Marcus stepped forward and hugged her, giving her the flowers with a kiss on the cheek. “Hello future Mrs Montgomery.” He grinned, walked past her and grabbed a vase from the kitchen counter. He filled it with water, then took the flowers from her to arrange. Marcus was the better flower arranger in the relationship. This had been established very early on. Hence Delta’s jibes about Marcus’s sexuality. He wasn’t gay, though. Just creative.

Abby, on the other hand…

“How was it? Isn’t the villa spectacular?”

Abby nodded, slapping on a fake smile. Flashes of kissing Jordan kept popping into her head, but she pushed them aside. She had to if she was going to survive. “It was amazing. Everyone had a great time, and Jordan made sure it went off without a hitch.” Very nearly true. She placed a hand on his arm as he began trimming the rose leaves and snipping the bottom of the stems.

Precise. That was Marcus.

“How about you? How was your weekend?”

Marcus shrugged, not quite looking her in the eye. “You know, the usual. Too much booze, and bawdy behaviour. And…” He paused, eyeing her, before dropping the flowers on the kitchen bench and taking a deep breath. “They got me a stripper, too. I told them not to, but you know what Philip’s like when he gets something in his head. Johnny, too. There were pictures taken, so just in case they surface, I wanted you to know. I feel terrible about it.” He stopped, and held out the gift bag. “I bought you a gift. It’s not a guilt offering. I was going to buy you one anyway.”

Abby swallowed, rooted to the spot. Marcus was worried about having a stripper?

She opened the gift box. Inside was a gorgeous silver bracelet with what looked like diamonds studded in the band. She didn’t deserve it, but she couldn’t let him see that.

She glanced up at his face. “It’s gorgeous, but you didn’t need to.” She was a very bad person.

“I know, but I wanted to. Even though I was on my stag do, I missed you. Is that corny?” He threw up his hands, and gave her a grin “I don’t care if it’s corny, it’s how I feel. Plus, if you can’t be corny when you’re just about to get married to your best friend, when can you be?”

Abby grinned despite the sinking feeling in her stomach. It was no easy task. Like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time.