Eva looked at Adam. ‘We currently have a forty-eight-hour hold which started yesterday when I called them, after Maddy gave me the go-ahead,’ she said. ‘It’s strict. And when it expires tomorrow, Ralph will call anyone who has expressed interest in that date.’
‘Let’s sleep on it,’ Adam said, satisfied with the compromise.
Maddy nodded. ‘Yes. Let’s.’
Eva gathered the contract back into her folder.
‘Email me before the hold expires,’ she said.
She stood. Maddy stood too, walking her to the door while Adam remained by the sofa, already checking something on his phone.
At the doorway, Maddy paused. ‘It’s a shame.’
‘Maybe he’ll change his mind?’ Eva asked.
‘Mmm, maybe,’ Maddy said. There was no hope in her eyes at all.
Eva smiled, but it didn’t fully reach her eyes. ‘I hope so.’
Eva stepped out into the cool afternoon air. She had firmly decided that Maddy was marrying someone who didn’t deserve her. But no one knew better than she that beautiful, sensitive, intelligent women often did that. It was a terrible fact of life.
It might have been a bit of a quick verdict based on one conversation, she knew. It didn’t have anything to do with jealousy, though. No. Not Eva. Eva was a professional. She left that shit at the door.
Eleven
That evening, Maddy’s mother arrived with champagne and a box of wedding magazines.
‘You sent the save-the-dates!’ her mother said proudly, hugging her tightly. ‘I told everyone you’d feel better once things were moving.’
Maddy smiled. ‘Yes. Things are… moving.’
They barely made it through the first pour of champagne before her mother said lightly, ‘Now that the greenhouse is sorted—’
Maddy felt the air change.
Adam cleared his throat. ‘Actually, about that.’
Her mother looked between them. ‘What about that?’
Adam leaned back in his chair, easy, almost amused. ‘Dad had a look at the place. He just thinks it’s a bit… trendy. A bit exposed. All that glass. He said modern weddings date quickly. He thinks we should go somewhere more traditional.’
‘More traditional?’ Maddy’s mother repeated.
‘We’ve decided not to go ahead with it,’ Adam said.
Because after sleeping on it, Adam was even more sure it wasn’t right. He’d added that he was sorry, because he’d sent Maddy out on a fool’s errand. He wanted to get more involvedfrom now on, having realised he was being unreasonable, giving her carte blanche, only to take it away at the eleventh hour.
So, at least he knew what he’d done. Maddy decided it was petty not to be forgiving.
Her mother blinked. ‘But you loved the greenhouse,’ she said to Maddy.
Maddy swallowed. ‘Well, I’d love other places too.’
She could feel Eva beside her in her memory, the two of them walking the length of the greenhouse, light slanting through the panes, ivy curling around the beams. It had all felt so right.
Ah well. As Adam said, there were other places, other dates.
Adam shrugged, smiling as if this were a minor course correction. ‘Dad’s always at work people’s weddings. He knows more than me.’
