Fanny Blake The Perfect Wedding Day

Janey remembered her ex-husband as he used to be, but now time made her see him in a new light…

Janey had just finished overseeing the final preparations in the marquee. The twelve tables were laid, the favours in place, and at the centre of each one a jar of cottage-garden flowers with a pale pink helium balloon rising from it, its string garlanded with greenery. Emily was going to love everything. Perhaps best of all was the position of the marquee in her friend’s garden that ended at the sea wall so the windows down one side gave a view of the wide beach and the ocean beyond.

The only blot on the landscape was Richard, her ex and Emily’s father. As she walked the short distance home, she thought about how much she dreaded his presence. The divorce had been acrimonious. He had not been generous and they’d had minimal contact since.

The whole process had devastated Janey but she was at last beginning to find her strength and face life again. Would seeing him set her back? With a lump in her throat, she remembered how loving he’d been in the early days.

Emily had insisted he was invited even though she didn’t want him to walk her down the aisle.

“That’s so old school. Jonny and I will do that together,” she said firmly. “I’m not a bit of property being handed over from one man to another. No way. But I do want you both there.”

Of course she did. Whatever had happened between him and Janey, Richard was her dad, and he should be there. Janey would do her best to bury her fear of seeing him again as well as any pain that might resurface.

“He promised me I can wear granny’s gold bracelet, as my ‘something old’,” Emily went on, unwrapping the blue garter Janey had bought for her in Primark. “He’s bringing it with him.”

If he remembers. The words on the tip of Janey’s tongue remained unsaid.