The Surprise Party

Matt nodded. ‘Great idea – you know this is a lovely photo. Has anyone ever told you, you look just like your mum?’

Suzie raised her eyebrows, warning him off.

‘Don’t look at me like that. It was meant as a compliment,’ said Matt defensively. ‘Good bones. Anyway we’re more or less bang on schedule; all tables in all the right places, garlands and swags look great. The top table is a picture,’ he continued. ‘Food’s all under control. Champagne’s chilling. So all we need now are the guests and the happy couple.’

Suzie nodded. ‘And we’ve still got the banners to put up.’

‘The banners?’

‘Uh-huh. Ten feet long, three feet high – “Happy Fortieth Wedding Anniversary to Rose and Jack”. I know it sounds a bit tacky and it probably is, but I was persuaded into buying them by the woman I bought the flowers from—’

‘Conned more like, you mean,’ Matt said with a grin. ‘Come on, before we break out the step-ladders, how about we grab a little drink? The outside bar is up and ready to roll. Steady the old nerves – or do you fancy road-testing a bottle of champagne?’

‘Nice idea, Matt, but I really need to be stone cold sober for the next couple of hours.’

‘Don’t be such a control freak, Suzie, relax. One little glass isn’t going to hurt anyone.’ Matt moved in closer and slipped his arm around her shoulders. ‘And besides I want to have a quiet word with you,’ he murmured. ‘Have you had a chance to talk to Sam about us yet?’

‘Will you stop it? This is a family party. There isn’t any us,’ Suzie hissed, pushing him away as she glanced nervously towards the open door of the marquee where she could see Sam pacing up and down, talking into his mobile. ‘No us – all right? The last thing we want is anyone seeing us and jumping to conclusions.’

‘Come on, you know what I mean. You’ll have to say something to him sooner or later. And he’s going to be hurt if he finds out from someone else.’

‘Don’t,’ said Suzie, raising a hand to silence him. ‘It’s just really difficult to know where to start,’ Suzie began, stepping away from him.

Matt looked heavenwards. ‘Come on, Suzie, this isn’t on. You are going to have to tell him. We can’t go on like this, all this creeping around. I mean, for God’s sake, it’s ridiculous. This is such a good thing for both of us. It’s a match made in heaven – you know that.’

Suzie bit her lip. ‘I do know, Matt. I do, but I’ve got no idea how he’ll take it. You know how he’s been recently. I can barely talk to him, and when we do talk it seems to end up in a row. You’re not seeing the best of him. I’m not sure what the problem is; we used to talk about everything, which makes all this worse. I’m worried about him. I don’t want to upset him any more than he already is. I just need to pick my moment.’

‘You are such a softy. You know that’s what I love about you, don’t you?’ purred Matt, leaning in to kiss her on the top of her head. ‘Trouble is, the longer you leave it to pick the moment, the harder it’s going to be to say anything to him, and the more upset Sam’s going to be when he finds out what you’ve been up to behind his back. Now, if you’re not going to have a drink with me I am going to get on, unless of course you want your guests sending out for pizza? See you later. Here, you’ll be needing this,’ he said, handing her the wedding photo.

Suzie sighed and glanced down at it. It was one of her favourites – the one where her mum and dad were cutting the cake, while on either side of them family and friends looked on with delight.

Suzie’s mum, Rose, was looking up at her dad with a grin, her eyes bright with mischief and warmth and the promise of things to come, while her dad, Jack, looked down at his new wife with such love and tenderness that, even forty years on, it was impossible not to be moved by his expression.

There was so much love in their faces, so much hope and joy and optimism caught in that single glance. Even now, after all these years, Suzie sometimes caught her dad looking at her mum in the same tender way and the look still tugged at her heart strings. How the hell had they managed to keep it like that, so fresh, so tangible and so alive after all those years together? She had always been aware that there was something really special between them, and for an instant Suzie felt envious and tired.

For years she and Sam had been best friends, best of everything to each other but recently it felt like she was running a marathon with him, all work and no reward, struggling to keep something going that felt battered and heavy and dead in the water. While she loved Sam dearly, at the moment it felt like their love, their marriage, was a bit dog-eared and beaten down by life. It was a real shame because in lots of ways the rest of their lives had got better and better over the last few years.

Once Hannah and Megan had started school, Suzie had gone back to college to take a horticultural course. After a few years of odd jobs and scrabbling around for work, a chance conversation in the local shop had led to the local estate owner offering to let her take over the running of a dilapidated Victorian walled kitchen garden, which belonged to the manor house just up the road from where Suzie, Sam and the girls lived.

‘Take over’ had proved to be a bit of a joke; there had been nothing to take over besides the lovely old brick walls covered in ivy, with buddleia and elder growing out of them, a dilapidated row of greenhouses, a few crumbling sheds and a cluster of outbuildings in various states of disrepair. Suzie had spent months clearing out brambles and nettles, bed frames, bicycles and broken glass.

But now, five years on, with the help of a start-up grant from the local council, Suzie had it up and running, selling vegetables and fruit and opening to the public for a few weekends over the course of the year. Then there had been the newspaper column and a regular slot on local radio, garden design work and various commissions to help other people set up productive gardens. Unknowingly she had stepped into the vegetable garden, ‘grow your own’ business at just the right moment.

Now, Suzie had kids coming from local schools and students to help out, as well as half a dozen dedicated volunteers, and so she had been able to turn her passion into a full-time job.

Meanwhile Sam had been busy working as an IT manager in a local electronics company, which had fared remarkably well over the last few years despite the recession – a large part of which was down to Sam’s management style, and the previous year he had been offered the job of Managing Director.

In some ways their lives couldn’t be better. They should have been happy – except that hadn’t proved to be the case. The last couple of years or so, Sam had seemed increasingly distant and cool and a long, long way from the warm, happy, relaxed man she had married.

And now of course there was Matt, and all the potential trouble that he brought with him. Having read a feature about the walled garden in the local paper he had turned up one day to take a look around. Six foot three in his expensive hand-tooled brogues, dressed in designer jeans and a white shirt open at the neck to reveal a light natural tan and just the merest hint of chest hair, he was a feast for the eye. And from the first moment she had clapped eyes on him Suzie had had no doubt that he was trouble. Trouble with a capital T.

‘You know what you need, don’t you?’ he’d purred as she showed him around one of the newly restored greenhouses. Suzie had looked up at him, not daring to ask.

That had been just over a year ago. Suzie glanced across to the servery area where Matt was helping one of the girls sorting out champagne glasses. As if sensing her looking at him, he looked up and smiled and then winked at her. Suzie felt herself redden. This was madness; she really needed to talk to Sam about him before someone else did.

‘Suzie?’ At the sound of her name, Suzie swung round.

‘You made me jump,’ she said, flustered, wondering if her face betrayed her thoughts.

‘Are you all right?’ Sam asked, looking concerned.

‘Yes, I’m fine, just thinking,’ she said, waving the words away and pasting on a smile. ‘There’s just so much to do. How’s it going out there?’

‘Well, the good news is the band are on their way here, they shouldn’t be long.’ He looked across the marquee towards their daughter Megan, who was still valiantly shaking out tablecloths. ‘I see you’ve found Megan. Do you have any idea where Hannah is? She said she’d help me put up the fairy lights and pin up the photos on the boards.’

‘I haven’t seen her for a while,’ said Suzie, glancing over her shoulder in a lame attempt to track her down. ‘Megan said she was around earlier.’

‘We know that,’ Sam said, sounding exasperated. ‘I was hoping you might know where she is now.’

‘Hannah did promise she’d be here,’ said Suzie.

Sam sighed. ‘Yes, well we all know what Hannah’s famous promises are like at the moment, don’t we? You know, you’re way too soft on her, Suzie – always making excuses. You’re going to have to make it plain that you’re not going to put up with this kind of behaviour. She knows tonight is important to you and that you need her to be here.’

‘We,’ said Suzie, feeling a flare of indignation.

‘What?’

‘We need her here, Sam. She promised both of us. You make it sound as if she is nothing to do with you.’

‘There are days . . .’ he said grimly, before turning to Megan and yelling, ‘Megan!’ Their younger daughter swung around as if she had been bitten.

‘Oh, that’s right,’ said Suzie. ‘Have a go at the one who did show up and is helping, that’ll really help things go with a swing.’

‘I wasn’t going to have a go at her, I was just going to ask her if she knew where Hannah was,’ protested Sam. ‘Is that all right with you?’

Suzie stared at him not knowing what to say. Exactly how had things got this bad between them? They never used to be snippy and sharp with each other; they had always been not just lovers but best friends. Yet now all they seemed to do was snap at each other.

Tablecloth in hand, caught like a rabbit blinking in the headlights, Megan was standing very still as she watched the two of them.

‘I’ve already asked Megan – she doesn’t know where Hannah is either, do you, honey?’ said Suzie. Megan, still rooted to the spot, swallowed hard. ‘It’s all right, don’t look so worried, you’re fine,’ Suzie said with a wave. ‘You’re doing a great job. And the tables look great, don’t they?’

It wasn’t hard to see where Megan had been; each table had been neatly laid with a white linen table and a ruby red linen top cover and in the centre of each table a cut-glass bowl of roses, greenery and a froth of gypsophila.

‘Yes, but it doesn’t really help us find Hannah, does it?’ said Sam with a frustrated sigh.

Megan smiled at her mum and dad and said not a word.

Chapter Five