a bunch of caged tigers in a circus.’

There were no sounds of cutlery this time. Just complete and utter silence.

Edward reached for his glass and lifted it high. ‘These are the times we remember the people who can’t be with us. To James.’

A long silence followed his speech, until Will cleared his throat.

‘To James.’

‘To James,’ said Fiona.

Then Olivia spoke up. ‘To James.’

Then Bunny. ‘To James,’ she said quietly.

He looked at his father, who lifted his glass and said gruffly, ‘To my boy James.’

Then Edward looked at his mother. Her hand didn’t move. She stared straight ahead, a strange, strangled smile on her face. Then she put her head in her hands and let out an ear-piercing wail.

Olivia jumped up and Bunny rushed to her mother’s side. Then Fiona joined them and together the women lifted her from the table and took her out. Will stood up too. Edward met his brother’s stare, then turned from them all and fled.

* * *

Honest? What the hell had he been thinking? No one ever wanted to hear the truth. He knew that. But Olivia... She’d insisted. Olivia, who knew nothing about honesty. Who had to get drunk to be honest. Yet she’d forced him to be honest and he’d sent his mother into hysterics.

‘Ed. Mate...’

‘Go away, Will.’

‘You did the right thing...’

He wanted to throw something, or hit someone, but Will was too far away and the only thing on his father’s desk worth throwing was the inkwell. James had brought it home from a naff market stall a month before he died.

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