Page 70 of A Wedding in Tuscany

‘I’m glad you like it.’

‘I love it so much. Thank you.’ I turn to kiss him and stop short, my mouth falling open. ‘Siobhan?! What?’ I’m barely aware that Josh is chuckling as I pull from his embrace and throw my arms around our lovely Irish friend. She belts out one of her familiar laughs as she hugs me tightly. ‘I thought you couldn’t come,’ I say, my voice muffled by her thick, curly tresses.

We pull back and grin at each other. ‘Part of the surprise. I couldn’t let your fortieth pass by without getting Joshivara back together,’ she says, using the name she coined for the three of us when we met on Maui.

‘Oh, my god.’ I hug her again and we rock from side to side.

‘Come on now. I want to meet the others,’ she says. She knows Cat and Jean-Luc from our sailing trip to Croatia, and I am so glad she’ll be here for the wedding, but she’s yet to meet our parents or our other friends. She wanders over to the table to greet Cat and Jean-Luc and meet the others and I stay put, still reeling from the surprise of so many people I love all together in this incredible place.

‘Happy?’ asks Josh, his breath tickling my ear.

‘Deliriously,’ I say turning towards him. ‘You’ve spoiled me?again.’

‘You deserve it.’ He leans down to give me a soft kiss.

‘Oi, you two, enough of that. Get on over here, Sarah! Join your party.’ Siobhan. Not surprisingly, she’s has already made herself ‘at home’. I approach the table, laughing, and Dad comes to greet me with a kiss on the cheek, even though we were just together in the car. ‘Happy birthday, love.’ He hands me a glass of white wine. ‘Here, I think you’ll like this one. It’s bloody nice,’ he adds conspiratorially.

‘Thanks, Daddy.’ We clink glasses and I take a sip. ‘Mmm, that is good.’

‘Told ya.’ He gazes at me proudly and I’m overcome by how much that means to me. ‘And listen, your mum and I have something special for you?your present?but first … Everyone,’ he calls out to the group. The buzz of chatter dies down as Dad puts his arm around my shoulder and holds his glass aloft. ‘Charge your glasses, please. I’d like to propose a toast.’ There’s frantic activity to get glasses filled and in hand and Dad waits patiently as he pulls me closer in a side hug.

‘Firstly, thank you to Josh for arranging all of this. Karen and I couldn’t wish for a better partner for our daughter and I get the sense that this is exactly what she would have planned herself?if you’d have let her.’ There’s a ripple of laughter. ‘Now, some of you will know this, some of you are newer to the Parsons family, but Sarah was away for her twenty-first …’ He looks at me. ‘Where was it, love? Timbuktu or something,’ he teases.

‘Bali, Dad.’

‘Bali, right. Anyway, intrepid is our daughter number one?always has been. So anyway, we didn’t get to celebrate twenty-one with her and it turned out that for her thirtieth, Karen and I were away, so we missed that one too.’ They were in Africa on safari and somehow didn’t think it was a big deal to miss my thirtieth birthday?it was?but I don’t mention that. ‘Annnd … we’ve been waiting for a wedding …’ He shrugs.

‘Da-aad!’

He kisses the side of my head. ‘Only joking, darling. One daughter getting married is enough drama for a lifetime, thank you very much.’

‘Da-aad!’ This one’s from Cat.

‘Oops, now I’m in trouble.’ Dad mugs for the others and there’s more laughter. ‘Anyway, back to the business at hand. Here we are at Sarah’s fortieth.’ As Dad pauses for dramatic effect?again?my thoughts tumble over each other. Was it really nineteen years ago?nearly half a lifetime?that I went to Bali with my girlfriends for my twenty-first? In some ways, that feels like yesterday. In others, it feels like a millennia ago.

‘Sarah …’ Dad looks at me and I meet his eye. ‘You are a wonderful woman. You’re generous and clever and loving?and you’ve got your dad’s sense of humour.’ More titters of laughter and I smile at him, shaking my head. ‘Seriously, though, love, you make your mum and me very proud every day.’ He starts to tear up, reminding me where I get my soppiness from. ‘We love you and we are thrilled to celebrate your special day with you.’ He pulls me close and presses a kiss onto the side of my head. ‘To Sarah,’ he says, raising his glass higher.

‘To Sarah,’ everyone echoes.

‘Happy birthday, love,’ he says quietly, this time even more heartfelt.

‘Thanks, Dad.’

‘And this is for you.’ He dips a hand into the inside pocket of his linen sports jacket and takes out an envelope. ‘You don’t have to open it now if you don’t want to.’

‘No, I do.’

Josh approaches. ‘Great speech, Ron.’

‘Ah, you know me. Any opportunity to show off. I’ll leave you to it,’ he says to me, before heading back to Mum.

‘Present,’ I say, holding up the envelope.

‘Want me to take that?’ Josh asks, indicating my glass.

‘Thanks.’ I open the envelope along the seam and take out a card that was obviously chosen by Mum. ‘To our darling daughter who’s turning 40,’ it begins on the front. I skip the poetry written by someone at Hallmark and open the card. Dad has scrawled, ‘Lots of love from Mum and Dad,’ at the bottom, followed by two kisses and two hugs. I’ll read the Hallmark stuff later?no doubt Mum will quiz me on it?but I’m more interested in the folded pieces of paper inside the card. ‘Here,’ I say to Josh, handing him the card.

I unfold the paper and read. ‘Holy fuck-a-mole,’ I say, eloquent as always.

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