Claudia laughed with everyone else as Wilkie took the glass of champagne Abby was passing her and waited until everyone else was holding one before crying out joyfully, “It gives me the greatest happiness to toast Tom and Leanne. May all your blessings be small and problems big . . .”

“Grandma!” Abby shouted.

Wilkie looked startled.

“Big blessings, small problems?” Abby said through her teeth.

Wilkie blinked. “Did I get it wrong? Oh goodness, well, you know what I meant, absolutely big blessings . . .”

Laughing, Tom stepped forward and circling an arm around Wilkie’s waist he turned to Leanne and said, “To my beautiful fiancée, thank you for agreeing to be my wife.”

As the room chorused, “To Tom and Leanne,” Claudia noticed her mother clinking glasses with Henry and laughing at something he murmured in her ear.

“So how long have you been in Kesterly?” she heard someone ask.

She turned to find Dan Collier beside her and looking, she thought, as relaxed as he sounded. Why, then, was she feeling so tense?

As she answered, “Almost six months,” she turned to watch more champagne being passed around—anything to avoid his unsettling eyes, made bigger and somehow more knowing by the lenses of his glasses.

“And are you liking it?” he pressed.

“It’s taken a little getting used to, but yes, on the whole. What about you?”

“It’s OK. I still haven’t found a proper place to live, but the flat over the office works pretty well. Where are you?”

“We’re renting an apartment on the Promenade.”

“Ah, yes, I believe Andee told me, and you’re buying the old coach house on Westleigh Heights?”

She didn’t want him to know that, but it was too late now—and why didn’t she want him to know? She didn’t seem to be handling herself well; she had to do better. “Have you seen it?” she asked, deliberately ignoring Jasmine’s expressive eyebrows as she came to refill their glasses.

“I confess I have not, but I hear it’s a gem. Thank you,” he said as Jasmine poured. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced, I’m Dan.”

“I’m Jasmine,” she replied with a winning smile. “Claudia’s daughter.”

“And my best friend,” Abby called out from where she was topping up a small group of other guests.

As Dan was drawn into another conversation, Claudia looked around for her mother and spotted her still with Henry and apparently enjoying herself immensely. For almost as long as her father had been dead Claudia had hoped her mother would meet someone just as wonderful, kind, and humorous. Now, she just felt terrible for hoping that it wasn’t happening.

“You’re looking worried,” Andee declared, coming to join her again. “Is everything OK?”

“Yes, it’s fine,” Claudia replied with a smile, “just thinking about what I have to do tomorrow—sorry, no work tonight.”