‘I know when you aren’t saying something, Penny.’ Joe squeezed me into his side. ‘I’ve known you my whole life, unfortunately.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Is there a pep talk at the end of this?’
‘Yes.’ He gave me one final squeeze before letting me go. ‘You’re too independent for your own good sometimes. Let us in.’
He was right. I knew that. I planned on letting Rory in, just as soon as this weekend was over. This sten do had taken too much planning to let Daniel ruin it now. I’d even borrowed Maeve’s pink cowboy boots for our bottomless brunch. This weekend needed to be perfect. I just needed one thing to go as I’d planned it.
‘Joe, I’m fine. Our dance with the devil is done,’ I said, hoping he couldn’t detect the white lie. ‘This is your weekend. Forget about Level.’
‘Fine.’ He pulled a face. ‘As long as you promise that Isaac and Daniel haven’t put you off dating forever. I’d rather not have to buy you a hip flask so that you can fulfil your lifelong destiny of being the fun aunty to my children.’
I snorted, whacking him on the arm. ‘I would be the best fun aunty this world has ever seen.’
He nodded. ‘I know. You’d be too good at it. You’d give Aunt Sarah a run for her money.’
Aunt Sarah was Mum’s sister, notorious for slipping us a tenner and a Werther’s Original under the table, even now, when we were 26 and 28 respectively. She owned a nasty Jack Russell called Milo (although tell her that he was nasty, and you’d be crossed off the Werther’s list), and dyed her hair a different colour every time we saw her.
‘Are you two coming, or shall we just drive to Yorkshire and leave you here?’ Rory stuck his head out of the driver’s window. ‘My sat nav says five hours and eleven minutes, and I’d like to get moving, if that’s quite okay with the two of you.’
I stuck a finger up at him, but his excitement for our road trip was endearing. In his eyes, aside from being absolutely livid with Daniel, everything was back to normal. Link was finally out of the question. Ella hadn’t brought it up since, and everyone else in the office was treading on eggshells (for once in his life, Dexter hadn’t passed comment). The merger was quite clearly a no-go. For everyone but me. The only thing I considered a complete no-go was ever going near Daniel again. If they could sort us a deal with him out of the picture, I might just consider it. My palms felt clammy at the thought of breaking this period of peace, but it was time to come clean about everything. Rory deserved that.
‘Right, we’d better get on the road before Mr Organised Fun starts throwing Percy Pigs at us from the driver’s seat.’ Joe squeezed my shoulder. ‘But you’re okay?’
I nodded. ‘Promise.’
‘Okay. Mum told me that if I didn’t look out for you this weekend, then she’d make my ears big on the wedding cake.’
He said it with such sincerity that I didn’t doubt that it was true.
***
After six hours in the car and a mind-numbing game of I Spy, we had finally made it to Yorkshire. And listen, I loved London. I loved that there had never been a shortage of things to do in the school holidays, and that Mum and Dad had taught us to memorise the Tube system before any of the other kids. I knew my Northern from my Piccadilly before I could even spell the words. But despite the hidden merits of being a Londoner my whole life, I couldn’t deny that in terms of green space, it had nothing on Yorkshire. We were deep in the Dales, and there wasn’t a skyscraper in sight.
‘Is it just me, or does the air smell different here?’ Maeve stepped out of the car and stretched her legs, joining the three of us who had desperately fought for the door handles in order to uncrumple ourselves from the back seats.
‘Of course it smells different.’ Isla took a deep breath and pulled her cardigan tighter around her. ‘It’s untouched.’
Joe put his arm over her shoulders, rubbing her arms. ‘I bet after two nights here, we might be able to blow our noses and it not be black.’
‘What a lovely thought. So glad you verbalised that one.’ I pulled a face, getting the booking confirmation up on my phone.
We were staying in one of their wooden lodges, complete with a hot tub on the decking and a wine fridge big enough for the number of bottles that Maeve had shoved in the boot. Joe and Isla had the master bedroom, for obvious reasons, Maeve and I were sharing a bedroom with two singles, and Rory would be sleeping in the living room, where the sofa pulled out to reveal a double bed. It was going to be cosy, but that was the point of this weekend. One last hurrah before – let’s be honest – nothing changed. My brother was hardly bachelor of the century.
‘It says we need to put this code into the safety deposit box, and the keys will be inside.’ I pulled up the email from Wendy, who I’d been conversing with since we’d booked.
Rory joined us, slinging his arm around my shoulders. ‘What would we do without you taking on the lion’s share of the work this weekend?’
I recoiled. ‘I offered to take over the driving halfway. I’m not losing maid of honour points because you don’t trust me.’
‘It’s true.’ He jabbed me lightly in the ribs. ‘No rental car insurance is bulletproof enough to take the Penny risk. Not after the supermarket car park incident of 2018.’
The others laughed, the incident a running joke. I’d been having a really stressful day at uni – it was hand-in day for our undergrad dissertation – and my head hadn’t been in the game. I’d almost been rammed over by an elderly woman’s trolley in her haste to get some broccoli, and when I’d arrived back at the car someone had parked scarily close to me, leaving me to drive straight into the back of them whilst my radio played old-school Mika. I’d called Rory, who had been about to leave for Newcastle to visit his parents for the weekend, and he’d delayed his trip to come and rescue me. Ever since then, my driving had been the butt of every journey-related joke.
‘It was one time, on a really stressful day. And everyone in London drives so infrequently that surely we get a quota for –’
Rory interrupted. ‘Isla, you hardly ever drive. Have you ever body-slammed a car?’
‘Well, no, but –’
‘Point proven. Sorry, Pen, the joke stays.’ He leaned into my ear conspiratorially. ‘Don’t worry – I quite liked being the knight in shining armour. Think it suited me?’
I rolled my eyes, ignoring the shiver I felt at his breath hot in my ear. ‘You called The AA and drove me home.’
‘Exactly. And Her Majesty knighted me the very next day. Come on, we’re being left behind.’
He gestured to the others, who were laden with bags and wandering over to lodge number seven, our home for the weekend. I grabbed a bag of snacks and my overnight holdall. This was going to be fun. As long as no one brought up Level, or Link, and I managed not to speak my mind about Rory and Maeve (now was not the time). Easy.
33
‘Are you awake?’
I was turned to the wall, desperately trying to force myself back to sleep despite the sound of the birds outside (how had I gone twenty-six years without realising how loud birds could be?)
I mumbled the word ‘unfortunately’ back to Maeve, who sounded far too awake for – I glanced at my phone screen – 7.30.
‘This is our weekend of relaxation. Why don’t you try, oh, I don’t know, relaxing?’
I didn’t need to turn over and look at her to know she was pulling a face.
