‘You look tired,ma belle.’ Tilly was frowning as she stepped back from kissing Sophie’s cheeks. ‘Were you home too late last night? I should have stayed to help you.’
‘You helped a lot by taking the van back to thebox de stockage.’ Sophie poured coffee into mugs for them both. ‘We weren’t late. I… just didn’t sleep very well.’
‘We?’ Tilly’s eyebrows rose sharply. ‘You and Monsieur Phénix?Oh là là.’ She touched her throat with her fingers, her eyes wide. ‘Iknewthere was something you weren’t telling me. I’ve felt it all along.’
‘He didn’t comehomewith me.’ Sophie handed Tilly her coffee. ‘I meant we weren’t late leaving the villa. He stayed to… to help me look for the necklace I let Natalia borrow. The one that got lost.’
‘Ah…’ Tilly’s face fell. ‘C’était une catastrophe. I’m so sorry you lost the heart, Sophie. It was the wedding gift from your fiancé,oui?’
‘Oui.C’est ça.’
Sophie knew she could leave it at that. They could both turn to answering emails and opening electronic diaries and getting their working day underway but… this felt dishonest. As far as her employees knew, her link to Luc Moreau was only through his friendship with Greg, but Tilly was a very close friend.
As Hannah had once been.
And there was another thread that was part of the tangle her shared past with Luc had created. Regret. Loss on top of loss.
‘Sophie?’ Tilly touched her arm. ‘What is it?’
‘Have you got anything urgent to do right now?’
Tilly shook her head. ‘I was going to spend some time on a presentation for promoting the new part of our business.’
Sophie found a smile. ‘You’re really keen on this idea of building proposal events as a separate speciality to the weddings, aren’t you?’
‘I’ve even got a name for it – “A Promise in Provence”. Or “SayYesin Provence”? What do you think?’
Sophie’s smile wobbled. ‘They’re both perfect.’
But Tilly was frowning. ‘What is it, Sophie? What’s wrong?’
‘Come and sit at the window with me. I’ve got a story I think I should tell you.’
‘Is it about the necklace?’
‘That’s part of it.’
Tilly was following Sophie towards the couches by the window. She couldn’t have known that she chose to sit exactly where Luc had been sitting the day he’d come into her home for the first time.
‘Tell me everything,’ she said.
* * *
It was nearly an hour later that Sophie’s words finally ran out and it was a long moment later that Tilly broke the silence.
‘Are you still in love with ’im?’
The charm of Tilly’s accent, strengthened by the note of hope in her voice, was enough to coax a tiny curve into Sophie’s lips. Almost a smile. It had been a relief to finally tell someone her story and who better than someone who believed that romantic love was pretty much the whole meaning of life, even though she had yet to experience a successful version of it herself?
‘Maybe.’ Sophie drew in a breath, remembering the beat of time in the sculpture garden in Èze when she been transported back in time tothatmoment with Luc. To a kiss that had never actually happened but had somehow managed to be more memorable than any that Sophie had ever experienced in real life.
Until last night, of course.
‘Yes,’ she added – no more than a whisper of sound. ‘I think I am.’
‘Are you going to tell him?’
Sophie shook her head. ‘No. Not yet, anyway. Maybe never. I think I’ll know, the next time I see him, whether it’s something he would want to hear. There are more important things to say before that.’
