Chapter 3

The afternoon and evening turned into a rather fun time, for Shelly – much to her surprise.

Once her family had gotten past her recent breakup, they were some of her most favourite people to be around.

And she and Kelly stayed together and with a little bit of quick shuffling, Kelly arranged it so that they and Brian and Dean were able to sit together at one of the smaller tables.

Dean sat next to Shelly and the four of them were able to talk and laugh their way through the meal, and even though afterwards, Shelly could not remember exactly what they had talked about, she found herself smiling a lot.

When they moved through to the room where there was music playing, Brian and Dean followed them closely and even joined in with the energetic dancing which took them well into the evening.

At about ten o’clock though, Shelly’s mum came over, and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

“Have you managed to make other arrangements for tonight,” she whispered to Shelly.

Shelly hugged her quickly and smiled in reassurance. “Yes, me and Kelly are having a girly night ... she is letting me shelter at her house.”

Her mum sighed with relief. “Oh good, I am glad that it’s Kelly, I would have worried I think, if it had been anyone else, but her.”

“Yes, me too.” Shelly agreed, as she stepped back a little.

Her mum looked past her to where Kelly was chatting with Brian and Dean. “Brian’s friend seems nice,” she said giving her daughter a pointed look.

Shelly grinned as she remembered her mum’s comment earlier that day about Shelly loosening up and indulging in an affair or two.

“Don’t go poking your nose in, mother dear, it might get bitten off ... and besides I think you have your plate full with your own affairs.”

Her mum actually blushed!

Shelly could not remember a time when she had seen her mother looking so flustered, and almost girly.

“I should go,” she said awkwardly, and Shelly suddenly saw how nervous her mum was.

“Uncle Pete is a good man, who has loved you for a very long time – I think,” she whispered as she hugged her parent again. “Just be honest with him, and let him decided what he wants from his relationship with you now, let him take control.”

“Yes, I will try.” Her mum stepped back and smiled nervously. “Wish me luck though, because I think I might need it.”

“You won’t need it,” Shelly shook her head, and she smiled as well. “But I will wish you good luck any way – if only to let you know that I’m on your side with this.”

Dean stood watching as mother and daughter talked earnestly, and he could see the concern in Shelly’s face, but as the two of them hugged, he could see the mutual love and affection that the two of them shared.

He had seen a lot of that over the last few hours, as cousins and aunts and uncles mixed and mingled and intruded on their little foursome to chat for a while, and to laugh and to joke, before wandering off again to talk with someone else.

It was a large family that was full of love for one another, and Dean who had been raised by a single father, and then totally orphaned as a teenager, had never known or felt anything quite like it.

He had been fifteen at the time, and considered too old for fostering, too close to being an adult for it to be worth the expense and effort that it would have taken to arrange any fostering.

Dean has been left a sizable inheritance from his father, in the form of a life insurance policy. He could not fully inherit until his eighteenth birthday, but on his sixteenth he could start to cash in some of it, as long as he justified it to the guardian who was taking care of his interests for him. His guardian was a firm of solicitors and although it was a business arrangement for the firm, the solicitor in charge of his account was a middle-aged man and a father of three teenage sons.

Dean smiled as he thought of his surrogate family, and of Chris the elder son who had become a very good friend to Dean. The two of them were of a similar age and had a lot of interests in common.

When Dean started up his haulage company, Chris had been on hand to help, until his own ambitions began to call, and the two men had gone their separate ways in business, but were still close in their personal lives.

Chris was away at the moment which was one of the reasons why Dean had been at a loose end, and had agreed to accompany Brian to this family affair.

He had not really thought much about today, other than a chance to see Brian in a different environment before he offered him the promotion, he was thinking of offering him...

She gave her mum a final hug, and then watched her as she walked across the room to Uncle Pete. She smiled at the look in Pete’s eyes, as she reached him, and his hand rested lightly in the middle of her mother’s back. It had a casual air of intimacy to it that left Shelly feeling reassured even if a little jealous. She gave a shrug of her shoulders and then turned to re-join the others.

She was aware of Dean’s eyes on her, but refused to meet his look. She liked him, even though she had only known him for just a few hours, she liked him a lot, and she was attracted to him as well, but then who wouldn’t be, he was quite the hunk!