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The way Jamie said it made it sound so simple. Like it was an option Holly hadn’t thought of.

‘He won’t pick up when I call him. I have tried. I really have. He won’t even reply to messages. I’ve sent him one almost every day since we got back and he hasn’t replied to any of them.’

‘Perhaps he hasn’t seen them,’ Jamie suggested.

It was Holly’s turn to raise an eyebrow. ‘Please, the letter is the only way. I really need you to give it to him.’

Jamie tightened her lips ever so slightly. ‘Okay, leave it with me. I’ll think of something.’

‘Before the weekend,’ Holly said. ‘I’m not sure I can last any longer than that.’

‘Okay, I will try, but I’m not making any promises. It’s only because I think that you two are destined to be together that I’m doing this. You know that.’

‘You do?’ The comment caught Holly by surprise. They had talked about the situation at length, but it mainly involved Holly crying about having messed things up so royally, and not letting Jamie get a word in edgeways. And while Jamie had made it apparent that she thought something like thiswouldhappen countless times, she’d never implied that she thought itshouldhappen.

‘Of course I do,’ Jamie replied. ‘I mean, you bring out the best in each other, don’t you?’

‘I’m not sure he brings out the best in me,’ Holly said. ‘He makes me furious and hot-headed.’

‘And sometimes, you need a bit of that,’ Jamie said. ‘Sometimes, you need someone who allows you to get angry about stuff. Anyway, I’ll work out a way to get this to him.’ She gestured to the envelope.

‘And you’ll let me know as soon as he’s read it?’

‘Yes,’ Jamie said. ‘But only if you stop nagging me about it. Otherwise, Giles might not be the one to burn it. I’ll do it myself.’

67

If Holly had thought that writing the letter was difficult, waiting for it to be delivered and read was even worse. She was working at the sweet shop every day, which was good in the sense that it kept her distracted and busy, but bad in that her inability to focus meant she kept making mistakes.

‘I asked for marzipan teacakes, not coconut teacakes,’ one customer said.

Another grumbled, ‘Liquorice bullets? I asked for Liquorice Allsorts. I can’t stand liquorice bullets – they’re too hard on my teeth. I thought you knew that.’

‘Sorry, sorry,’ Holly said, putting the wrong sweets back and collecting the correct jar from the shelves. ‘Yes, of course. My mistake. Let me sort that out now.’

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ her father asked on Friday when he popped into the shop. ‘You don’t seem quite yourself. Do you think you’re coming down with something? You know your mother’s had a terrible head cold these last few weeks. Perhaps you’ve caught it from her.’

‘You’re right,’ Holly lied. ‘Perhaps I have.’

Unfortunately, her confession to an imaginary illness didn’t get her father off her case quite as easily as she’d hoped.

‘Well, you don’t want to pass it on to any customers,’ he continued. ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t be in.’

‘It’ll be fine,’ Holly said. ‘I’m fine.’

‘I’d ring Greta if I were you. Or I can cover if you’d like.’

‘Honestly, Dad. I’ll be fine. I’m sure I’ll be feeling right as rain tomorrow.’

‘Well, if you’re not, I’d book an appointment at the doctor’s. The last thing you want is to be out of action when the summer season hits in full.’

‘Okay. Yes, Dad. I will.’

Holly would have breathed a sigh of relief when her dad finally left, only while he had been happy to believe her excuse about a head cold, Caroline was not.

‘Something is going on with you,’ she said. ‘I know it is, and I know whatever it is Jamie knows too because I asked her, and she was all funny with me, and that doesn’t normally happen. I don’t understand. Are you dating somebody? Is that what it is?’

Holly let out a long groan. She loved Caroline to bits, and she also knew that there was no way her friend was going to drop the issue. So rather than sticking with her original excuse or even manufacturing another, it just seemed easier to relent.