I’m not sure who’d been most relieved when Josh’s RSVP card had come back with the Unable to Attend box ticked.
I’d forever be glad that Josh and I had successfully managed to rekindle our friendship, but it had been impossible to ignore the undercurrent of tension between him and Adam when they’d met again at our engagement party. Of course, Josh hadn’t helped matters by turning up more than a little drunk with an equally inebriated, stunning redhead clinging to his arm.
‘I’m still torn between punching the guy on the nose for breaking your teenage heart all those years ago, and buying him a drink to thank him for being so blind he still doesn’t realise he’s let the best girl in the world slip through his fingers.’Adam’s voice had been a low murmur in my ear as we’d slow-danced to a romantic song. Josh had been over on the other side of the room, propping up the bar with his date, but I’d felt his eyes on us as we travelled in slow circles on the dance floor. And I was pretty sure Adam had too.
So, when Josh had declined the wedding invitation, it had been much more of a relief than a disappointment.
But here he was now.
‘I had to come,’ Josh said, looking weirdly nervous as he stood at the door of my lodge.
‘No, you didn’t,’ I said firmly, trying to inch the door shut without him realising what I was up to. He placed one booted foot in the opening, stopping my plan in its tracks.
‘Can I come in?’
‘No,’ I cried, as shocked as any self-respecting Victorian maiden. ‘I’m not decent.’ I plucked the first excuse that came to mind, despite the fact that the towelling robe was thick and covered me from neck to ankles.
‘I’ve seen you wearing less than that,’ he reminded me with a fleeting smile that Victorian Me seriously considered smacking off his face.
‘Well, now it’s exclusively for Adam’s eyes,’ I said.
Josh visibly winced. ‘Please, Lily. I just want to talk to you.’
‘I’m getting married in two days,’ I told him, as though that small but important detail might have skipped his mind.
‘That’s why I’m here.’
Before I could decide if that was enough to let him in, suddenly, above the chirping of the crickets, I heard the whirr of an approaching golf cart. It was how the hotel residents travelled the grounds, and I had a sudden terrifying vision of Adam climbing out and seeing me apparently in the middle of a secret assignation. Feeling as though we were in a French farce, I grabbed Josh’s arm and hauled him over the threshold.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if moments later Adam knocked on the door, but I had a horrible feeling it might involve bundling Josh into a wardrobe or pushing him out of the bathroom window. Fortunately, when I looked out, it was to see one of the chambermaids behind the wheel of a cart loaded with towels and linen.
I leant back against the door, my heart racing.
‘Just say whatever it is you’ve come to tell me, and then get the hell out of here before Adam actually turns up.’
Josh shook his head. ‘He won’t come here tonight.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘Because he’s a traditional stand-up guy. He follows rules, he doesn’t break them.’Unlike mehung on the air, but neither of us acknowledged the unspoken truth of that.
But Josh was right. Despite the fact that we largely split our time between my flat and his, Adam and I had agreed to separate accommodation at the hotel. There was something quaintly romantic in being apart for the two nights before the wedding.
We’d fallen in love with the venue the moment we’d driven up its meandering, tree-lined drive almost one year earlier. It was a beautifully restored stately home that backed on to a river, with the most amazing grounds where weddings could be conducted. Somewhere on the tour of the building, Adam had suggested that we should stay for a few days before the wedding.
‘For a pre-moon,’ he said, drawing me into his arms and kissing me, while the wedding coordinator politely pretended not to notice.
‘Is that even a thing?’ I said, laughing into his shoulder. But I loved the idea, especially after we’d been shown the luxurious spa facilities.
‘It’s our wedding, Mrs Tennant-to-be. We can do anything you want.’
‘Mrs Lily Tennant,’ I said, rolling the name over my tongue as though trying it on for size. For a split second an unwanted memory scythed into my head of writing ‘Lily Metcalf’ all over a school exercise book, never realising it was a signature I’d have no need to perfect.
Now, I pushed away from the door and strode towards the lodge’s compact sitting area.
‘What are you doing here, Josh?’ I deliberately ignored the appealing chintz-covered armchairs, hoping my unwanted guestwould realise he wasn’t going to be there long enough to get comfortable. ‘You have five minutes,’ I warned, glancing down at my wrist as though to time him. Unfortunately, I’d left my watch in the bathroom. He almost smiled at that, and there was a time we’d have enjoyed that moment of comedy. But not tonight.
‘Five minutes, then you have to leave,’ I repeated, wondering how much damage he could possibly do in just three hundred seconds.
