Love at the Little Wedding Shop by the Sea - Jane Linfoot Page 0,75

to think that if I were comparing how I’ve felt lately, I’d be nodding. A lot.

Ivy laughs. ‘That’s the thing, I’m not sure you always have that option.’ She holds her finger up as there’s a low beep. ‘In the meantime, that could be Nic for you now?’

‘Let’s see what he says.’ I make a dash for the downstairs bedroom and grab my phone.

Pixie says yes to 2nd July!!

I ignore that my insides feel like they’ve been hit by the ice age and tap in my reply.

So we’ll go ahead with that then?

He comes straight back.

Yup. So long as that roller skate destruction person isn’t anywhere near.

Why am I sighing?

I said there would be compromises – that could be yours.

He’s straight back.

Me not getting a Saturday is already a compromise!

I’ll move this on before he thinks of any more conditions.

Any thoughts on save the date styles?

Straight back again.

I’ll leave that to you.

No surprise there then.

Fine, I’ll sort a few options and get back to you.

I go back through to Ivy and Poppy. ‘They’re going for July 2nd.’

Poppy shouts. ‘Yay to that!’

I know I’ve explained this to my own satisfaction, but I might as well ask. ‘So, one last question, where does insane lust fit into the love picture? I take it that’s completely different?’ Asking for a friend here, obviously.

Ivy laughs. ‘In my experience I’d say they’re pretty closely linked. When I first came to the castle, Bill annoyed the bejesus out of me, but I still fancied the pants off him.’

Poppy’s agreeing again. ‘Same with me and Rafie.’

Damn, damn, damn. ‘Great.’ My jaw’s sagging with the shock. There’s nothing good about it at all. But before I have time to properly beat myself up about it there are footsteps out in the hall and the guys come in.

‘Obviously when I found out how delicious Bill’s baking was, he made me much less cross.’ Ivy looks up at Bill. ‘I’m just explaining to Milla how we got together.’

Bill’s laughing. ‘I’m under no illusions, what clinched it was me making a cake that looked like Merwyn.’

Poppy’s joining in. ‘Never underestimate the power of chocolate buttercream.’

Kip puts his folder down on the table. ‘We’ll have to try that on the council. Bill already made an application to hold weddings last year, so the paperwork shouldn’t take too long to come through.’

Poppy’s wiggling her eyebrows at me. ‘Which means you can move straight on to dresses and menus and styling, Milla.’

And the flowers and photographers and cars and a million other decisions that are going to take weeks to sort out. I know how much everyone’s put in to make this happen so I’m beaming back at her because I can’t do anything else. ‘I can’t wait!’

But the words are just a whisper because when I think of having to sort out all those things with Nic at my side, after what I’ve just been hearing, my stomach contracts so much I feel like I’m going to be sick.

As for how I’m going to handle the next three months – I need to acknowledge that, on every side, I’m in deep shit here. And I need to make some big changes.

Chapter 22

Later on Tuesday.

At Brides by the Sea.

Bigger pictures and even bigger ones.

‘Remind me again why we need save-the-date cards?’

This is Nic, later that afternoon down in the styling department, reminding me why every step of this journey is so hard.

I’ve explained this to him so often, what does one more time matter? ‘You send these to lock in your guests until you finalise the details for the main invitations.’

It’s also underlining exactly why I’ve come to this decision: now that the all-important venue has been booked, due to what I’m calling in my head the ‘ongoing workplace difficulties’, these cards will be the last job I do for Nic.

When I came back from the castle to the shop, the first thing I did was to check how the rest of the Daisy Hill gang were fixed for Nic’s date, and with the entire team on the job, I can step back knowing Nic will be in good hands – he’ll still get the best service and the most amazing wedding. Bish bash bosh, that’s how easy it is.

I spent the rest of the morning brooding over what Ivy had said about thinking we were the ones getting married. As for their eye-opening revelations about love, I’m not even thinking about those. But as my mum used to say, there’s no smoke without