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

Holly looked past him and into the kitchen, and saw the family sitting around the table eating dinner. She backed away from the door slightly.

‘No, I won’t disturb you. I just came by to give you this,’ she handed him the bottle of wine, ‘as a token of my thanks.’

‘Well, Holly, this is really thoughtful of you,’ he said, reading the label. Then he looked up with a confused expression on his face. ‘But thanks for what, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘For tidying up my garden,’ she said, blushing. ‘I’m sure the entire estate was cursing me for ruining the appearance of the street,’ she laughed.

‘Holly, your garden certainly isn’t a worry to anyone – we all understand – but I haven’t been tidying it for you, I’m sorry to say.’

‘Oh.’ Holly cleared her throat, feeling very embarrassed. ‘I thought you had been.’

‘No, no …’

‘Well, you wouldn’t by any chance know who has been?’

‘I have no idea,’ he said, puzzled. ‘I thought it was you, to be honest,’ he laughed. ‘How odd.’

Holly wasn’t quite sure what to say next.

‘So perhaps you would like to take this back,’ he said awkwardly, thrusting the wine bottle towards her.

‘Oh no, that’s OK,’ she laughed again, ‘you can keep that as thanks for … not being neighbours from hell. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to dinner.’ She ran off down the driveway with her face burning with embarrassment. What kind of fool wouldn’t know who was tidying her own garden?

She knocked on a few more doors around the estate and to her embarrassment nobody seemed to know what she was talking about. Everyone seemed to have jobs and lives and, remarkably enough, they didn’t spend their days monitoring her garden. She returned to her house even more confused. As she walked in the door the phone was ringing and she ran to answer it.

‘Hello?’ she panted.

‘What were you doing, running a marathon?’

‘No I was chasing leprechauns,’ Holly explained.

‘Oh, cool.’

The oddest thing was that Ciara didn’t even question her.

‘It’s my birthday in two weeks.’

Holly had completely forgotten. ‘Yeah, I know,’ she said matter-of-factly.

‘Well, Mum and Dad want us all to go out for a family dinner …’

Holly groaned loudly.

‘Exactly.’ And she screamed away from the phone, ‘Dad, Holly said the same thing as me.’

Holly giggled as she heard her father cursing and grumbling in the background.

Ciara returned to the phone and spoke loudly so her father could hear. ‘OK, so my idea is to go ahead with the family dinner but to invite friends as well so that it can actually be an enjoyable night. What do you think?’

‘Sounds good,’ Holly agreed.

Ciara screamed away from the phone, ‘Dad, Holly agrees with my idea.’

‘That’s all very well,’ Holly heard her dad yelling, ‘but I’m not paying for all those people to eat.’

‘He has a point,’ Holly added. ‘Tell you what, why don’t we have a barbecue? That way Dad can be in his element and it won’t be so expensive.’

‘Hey, that’s a cool idea!’ Ciara screamed away from the phone once again, ‘Dad, what about having a barbecue?’

There was a silence.

‘He’s loving that idea,’ Ciara came back. ‘Mr Super Chef will once again cook for the masses.’

Holly smirked at the thought. Her dad got so excited when they had barbecues; he took the whole thing incredibly seriously and stood by the grill constantly, watching over his wonderful creations. Gerry had been like that too. What was it with men and barbecues? Probably because it was the only way that the two of them could actually cook. Either that or they were closet pyromaniacs.

‘So will you tell Sharon and John, Denise and her DJ bloke, and will you ask that Daniel guy to come too? He’s yummy!’ Ciara demanded.

‘Ciara, I hardly know the guy. Ask Declan to ask him; he sees him all the time.’

‘No, because I want you to subtly tell him that I love him and want to have his babies. Somehow I don’t think Declan would feel very comfortable doing that.’

Holly groaned.

‘Stop it!’ Ciara gave out. ‘He’s my birthday treat!’

‘OK,’ Holly gave in, ‘but why do you want all my friends there? What about your friends?’

‘Holly, I’ve lost contact with all my friends, I’ve been away for so long. And all my other friends are in Australia and the stupid bastards haven’t bothered to call me,’ Ciara huffed.

Holly knew to whom she was specifically referring. ‘But don’t you think this would be a great opportunity to catch up with your old friends – you know, invite them to a barbecue? It’s a nice relaxed atmosphere.’

‘Yeah, right. What would I have to tell them when they start asking questions? Have you a job? Eh … no. Have you a boyfriend? Eh … no. Where do you live? Eh … actually I still live with my parents. How pathetic would I sound?’

Holly gave up. ‘OK, whatever … Anyway I’ll call the others and …’

Ciara had already hung up.

Holly decided to get the most awkward phone call out of the way first and she dialled the number to Hogan’s.

‘Hello, Hogan’s.’

‘Hi, can I speak to Daniel Connolly, please?’

‘Yeah, hold on.’ She was put on hold and ‘Greensleeves’ belted out into her ear.

‘Hello?’

‘Hi, Daniel?’