Page 85 of Gold Digger
Hayley lost her battle with tears then, along with most of the congregation, as she flung herself into Ollie’s waiting arms. The rest of the ceremony was performed with Hayley on Ollie’s hipand me tucked under his other arm. The picture I had blown up for our kitchen is that exact pose outside the church with Ollie smiling a massive proud smile into the camera like he couldn’t believe his luck, me beaming up at him from under his arm, and Hayley’s smiling face tucked into his neck.
“Oh balls!” Claire shouted as her plate spun off her egg. Plate spinning on hard-boiled eggs was another posh-people parlour game that I was struggling to understand. “Lottie, it’s your turn.” I’d never thought Claire was particularly quiet, more subdued, but I was coming to realise that she was just as loud and out there as her daughter. Clearly Blake had been holding her back. Their divorce had come through last week, and she’d seemed even lighter since then. She’d stopped asking if we wanted her to move out after I told her very firmly one evening, “Claire, Hayley and I have hadyearsof being a small family of two. We made it work, but you could never understand how much it means to us to live with family. And for Fanta’s sake there’s still more bathrooms than people in this joint!”
As I was spinning a plate on an egg, not something I thought I would ever need to be doing in my life, Hayley tugged on my sleeve.
“Is it time yet?” she whispered. I looked up at Brenda and Tony, who were across the room, having their faces covered in the cork soot as well, and lifted the envelope that Hayley had passed to me. Brenda nodded, and Tony took her hand, giving me a smile and a thumbs-up.
“Yes, lovebug,” I said. “Let’s do it.” I grabbed a champagne glass and tapped it with a spoon I’d swiped from earlier to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey, everyone,” I said, feeling a bit unsure now that everyone was silent. I forced a smile and cleared my throat. Ollie frowned at me from across the room. He could tell my forced smiles from my real ones. “So, Hayley has something to say.She wanted to say this herself, but as you know, her voice isn’t the loudest, so if we could have a bit of quiet just for a couple of minutes, we’d be super grateful.” Ollie’s long legs had eaten up the distance between us, and he was now by my side when Hayley got to her feet.
“Hi,” Hayley said in such a small voice a few people had to lean forward to strain to hear her. My heart felt like it was in my throat. “I wanted to give Ollie my present and…” she trailed off, then tugged on my hand. I leaned down to her, and she whispered in my ear. “It seems a bit silly now. Is it silly?” My throat closed over, and I took her face in my hands.
“It’s not silly, lovebug,” I said fiercely. “Nobody will think that. Least of all, Ollie.”
“What’s going on?” Ollie said, worry in his voice now. “Hails? You okay, darling?”
Hayley squared her shoulders and turned to him, losing the nerve now to address the entire room. “I wanted to give you a present, but maybe it’s a bit silly,” she said in a small voice.
“I would never think that anything you give me is silly, stowaway,” Ollie told her, crouching down to her level.
Hayley ducked her head and looked down at her feet as she handed the envelope to Ollie. He took it and ripped it open, looked it over briefly. When he realised what it was, his eyes closed for a moment, and when he opened them, the expression on his face was savagely beautiful.
“Hayley,” he breathed before pulling her in for a hug, the papers clutched in his hand.
“You don’t think it’s stupid?” Hayley whispered in his ear, and he pulled back slightly to rest his forehead on hers.
“No, baby,” he told her. “This is the best present I’ve ever had in my life. It’s anything but stupid.”
“What is it?” Claire shouted. Standing up from her game of Twister with her hands on her hips.
“Mum, you numpty,” Florrie said in her patented exasperated tone. “Those are adoption papers. Hayley gave Uncle Ollieher. Gosh, you adults are so dense sometimes.”
“Brenda and Tony managed to obtain the consent we needed.” They’d finally tracked down their son. It had broken their hearts, but he’d been only too happy to sign away his parental rights. “We’ll be her legal guardians together,” I told Ollie hesitantly, and he transferred his fierce expression to me. Lifting Hayley in his arms between us, he wrapped us both in a hug. “There’s another present,” I whispered in his ear. “But not for another seven or so months.” He froze, his shocked eyes flying to mine before a massive smile took over his face and he lifted us both off our feet and spun us both around as if we weighed nothing at all. Hayley and I squealed, and everyone there clapped and cheered.
And that photo, snapped by Margot, who, despite being in floods of tears still knew a good shot when she saw one, went next to our wedding shot. Every morning, I’d drink my tea from my fancy cup and stare at those photos. Most mornings, when Ollie would catch me doing it, he’d kiss me back to the present, drawing disgusted groans from Claire and the girls. Because that was family. You wound them up, you drove them crazy, but, above all, you loved them.