‘Okay?’
‘Yes – okay. If you say everything’s fine, then that’s great. I’m not here to judge your work. I’m here to help out. Beach weddings are laborious to set up and I don’t want Donatella to start charging us more.’
Toni glanced at Reshma’s three-inch heels and snappy pencil skirt. She couldn’t quite imagine her mucking in and setting up chairs on the sand, but she was prepared to be surprised.
‘What about Gabri?’
Toni narrowly resisted stomping on the accelerator, she was so startled by the sudden question. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I assume he’s checked in with you and everything’s in place for the flowers? He’s usually around to help the day before, but with this sunset wedding, I’m hoping he’s got some magic to stop the flowers wilting during the day.’
‘He didn’t mention anything, but I’ll check.’
No, they’d been too busy with other topics. Toni wondered if Reshma could see the heat in her cheeks. It felt increasingly ridiculous that she’d ever thought Gabri was a woman now everyone was so clearly referring to him as ‘he’.
By the time they arrived back at the resort, it was nearly time for the welcome dinner and wedding rehearsal. Toni was in such a hurry to check on Cilli before leading the way to the waterfront restaurant for dinner that she nearly ran headlong into a familiar figure emerging from the hotel reception.
‘Oh, hi Toni. There you are.’ Cristina pressed a barely there kiss to each of Toni’s cheeks. ‘I heard the rehearsal is tonight so I thought I’d come along to see if you had any last-minute questions for me about the turtles.’ Catching sight of Reshma, she paused.
Toni spoke up. ‘Uh, this is Reshma, another wedding planner. Reshma, this is Cristina, a volunteer from the local environmental association. She’s monitoring the turtles and helping us make sure we aren’t disturbing them.’
Cristina held out her hand and shook Reshma’s, with a sidelong glance at Toni. ‘I’m not pretending to be Gabri any more?’
‘No,’ Toni answered from between her teeth, ignoring Reshma’s curious regard.
‘Oh good. I wasn’t sure what you wanted from me, now Gabri’s here with your son?’
‘He… what?’
‘That was your son, I think, helping him unload his equipment?’
Toni didn’t know what to do with the panic that gripped her. If Gabri insinuated himself into her life… She wasn’t supposed to lose anything through their arrangement.
‘Mum!’
Adding to Toni’s sense that chaos was rising to envelop all of her work, Cillian came through the door of the function room at the same moment as the first few wedding guests appeared, dressed for dinner.
Catching Cilli as he came in for a hug, she smoothed his hair out of his face as she said, ‘Where’s Granny? Gabri has a lot of work to do and you shouldn’t bother him while he’s busy, sweetie.’
She barely had time to register the shadow of confusion in his eyes at her gentle rebuke before the bride and groom were bearing down on them. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Gabri rushing out, glancing around – probably for Cillian.
The moment was a teetering pile of blocks. She was a lousy wedding planner, a half-baked mother and a downright terrible holiday lover.
Cillian sent the blocks toppling with his next words. ‘But why, Mum? You were hugging Gabri today at his shop. I thought maybe he was your boyfriend.’
Alison and Nathaniel paused mid-step. Toni’s gaze flew to Gabri, who appeared to be trying to hide behind the enormous potted monstera. She wasn’t sure whether to be angry or apologise or just cry.
After a long, silent moment, heavy with speculation, it was Reshma who spoke first. ‘Well, ithasbeen a busy week for you, Toni.’
An hour later, Toni just wished Reshma would say something already. She’d been all business since the guests had taken their seats on the terrace of the waterfront restaurant and the wedding planners had inhaled a quick plate of pasta before getting down to business on the beach.
The new site for the ceremony was farther from the hotel, complicating the process of transporting chairs and tables, the white carpet for the aisle and the fixed pieces of the wedding arch. Toni wasn’t sure whether Gabri had intended to stay, but she didn’t complain about the extra pair of hands as she hauled the next stack of chairs from the little wagon up on the road.
Gabri had also said nothing, although she caught him watching her every time her gaze strayed to him, which was more often than she liked.
‘We’re counting down to sunset, right?’ Reshma asked.
‘8.34p.m. on Friday,’ Toni supplied. ‘Two minutes earlier than tonight, but in the same place, right over there.’
