Page 12

Holly recalled the look on Jamie’s face as Fin whispered in her ear. That was the moment. She realised it now. That was the moment Jamie knew what was going to happen.

‘You could have let me know somehow,’ she said.

‘Really? How? What did you want me to do? Wave across the table and say, “I needed to talk to you about something,” just after Fin told me?’

‘Well, you could’ve been more subtle about it than that,’ Holly said with a sniff.

With a long sigh, Jamie looked across at the barman, who was on his phone.

‘Is he getting the extra champagne?’ she said.

‘I was just about to order it,’ Holly huffed.

‘Two more bottles of champagne please.’ Jamie gestured to the barman. A moment later, he was filling an ice bucket. ‘I know this isn’t going to be easy for you,’ Jamie said softly, ‘but maybe that feeling you’re feeling right now is telling you something. Something you haven’t really wanted to admit to yourself.’

Holly scoffed. ‘You mean that Giles is still the same egocentric arse he always was, having to make every situation about him?’

‘No, that isn’t what I meant. Holly, surely you can tell it’s not normal to be upset that your friends are getting married, right? You wouldn’t feel like that if it was Ben and Georgia getting engaged.’

‘Of course I wouldn’t. They’re in an actual relationship. They have children together. It would be entirely different.’

‘And you don’t think there’s another difference here? What with it being Giles and everything.’

It was hard to deny Jamie was right about something. Why was she so angry? Apart from Giles usurping the evening and Sienna being a less than ideal match for him, it was probably the shock, she realised. Shock that she had been the last to know. Fin, Jamie, they all knew before she did, when she was meant to be Giles’s best friend. That was what the issue was. That was why she was so freaking angry with him.

‘That’ll be eighty-eight pounds, please, love,’ the barman said, placing a bottle of champagne in a new ice bucket in front of them. ‘Do you want to split the cost?’

‘No,’ Jamie and Holly spoke simultaneously.

‘No,’ Holly repeated, ‘I’ll get it. I’ll pay for it. The last thing I want is for people to think I’m not pleased for my friend.’

With that, she tapped her card against the machine, picked up the ice bucket and strode back to the table.

12

‘Holly, you must look at this ring. It’s absolutely stunning, isn’t it?’

The moment Holly arrived back at the table with the bottle of champagne, Caroline was there holding Sienna’s hand in hers, twisting it up at the wrist, so the diamond that sat on Sienna’s ring finger was now facing Holly.

A slight prickling came from behind her eyes, which may or may not have been due to the light shining off said diamond and directly into her eye.

‘Wow, yes, that’s beautiful,’ she said, choking back the feeling that was once again writhing in her stomach.

‘It’s very cute, that’s what it is,’ Sienna said. Her smile was unbelievably wide, and she kept wiping her hand against her cheeks, as if she was still having to brush away tears, although it didn’t look to Holly like she was crying any more. And somehow, even though the initial bout of tears had been more than a little dramatic, her makeup had stayed perfectly in place. If it had been anyone else, Holly would have asked her what brand of mascara she used, but it didn’t feel quite right to say such a thing during what was clearly meant to be an emotional moment. ‘I mean, it’s really delicate, isn’t it? Understated.’

‘Absolutely,’ Holly said, though Sienna didn’t respond. Instead, she held her hand slightly higher before turning her wrist and allowing the light to fall on the stone from all directions.

It was only when Sienna cleared her throat that Holly realised she had been standing there for several minutes more without saying something. But what could she say? She still had dozens of questions rolling through her head. Like when had Giles gone shopping for it? He had said he was staying in last week, to rest up, the way the doctors had told him he needed to do, but did that mean he had bought it before or had he lied to Holly about how he was spending the week? He hadn’t mentioned to her that he was planning on buying a ring or even looking at them. Wasn’t that the type of thing you’d normally take a best friend with you to do? Especially when that best friend was female?

‘You are very, very lucky,’ she said as Caroline continued to gush away about things like insurance and checking the setting prongs. ‘I hope you don’t mind. I’m just gonna go outside to ring the house and check on Hope.’

‘Check on Hope?’ Caroline asked in surprise as she finally looked away from Sienna. ‘Why are you going to do that? She’ll be fine. It’s not like we haven’t been out for dinner before.’

‘No, it’s just, she was just feeling a little bit unwell when we left,’ Holly lied. ‘Nothing serious. I think it’s nerves about the school performance, so I just want to check in quickly.’

‘Oh, well, I do hope she’s okay,’ Sienna said. ‘And don’t worry, I’ll make sure there’s plenty of champagne left.’

‘Great. Wonderful,’ Holly said.