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As gently as she could, Holly prised the envelope out of Hope’s hands. Her eyes lingered on her name. During all the excitement, she had forgotten that Maud had given her this. For a second, she contemplated opening it there and then, but she was in such a good mood, and her heart was the lightest she could remember in a long time. The last thing she wanted to do was to cast a shadow over that. Besides, whatever words Maud had written deserved her full attention, and there was no way she would get that until Hope was in bed. So, having taken the envelope, Holly placed it in the side drawer of her bed.

‘Come on, bath time, you,’ she said, picking up Hope and planting a large kiss on her belly.

When Hope was in bed, Holly headed downstairs to find Evan fast asleep on the sofa. His arm was slung over the side, his head tipped all the way back. She took the phone from him and placed it on the table before heading over to the kitchen. She only needed one hand to make scrambled eggs, after all, and there was no need to spend money on a takeaway when it was just her eating.

Aiming to stay quiet and not disturb him, she opened the lower cupboard where she kept her pans, only for everything to fall out with a clatter.

She jumped back in surprise.

‘What! What happened?’

On the other side of the room, Evan was on his feet with a look of utter bemusement on his face, which quickly changed to fear.

‘Holly? What happened? Are you okay?’

Holly shook her head, the shock of the sudden clattering replaced by confusion as she tried to understand why she now had dozens of kitchen utensils scattered around on the floor. Something didn’t make sense. Everything fitted so neatly, normally. And there was always plenty of room. As she went to pick up the mess, her eyes fell on one particular item. Shiny, new looking, and very, very large. With her one hand on her hip, she turned around and faced Evan.

‘Did you buy a new frying pan?’

As he looked at her, his bottom lip protruded ever so slightly, as if he was a sulky teenager.

‘What can I say? I like my pancakes.’

Holly let out a sigh that turned involuntarily into a grin.

‘Fine then. But as you’re awake now, you’re the one making the scrambled eggs.’

67

The week and a half before the wedding passed at an unprecedented pace, with everywhere Holly turned filled with a chaos of the best type. There were dress fittings, which for her included needing to find a way to fit her cast into her outfit, cake tastings, meetings with caterers – not to mention putting together the sweet platters which Jamie had asked Holly to do. Jamie, who hadn’t thought she would be doing anything so last minute for the wedding, had several tiling and handyman jobs booked in that she didn’t want to cancel and had sent various groups in her place. Caroline went with Fin to check out the caterers, while Holly accompanied the groom-to-be for a final check of the flowers, not to mention a supermarket run for all the champagne they were going to need for the day.

And most of the time, wherever Holly went, Evan was there too. Like an oversized, but very welcome, shadow. Holly had become accustomed to them spending their days together. Sometimes, she would come home from the shop and find him in the cottage, tapping away at his laptop or on a video call to an office on the other side of the world. But other times, he was playing with Hope. Hope, it appeared, had taken to him evenquicker than Holly, and while her parents had yet to forgive him entirely for the Vespa incident, progress had been made over a Sunday lunch when he brought a sweet potato dish he had made from scratch.

Their little family was as close to perfect as she could have hoped. There was just one issue: it couldn’t last.

‘I’m looking at my schedule for the next two months. I need to be in New York, then San Francisco, then I’m back in the UK for two weeks before I go to Dubai,’ Evan said, looking at the calendar on his phone. ‘Those are the ones I can’t say no to.’

It was the evening before the wedding and, if they were sticking to the previous schedule Evan had given her, he was going to be leaving in forty-eight hours. Just the thought was enough to make Holly’s heart ache.

‘New York, San Francisco and…?’

Holly struggled to keep track of the places in her head. In the space of two months, Evan was going to visit more countries than she had done in her entire life.

‘Dubai, but that’s only for three nights. Nothing major.’

‘Okay.’

She tried to sound casual, like nipping over to Dubai really was something casual, not the major event it would have been for her.

She wanted to see if Evan was going to say any more but he was back tapping away on his computer, every now and then stopping to swipe at his phone.

‘I was thinking, when I get back, I can just come back here. There’s no need for me to go to London other than for a couple of days. And I can get the train up easily enough.’

‘Are you sure?’ Holly said, trying to not sound too excited. It would make a huge difference to how much time they could spend together if he wasn’t staying in London between travelling.

‘Positive. Although maybe we could spend a couple of nights there together? I’m sure Ben wouldn’t mind. I’ve already said he and Georgia can use the apartment the next time they’re planning a trip to the city.’

‘You did?’ Holly said.