Kate Hardy - Wish Upon a Wedding

‘This is quite some truce,’ Ashleigh said, giving them both a piercing look. ‘Though you probably won’t make it back to Claire’s before the ceasefire ends.’

‘I won’t fight if she doesn’t,’ Sean said. ‘Claire?’

‘No fighting, and thank you very much for the offer of the lift.’

Ashleigh narrowed her eyes at both of them, but didn’t say any more.

‘Do you have any idea how close you were to breaking our cover?’ Claire asked crossly on the way home. ‘I’m sure Ash has guessed.’

‘What’s your problem with anyone knowing about you and me?’ Sean asked.

‘Because it’s still early days. And, actually, unless my calendar’s wrong, you’ll be dumping me in the next few days anyway.’

‘How do you work that out?’

‘Because, Sean Farrell, you never date anyone for more than three weeks in a row.’

‘I don’t dump my girlfriends exactly three weeks in to a relationship,’ he said. ‘That’s a little old and a little unfair.’

‘But you dump them,’ Claire persisted.

‘No, I break up with them nicely and I make them feel it’s their decision,’ he corrected.

‘When it’s actually yours.’

He shrugged. ‘If it makes them feel better about the situation, what’s the problem?’

‘You’re impossible.’

He laughed. ‘Ashleigh said we wouldn’t make it back to your place before we started fighting. She was right.’

‘I’m not fighting, I’m just making a statement of facts—and don’t you dare kiss me to shut me up,’ she warned.

‘I can’t kiss you when I’m driving,’ Sean pointed out, ‘so that’s a rain check.’

‘You really are the most exasperating...’ Unable to think of a suitable retort, she lapsed into silence.

‘Besides,’ he said softly, ‘you’d be bored to tears with a yes-man or a lapdog.’

‘Lapdog?’ she asked, not following.

‘“When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last.” Alexander Pope,’ he explained helpfully.

She rolled her eyes. ‘I forgot you did English A level.’

‘And dated a couple of English teachers.’

‘Would one of those have been the one who made you see a certain rom-com more than once?’

‘Yes. At least you haven’t done that.’

‘You’re still impossible,’ she grumbled.

‘Yup,’ he said cheerfully.

‘And, excuse me, you just missed the turning to my place.’

‘Because we’re not going to your place. We’re going to mine.’

‘But I have a bride coming in first thing tomorrow morning for a final fitting,’ she protested.

‘I have a washer-dryer, an alarm clock, a spare unused toothbrush, and I’ll run you home after breakfast.’

She sighed. ‘You’ve got an answer for everything.’

‘Most things,’ he corrected, and she groaned.

‘I give up.’

‘Good,’ he said.

He stripped her very slowly once he’d locked his front door behind them, put her clothes in the laundry, then took her to bed. And he was as good as his word, finding her a spare toothbrush, making her coffee in the morning, making sure her clothes were dried, and taking her home.

She kissed him lingeringly in the car. ‘See you later. And thanks for the lift.’

* * *

Ashleigh dropped by at lunchtime.

‘Well, hello, stranger—long time, no see,’ Claire teased. ‘What is it, a little over twelve hours?’

‘We’re having lunch,’ Ashleigh said. ‘Now.’

‘Why does this feel as if you’re about to tell me off?’ Claire asked.

‘Because I am. When did this all happen?’

Claire tried to look innocent. ‘When did all what happen?’

‘You know perfectly well what I mean. You and my brother. And don’t deny it. You’re both acting totally out of character round each other.’

‘He just gave me a lift home last night,’ Claire said, crossing her fingers under the table. It had been a lot more than that.

‘Hmm.’ Ashleigh folded her arms and gave Claire a level stare.

Claire gave in. ‘Ash, it’s early days. And you know Sean; it’s probably not going to last.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Because when it all goes wrong I don’t want our friendship to be collateral damage.’

Ashleigh hugged her. ‘Idiot. Nothing would stop me being friends with you.’

‘Sean doesn’t want you to be collateral damage, either,’ Claire pointed out.

Ashleigh rolled her eyes. ‘I won’t be, and don’t you go overprotective on me like my big brother is—remember I’m older than you.’

‘OK,’ Claire said meekly.

‘I thought something was up when he helped you make coffee, and then when he offered you a lift home...I knew it for sure,’ Ashleigh said.

‘It’s still really, really early days,’ Claire warned.

‘But it’s working,’

‘At the moment. We still fight, but it’s different now.’ Claire smiled. ‘Sean’s not quite as regimented as I thought he was.’

Ashleigh laughed. ‘Not with you around, he won’t be.’

‘And he’s stopped calling me the Mistress of Chaos.’

‘Good, because you’re not.’ Ashleigh hugged her again. ‘I can’t think of anyone I’d like more as my sister-in-law. I’ve always thought of you as like my sister anyway.’

‘We haven’t been together long,’ Claire warned, ‘so I’m not promising anything.’

‘I think,’ Ashleigh said, ‘that you’ll be good for each other.’

‘Promise me you won’t say anything? Even to Luke?’

‘It’s a bit too late for Luke,’ Ashleigh said, ‘but I won’t say anything to Sean.’

‘Thank you. And you’ll be the first to know if things move forward. Or,’ Claire said, ‘when we break up.’

* * *

In the two weeks before the wedding show Claire was crazily busy and had almost no free time for dates. Sean took over and brought in takeaways to make sure she ate in the evenings; he also made her take breaks before her eyes started hurting, and gave her massages when her shoulders ached.

Even though part of Claire thought he was being just a little bit overprotective, she was grateful for the TLC. ‘I really appreciate this, Sean.’

‘I know, and you’d do the same for me if I had an exhibition,’ he pointed out. ‘By the way, I’m in talks with a couple of manufacturers about joint projects and licensing. Talking to you and brainstorming stuff like that,’ he said, ‘really helped me see the way I want the company to go in the future.’

‘Following your dreams?’

‘Maybe,’ he said with a smile, and kissed her.

* * *

The week before the wedding show, Claire took Sean to meet her family—her father, her grandmother, Aunt Lou and her cousins. Clearly she’d talked to them about him, Sean thought, because they already seemed to know who he was and lots about him. Then he realised that they knew Ashleigh and his background was the same as hers.

Even though they were warm and welcoming and treated him as if he were one of them, chatting and laughing and teasing him, he still felt strange. His grandparents would’ve been older than Claire’s and had died when he was in his teens. This was the first time for years that Sean had been in a family situation where he wasn’t being the protective big brother and the head of the family, and it made him feel lost, not knowing quite where he was supposed to fit in.

It didn’t help that Claire’s father grilled him mercilessly about his intentions towards Claire. Sean could understand it—he shared Jacob’s opinion of Claire’s previous boyfriends, at least the ones that he’d met—but it still grated that he’d be judged alongside them.

And he could also see what Claire meant about her dad not believing in her. Jacob didn’t see the point of spending time and money making six sets of wedding clothes that hadn’t actually been ordered by clients, and he’d said a couple of times during the evening that he couldn’t see how Claire would possibly get a return on her investment. Claire had smiled sweetly and glossed over it, but Sean had seen that little pleat between her brows that only appeared when she was really unhappy about something. Clearly she was hurt by the way her father still didn’t believe in her.