Page 6 of A Wedding in Tuscany

‘I bought you new ones!’ She laughs at me as I follow her outside. ‘I am not letting this go, you know,’ I say. ‘I’m going to bug you all until someone tells me what’s going on.’ I sit, then lean forward and help myself to a generous wedge of gooey camembert.

‘Letting what go?’ asks Josh.

He and Lins share a loaded look and now I am positive. ‘What? What is the big secret that everyone seems to know but me?’ I ask through a mouthful of cheese.

‘There’s a big secret?’ asks Nick, playing dumb. He’s the worst liar of the lot and now I feel like they’re all ganging up on me.

‘Just tell her,’ says Lindsey.

Josh sets his near-empty beer bottle on the table and sits beside me, taking my hands in his. Oh, god, is he dying or something? My stomach lurches and I instantly regret the cheese. ‘Tell me,’ I say quietly.

He laughs softly. ‘Hey, it’s nothing bad.’

‘Really?’

‘No, I … it’s just that I wanted everything to be perfect but it’s still a little in flux, and I was hoping to have more of it figured out before I told you. I wanted to surprise you.’

‘There’s a surprise?’

‘Yes.’

‘But I hate surprises.’

He grins. ‘You hate bad surprises.’

‘So, it’s a good one?’

‘Yes. It’s for your birthday.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’m taking you to Tuscany. Actually, we’re all going to Tuscany.’

‘All of us?’ I look at Lins and Nick and they’re grinning at me. ‘You guys too?’

‘Yep! Surprise!’ says Nick. Lins grins.

I look back at Josh. ‘So, my surprise is that we’re all going to Italy for my birthday?’

‘Yes.’

‘I love Italy. I love Tuscany!’

‘I know,’ says Josh, humouring me.

‘Oh, my god, that’s … that’s … I love it so much!’ I throw my arms around his neck and I’m laughing and crying at the same time?so much crying today.

I sit back and wipe the happy tears from my cheeks. ‘And you all knew?you all knew!’

‘Yep,’ says Lins.

I sigh contentedly. Josh is not sick and there’s no big conspiracy. He’s just the best boyfriend in the world. Then the penny drops. ‘Oh, so Cat and Jean-Luc … they know too, right.’

‘Yeah. They’re gonna come.’

I frown. ‘So, this morning … do you think …?’ I ask him.

‘Yeah, I do … That seemed to be what they were getting at.’