through the sudden atmosphere. The diplomatic corps had been denied a star in the making. ‘As well as Dad, I’m also known as Miles. You can call me Miles.’ He had Sam’s big friendly smile, and none of his wife’s earlier reserve. I wanted to hug him.
‘Nice to meet you too.’ Nerves and Victoria’s cool murderous gaze, which, although I avoided, I could feel down to every last goosebump, made me chatty. ‘You’ve done an amazing job on the garden. Uncle Richard has severe lawn-envy. I’d watch him if he offers to cut the grass next time you go away.’
Miles laughed. ‘Garden wars! I’ll watch out for that.’ And with that quick easy exchange, I knew I’d been accepted, and I breathed a tad easier.
‘And I’m Miles’s better-looking and younger brother,’ said Uncle Jeff, holding out a wiry arm to shake my hand. ‘Always nice to meet a beautiful young lady. And you’re a friend of Sam’s, are you?’
Miles closed his eyes briefly before lifting them heavenward. Victoria’s mouth flattened.
‘Yes,’ I said, keeping it short and sweet. What else could I say without causing embarrassment to everyone? ‘My aunt and uncle live next door.’
‘That’s nice,’ said Jeff. ‘And of course, you know this cracker, young Victoria.’
‘Er…’ OK, now we were straying into awkward territory. Did I acknowledge that we’d met once before? Probably best left.
Luckily, Jeff, Mr Avuncular, didn’t need a response. Instead, he turned to Victoria, oblivious to his near brush with death. ‘You and Sam have been going steady for a good few years now.’ He prodded at Sam with his elbow, winking at me as if to include me in the gang. ‘When are you going to make an honest woman of her? You youngsters, you don’t half drag things out. You want to snap Victoria up, Sam. If I were forty years younger…’
Sam, Victoria, Miles and I all froze, not one of us daring to look at each other.
‘I’ll leave you to explain that one, Sam,’ snapped Victoria, her whole body radiating incandescent fury as she grabbed her wine glass and marched away with an explosive toss of her glossy brown hair.
‘Oh dear,’ said Jeff, with the benign bumbling affability of the socially inept, looking at Sam with puzzlement. ‘Had a bit of tiff, have we?’
‘Victoria and I aren’t together anymore,’ said Sam, his jaw tight.
‘Oh.’ Poor Jeff’s face went through a series of expressions as he tried to backtrack through everything he’d said and make sense of Sam’s strained announcement. ‘Ah, that’s a bit of a shame. Lovely girl like that.’ Then he clapped Sam on the back. ‘Never mind. You’ll soon patch things up. Play your cards right, I’m sure a sensible lad like you will work it out. Sometimes you have to do a bit of grovelling. She’ll come back.’
‘Jeff, why don’t you come and see the garden,’ suggested Miles, his mouth twisted with wry apology as he looked at me. If I liked him before, I liked him even more now. There was a quiet gentleness about him that made him feel like an ally.
‘Garden? I’ve seen the garden.’
‘You need to see it again,’ said Miles firmly, taking his brother’s arm and leading him away.
‘OK,’ said a rather bewildered Jeff.
There was a long-drawn-out silence as Sam and I stared at each other, unsure what to say while the tension took its time to settle, like dust motes gradually sinking back into place.
‘Ouch, sorry, Jess. Bloody Uncle Jeff. I could have put money on it.’ Sam shook his head.
My smile was tight. Something like this had been inevitable. ‘I guess the worst is over now,’ I said. ‘Your poor dad… He was mortified.’
‘Yeah, although he’s used to Jeff putting his feet in things. You OK?’
‘Sure. We always knew it was going to be awkward.’
‘Not that awkward.’ He leaned forward and lifted my chin to kiss me. ‘But like you say, the worst is over.’
Was it? Somehow I doubted it very much. At least Jeff’s faux pas had diverted us from his own. He’d been so busy chatting, he’d forgotten all about me waiting for him in the garden, and now wasn’t the time to bring it up. We needed to put on a united front as there were quite a few people keeping a watchful eye on us.
We left the kitchen and joined a group of people on the lawn, friends of Miles and Sally who’d clearly known Sam for a very long time. When Sam introduced me to Gaynor, Mike, Felicity and