There was a sea of familiar faces, Anna realised, and every one of them wished her well.
Alex Walker, her childhood friend from the island, stood next to his new boyfriend and winked as she passed. Her good friends from university, making silly, ecstatic faces. Tom Faulkner and Jeff Pinter, both welling up. Jack Lowerson, wearing a brand new shiny grey suit that caught the glare of the sun, and then Ryan’s parents, who smiled at her as if she already belonged.
Then, Ryan.
He stood looking out across the water but then he turned to look at her. In that moment, there might have been nobody but the two of them in the world. She would never forget the quiet love in his eyes that were fathoms deep and filled with promise.
*
While Anna and Ryan stood hand in hand, a woman watched them from the sand dunes. “Lovely day for a wedding, isn’t it?”
An old man with a cocker spaniel stood beside her, taking in the charming scene.
“Looks like they’re having a reception on the village green,” he added, looking over his shoulder at an impressive marquee. “Local wedding, I reckon.”
“He’s not local.”
“Well, they’re a good-looking couple,” he commented cheerfully.
“Yes. They are, aren’t they?”
There was a note in her voice he didn’t like, and the dog let out a bark.
“Well, I best be getting on,” he said, but there was no friendly rejoinder and he moved on across the dunes, leaving the woman to her quiet thoughts.