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Fin tilted his head to the side.
‘Any chance you can elaborate? I’m not saying no. I’m just asking why?’
Holly took a deep breath in. ‘I need to go to Monaco. I’m going to get Evan back.’
‘Well, if that’s the case, I can’t possibly say no.’ His eyes glimmered as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a black card, which he promptly held out.
Holly hesitated. ‘Just so you understand, I have no idea when I’m going to be able to pay you back for this.’
‘It’s fine,’ Fin said. ‘I’ll take unlimited free sweets for a lifetime.’
‘You’ve got it.’ Holly jumped up onto her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, before turning back around in the queue.
‘Sorry, excuse me.’ She squeezed her way past Eddie and Sandra, who were stuck in a deep conversation, and Zahida and Naomi, who were busy taking the last selfies of the trip. Only when she reached Jamie did her friend grab her by the wrist and stop her.
‘Holly, what are you doing?’
‘I’m going to find him.’ If Holly had needed any confirmation that she was doing the right thing, the way her heart leaped when she spoke said it all. ‘I’m going to find Evan.’
‘What? How?’ Jamie was straight in with the logistics.
‘He’s gone to the heliport in Monaco, right?’
‘Holly, that’s insane. He left early in the morning. He could be anywhere in the world by now. He didn’t even say where he was going.’
‘He went so he didn’t have to see me.’ Holly didn’t know for certain but, she reasoned, it had to take a couple of hours to charter a helicopter. After all, there would be forms to fill in. Tickets to get. She was going to find him. She could feel it in her gut.
Though Jamie still wasn’t onboard with the idea.
‘Holly, you don’t have to do this. We can tell him it was a mix-up. We can tell him you wanted to do this.’
Holly knew it didn’t make sense, but nothing about the week had so far, so why should this be any different? Besides, she needed to do this. From the moment they met, Evan had been nothing but the perfect gentleman. He had even introduced her to his mother, for crying out loud. She wanted to show that she could be the one who did the big gestures. Just like Dan had done with his badly thought-out marriage proposal in her back garden, and like Giles had, turning up at the hospital, and Ben when he had outbid Dan at the charity auction all those months ago. Big gestures mattered. And it was time she was the one doing them. She just hoped her attempt didn’t go down in flames like theirs all had.
‘I can’t explain it. I can feel it. I can feel it, Jamie. This is the right thing for me to do.’
‘And what about Hope? Ben is expecting you back this afternoon.’
Holly stopped in her tracks. Given that Hope had been at the forefront of her mind the entire break, it was ridiculous that now, the moment she was getting ready to leave was the moment she had slipped from her thoughts.
‘I’ll ring Mum. She’s been nagging me about having Hope for a sleepover forever. Now she’ll finally get her chance.’
‘And I can make sure she’s got everything she needs.’
Only then did Holly see Caroline standing there, looking at Holly with tears glazing her eyes. Not sad tears, but glowing, happy tears.
‘If anyone deserves this, Holly. It’s you. Go get him.’
Jamie looked between the two of them before shaking her head and letting out an exaggerated sigh.
‘Fine. Go. We’ll sort everything else out.’
‘I love you guys.’
With the tightest squeeze she could, Holly pulled her two friends into her. It was hard to know what she had done to deserve two women like this in her life. Women who would be there for her no matter what, no matter when, but she was forever going to be grateful. Wiping her eyes, she finally let go and stepped back away from them.
‘Wish me luck, ladies. I’m going to get my man.’
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