“I’m so pleased to meet you all,” he says, and his expression is so genuine and excited that it takes my breath. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Ditto,” Sarah says, and Ant must clock the similar tone she and I use when we say it. He gives me a glance with a fresh smile.
“I just hope you haven’t heard we’re all wankers,” Dad says with a laugh, giving Ant a friendly slap on the arm.
We head inside and Mum puts coffee on. Ant takes a seat on the sofa and strikes up conversation with Dave, asking questions about the local football team.
“You play for them in reserve, right?”
“Yeah,” Dave says, and they are deep in chat from the off, with Dad joining in with them, talking through local matches and what’s been happening there.
I’ve never heard Ant talk about football before. I didn’t think he liked it, and don’t remember ever telling him that Dave plays in reserve for Bucklebury Rovers.
It must be another one for the drunk Cass list of conversations. Urgh. Embarrassing. Yet more reason to add don’t get trashed on De Chante constantly to my good-girl list.
Football bores me senseless, so I must have been absolutely wasted to talk about it. I must’ve blurted out a fair bit, since Ant knows so much about Bucklebury Rovers that he can mention the key players by name. I was most likely giving their stories of who they’ve dated and when, but I must have said some relevant football stuff, at least. Ant looks like as much of a football fan as Dad and Dave are. A thumbs-up on the rapport front, not that Ant will ever need help with that.
Please, God, I hope he doesn’t ever want me to go to a game with him. I’ll always choose hanging out with Mum and Sarah instead of anything to do with Bucklebury Rovers. Talking of which, I head into the kitchen with them as soon as Mum has handed Ant his water. Harry is off in his own world upstairs, no doubt watching a giraffe documentary, so it’s just us. The girls together.
Sarah tries her best to stay quiet as she gushes at me.
“He’s fucking amazing! Oh my God, Cass! Oh my God.”
Mum is grinning as bright as she is.
“I knew he would be,” she says. “I could see it every time you spoke about him. I’ve never seen you so happy in your life.”
“I know,” I tell them. “Honestly, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“I was so worried he wouldn’t live up to the hype,” Mum carries on. “But he does, I can see that already. He looks at you like you’re a queen.”
“So he should do,” Sarah says. “Unlike the asshole prick you left behind.”
Mum gives Sarah a shhh, with a frown, but Sarah shrugs.
“What? I can’t help but say it. Ant only makes it more obvious. He makes Jack look like even more of a loser dickhead than he did before. I might go and give him a high five for fucking you over, since it’s the best thing he ever did. One look at Ant will make him realise you’re worth your weight in gold. You’d never be with a guy like him if you weren’t.”
Slowly but surely, a tiny step at a time, I’m beginning to believe it. My confidence has grown so much since being in Malvern. Being back in Mum’s kitchen only reinforces just how much. I was a very different woman when I left here.
I pick the moment to show them the diamond around my neck. Sarah does a jump up and down, then echoes the sentiment of everyone else who’s caught sight of it.
“Just imagine what your engagement ring is going to look like!”
I grin a grin of absolute bliss, and Sarah gestures back to the living room.
“Let’s go get to know the future in-law,” she laughs. “Football chat can get stuffed.”
Football chat does get stuffed when we join them. I take my seat at Ant’s side where I belong, and conversation flows so easily that it’s clear Ant has always belonged here with me.
He fetches a bottle of De Chante from the car when everyone has done with their coffees, and Mum grabs a load of crystal glasses that are so far back in the cupboard that she has to stretch to reach them. I think they were last out for Auntie Doreen’s seventieth birthday, five years ago.
“To me and the beautiful Cassandra,” Ant says and raises up his mineral water as everyone else raises the fizz. He takes my hand and kisses it, looking like the proudest man alive.
“I’ve got a confession for you all,” he tells them. “Please don’t take it like I’m stepping out of a romance movie, but I can’t help but tell you the truth. I knew Cassandra was the woman for me the very first moment I set eyes on her.”