Mel’s expression froze somewhere between disbelief and horror.
‘Yes, he is.’
I was trying very hard not to laugh, but it was getting harder by the second.
‘He’s a graphic designer and a pretty amazing artist, but he’s definitely not an engineer.’
‘Shit!’ Mel cried, leaping to her feet. ‘Why did he volunteer to fix it then?’
This time there was no holding back my laughter. ‘I don’t think he did. He was kind of pounced on by your other half.’ I threw another look into the garden, where people were passing Rhys various tools. It looked for all the world like a surgical operation. ‘But apparently his Australian mate has a fancy barbie, and if he’s willing to have a go at fixing yours...’
Mel plonked back down on the stool. ‘I feel like such an idiot. I don’t know how I muddled up engineer with designer. I guess I’m distracted at the moment.’ She must have sensed my gaze sharpening. ‘You know, what with having this many neighbours round for a party. We’ve not done it before. I just want everything to go right.’
‘It will,’ I said, my eyes going to the kitchen table which was overflowing with bottles of wine, Prosecco, and beer. ‘You’ve got enough alcohol to make everything run smoothly, and if all else fails, we’ll just get takeaway pizza for everyone.’
Mel looked at me as though I’d just found a cure for cancer. ‘I knew you’d come to the rescue.’ This time she looked out into the garden. ‘Was he that hot the night we met him in the bar?’
I smiled. ‘He sure was.’
‘Then I commend your excellent taste.’
‘Pwah. I didn’t get to choose him. The lightning did that.’
Mel rolled her eyes expressively. ‘However he came into your life, perhaps this one is worth hanging on to.’
‘I worry we’re too different. He’s nothing like any of the men I’ve dated before.’
‘To use your estate agent language, I think that might be his biggest USP,’ Mel said, with best-friend candour. ‘He might have some issues... but, hon – and I say this with love – you do too. If you both want to make this thing work, don’t let him be the one who got away.’
I wanted to tell her that I wouldn’t, but nothing about Rhys and me was a foregone conclusion. We were about a million miles away from a happy-ever-after ending, but for the first time I was willing to take that journey.
‘I bloody love your boyfriend.’ I’m not sure if it was enthusiastic gratitude, or several cans from a six-pack talking, but fifteen minutes later Steve came charging into the kitchen in search of the tray of sausages and burgers. ‘He’s only gone and fixed it.’
I gave a secret smile. ‘Artists do that,’ I said, enjoying the private joke that flew straight over Steve’s head.
‘Now the celebrations can get going properly,’ Steve declared, throwing a tea towel over one shoulder with more panache than accuracy. As he bent to pick it up off the floor, I turned my curious gaze to Mel.
‘What is it that we’re celebrating?’
Her eyes flickered for a moment. ‘Oh, nothing in particular,’ she said, and I caught a glimpse of the look she shot her husband. ‘Just having a party to celebrate summer, you know. Like you do.’
‘As long as we all don’t have to get naked and dance around some standing stones,’ said a voice that was always guaranteed to make me smile.
I leapt to my feet and quickly crossed the room to throw my arms around Jackson’s neck.
‘That only happens in September,’ Mel quipped, smiling at us both. ‘We’ve still got almost a week to go before then.’
‘Shame,’ Jackson said, releasing me just enough so that he could wind an arm around my waist. ‘I think that tall drink of water of a boyfriend you’ve snagged might look pretty good disrobed.’
‘Tall drink of water?’ I said, spluttering in the glass of Prosecco that Mel had just poured me. It didn’t surprise me at all that she was sticking to lemonade. ‘Just what era did you steal that one from? And as for how he looks disrobed, I really wouldn’t know.’
In a contest of whose eyebrows rose highest, I think it was a photo finish between Jackson and Steve.
‘Honestly, can we all stop thinking about my boyfriend being naked.’
‘I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend,’ all three of them chorused in perfect unison.
‘Oh, shut up,’ I said, laughing in a way that sounded giddy and light-headed and had absolutely nothing to do with the Prosecco.