How could anyone not want Oliver Blackwood? Unlike Bridge, I’d never bothered to imagine what it might be like to be proposed to.
But I couldn’t imagine it feeling better than this.
“Fine,” I told him. “Since you asked so nicely, I’ll not marry you.”
And I guess the lack of sleep and the wedding-day stress and the whole not getting married after all had finally caught up with Oliver. Because he pulled me tightly into his arms and started laughing. “Lucien O’Donnell, you have made me the happiest of men.”
There was a knock on the door, and the nice humanist minister stuck her head briefly back in. “One minute, guys.”
“We’ll be right out,” I called from where my head was buried in the crook of Oliver’s neck.
I don’t know if we actually waited a minute, but then Oliver gently untangled us, took my hand, and led me through to face all the people who we loved and who loved us and who we’d massively inconvenienced for no reason.
Mum, Judy, and Eugenie were in the front row, two of the three doing an excellent job of not licking the other guests. The Blackwood contingent was on the other side, Mia looking genuinely happy to be there, Miriam looking like social expectation in a cream dress. A couple of rows back, I caught sight of Bridge, wearing an enormous hat and already crying on Tom’s shoulder. The James Royce-Royces, of course, were far more interested in Baby J than anything that could possibly be happening around them. And from there it was just a supportive blur of older friends, nearish relations, and the coworkers who’d insisted on coming.
At the front of the room, our best men were waiting for us. Priya, in deference to the occasion, had worn her formal Docs. And the moment she laid eyes on us, she gave me the oddest little smirk, like she knew something was up. Like she’d probably always known.
As we entered—awkwardly in advance of our own music—there was a sudden silence. I didn’t realise quite how many people were in my life until they were all in one smallish room staring at me and wondering what the fuck I was doing.
My hand wilted in Oliver’s. Making a wedding happen had been bad enough. I had no idea how to make one unhappen.
“Thank you for coming,” said Oliver, as if he did this kind of thing all the time. Which, between this and his dad’s funeral, he almost did. “I’m afraid Lucien and I have decided that marriage isn’t right for either of us, and we’d rather be together on our own terms. Please do enjoy the party and make the most of the open bar.”
And then we ran.
Hand in hand.
Up the aisle.
Out the doors.
Through the venue.
And into the sudden storm that had turned a busy London street into… Well, okay, it was still a busy London street. But the pavement was shining silver and the raindrops were playing our tune and I was in Oliver’s arms, and we were laughing and kissing, and all around us the passers-by were putting up umbrellas in every colour of the rainbow.
SPOTLIGHT ON BOOKSELLERS: Q&A WITH ALEXIS HALL AND CATHY
BERNER
Why did you return to the world of Luc and Oliver and their friends? Was that always the plan?
Err, it definitely wasn’t the plan. I’ve sort of just reached the point in my career that I can sell more than one book at a time, but in general I very much work on the assumption that things will be standalones unless stated otherwise. I think the one exception is probably the Arden St Ives series, which was sold as a complete trilogy.
Plus, there isn’t much precedent for direct sequels in the rom-com subgenre. So, y’know, this could be a terrible disaster. Watch this space, I guess?
In general, I try to write romances that feel, to me, like a complete arc—even if I’m leaving the characters in a HFN space rather than an HEA space. With Luc and Oliver, though, I sincerely felt there was more story to tell. We see them grow a lot over the course of the first book but it’s clear they have a long way to go both in terms of who they are as people and how they fit into the world.
And, once I started thinking about it, I realised I did have something quite specific I wanted to do with Husband Material. So…
here we are.
When writing this sequel to Boyfriend Material, how did you decide which characters got “screen time”？ Were there any characters you wished you could spend more time with?
I think part of it is that both Boyfriend Material and Husband Material are told from Luc’s POV, so his friends are necessarily going to be more central. I do wish there’d been a bit more space for Oliver’s friends in this book （Jennifer and Peter both get a cameo, and I think Brian gets a mention） but given the focus of the book is on weddings and most of Oliver’s friends are quite pointedly already married there wasn’t a natural place for them.