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‘No, I think she is perfectly pleasant?—’

‘Perfectly pleasant. Wow, that really is a compliment.’

Holly’s temperature was rising and she could feel her back teeth grinding together, but she would not lose her cool. She refused to.

‘Well, what do you expect me to say? You haven’t answered my question yet, have you? I just wanted to know.’

‘Why Sienna. Yes, I heard you. I don’t know. It just felt like the right time to make this decision. I’m nearly forty, Holly, and with everything that happened, I realised I needed to think about the future. Properly for once.’

Holly scoffed, then shook her head, lifting her hands in the air.

‘So what you’re basically saying is that you had an accident, suddenly feared your mortality and decided that’s it. I’m going to propose before I get too old.’

‘When you put it like that, it sounds horrendous.’

‘It’s only horrendous if it’s true,’ Holly responded. ‘So is it? Is it true? You only proposed to her because of the accident?’

This wasn’t the type of thing good friends did. Backing him into a corner, near enough shouting at him. And she wasn’t even sure why she was doing it. But she needed to know the answer. Every part of her needed to know.

‘I love Sienna,’ Giles said. ‘She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s funny, and she’s good for me.’

‘That doesn’t answer the question, though,’ Holly said. ‘Would you have proposed, had you not had the accident?’

‘Maybe not.’ He shrugged slightly. ‘But maybe that’s not a bad thing. That accident gave me the wake-up call I needed. I don’t want to be on my own forever, Holly, and I don’t need to be. I have an amazing woman who will be a wonderful mother to my children.’

‘Jesus, you’re talking about children already.’

‘Yes, because I’m thinking about the future. It’s taken me a long time to get there. To be a person who doesn’t just think in the moment. Who acts sensibly, grown-up. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? I thought this was the type of person you’d been wanting me to be all along.’

Holly stood there in silence. Everything he had said made perfect sense. And who was to say that one person’s reason for proposing wasn’t as justified as another’s? However he came to the decision, it all boiled down to one point: Giles wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sienna and start a family with her. Why did it matter what had spurred him into popping the question?

Drawing in a deep breath, she unclenched her hands from her sides and slackened the tightness in her jaw.

‘Fine,’ she said.

‘Fine?’ Giles raised an eyebrow.

‘Fine, I understand. Everything is good.’

His expression didn’t change. If anything, it became even more sceptical. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, I asked a question, and you gave me a reasonable, thought-out answer. That makes perfect sense. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to order this fudge. I can’t risk the suppliers running out now places are getting busy again.’

Holly lowered her gaze to the laptop, although she could still feel Giles’s eyes boring into her. Her mind was too fuzzy. She couldn’t even work out how she was meant to open her emails to send an order.

‘Do you want me to stay?’ he said. ‘I don’t mind hanging on and giving you a lift back.’

Holly lifted her head and offered him the best smile she could.

‘It’s fine. It’s a nice day, and I’ve been cramped up behind here for hours. I could do with a proper walk.’

‘Right.’ Giles’s lips parted. For a second, she thought he was going to ask if she wanted company, but he didn’t. He just nodded. ‘Nothing’ll change between us, Holly. You know that, right? We need each other, okay? And I get it’s a bit weird at the minute, what with me not telling you before and everything, but we’ll be back to normal soon. I promise you.’

‘I know,’ Holly said, though she could hardly lift her head from her computer to look at him.

‘Okay, well, I’ll see you in a bit then, I guess.’

A second later, he walked out of the shop, and Holly was left feeling unsure why there was such a hollow pit in her stomach.