Mother of the Bride Read Online Free Page A

about her. She’s tall and very elegant and rather full of herself. A bit intimidating!’
    â€˜Do you remember I had the mother-in-law from hell?’
    Helen laughed, remembering Fran’s mother-in-law, Gladys, who had visited every Sunday and always complained about the dinner Fran had made.
    â€˜She was a right rip! She had me scalded. Nothing I could ever say or do was good enough for her. She criticized my cooking, my cleaning, my childrearing, my weight.’
    â€˜At least she spoke to you.’ Helen laughed. ‘Bridey O’Connor didn’t speak to me for years. She thought I wasn’t good enough for Paddy. She rarely visited, and made me feel so unwelcome when we used to go down to Cork that eventually I stopped going.’
    â€˜But you were good to her in the end, Helen.’
    â€˜She was Paddy’s mother. I wouldn’t have it on my conscience not to be good to her.’
    â€˜God, I hope we don’t end up like that with our daughters-in-law,’ worried Fran.
    â€˜You and Sandra get on like a house on fire – although of course she isn’t actually married to Greg,’ teased Helen. ‘Anyhow, I don’t think Carmel’s that bad. It’s just she’s rather distant and caught up in her own life.’
    They walked along the leaf-strewn paths, turning down by the lake, where Barney barked at the ducks dabbling in the muddy water. Then they passed by the new playground, where a few mothers watched toddlers playing on the swings and slides.
    â€˜Pity they didn’t have that here when ours were young,’ said Helen aloud.
    â€˜Are you mad? We’d never have got them out of it! I brought little Saoirse here when I was minding her one day last week, and I had to bodily lift her, hysterical, from the swings, and she screamed the park down. A woman came over to check that I wasn’t kidnapping her.’
    â€˜Things have changed so much.’ Helen laughed. ‘We used to let our kids run around this place on their own. The only worry wasthat they’d fall in the water with the ducks. We’d be called unfit mothers these days for letting them loose in the park without an adult.’
    â€˜Do you remember the time my Lisa walked to the shopping centre? She can’t have been more than three years old and the security guard brought her home.’
    â€˜You hadn’t even missed her,’ said Helen. ‘God, it was so easy and uncomplicated then.’
    After doing another circuit of the park they turned for home and a celebratory cup of coffee back in Helen’s place, with Fran promising to give her an idea of how to start planning a wedding.

Chapter Five
    Amy and Dan decided to hold a party to celebrate their engagement a few days after they got back from Italy, but when Amy looked around their two-bedroom apartment in Milltown, she wondered how in heaven they were going to squeeze so many friends and family into such a small space!
    As they were one of the first of their group to get engaged there was great excitement, and having a party seemed the perfect way to announce it. Both sets of parents were coming to the party, Dan saying it was a chance for them to meet in a relaxed, informal way. Amy worried that they wouldn’t hit it off.
    All week everyone had been congratulating them. Norah Fortune and the crew in Solutions, the marketing company where Amy worked, had made a great fuss and bought a big chocolate cake.
    â€˜You came home with more than a tan from Italy,’ Jilly had joked, admiring her ring.
    â€˜Do you think there are enough candles?’ Amy asked.
    â€˜Enough? The place looks like a church!’
    â€˜Candlelight is romantic!’ she teased, slipping into his arms.
    â€˜I’m feeling romantic, then.’ Daniel mussed Amy’s freshly blow-driedhair as she tried to stop him. Undeterred, he ran his hand sensually over her hips in the silky blue and grey wrap dress she