Cecelia Ahern 2-Book Valentine Collection: PS I Love You, Where Rainbows End

‘What on earth was that all about?’ Melissa was dying to find out. Barbara began to explain the story.

‘OK, girls, I’m taking my break now. Barbara, no smoking in the staffroom.’ Their boss closed and locked his door and then turned to face them. ‘Christ Almighty, what are you two crying about now?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Holly eventually arrived at her house and waved to Sharon and Denise, who were sitting on her garden wall sunbathing. They jumped up as soon as they saw her and rushed over to greet her.

‘God, you both got here quick,’ she said, trying to inject energy into her voice. She felt completely and utterly drained, and she really wasn’t in the mood to have to explain everything to the girls right now. But she would have to.

‘Sharon left work as soon as you called and she collected me from town,’ Denise explained, studying Holly’s face and trying to assess how bad the situation was.

‘Oh, you didn’t have to do that,’ Holly said lifelessly, as she tried to put the key in the door.

‘Hey, have you been working in your garden?’ Sharon asked, looking around and trying to lighten the atmosphere.

‘No, my neighbour’s been doing it, I think.’ Holly pulled the key from the door and searched through the bunch for the correct one.

‘You think?’ Denise tried to keep the conversation going while Holly battled with yet another key in the lock.

‘Well, it’s either my neighbour or a little leprechaun lives down the end of my garden,’ she snapped, getting frustrated with the keys. Denise and Sharon looked at each other and tried to figure out what to do. They motioned to one another to stay quiet as Holly was obviously stressed.

‘Oh, fuck it!’ Holly yelled, and threw her keys on the ground. Denise jumped back, just managing to avoid the heavy bunch from slamming into her ankles.

Sharon picked them up. ‘Hey, hon, don’t worry about it,’ she said light-heartedly. ‘This happens to me all the time. I swear the bloody things jump around on the keyring deliberately just to piss us off.’

Holly smiled wearily, thankful that somebody else could take control for a while. Sharon slowly worked her way through the keys, talking calmly to her in a singsong voice as though Holly was a child. The door finally opened and Holly rushed in to turn the alarm off. Thankfully she remembered the number: the year Gerry and she had met and the year they got married. As if she could ever forget those numbers.

‘OK, why don’t you two make yourselves comfortable in the living room and I’ll follow you in a minute?’ Sharon and Denise did as they were told while Holly headed into the toilet to splash cold water on her face. She needed to snap out of this daze, take control and be as excited about this holiday as Gerry had intended. When she felt a little more alive she joined the girls in the living room.

She pulled the footrest over to the couch and sat opposite the girls.

‘OK, I’m not going to drag this one out. I opened the envelope for July today and this is what it said.’ She rooted in her bag for the small card, which had been attached to the brochure that she’d shown to the girl at the travel agent and handed it to them. It read:

Have a good Holly day!

PS. I love you …

‘Is that it?’ Denise wrinkled up her nose, unimpressed. Sharon nudged her in the ribs. ‘Ow!’

‘Well, Holly, I think it’s a lovely note,’ Sharon lied. ‘It’s so thoughtful and it’s … a lovely play on words.’

Holly had to giggle. She knew Sharon was lying because she always flared her nostrils when she wasn’t telling the truth. ‘No, you fool!’ she said, hitting Sharon over the head with a cushion.

Sharon began to laugh. ‘Oh good, because I was beginning to worry there for a second.’

‘Sharon, you are always so supportive you make me sick sometimes!’ Holly grinned. ‘Now this is what else was inside.’ She handed them the crumpled page that was torn from the brochure.

She watched with amusement as the girls tried to figure out Gerry’s writing and Denise finally held her hand up to her mouth. ‘Oh my God!’ she gasped, sitting forward on her seat.

‘What what what?’ Sharon demanded, and leaned forward with excitement. ‘Did Gerry buy you a holiday?’

‘No.’ Holly shook her head seriously.

‘Oh.’ Sharon and Denise both sat back in their seats with disappointment.

Holly allowed an uncomfortable silence to lapse between them until she spoke again.

‘Girls,’ she said with a smile beginning to spread across her face, ‘he bought us a holiday!’

The girls opened a bottle of wine and squealed with excitement.

‘Oh, this is incredible,’ Denise said after the news had sunk in. ‘Gerry’s such a sweetie.’

Holly nodded, feeling proud of her husband, who had once again managed to surprise them all.

‘So you went down to see this Barbara person?’ Sharon asked.

‘Yes, and she was the sweetest girl,’ Holly smiled. ‘She sat with me for ages telling me about the conversation they had that day. He went in at the end of November.’

‘November?’ Sharon looked thoughtful. ‘That was after the second operation.’

Holly nodded. ‘The girl said he was pretty weak when he went in.’

‘Isn’t it funny that none of us had any idea at all?’ Sharon said.

They all nodded silently.

‘Well, it looks like we’re all off to Lanzarote!’ Denise cheered, and she held her glass up. ‘To Gerry!’

‘To Gerry!’ Holly and Sharon joined in.

‘Are you sure Tom and John won’t mind?’ Holly asked, suddenly aware that the girls had partners to think of.

‘Of course John won’t mind!’ Sharon laughed. ‘He’ll probably be delighted to be rid of me for a week!’

‘Yeah, and me and Tom can go away for a week another time, which actually suits me fine,’ agreed Denise, ‘because that way we’re not stuck together for two weeks on our first holiday together!’ she laughed.

‘Sure, you two practically live together anyway!’ Sharon laughed, nudging her.

Denise gave a quick smile but didn’t answer and the two of them dropped the subject. That annoyed Holly because they were always doing that. She wanted to hear how her friends were getting on in their relationships but nobody seemed to tell her any of the juicy gossip any more out of fear of hurting her. People seemed to be afraid to tell her about how happy they were or about the good news in their lives. Then again they also refused to moan about the bad things. So instead of being informed of what was really going on in her friends’ lives she was stuck with this mediocre chitchat about … nothing really, and it was starting to bother her. She couldn’t be shielded from other people’s happiness for ever – what good would that do her?

‘I have to say that leprechaun really is doing a great job on your garden, Holly,’ Denise cut into her thoughts as she looked out the window.

Holly blushed. ‘Oh, I know. I’m sorry for being a bitch earlier, Denise,’ she apologised. ‘I suppose I should really go next door and thank him properly.’

After Denise and Sharon had headed off home Holly grabbed a bottle of wine from the stash under the stairs and carried it next door to her neighbour. She rang the bell and waited.

‘Hi, Holly,’ Derek said, opening the door, ‘come in, come in.’