Melissa spent the next few days timing her visits to Barney as best she could to coincide with when Harvey was working. She’d texted Harvey to say she’d heard nothing in response to her letter via the journalist and they’d agreed that this would have to be the end of their detective work. They would just have to accept that, for whatever reason, Barney wanted to keep things to himself and run his life the way he saw fit. Both of them were even starting to see that if Barney wanted to move into that home, stop running the Wedding Dress Ball, then they may have no choice but to accept it.
After an afternoon of playing cards with Barney, Melissa was happy to be at the pub with Tracy this evening. The sun was still high in the sky and a fresh breeze flapped at the sleeves of the lilac top she’d teamed with jeans as they talked about the upcoming ball.
Tracy tore open three packets of crisps for them to share. ‘How’s Jay coping with your extended stay here?’
‘He’s busy working,’ Melissa shrugged. ‘Makes it easier I guess.’ They hadn’t spoken for a few days but she’d emailed him and told him how close she was to pulling off the event of the year. She knew she’d probably rambled on about a band, catering, the barn decoration, but she didn’t really know what else to talk about when it came to Heritage Cove.
‘Has anyone asked Lucy along to the ball?’ Tracy asked when the local blacksmith came out to the beer garden clutching a bottle of beer.
Melissa picked up a few broken pieces of prawn cocktail crisps from the foil insides of the packets glinting in the sunshine. ‘I assume she got an invitation, she certainly would’ve got a flyer as a reminder when Harvey and I handed them out. She must know about it.’
‘She looks like she’s here on her own,’ Tracy frowned. ‘That’s not right.’
‘We could ask her to join us but I don’t want her to feel she has to.’
Tracy called out to her and when they invited Lucy to join them, she was only too happy to. ‘We were just talking about the Wedding Dress Ball,’ said Tracy. ‘Are you going?’
‘I do have a ticket.’
‘But…’ Tracy prompted.
‘What I don’t have is a date,’ she admitted awkwardly.
‘Neither do half the people who go,’ said Melissa. ‘It’s not that kind of ball.’
‘Really? It’s not couples only? I mean I understood from the invite that there’ll be plenty of married men and women in the same outfits they once wore when they got married. I figured…’
‘Not at all,’ said Tracy.
‘My first Wedding Dress Ball was in a debutante gown,’ Melissa told her. ‘It was beautiful, and I felt lucky to finally be a guest. I’d been watching the event from afar for too long.’
‘What she means is she watched it from high up in the roof balancing on the beams,’ Tracy grinned. ‘Yup, she and Harvey used to climb right up to the rafters and onto the beams – they weren’t even that sturdy back then – and they’d linger up there watching the proceedings. They weren’t hidden at all but nobody ever said anything.’
‘I did hear a rumour you and Harvey were once a thing,’ Lucy said to Melissa.
Tracy smiled. ‘She has a fancy pilot boyfriend now.’
Melissa didn’t let on that he was her fiancé. He’d asked her, she’d given him the answer she thought she meant, they’d planned to shop for a ring together, but now…well, now she had no idea. She wasn’t proud of how her feelings had changed, Jay didn’t deserve her indecision, and although she didn’t want her time in Heritage Cove to come to an end too soon, she knew she needed to get back to Windsor and find out where she went from here. If she saw him, maybe she’d know.
‘So, Lucy, you’ll come to the ball?’ The best way to handle this, Melissa decided, was to change the subject.
‘I don’t have anything to wear. And I promise you that’s not an excuse. In my line of work there’s not much call for white anything, let alone a gorgeous dress fit for an event.’
‘I don’t have anything to wear yet either,’ Melissa admitted.
Tracy’s face fell. ‘Melissa, that’s crazy!’
‘Well, I didn’t know I was going until recently and I’ve been busy.’
‘Right, that’s decided.’ Tracy plonked her half-empty pint glass down on the wooden table. ‘We need to go shopping. All three of us. Tomorrow. Leave it any later and you might not find anything at all.’ Tracy was punching a text message into her phone. ‘Sorted, got cover at the inn, I can be free at 10 a.m. You?’ she directed to the both of them.
‘I can take a couple of hours in the morning,’ said Lucy before they both looked to Melissa.
‘I’m having lunch with Barney but nothing before that, so I’m in.’
‘Right, we’ll head to the boutique I told you about near Ipswich. I know they’ve got some lovely white summer dresses in the sale – I was almost tempted to get one myself.’
‘There’s an incentive not to get married,’ Lucy joked to Melissa, ‘you’re stuck with the same dress every year for this ball. We’re lucky, we get to choose something new.’
