‘Like what?’
‘I’ll call a taxi. We’ll get to the airport and see if we can get a flight back to London this evening.’
What had she said to Luc about not being able to trust someone if they were hiding the truth? Trust and love were so connected they were inseparable.
‘Maybe it won’t fix everything,’ she said to Hannah. ‘But the truth has got to be the best place to start. For all of us.’
* * *
There was still so much to talk about and it was good to have a distraction as they waited at the airport to get on the last flight from Nice to London. They tried to eat dinner in a departure lounge café and Sophie suggested ordering croque-monsieur because that was what she’d been planning to make at home, but the toasted sandwiches from the cabinet were disappointing.
‘You’ll have to come back,’ Sophie told Hannah. ‘I’ll make you the best croque-monsieur ever.’
‘I’d love to. And I want you to come and visit me and meet Jamie and George. Mum and Dad would love to see you, too. They always showed me the Christmas cards you used to send. It sounded like you were doing so well with the destination weddings. I clicked on the link to that influencer in the blog and saw the wedding at that castle. Just incredible!’
‘That was the day Luc walked back into my life. As Le Phénix. I hadn’t even tried to find him for almost ten years, so it was a hell of a shock. So was his photography, but I could understand why he had such strong feelings about the symbolism of weddings.’
‘Have you told him what you did withyourwedding dress?’
‘No. I will, one day.’
‘That was when it all started. When you decided you wanted to make weddings happen for people, somewhere gorgeous enough to take your breath away, like that castle.’
Sophie smiled. ‘It was actually your idea. Because we were both so incredibly sad andyoudecided it was a very bad thing to have my wedding dress still hanging on my door. It was you who thought up the plan of donating my wedding dress to someone who really deserved it. It was you who started spreading it on social media and went to talk to the local radio station.’
‘How hard was it to choose from all those stories? But it did what I wanted it to. It made us do something positive and broke through the place we were stuck in with our grieving. And you made the perfect choice. Did you keep in touch with her? What was her name?’
‘Julia. And yes, I hear from her sometimes. She’s got a couple of kids now.’
‘And she’s still cancer free?’
‘Yes. Her hair grew back curly – just like the wig she wore for the wedding.’ Sophie’s smile faded to nothing. ‘I’m not sure I want to keep doing weddings. I might hand it all over to my personal assistant. She can turn it into a destination proposal business. She’d be really good at it. Lives for romance, does Tilly.’
‘Speaking of romance…’ Hannah hesitated. ‘You and Luc? Is that just more stuff that horrible journalist has made up?’
‘I…’ Sophie’s heart sank. She didn’t know what to say. She knew she had a silent plea in her eyes as she met Hannah’s gaze but she wasn’t sure what for. Forgiveness? Understanding?Support?
Hannah’s smile suggested that she might be prepared to offer all of those things.
‘You might have liked each other right from the start,’ she said, ‘but Luc never stood a chance, did he? Tom always charmed his way into getting exactly what he wanted and he wanted you – it was love at first sight for him.’
‘I loved him too. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Of course I do. And I know that neither you nor Luc would have done anything to hurt Tom. It’s funny, looking back. I thought Luc was jealous that Tom wanted a new relationship that was going to change both their lives. I used to tell him that he’d like you if he just gave you a chance, but maybe he was like little boys at school – being mean to the girls they liked as a cover-up.’
They were being called to board their flight. They both stood up and picked up their light carry-on bags. People were moving towards the gate but Sophie hesitated a moment longer.
‘And things are good with Jamie?’ she asked quietly. ‘Are you happy, Han?’
Hannah didn’t say anything straight away. She began walking ahead of Sophie, but when they joined the end of the queue of travellers she finally responded.
‘Do you remember when we were having a dress fitting before your wedding and I said that being engaged to Luc was great but there were no fireworks like you get in those steamy romance novels?’
‘I do. And I said the fireworks were just chemicals and they wouldn’t last and you couldn’t trust them.’
Because they could sweep you away and lure you into places that could destroy not only you but the people around you.
‘And I said something about beinginlove might be all you need to make sex as good as that. And you know what?’
