Page 145 of My Kind of Happy

‘Which you won’t,’ I put in.

‘Which I won’t, but if I did, it’s going to be in Iceland, in the Ice Hotel, if there is such a thing.’

‘There isn’t,’ I said with a giggle, ‘but I know what you mean.’

‘And now one of the two of you together, holding hands and facing the house,’ said Dexter.

He was taking his role as official photographer very seriously and we patiently posed for picture after picture until he dashed off to get some reportage shots of the wedding guests.

We went to wait for Terry’s arrival under the porch in a sliver of shade. The ambulance was five minutes late and I could sense that Laura was starting to get the jitters.

‘He’ll be here,’ I said softly.

She nodded. ‘He has to be. I couldn’t do this with both parents missing.’

‘Your mum would be so proud of you,’ I said to my dearest friend.

She smiled her thanks. ‘And Freddie would be so proud of you.’

‘I wish …’ I swallowed, conscious that if I mentioned Freddie’s name the tears would fall and there would be no chance of stopping them.

‘I know,’ she said squeezing my arm. ‘I wish he was here too.’

‘But I suppose they both are here,’ I said softly. ‘Because they’ll always be with us.’

We leaned towards each other so our heads were touching for a moment until there was a crunch of tyres on the gravel drive and the private ambulance tooted its horn.

Once we’d all hugged, it only took a couple of minutes to transfer Terry into a wheelchair. The ambulance driver, whose name was Craig, said he’d never done a wedding before and pushed Terry effortlessly across the grass and we were soon in position under the first of the willow arches.

Laura gasped in delight when she saw the sunflowers. ‘Look, Dad, Mum’s favourites.’

‘Good grief.’ Terry’s face lit up. ‘Sunflowers! We had those at our wedding.’

My heart melted as Laura threw her arms around his neck and told her dad how much she loved him.

Terry patted her back. ‘If you and Hamish can be half as happy as your mother and I were, I shall die a happy man.’

‘Not on my watch,’ Craig said with a sniff. ‘Now, Terry, what’s it to be, how are you feeling?’

‘Like the proudest father in England. I think I shall walk on air up that aisle.’

My heart was in my mouth as Terry gripped the arms of the wheelchair and struggled to his feet. He was so frail and thin, the slightest breath of air would have blown him over.

Craig unhooked a walking stick from the back of the chair and placed it in Terry’s hand.

‘Thanks, lad,’ said Terry.

Annabel, who was in charge of starting the music, was watching me for a signal; I nodded and she pressed play on the music system.

The first few bars of piano music started up and in front of us, Hamish stepped into view. He caught sight of his bride and the look of love on his face almost undid me. Next to appear, one step behind as ever was my faithful dog, looking so handsome with a pink ribbon matching my dress around his neck from which hung two gold rings.

‘What’s this music?’ Terry wheezed as his daughter took her place beside him and Craig quickly whizzed the chair around the side to be waiting for him at the front.

‘“A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri,’ she whispered back.

‘Bloody hell,’ he chuckled. ‘It better not take me that long to get you up there.’

Behind Hamish the registrar, a friendly lady called Barbara, approached the podium and invited the guests to stand.

As one, the crowd stood and turned, and then, to applause and smiles and cameras held aloft, Laura, on her father’s arm, began to walk away from one life and towards the man she’d chosen to spend her future with.

And as I stood beside my best friend, watching her marrying Freddie’s best friend, as I listened to them make their promises to love each other forever, my heart was bursting with happiness. Dexter took a million photographs, Annabel was one step ahead with every detail and Will sang such a beautiful version of ‘Everything’ by Michael Bublé that even the registrar had to get a tissue out from up her sleeve.

It was perfect.

Freddie would have been so proud of me, and, I realised, I was proud of me too.