He ordered the lobster tail, possibly because the photograph of the dish had impressed Sophie so much. For a while they ate in an appreciative silence. Sophie’s simple summer salad with fresh, crunchy green lettuce and slivers of avocado and heirloom tomatoes looked just as appetising as the most luxurious dish on the menu that he was eating, and Luc couldn’t help his gaze returning to her plate to watch her carefully load her fork with a small combination of all the ingredients for each mouthful.
He dipped a bite of his lobster into the lemon butter and picked up the jet-black squid ink tuile to add another layer to the flavours, and that was when he remembered tasting that honeycomb tuile that Tom had once made. He could remember the pride in his best friend’s face that he’d made the favourite dessert of the woman he lovedà la folie. He could remember the way Sophie had been watching him before he closed his eyes and took that bite of the sweet honey-flavoured wafer.
It felt like a cork had been pushed from the neck of a bottle by the pressure inside. Memories that had been safely contained were foaming into his head. He could feel them in his body as well, as if the foam was heralding a wave and he was caught in the chill of the water because he hadn’t been quick enough to jump out of its reach.
He blinked as he realised that Sophie had stopped eating. She’d put down her fork and she had been saying something to him.
‘I know it’s a lot to ask,’ she said. ‘You’re already doing enough. You don’t have to say yes.’
Luc blinked. ‘Sorry… I wasn’t listening carefully. Tell me again?’
‘I said that I have clients booked for weddings who are threatening to cancel if they can’t have the same photographer that Zara Beaumont had.’
Luc shook his head sharply. ‘That kind of photography is not done to order. It’s art. It comes from the heart. I’m not aweddingphotographer.’
But he’d been thinking of becoming one, hadn’t he? To increase his income in order to fuel his dream? With the kind of money people were prepared to spend on destination weddings it would make a lot more sense to consider working part time on this side of the channel. He lived here as well, after all.
‘They don’t want the kind of images that go viral.’ The way Sophie caught her bottom lip between her teeth for a heartbeat gave away how important this was. So did the way she was looking at him. ‘They just want the best photographs possible. The kind you took for Zara and Joe and their families and friends. You might be surprised by how many of her followers have raved aboutthosephotos. Like the one with her sitting on the steps leaning down to kiss Joe. And that one when he picked her up on the dance floor and whirled her around and they were both laughing? That photograph alone has obviously given so many people a lot of joy.Millionsof people.’
The shake of Luc’s head was a little slower this time. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was Sophie was asking for but he was still sure that his answer would be no.
‘Even just one wedding would help.’ Sophie was looking down now, as if already defeated. ‘If there’s any chance you’re available? It would buy us a little more time and…’
She looked up again and Luc knew he’d been incorrect in thinking that she was accepting defeat. He had asked how Greg was doing during yesterday’s phone call, so he knew that her lead photographer had gone back to Scotland with his son. He knew how hard it might be to find a replacement while it was still peak wedding season. He knew it could be another nail in the coffin of Marry Me in Provence, even if he fixed the threat of cancellations from the Château d’Orval.
He could see a flicker of something like desperation in Sophie’s eyes, so she didn’t have to tell him that her business could be in deep trouble, but he could see something else as well. A fierce determination to fight for what mattered so much.
For the life she’d made for herself?
A life of celebratingotherpeople’s weddings?
His gaze shifted only a fraction as he tried to shelter himself from what he could see in those eyes that were a shade of blue he’d never seen before or since on another person. A blue that reminded him of the Mediterranean on a summer’s day, just like today, and maybe that was where he intended his gaze to land. It got ambushed, however, by a glint of the sun catching the jewel hanging around her neck. Had she been wearing it the day of Zara’s wedding? If he’d noticed, he hadn’t allowed its significance to register.
The diamond was the one he’d helped Tom choose as the gift she would receive on the morning of her own wedding day. The ‘something new’ that Hannah would deliver as her bridesmaid. That Luc had known she would treasure. A heart. The ubiquitous symbol of love.
And there it was.
The answer he’d been looking for to a question he’d never thought he’d be asking.
Yes.
Luc had been right to fear that emotional dart that had felt like hope.
He knew why he’d felt it now.
It was still there.
What he’d felt when, for once, he’d been entirely alone with Sophie. On that camping trip to celebrate his engagement to Hannah. Alone in the forest because he and Sophie had been sent to collect kindling for their campfire while Tom taught Hannah how to barbecue the perfect steak.
They’d both reached for the same stick at the same time. Their fingers had brushed and, when they both straightened, they’d been standing too close to each other.
Close enough that it would have taken no more than a sigh of movement for them to kiss.
They didn’t, of course, but that moment had hung in the air between them for what felt like forever. As solid as the force that was making it impossible to break their eye contact.
They’d both known they would be making the biggest mistakes of their lives in who they were choosing to marry. Worse, had he done the unthinkable and revealed to Sophie that Tom wasn’t the only man who was in love with her?
It was blindingly obvious that they needed to kill the moment. Maybe they couldn’t rewind the clock and make it never have happened but they had to try. They had to pretend this instant of searing truth had never existed because there was absolutely nothing they could do about it unless they were prepared to destroy people that they genuinely loved. People who were chosen family.
