Page 70 of Lie For Me

Lucy grinned as Jack meekly obliged.

‘Lucy.’ Valerie looked down. ‘Why on earth don’t you have shoes on?’ Her hands flew to her mouth. ‘Have you been like this all day?’

Lucy held up her shoes, and Valerie pursed her lips.

‘Just cooling down,’ Lucy said. ‘I’ll put them back on now.’

‘For goodness sake,’ Valerie muttered under her breath, as Lucy slipped her feet back into the sandals. Valerie’s gaze landed elsewhere. ‘Jack dear and Mark, perhaps you’d be good enough to put your ties and jackets back on. We don’t want the photos to suggest this was some third-rate, hippy-ish affair, do we?’

Valerie smiled through the tart words and watched eagle-eyed as Jack obediently dug his tie out of his pocket and Mark struggled back into his dress coat.

Peter started wailing and freed one arm.

‘Can we get on with this, please?’ Heather said, sounding harassed.

Nanna, the only person who had been given a chair in the shade, made her way over with James. Her cobalt blue polyester dress crackled with static electricity as she walked, her face partly hidden under a wide-brimmed red hat. James was waving a battery-powered fan around his mother’s face.

‘Very good, very good.’ Nanna puffed as they arrived. ‘Move over,’ she said.

She batted Lucy with her walking frame and shuffled in beside the bride, pushing Lucy and Jack back. A muscle in Valerie’s cheek twitched, and her eyes narrowed.

‘Actually, if you could stand––’ the photographer began.

‘I’m fine here,’ Nanna snapped.

Lucy smothered a laugh, and Heather pleaded, ‘Can we please get on with it?’ as Peter started to wail.

‘Yes, let’s get it done,’ James said, flashing a quick smile at the photographer.

The photographer buzzed around them, arranging them around the bride and groom so they all faced uniformly inwards. He stood back to look at the line-up.

‘Lovely. And husbands and partners, put your hands on your partner’s waist or shoulders… that’s it!’

Lucy felt Jack’s hand slide onto her waist and rest there.

‘A little closer,’ the photographer called, and the assistant appeared and flapped her hands and her withered paper at them, urging them to press in. Nanna shimmied in until she was practically leaning on Sophie, her hat obscuring part of Sophie’s arm.

‘Perhaps not quite so close,’ the assistant offered, but Nanna shot her a look, and she backed off so fast she nearly fell over.

Valerie muttered, ‘This is a disaster,’ through gritted teeth, and glared at James, who stared straight forward, a fixed smile in place.

Jack’s fingers tightened on Lucy’s waist, and he murmured in her ear, ‘This is a hoot.’

The photographer snapped away furiously, crouching around them, finding different angles.

‘And now the couples, please,’ he said. ‘Please go with Jess,’ the assistant waved, ‘she’s doing these shots.’

‘Lucy, Heather,’ Valerie clapped her hands at her, ‘don’t go anywhere. We’re getting a few pictures of the couples. Me and your father, Heather and Mark, and you and Jack. I’ve booked it as an extra package.’

Heather released Peter, who used his newfound freedom to strip off his shirt and then use it as a weapon to chase his brother.

‘Sounds lovely,’ Heather said, watching Peter terrorise Thomas. ‘But we’ll need to go first.’

As Valerie led the way with Jess, the photographer yelled, ‘Friends of the bride and groom!’

People picked themselves off the grass and shambled out of the shade to cluster around Sophie and Ollie.

Heather and Mark wrought themselves into various poses under Jess’ tutelage. Mark listened attentively to Jess’ suggestions while the increasingly frequent shouts coming from behind the hedge distracted Heather. As Mark gazed into his wife’s eyes, and Jess snapped away, there was a sudden wail. Peter appeared, shirtless, looking worried.

---