Page 22

‘I thought that,’ Holly agreed. ‘But, if that was the case, wouldn’t she say, “I want to talk to you about the wedding”? Doesn’t the way she worded her message sound a bit creepy? And surely if anyone should have jobs for me to do, it will be Giles, right? She shouldn’t be asking me to do things. That’s what she has bridesmaids for, surely? Assuming she’s having bridesmaids. Unless she’s not, and that’s what she wants to talk to me about. But what if it’s not about the wedding at all? What if it’s about something different? What would that be? What could she possibly want to talk to me about?’

Holly could feel a panic rising in her chest. None of Giles’s girlfriends ever wanted to talk to her. In fact, they normally gave her a peculiarly wide berth. But then Sienna wasn’t a girlfriend any more. She was his fiancée.

‘I think you’re thinking too deeply about this,’ Jamie said, causing a momentary halt to Holly’s spiralling thoughts. ‘It was just a quick text message. And if you’re that desperate to find out what she wants, the easiest thing to do would be to message her back.’

Holly had thought the same herself. But then, it was late and Sienna wouldn’t be expecting a response at this time. In fact, sending a message this late felt tantamount to disastrous. Had she not been fully awake, Holly could have read the message in a groggy state, then fallen back asleep. She could even have forgotten about the message altogether. Maybe she should pretend that was what she’d done. Opened it half asleep, rolled back in her bed, then forgotten about it. That way, she’d never need to reply and hopefully, Sienna could find someone else to talk to. But then…

‘What if it’s something bad?’ she said, breaking the silence that had formed.

‘What could be so terrible?’ Jamie said. ‘What are you worried about?’

Holly pondered the question for a moment. What was she so worried that Sienna might say?

‘I’m not sure,’ she said, but the knot in the pit of her stomach confirmed that wasn’t true. She knew exactly what she was worried about. She was worried that Sienna was going to tell her it was time that her and Giles’s relationship changed. Now that they were engaged, Giles couldn’t be her go-to person any more, and she couldn’t be his. She was worried Sienna was going to say that she wanted to put some space between them.

That was what was scaring her.

‘You know what, you’re right. I’m just being ridiculous,’ Holly said, brushing the thoughts aside. ‘I’ll message her back in the morning. I’m sure everything is fine. Sleep well.’

‘You too.’

Holly hung up and lay back down on her bed before checking the time on her watch. It was late. Well past the normal time she went to bed. Yet she had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t going to sleep well at all.

22

‘Mummy, you already put milk in the bowl. What are you doing? There’s already milk. You’re going to spill it. And there isn’t even any cereal in it yet!’

Holly looked down at the bowl in front of her. Hope was correct. It was currently filled three-quarters full of milk and without a drop of breakfast cereal in there.

‘Sorry,’ she said, grabbing a mug and pouring off some of the excess. ‘Mummy was busy thinking.’

‘That doesn’t sound good.’

‘Hey, you. That’s enough of the cheekiness.’

With a roll of her eyes, Hope took the bowl from Holly and finally added cereal to it.

‘I didn’t say I minded. I like extra milk.’

Holly was definitely distracted, and it was the message from Sienna doing it.

No matter what she’d tried, Holly had found it impossible to sleep with the weight of the unknown bearing down on her. She knew she had to reply. Just send something so she could close her eyes and stop fretting so much. But then what should she say when she didn’t know what Sienna wanted to talk about? Agreeing to a meeting when you didn’t know the agenda felt like a rookie mistake, yet asking,Can you tell me what about?or,Maybe, but I need to know context first?just sounded rude.

So it had taken her over twenty-five minutes to settle on a single-word answer of ‘sure’, and even then she didn’t know if that had been the correct thing to write. It didn’t help that she still hadn’t received a reply.

‘Mummy, have you packed my swimming things?’ Hope said, bringing Holly out of her constant stream of thoughts. ‘You know it’s free swim today.’

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ Holly said.

‘And have you fed Rhubarb today, because she’s drinking the milk out of your mug?’

‘Get out of there,’ Holly said, grabbing the kitten and putting her back down on the floor next to her biscuits. As soon as the cat started eating, Holly headed back to the worktop and picked up her phone again.

A pang of self-annoyance struck. She needed to get over this. Whatever it was, she couldn’t lose her entire day worrying about it and yet as she was debating whether she should ring Giles, just to find out what was going on, her phone buzzed again and a message flashed up on the screen. Without thinking, she swiped to open it.

Great! Why don’t I come to yours tonight around seven? I’ll bring the wine.

Holly swallowed. Why had she opened the message straight away? Sienna was probably still holding her phone, which meant she could see Holly was online. That meant Holly had to either reply or have it be very obvious that she was ignoring her.