Page 48 of You Belong With Me

‘Oh, holy fucking fuck,’ Elliot hissed, looking into the distance, and Edie followed his line of sight.

A banner, along with the couple of the moment, had appeared behind the meleé.

Congratulations, Fraser & Molly!

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‘Where’s my brother?’ Fraser called, and Elliot was out of his seat, hand held out for Edie, in a split second, weaving down the side of the underlit pool.

As they drew closer, Edie saw Molly was leaning on Fraser and extending the fingers on one hand for inspection by the women near her in an unmistakeable way. Edie had an unwelcome flashback to Charlotte in the same pose at Ad Hoc – another lifetime ago, for everyone involved.

‘We’ve done a bit of a bait-and-switch on you tonight, guys!’ Fraser said. ‘This is actually ourengagement party. Molly proposed to me this week – that’s right, we’re very modern, guys – and I saidyes.’ He let the whooping and hollering subside before adding: ‘Molly’s folks have very generously said they’ll put a marquee up in the garden for the big day. We’ve called in a favour at their local church – my in-laws-to-be are tight with the vicar – so …’

Fraser waited until a hush had descended. Elliot hard-squeezed Edie’s hand, and she recognised it as a contained panic signal.

‘… Wedding is in April! GET HAT SHOPPING!’

Cue cheering and whistling.

‘April next year, right?’ Elliot said to Edie, looking stunned.

‘I feel like:the wedding will be in a year and two monthsis less of a thing you’d shout, before spraying Veuve Clicquot?’ Edie said under her breath, looking back at Fraser now doing a Formula 1. He had a sidekick: a cherubic, ginger, curly-haired lad who Edie guessed was the notorious Iggy. All Owen family stories that noted Iggy’s presence tended to be of the colourful variety. ‘Iggy,’ they said, shaking heads, in the same way you’d intonecrack pipe.

Fraser’s sky-blue suit, his five-foot-nothing bride in cerulean dress – the level of fuss did seem more consistent with that sapphire bauble on her left hand than with Fraser moving up to greater managerial responsibilities. But how could Edie have foreseen it? This was how she thought the Owens always rolled.

‘No way …’ Elliot said. She’d never seen him lost for words before. ‘He can’t be for real.’

Fraser and his diminutive bride-to-be were mobbed by eager well-wishers, and Edie and Elliot were edged out of the inner circle, waiting their turn in the scrum.

Edie thought this was no bad thing if it gave Elliot time to get his face straight. The indecent haste seemed to have floored him.

‘Can I be your date for the wedding?’ Edie asked, grasping for a nice thing to say.

‘Sure. You won’t need to get changed – we’ll taxi from here,’ Elliot said, and Edie grit-smiled back at him.

‘ELLLLIIOOOOTTT!You’re going to be my brother,’ squealed Molly, bowling into his arms.

Elliot said: ‘Congratulations! Can I introduce you to my girlfriend?’

‘Oh! Edie! I’ve heard so much about you.’

Molly turned, face aglow. She was alive with the exhilaration of the occasion but strikingly pretty anyway: wide, round eyes, small, upturned nose, and wide, toothy smile. Her light brown hair was back in a loose plait. She was woodland cartoon animal cute, and after a second’s consideration, Edie thought she should’ve predicted this would be Fraser’s type. One thing Fraser always managed to be was wholesome. You could stick Molly on aThis Morningpresenting segment, no problem.

Both she and Edie made polite noises of enthusiastic greeting and did the little mutual back-pat party hug, though it was tricky for Molly to have much spare bandwidth for making new acquaintances, given the circumstances.

An overclocking Fraser joined them. ‘See – this is why I had to whip you to be here on time!’ he said to Elliot, grabbing him round the shoulders. ‘You and Iggy are my best men, of course.’

‘Congratulations, Fraz. You’ve told Mum and Dad?’ Elliot asked evenly, and Edie knew exactly what he was thinking and feeling underneath the smooth surface.

‘FaceTimed them this afternoon, and I’ve asked Molly’s dad for permission. All sorted.’

‘They’re excited then?’ Elliot said.

Fraser and Molly were vibrating at a frequency where Elliot’s concern wasn’t registering, which was just as well.

‘Yeah, they love Molly …’ Fraser held her hand as she twisted round and spoke to others near them, like a parent keeping hold of a wilful child in a toy shop. ‘They were a bit shocked they’ve got less than two months to prepare, haha!’

‘Were they?What’s the thinking there then?’

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