By seven in the evening, everything was fully prepared for the engagement dinner. The function room upstairs in the bar had been transformed into a romantic wonderland. Fairy lights hung from the exposed beams. The lighting was soft, and the candles were ready to be lit on each table and on the wall sconces. It wasn’t a space they used very often, but they hoped to use it more. Indeed, Noah and Libby wanted to hold their own wedding reception there. It was just the right size for an intimate family wedding, and as Jo made the final checks to the room, she could see how it would make the perfect venue.

Erin was now relaxed and felt in control, and Noah had set up a table to greet the guests with glasses of champagne, served into vintage champagne saucers that he had sourced. All Jo had to do was make sure the happy couple-to-be were indeed happy, and get all their guests sitting down to dinner and then she was free to go home. She was more than pleased to be leaving before they all started drinking. Jo wasn’t sure that she had the patience for that. All day, Noah’s words had nipped at her. That she had seemed off kilter. The strength of her reaction to Erin’s news had also troubled her. What she wanted more than anything was just to get out into the fresh air and try to figure out what was going on in her head.

Paddy would be only too willing to be her companion on a long walk along the walkway at the banks of the River Foyle and it was the perfect night for it. The sun had just started to set and she knew it would be lighting up the ripples of the river as it wove its way out to sea. It was the kind of evening when the walkway would be busy with evening strollers all enjoying the spring sunshine. It was bound to lift her mood. It usually did.

So when she left, just after eight, the happy couple looking impressed, she set out along the river and tried her best to talk through her issues with Paddy. But while he was a great listener, he wasn’t so great with advice. Instead he’d just look at her with his sad doggy eyes and occasionally proffer her his paw to shake. It was a great comfort, of course, but it didn’t lift her mood as much as she hoped. She wondered whether some chocolate would help. Maybe she had PMT and chocolate was the exact cure she needed for her ills. So, as she walked Paddy back to the bar, she decided to stop off at Harry’s Shop – a small corner shop that had been a feature on Ivy Lane for decades.