Evie jolted, cocking her head to look up at him. Trust? Evie suddenly felt a giant guilty ball in her stomach. Did he know she’d been snooping through his things? And why did she feel so guilty anyway—if he was the one who was hiding something?

‘Trust me? What do you mean?’ Evie asked.

Hugo laughed. ‘You won’t be hanging around with any other boys, will you?’

‘Hugo! How could you even ask that?’

‘I’m just teasing,’ he said with a chuckle, kissing her on the temple.

‘And can I trust you, Hugo?’ Evie asked, more seriously than she’d intended.

‘Always,’ he said, and looked like he meant it. ‘I love you,’ he repeated, stepping away from her and opening the front door.

‘Love you too,’ Evie whispered as she closed the door behind him.

After Hugo’s limo (courtesy of the production company) had whisked him away yet again, Evie returned to the kitchen, where she collapsed onto one of the bar stools. Folding in half, she rested her cheek on the cool, smooth surface of the marble bench, hoping its sturdiness might ground her in some way. How did this relationship with Hugo make her feel simultaneously like the most wonderful and most insecure person in the world? Love’s complicated, Evie, she told herself. She stayed bent over the bench for several minutes, breathing in for four counts and exhaling for seven counts. She needed to get her head together before she met up with her parents and Meg or they’d know something was wrong.

Her phone buzzed on the bench beside her cheek. Groaning, she pushed herself off the marble and grabbed her phone.

‘Meg?’ Evie asked by way of hello.

‘They’re not coming.’

‘Who aren’t coming?’

‘Mum and Dad.’

That got Evie’s attention. ‘What do you mean they’re not coming? They have to come. It’s only been a Berry family tradition for the last decade and a half!’

‘What? We’ve only been here five years. But I know. As a member of the Berry family, I am aware of the tradition.’

‘Put Mum on the phone.’

‘She’s gone out,’ Meg said in her dry, nonchalant way, though Evie could tell she was gutted.

‘Gone where?’

‘She didn’t say.’

‘Well, for crying out loud, this is ridiculous. Does she have no respect for us? Does she not know how we’ll fret if we don’t know where she is and have no idea when she might return? She is being completely reckless and irresponsible,’ said Evie, pacing in circles around the island bench.

‘You sound exactly like her.’

Evie tried one more of those mindful inhales and exhales. ‘Well, I guess we just won’t go then. It’s not like I even like Carnival that much anyway.’