too. This is right for Siggie at the moment. It’s her life, she’s in love and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?’
Meredith nodded. It was all that mattered—she had to keep that in view.
‘How did you get to be so smart?’ she asked him.
‘And good-looking?’ he added.
‘And full of yourself!’ Meredith swatted at him with a napkin.
‘It was just a matter of choosing the right parents. After that, everything was simple.’
Meredith reached her arms out to her son. He shifted to the next seat so she could hold him. Meredith breathed him in. Every memory of their lives together was in that smell. From the day he was born and she first cradled him; when he had fallen and she had set him on his feet again; every time she had sneaked an illicit teenage cuddle. Her heart was full, she wanted nothing more than to hold him like this forever.
‘Hey, don’t get all soppy on me now.’ He laughed and unwrapped her hands from his neck. ‘Save all your tears for tomorrow.’
Jarvis held his mother’s hands and looked into her eyes.
‘Mum, there’s something else you should know. Dad’s brought his new girlfriend with him.’
‘Oh?’ Meredith gulped. It stung a little bit, but not as much as she might have expected.
‘Her name’s Tania, she writes for a TV magazine and her pearls are fake.’
Meredith had to laugh. Jarvis was her son, no doubt about it.
The sun came up on Main Beach at Byron Bay on a late April morning that was almost unnaturally still. A steady parade of surfers had stood on the cliff, murmured their insults to the ocean and turned away in disgust.
For Annie, now measuring the length of the broad beach in long strides, the temper of the water was perfect. The peaceful wash and delicate transparent curl of sea onto sand was utterly calming. The rhythmic ‘plip, plop’ of the tiny waves was a relief after the battering from the natural elements and the emotional tsunami she had experienced all the way up the coast. It was a fine day for a wedding.
Annie stopped to shrug off her T-shirt and shorts, down to her bikini, and dived into the water. It was, as Nina had promised—it seemed a lifetime ago now—deliciously warm. She crested the surface and turned back to see the sweep of the town above the low dunes, and was surprised at how low-key it all was. Here and there the tops of roofs peeked above a scrub of ti-tree, melaleuca and native palms. There was nothing much to see and, after the profusion of ugly edifices in towns strung all the way up the coast behind them, that was a blessing.
It was the drama of the mountain range behind that drew Annie’s eye. The highest peak was Mt Warning, an extinct volcano named by Captain Cook. Annie had read up on the place last night and loved its Aboriginal name—Wollumbin, the Fighting Chief of the Mountains. The cover of lush subtropical rainforest painted a dark-green silhouette that held the promise of a verdant valley and a rushing creek. Maybe that’s where she could find Annie’s Farm.
Walking back to the van she saw that Meredith was up and about, pacing the grass by the railing.
‘They’re coming to get me in a minute. Wish me luck, Annie. Christ, I’m so nervous!’
Annie put her arm around Meredith’s shoulder. ‘You’ll be fine. Remember what Nina said—just smile and give presents.’
‘Oh, that reminds me, I must get that painting. A mermaid! Sigrid will think her mother’s gone mad.’
With the painting by her feet, Meredith adjusted her pearl earrings and tugged at the jersey skirt she was wearing. Annie noted with some amusement that it was one of her own purchases from Toorak Road.
‘I hope you don’t mind—it’s one of yours. You’ve got so many beautiful things. Everything of mine’s crushed beyond recognition,’ Meredith twittered. ‘In fact, would you mind if I borrowed a dress for the wedding as well? I was thinking of that long jersey one you wore at Scotts Head—I’ve got a black lace cardigan that would look lovely with it.’
‘It’s yours,’ said Annie, pleased that Meredith could now see the sense of her emergency shopping expedition.
‘How do I look?’
Annie appraised Meredith and didn’t hesitate with her compliments. She always presented well, but this morning, smiling broadly from under her cherry-trimmed straw hat, she looked tanned, relaxed and especially vibrant. ‘Gorgeous! You look just gorgeous. Too young to be the mother of the bride.’