Page 34 of Be More Lucy

‘It’s not that. Mark’s coming over from Spain on Friday. He’s got business to sort out in Bristol, then he’s coming here afterwards. He only told me yesterday. I forgot to mention it. Sorry.‘

‘Oh.’ It was Em’s turn to sound worried. How were they going to handle Mark and Lucy being in the same location at the same time?

Jack was obviously thinking the same. ‘It’s not a disaster. Mark’s only here until Saturday lunchtime, so we just need to keep them apart for Friday night and Saturday morning.’

‘Except Nancy’s offered to put Lucy up in the main house. She was adamant that it would be too cosy for all three of us to be in our flat. And I know our sofa bed’s not the comfiest, so I didn’t argue. She didn’t say anything about Mark being there as well.’

‘Nancy knows full well he’s coming here on his own. She must be up to her old tricks again,’ Jack grinned. ‘I imagine she’s keen to get son number two married off to someone who lives here rather than abroad.’

With Nigel living in New York with his family and rarely putting in an appearance at Dashford, Mark was Nancy’s last hope for having grandchildren she could see regularly. Em couldn’t blame her for trying. Getting Mark and Lucy coupled up again would also suit Em - life would be a lot more fun if Jack’s best friend had a partner she could get on with. But he hadn’t been faithful to Lucy, so that was a non-starter.

Em kissed Jack on the forehead. ‘Nancy did alright on the matchmaking front with us, but I don’t think she’ll succeed with Mark and Lucy.’

’No, Mark won’t go back to Lucy, despite what Nancy thinks. He reckons she’s - what was the phrase he used? - batshit mental.’

20

‘If we’re discussing hen and stag dos this weekend, we ought to settle on the date for our wedding,’ Jack said as they finished dinner later.

Em sighed. ‘We can’t do that without finding a venue, and that’s been impossible.’ Every venue they’d approached so far had no availability for next May. It had been so disheartening Em had given up looking a few weeks ago.

‘You still want to get married, don’t you?’ Jack looked concerned.

‘Of course I do.’

‘And we’ve agreed we’re not doing it in a church.’

‘Yes. So we either need to widen the area we’re looking in or push the date back.’

Jack got down from the table, sat on the sofa and grabbed his laptop. He searched the map for licensed wedding venues. Em sat next to him, looking over his shoulder. She recognised most of the names on the list as ones they’d already eliminated.

‘I don’t remember us looking at this one,’ Jack said, pointing to a dedicated wedding venue called King Arthur’s Crag. He clicked on the website link. “New for 2020” was displayed in a big banner across the top.

‘I thought King Arthur lived in Cornwall?’

‘I suppose they allowed him over the border occasionally.’

‘It’s not going to work - look, we have to have the meal there as well. We’re stuffed.’ Em sank back against the back of the sofa and looked at the ceiling.

‘I don’t want to wait another year.’ Jack looked fed up as he scanned the map again. ‘Remind me why we crossed the Bay View Hotel off the list? It’s in Dashford, so it’s the closest one.’

‘Nancy put me off. She got food poisoning there in 1989.’

‘But we won’t be eating there.’

‘It wasn’t just that. She thought the manager was rude. “Had the attitude of a walrus with a raging tusk ache” was the phrase she used.’

‘Surely it can’t be the same manager after 30 years? We don’t have to book if we don’t like them when we look around.’ Jack clicked on the website.

Em read the details over Jack’s shoulder. ‘Wedding ceremony room overlooking the bay.’

‘I felt the clue was in the name.’

‘It could have been overlooking the bins at the back.’

‘I like the sound of that,’ Jack said as he scrolled down the page.

‘What? The bins?’

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