EPILOGUE

      March, four months later…

      THE LIGHTNING AND THUNDER started around ten in the morning. Jess and her parents rushed out onto the back veranda and stared up at the suddenly leaden sky, which had a rather ominous green colour.

      ‘Murphy’s Law,’ Joe grumbled. ‘You’d think it would leave me alone on my only daughter’s wedding day.’

      ‘It’s not Murphy’s Law, Dad,’ Jess said, despite feeling disappointed. They’d been going to have the wedding ceremony at a picturesque open-air spot overlooking Toowoon Bay. ‘It’s just a storm.’

      ‘No, it’s bloody Murphy’s Law!’ he growled.

      ‘I’m not going to let a little bit of rain spoil my big day, Dad. We have Plan B, don’t we, Mum? We decided when we booked the Shelley Beach golf club for the reception that if it rained we could always have the ceremony there. They have some lovely balconies with nice views of the ocean and the golf course. If needs be, I’ll give the club a call later. Everything will work out, Dad.’

      It was at that point that it started to hail, denting even Jess’s positive spirit.

      ‘The wedding’s not till three,’ Ruth pointed out. ‘It will probably have passed over by then.’

      The hail was gone quite quickly but heavy rain continued all morning, resulting in several panicky phone calls from Jess’s bridesmaids, who were all at the hairdresser’s. None of them had stayed at Jess’s place overnight, but were due out there as soon as they’d had their hair and make-up done. Jess reassured them that they had a Plan B, and told them to stop worrying, after which she went upstairs to do her own hair and make-up.

      Just after midday, the rain finally stopped. The girls arrived around one, looking gorgeous, the sun making its appearance shortly before the bride and her four bridesmaids were due to leave.

      Jess beamed her happiness at Catherine, whom she’d asked to be her matron of honour. They’d become good friends over the last few months. Andy, of course, was Ben’s best man. Catherine was pregnant, but only two months gone, so hopefully there would be no last-minute dramas. Jess’s three sisters-in-law were her other bridesmaids, thankfully none of them pregnant at the moment. Pete’s wife, Michelle, had given birth to a baby girl two months earlier but had got her figure back very quickly. Jess had made the dresses for the wedding party, all of them strapless and full-length. Jess’s bridal gown was in ivory silk and the bridesmaids’ in a pale-yellow shantung.

      The bride’s bouquet, made from yellow and white roses, reached from her waist to just above the hem of her dress. The other bouquets were smaller with just white roses. Jess had chosen a white rose for Ben’s lapel and yellow ones for the other men.

      Ruth hadn’t let Jess make her dress, however, choosing a lovely blue mother-of-the bride outfit from Real Women, which now had an excellent range of elegant clothes for the more mature lady. After an Australia-wide marketing campaign during January, the chain of stores was beginning to do quite well. No great profit as yet, but it was early days.

      ‘See, Joe?’ Ruth said a little smugly. ‘I knew the sun would shine on our daughter’s wedding. She’s a lucky girl. Now, I must get going. See you all soon at Toowoon Bay.’

      Jess watched her mother drive off in the family sedan whilst her father escorted her over to the first of the gleaming white wedding cars.

      ‘Your mother’s right,’ he said to Jess once they were settled in the roomy back seat. ‘You are a lucky girl to snare yourself a man like Ben. But then, he’s a lucky guy to have a girl as special as you for his wife. Not to mention so exquisitely beautiful.’

      ‘Please don’t say things like that to me, Dad,’ Jess said, her eyes pooling with moisture. ‘I don’t want to cry and ruin my make-up.’

      ‘You won’t cry, darling daughter. You’re too sensible for that.’

      But he was wrong. Jess almost cried as soon as she saw Ben standing there waiting for her with a look of such wonder and love in his eyes. She came even closer to weeping when he promised to love her till his dying days. She definitely would have cried when the celebrant announced that they were husband and wife, but Ben saved the day by kissing her with such passion that she forgot all about tears.

      After that she didn’t think about crying, being swept along with all the things which had to be done—first the photos at Toowoon Bay, then more at the golf club, followed by the greeting of the guests, pre-dinner champagne on the balconies and then the official part of the reception.

      She smiled her way through all the speeches. Andy was suitably funny and Ben wonderfully complimentary about his beautiful bride. She smiled during the cake-cutting and the bridal waltz. She smiled and laughed with Catherine whilst she changed into her going-away outfit, a chic white linen dress with red accessories. She and Ben planned to spend their wedding night at the Crown Plaza at Terrigal and the following day they were setting off on that long-awaited road trip around Australia; Jess’s trusty four-wheel drive was already parked at the hotel. Not only was it parked but packed with every provision they could possibly need.

      It wasn’t till Jess was saying her goodbyes to her parents that tears suddenly flooded her eyes.

      ‘Come now, Jess,’ Joe said in a choked up voice as he hugged her. ‘You don’t want to spoil your make-up, do you?’

      Jess laughed, then wiped away her tears. ‘Absolutely not,’ she said. ‘But they aren’t unhappy tears. I was just thinking what wonderful parents you and Mum are.’

      ‘Oh, go on with you,’ Joe said, though he seemed pleased. Ruth, however, started to look a bit weepy.

      ‘Jess is right,’ Ben said, stepping forward from where he’d been saying goodbye to his own mother. ‘You are both wonderful. So we got our heads together and decided to give you both a little personal something. Here…’ And he handed Joe a rather large envelope which had a well-known travel agency’s logo on the outside.

      ‘What on earth have you done?’ Joe said as he opened the envelope and pulled out the printed itinerary of a very extensive trip around Europe.

      ‘Now, we don’t