Mother of the Bride (33 page)

‘Dan! Amy?' Her mum was surprised to see them together, and noticed immediately that they were holding hands, and grinning like two crazy people! ‘Paddy?' she called softly.

Paddy opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Dan.

‘We wanted to tell you and Dad that everything is OK between us again,' Amy explained. ‘We're back together. The engagement is back on and we are getting married.'

‘Oh, that is wonderful news,' cried her mum, jumping up to hug them both, tears welling in her eyes. ‘God knows this family could do with some good news!'

Amy studied the engagement ring, her fingers touching and twisting it. She enjoyed the familiar feel of it back on her finger and was so glad that Dan hadn't taken her advice to return it to the jewellers.

‘I knew that you would be wearing it again,' he said, pulling her into his arms. Amy relished his touch and smell and the feel of his breath again, as she made her own feelings equally clear, the awfulness of the past few months without him forgotten.

‘Stay tonight,' he pleaded. ‘I need you.'

‘I love you,' she said, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, desperate to feel his body close to hers, and equally wanting to make love like they used to.

Amy saw the love shining in Dan's eyes as he led her back into their bedroom.

‘Never leave me again,' he said huskily as he drew her close to him and they fell on to the soft quilt and pillows.

Amy silently vowed that she would never let angry words or rows keep them apart again, as she began to let Dan know just how much she had really missed him.

*  *  *

Awaking beside Daniel the next morning, Amy watched the easy rhythm of his breathing as he slept on, a smile on his face. A few days ago she had thought that she was on the point of losing everything that was precious to her: Dan, her dad, and even her grandmother. Now, by some kind of miracle, she had been given a second chance. She swore silently never to take anything or anyone in her life for granted again.

They were both late for work, and Amy grabbed her phone and sent Norah a text to say that she wouldn't be in till after lunch. Then she lay back and dozed, realizing just how much the past few days of worry had taken their toll on her.

‘Morning, gorgeous,' Dan said a while later, tickling her hips and stomach.

‘Dan,' she laughed, as, ignoring the bedside clock, he dragged her under the bedclothes and they made love again.

They went for a romantic lunch in Picasso's, their favourite little restaurant in Ranelagh, and then both headed to work for a few hours. Amy was unable to keep the smile off her face when Jilly and Norah immediately spotted the ring was back on her finger.

‘Back where it is meant to be,' said Norah, ignoring the fact that Amy hadn't appeared in to the office until nearly three o'clock in the afternoon.

After work Amy drove to the hospital to see her dad. He still looked awful, but seemed slightly brighter than the day before. He no longer needed oxygen, which was a very good sign.

‘And he ate some porridge this morning,' said Ciara proudly, full of questions about how Dan and she had got back together again. ‘I'm so happy for you, Amy. He is your other half, and you were lost without that missing piece.'

Amy wondered how her younger sister managed to sum up exactly how she had felt.

‘Where's Mum?'

‘She's gone over to Gran's for a while. Uncle Brendan is bringing Gran back up from Wexford tomorrow. He said they'd call to see Dad on the way.'

‘Gran's coming back from Wexford!'

‘Yes, that's what I said.'

‘Gran's coming back,' Amy explained to Dan that night as they sat out on the apartment balcony and ate dinner. ‘I've been staying with her for the past few weeks, ever since she had her fall. Sylvie, her home help, comes in during the day, and I'm staying with her at night to keep an eye on her.'

‘Oh,' he said, unable to hide his surprise that she couldn't just move straight back in with him and have things return to normal.

‘I'm sorry, Dan, but I can't just go and let her down. Mum has enough on her plate at the moment with Dad coming home from hospital hopefully in a few days' time. I'm sure we'll get something sorted, but for the moment I need to stay in Willow Grove.'

‘It's OK!' he said, smoothing the worry lines from her forehead.

Amy was relieved that he understood the chaotic state her family was in.

Trying to conquer his disappointment, Dan insisted on being a gentleman and calling over with her to her grandmother's house the next night. Amy had told her grandmother that she would be a little late, with having to visit her dad first.

‘I'm sure that she'll be gone to bed at this hour,' remarked Dan, as it was past 10 p.m. when they arrived.

‘Gran's a night owl,' Amy laughed. ‘She doesn't go to bed till all hours. She stays up watching late films or documentaries or listening to the radio. Some nights I have to come down and make her go to bed or she'd be up till dawn.'

Sure enough, they could see the light inside, and Dan agreed to come in to see Sheila and tell her their news.

Sheila Hennessy was engrossed in the forensic examination taking place in Las Vegas in one of
CSI
's more gory episodes.

‘They always get their man!' she nodded, riveted to the autopsy table and barely glancing up at them as they came into the kitchen-cum-breakfast room.

‘Gran, I've Dan with me,' Amy explained. ‘We just wanted to tell you that everything is OK again, and that we are going to get married.'

‘I know that,' the old woman said, turning around. ‘Amy, you told me that before, and I told you I'm going to wear my peach suit and the hat with the roses on it I bought in Harrods for your wedding.'

‘Sheila, that would be wonderful.' Dan smiled and kissed her. ‘You'll look beautiful.'

‘Would you two like a sherry or a drop of whiskey?' Sheila asked, enjoying the flattery, and suddenly remembering her manners

Amy smiled to herself. Her grandmother had a great stash of alcohol in the sideboard ready for little tipples. She was always asking visitors to imbibe with her.

‘I'll have sherry.' Amy grinned, wanting to celebrate. She was getting partial to the sweet, sticky drink.

‘I'll have a tot of whiskey with some water, as I'm driving,' said Dan, studying the range of malt whiskeys Sheila had accumulated.

‘I'll join you.' Sheila smiled, and snapped off the TV. ‘I've seen that programme before.'

Over the next hour she entertained them with stories of family weddings she'd attended: the disasters, the hilarious, romantic and beautiful ones.

‘I think your Uncle David arriving at his wedding on his motor-bike all dressed in black leather, and that girlfriend of his, Anna, turning up wearing a white leather top and a white leather skirt with biker boots, and coming on a Harley, was one of the ones that really stood out.'

Amy couldn't imagine her boring old Auntie Anna wearing
leather, let alone riding a motorbike. Now all she did was knit big ugly chunky jumpers for her children and cook disgusting organic dishes made up of beans and lentils. A meal in Anna's house always upset everyone's stomach for days.

Amy remembered when her sister Ciara and herself were flower girls for her Cousin Terry's wedding, and the excitement of it all. They had had to carry baskets full of rose petals and scatter them.

‘You can't beat a family wedding!' declared Sheila, pouring another sherry. ‘There are enough sad things in life: illnesses, goodbyes, moving house, losing jobs, or emigrating. That's why this family believe in celebrating the good things when they happen. I saw Paddy today. Helen said that the doctor's fixed his heart. Isn't it amazing what they can do today? And what a celebration it will be when you two lovely people get married!'

Amy squeezed Dan's hand. She didn't want to wait another year, and there was no question of them running off to an exotic beach or far-flung destination to wed. Sheila Hennessy might be well into her eighties, but Amy wanted her beloved granny at their wedding.

Helen O'Connor was so relieved to have Paddy back home again. It didn't matter that he was weak and shaky and quieter than she had ever seen him in her life. Paddy was back in his home where he belonged, and the nightmare of hospitals and doctors and the operation was over. Driving out of the Blackrock Clinic she had felt anxious about coping with Paddy being ill, but the staff on the ward had reassured her that he was making great progress and was totally fit to go home.

‘We are throwing him out of here,' teased Staff Nurse Lucy O'Driscoll as they said their goodbyes. ‘But he'll be back for his physio sessions and, when he is ready, he can join the Healthy Heart programme we run.'

At home, Helen felt like all the energy and adrenalin that had kept her going over the past eleven days had suddenly vanished, and she would love to have crawled up under the bedcovers for about two days to recharge her batteries, but there was far too much to be done now that she had Paddy home.

She had read over and over the notes from the hospital dietician, and had totally restocked the fridge with healthy heart foods. Paddy's favourite butter spread on everything was a thing of the past, and
his love of a decent steak a few nights a week was now going to be limited to once only. They both would have to get used to a new regime of fish and chicken and vegetables – and a new lifestyle. She had gone to the fishmonger's and got some salmon fillets to bake in the oven for dinner with some of the baby new potatoes he loved.

Paddy, true to his word, had refused to sleep downstairs, and in a way she was relieved. She couldn't imagine them not sharing a room or being together.

The first night he came home all the kids made a big fuss for his homecoming. Ronan, without complaint, cut the grass and weeded the flower beds, and Ciara had the house so spick and span and gleaming, it looked as if the Molly Maids had been in. Amy had bunches of flowers in every room, and had made a welcome-home cake with Paddy's favourite lemon icing.

As Helen looked around the kitchen table she could see the stress and strain of the past few weeks suddenly beginning to lift. Even poor Barney couldn't contain his excitement, and barked and wagged his tail for nearly twenty minutes when he saw Paddy walk through the hall door.

‘There will be plenty of walks, boy,' Paddy promised the dog. He'd a strict exercise routine to follow now, which meant a long walk every day.

Helen tried not to get upset when she saw the changes that the operation had made to Paddy. He couldn't concentrate or read a newspaper or watch the TV, and she caught him crying a few times. Some days he didn't seem to want to do anything, and sat around like a sack of potatoes, irritating her. Mr Mulligan had reassured her that this was to be expected, and it would take a few weeks for him to return to normal. They had to be patient: his body had been through a major shock and was slowly trying to recover.

‘Don't expect too much for the next five to six weeks,' Lucy O'Driscoll had warned when she was packing up Paddy's things to
go home. Helen prayed that the Paddy of old would eventually be restored to her.

Fran and Tom and all the neighbours and their friends called to see Paddy, and Father Tom Doorly was a great support, spending time debating the meaning of life and change with him.

Paddy wasn't a very religious man normally, but he seemed to have found a new spirituality since the bypass. And, of course, he still had his good friends to fall back on: Fintan Byrne and Noel Phelan and Sean Kennedy brought him down to the local during his second week home.

‘I'm on the mend,' he reassured her when he came home drunk after one pint of shandy.

The news that Amy and Dan were back together again, and living in Dan's apartment, had also lifted Paddy's mood. Eddie and Carmel had phoned Paddy about it, equally delighted to see the young couple reunited. Because Amy couldn't be there all the time any more, a night roster of family to stay with Sheila had been drawn up. Amy, Ciara, Ronan and Helen's brother Tim's boys Rob and John all took their turn. For the future, Helen's brother David's youngest, Caroline, was hoping to go to college in Dublin in the autumn, and the offer of free accommodation in return for keeping an eye on her grandmother was certainly very appealing to the young student.

Amy and Dan were determined to get married, and were scouting for a new place to have their wedding, which they hoped might be some time before the year was out.

‘We just want to be married,' they candidly admitted, as they made plans for the future.

Helen gave thanks for the life-saving surgery that meant Paddy would at least be well and strong enough to proudly walk his elder daughter up the aisle when the time came.

The minute Jessica Kilroy heard the good news that Amy and Dan were back together she thanked her lucky stars that she had stayed on her diet. She was down by ten kilos, which made a huge difference: her jelly belly was flatter, her arms thinner and she felt so much healthier and trimmer.

‘Jess, we'll be getting married as soon as we can,' confided Amy. ‘So I hope that you will still be my bridesmaid.'

‘Of course I will,' Jess promised. ‘I wouldn't miss it for the world, and thank heaven I still have my dress!'

‘You still have the bridesmaid dress!' gasped Amy.

‘I told you that I loved it and would have bought it anyway.' Jess grinned. ‘Though I did suspect – or hope – that I might get to wear it when my best friend and her boyfriend eventually came to their senses.'

Amy hugged her, tears in her eyes, so relieved that Jess had insisted on paying for it herself, as otherwise she probably would have returned it. It amazed Jess when she found out that Helen had also kept Ciara's bridesmaid dress, and hidden it in the back of the wardrobe.