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‘Great.’
Lottie continued to stare at Millie as she drained her glass. ‘What?’
‘I’m not leaving until I see you dial his number.’
Millie rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, okay. Look – I’m ringing him!’
She removed her phone from her pocket and selected Zach’s number, her heart hammering a cacophony of trepidation as she anticipated hearing his voice for the first time since he had hared off to pick Clio up from the airport.
‘Hello?’
‘Hi, Zach. It’s me – Millie.’
Lottie pushed herself out of her seat, gave Millie a smile of approval, and made her way to the bar where Ella, Travis, and Anisha were chatting about what they could do to help with the wedding arrangements.
‘Hello, Millie, I was about to call you, I—’
‘Great, so I’m not disturbing you. Look, something awful has happened, and I need your help. Well, no, Imogen and Alex need your help.’ And she went on to explain in as few words as possible about the nightmare their wedding had become.
‘So you’ve agreed to step into the fray?’ asked Zach, the humour in his voice the same as it always was. ‘Why am I not surprised to find you right in the middle of a maelstrom of misfortune? I dread to think what the villa’s kitchen is going to look like after you’ve prepared a five-course meal for thirty-six wedding guests. Shall I book in a troop of industrial cleaners for Monday morning?’
‘Actually, that might not be a bad idea,’ Millie laughed as a warm feeling of gratitude for having reconnected with Zach invaded her body. ‘But I was hoping you could do a bit more than make a few calls?’
‘Of course. You know me; happy to help if I can.’
‘How does the title of Master of Ceremonies sound? Or rather, a sort of Director of Operations who makes sure everyone is in the right place at the right time. There’s no one better qualified to ensure that everything runs like clockwork – except maybe Carla’s boyfriend Greg but he’s a guest so I can’t ask him.’ Millie swallowed down the surge of emotions that had poked their head above the parapet when she said, ‘You are an amazing organiser and I know Imogen and Alex would appreciate your assistance.’
‘Wouldyouappreciate my assistance?’ asked Zach, with a hint of mischief.
The thought of having to spend the next two days in close contact with Zach, with the spectre of a disapproving Clio lurking in the background watching their every move, filled Millie with dread. However, she was willing to put her own feelings to one side and do whatever it took to pull off the audacious attempt to hold a wedding at the Paradise Cookery School. After all, this wasn’t about her, and it wasn’t about Zach and Clio. It was about two people who had put aside their own desires for a quiet wedding to keep Imogen’s bereaved mother happy. Imogen hadn’t deserved what Fleur had done, but Millie knew she would take comfort from the fact that Fleur had acted out of the pain of unrequited love and her actions had not been directed at them.
‘I’ll take your awkward silence as a yes. So, you can count me in. I’ll give Henri and Dylan a call and we’ll sort out the logistics. Are you sure you can cater for the guests from the villa’s kitchen?’
‘Imogen has promised to speak to Jerome. I’m sure he’ll agree to release two of his chefs to help out with the prep tomorrow and the cooking on the day of the wedding. The kitchen up at the hotel has to be sanitised before they can use it again so they would just be sat on their bottoms twiddling their thumbs anyway. The fact that all the guests will be away from the hotel for the afternoon and most of the evening on Sunday will give the hotel’s management the chance to get in the commercial cleaners without causing too much disruption.’
‘Right. Sounds like a plan. So, Millie, now that I’ve got you on the phone, I want to talk to you about Clio.’
‘Sorry, Zach, must dash. So much to do, so little time. We’ll speak later.’
She terminated their conversation with a flick of her finger. She already felt like her brain was about to explode with everything that she needed to do before Sunday came around, there simply wasn’t room for the added complication of how she felt about Zach.
Chapter Eighteen
‘So, Travis has sorted out all the drinks and set up the bar on the terrace next to the pool,’ said Ella, consulting the colour-coded list pinned to the clip board she was holding. It was eight o’clock on Saturday morning and the villa was already abuzz with a frenzy of activity. ‘And Henri and Leon have promised to rig up the microphone and music system in the courtyard when they get here this afternoon. Have you seen Zach?’
‘Yes, he’s helping Dylan and Ryan arrange the tables with a couple of guys from the hotel. The whole place is already looking fabulous, don’t you think?’
Millie indicated the garlands of bridal bunting Imogen’s mother had just finished attaching to every tree bordering the courtyard. Julia had also brought Karen and Gracie’s hand-made offerings – long strings of white ribbon, with butterfly shapes cut from plain white photocopier paper attached, fluttered in the morning breeze just like the real thing. She had announced that she loved them, preferred them in fact, and Millie had to agree with her.
Having completed the decorations to her exacting standards, Julia shot off to direct the tables-and-chairs operation, ensuring each was at precisely the right angle, insisting on several tweaks when the aesthetics didn’t please her. Freshly laundered white linen cloths from the hotel were then draped over the tables and their addition transformed the courtyard into a fairy-tale wedding venue. Millie could imagine how romantic it would look when they switched on the fairy lights as darkness fell.
‘She’s an amazing woman, isn’t she?’ said Ella, as Julia delved into the boxes that contained the matching serviettes and began to fashion them into a very accomplished version of a swan. ‘And how fortunate she is to have been given a second chance at love. It’s the St Lucian rhythm of life weaving romance through the hearts of its visitors. I know you’ve felt it too, Millie.’
Millie managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes at Ella. She had no intention of being drawn into a conversation that featured the words romance, love or relationships. Nevertheless, Ella’s comment caused her to surreptitiously scour the throng for a glimpse of Zach.
There he was, right in the middle of things, directing the show with poise and efficiency, allowing Julia to take the lead role in the design of the backdrop for her daughter’s wedding, but at the same time making sure the layout was practical and safe. The last thing they wanted was for someone to trip over a loose wire – or fall into a water-filled ditch.
As Millie had suspected, the set-up was progressing like a well-oiled machine. No random passer-by would have guessed it was the first wedding to be held at the Paradise Cookery School. The flowers had been delivered straight to the villa that morning and were being kept cool in one of the bedrooms with the air-con on full blast. They were expecting the crockery and glassware to arrive from the hotel at midday and now all Millie and Ella had to do was the food shopping.
