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‘StarFish,’ Charlie finished for her. ‘It’s my restaurant,’ he explained, grinning even wider. ‘Looks like I’ll get to feed you in return for all your help, at least, then.’
‘Better make sure we get you the perfect ring, then.’ Lily scanned through her notes. ‘Okay, well, starting with the stone. If she loves the sea so much, why don’t we look at sapphires, instead of diamonds?’
Charlie nodded, enthusiastically. ‘We can do that?’
‘It’s Mia’s ring,’ Lily pointed out. ‘Mia’s and yours. You can have anything you want.’
‘Oh yeah. What else?’
It took another hour to hammer out all the details, with pauses to look through existing rings, and for Lily to sketch out her ideas. But in the end, they had a truly individual ring that Lily hoped Mia would love. As she waved Charlie off with promises to send him photos as she worked on it, she saw Alex across the way, unloading boxes into his new studio. He raised a hand and grinned at her, and Lily couldn’t help but smile back.
‘Oh, and Charlie?’
Charlie turned back to her, eyebrows raised.
‘When she says yes?’ Lily said. ‘I know a great wedding photographer.’
Chapter Ten
‘Don’t you come any closer, Alex Harper.’ Carrie Archer, owner of the Avalon Inn, waved her left hand at him to stop him at the front door, her engagement ring sparkling in the sunlight. ‘I’ve heard you can break up an engagement at a hundred paces, these days, and I’m not chancing it, this close to the wedding.’
Rolling his eyes, Alex let the door swing shut behind him. ‘If you want your books back, funny lady, I wouldn’t mention it.’ Because she wasn’t the first, or even the third person to ask him about Lily’s break-up – or their subsequent wedding date. Even he was starting to wonder if it might actually be his fault.
Carrie laughed, taking the accounts book back from him. ‘Getting a hard time about it?’
Alex groaned. ‘I’d forgotten how much this town likes to gossip.’
‘Nothing better. I’ve already had Cyb and Moira in here this morning asking me what I knew about you “squiring that Thomas girl” off to some wedding.’
‘What did you tell them?’ Alex asked, morbid fascination winning out.
Carrie shrugged. ‘That it was none of my business, but I’m sure you’d been entirely honourable about the whole thing.’
Screwing his eyes shut, Alex banged his forehead against the wooden pillar at the end of the reception desk. Twice. ‘There’s nothing to be honourable about,’ he ground out. ‘We’re friends, that’s all. I had absolutely nothing to do with Lily breaking up with Edward.’
‘That’s not the way I heard it.’ Nate sounded amused, from his position in the doorway of the dining room. ‘I heard, you came back to town and swept her off her feet.’
‘Who’d you hear that from?’ Carrie asked as Alex started banging his head again.
‘Gran, actually, so probably she made the whole thing up. Either way, that’s the story that’s going round the place.’
‘I’m doomed,’ Alex said into the wood. ‘If Lily doesn’t kill me, her mother will. And if by some magical chance I avoid death by Thomas women, Cora will finish me off.’
‘Utterly doomed,’ Nate agreed. He sounded rather too pleased about it. ‘I’d stay out of her way, if I were you.’
Alex lifted his head, and winced. ‘That might be a bit of a problem.’
‘Oh?’ Carrie raised an eyebrow. ‘And why’s that?’
‘Because I’m bringing her to your wedding this weekend?’
He could still hear Nate laughing at him as he headed back out to his car.
* * * *
She should have known better, Lily thought, than to mention her current clothing quandary within Cora’s hearing.
With half her clothes still at Edward’s cottage, waiting for her to gather the courage to go collect them, and a variety of outfits forgotten at her mum’s, Lily was working with a seriously restricted wardrobe. Which wasn’t a problem on a day-to-day basis. But when it came to dressing for a wedding…
‘I’ll just have to suck it up and face Edward,’ she said with a sigh, reaching for the glass of wine Cora had poured her with dinner. ‘I’m sure there’s something suitable hidden in the wardrobe at the cottage.’ Somewhere. It might not have seen the light of day for a while, though. For the last few years, she’d been wearing the sensible, subdued dresses Edward preferred for social occasions. She wanted something more fun for Nate and Carrie’s wedding. Something to show Alex she really was herself again.
Surely there was something like that in her collection still?
Unfortunately, Cora had another idea. ‘Much better plan! Why don’t you borrow something of mine? I’ve got loads of wedding outfits stashed away upstairs. We can have a fashion show after dinner!’
Lily looked across the dinner table at Rhys for moral support, but he was focusing very hard on his spaghetti bolognaise, damn him.
He did, at least, have the decency to hand her the rest of the bottle of red wine, though, when Cora dragged her up the stairs the moment her bowl was empty.
‘Come on,’ Cora said. ‘I’ve got the perfect thing for you. Somewhere.’
Lily followed behind her, resigned to a long evening of trying things on, and settled herself against Cora’s headboard, stretching her legs out along the bed.
‘What about this? Or this?’ Cora yanked two dresses out of her closet and held them up for inspection. Lily had barely opened her mouth to respond when Cora carried on, ‘No, you’re right. We can do better.’
One tedious, unproductive hour later, Cora held up yet another elegant, simple dress and jacket combination, and Lily bit back a wince.
‘It’s lovely. But –’
‘It’s not really you,’ Cora chorused along with her. Flopping onto the bed beside Lily, she sighed. ‘We’re getting nowhere, here. So, tell me. What would be you? New you, I mean.’
Lily shrugged, and poured some more wine. ‘If I knew that, I wouldn’t be in quite the mess I am.’
‘If you had the right outfit?’ Cora shook her head. ‘I think you’re placing too much
responsibility on my wardrobe.’
‘Not just that. I just…’ Lily sighed, searching for the words. ‘If I knew who I wanted to be, maybe I could act like her. Until it becomes second nature.’
‘Fake it ’til you make it?’ Cora nodded. ‘Okay, then. So – think it through. Who do you want to be?’
Leaning back against the headboard, Lily twirled the stem of her wine glass around in her fingers. ‘I don’t want to be the Lily I was with Edward. I don’t want to live my life to fit his – or anyone else’s – ideal.’
‘That’s a good start,’ Cora said, encouragingly. ‘We’re narrowing it down. Of course, at this rate you’re going to this wedding naked, but still…’
‘Shhh. I’m trying.’ Lily closed her eyes, willing a picture of the person she really wanted to be to appear. No dice. She opened them again and sighed. ‘I want to be my own person. A grown up. Someone who can take responsibility for their own life, their own future. I don’t want to have to rely on anyone.’ It wasn’t quite right, she knew, but it was close. Surely it was enough to help her pick a damn dress.
Cora leapt up from the bed. ‘I have just the thing!’
Lily smiled. Whatever else might be crazy in her life right now, having a dependable best friend with her best interests at heart certainly gave her an edge over the competition. She leant forward, and waited for Cora to emerge from the closet with her new life, in dress form.
* * * *
‘Wow.’ Perhaps he should have tried for something more eloquent, but the smile on Lily’s face told him that his instinctive reaction worked just as well. Cora, however, was giving him warning looks from behind her, so Alex decided that it was time to get the just-wedding-buddies show on the road. ‘You ready?’
Lily nodded, picking up a bright red bag that looked far too small to hold anything useful. Turning to Cora, she said, ‘I’ll see you later?’
His cousin looked like she wanted to say something. Probably “Don’t sleep with Alex.” But she bit her tongue, which he appreciated.
The Avalon Inn wasn’t far out of the town, but given Lily’s sky-high red heels, Alex was glad he’d brought the car. He’d leave it at the inn overnight, he decided. They could catch a taxi home, and he’d walk out and pick it up tomorrow. The fresh air would probably do him good at that point.
