Chapter 25

Lucy

“Excellent meal, Steph, Jackie—thank you. Menfolk, we’re on clean up,” Nate declared. He stood and stretched his arms out with a grunt. When there was no movement around the table, he looked at Bob, Joe, Will, and Bradley in turn, his eyebrows raised.

There was a beat before every male at the table stood and started clearing plates and platters. Will winked at Lucy as he took her plate and she rewarded him with a smile. He was the cutest waiter she’d ever had. With that thought, she realised that she was more than a little tipsy and memories of that morning came flooding back. She reached for her water glass.

As she watched the bustling “menfolk”, as Nate had called them, she tried to imagine her father on clean-up duty. She hiccupped a little laugh and clapped her hand over her mouth.

“So, Lucy,” said Briony, picking up her wine glass and settling in next to Lucy, “you and Will, huh?” All eyes were on Lucy and hers flew to the doorway to the kitchen, where she heard the clatter of cleaning up and men’s voices. She looked around the table. The twins, Steph and Jackie, sat opposite her and she was flanked by the cousins, Bridget staring at her wide-eyed and Briony clearly waiting for a response.

She was in the hot seat.

“Uh, yes, I suppose you could say that we’re something of an item.” Bridget giggled and Lucy felt ridiculous. Why was she talking like a character from Downton Abbey?

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed,” said Bridget. “I think the two of you are sweet together.” Bridget’s cheeks flushed and Lucy felt that solidarity with her again.

Of all the women around the table, Lucy and Bridget were the most alike, and it would have been the same if Jules were there. As Lucy saw it, the women in Jules’s family—Bridget excepted—would never know what it was like to be socially awkward or feel unattractive and gawky. With their lean figures, long glossy waves of flaxen hair, and extremely pretty faces, it was like they’d stepped out of a GAP ad, every one of them.

In contrast, she felt like the great pretender. Yes, she’d been told she was pretty, beautiful even, but she’d never really believed it. It certainly wasn’t what she saw when she looked in the mirror. She saw a pale, freckled, and gangly woman with bright red hair, whose eyes were too large and too far apart, whose nose was unremarkable, and whose mouth was too wide. She had only ever been complimented by men when they wanted to sleep with her. She’d even let herself believe them a few times.

“I think you’re good for Will,” added Briony.

“Really? Why, what do you mean?”

“I haven’t seen him this happy since Tif—”

Lucy caught the quick look Steph gave Briony as she cut her off. “Since a long time ago.”

“Are you going to marry Will?” asked Bridget.