Patrick picked up the conversation. ‘An opportunity has come up for me to do a lecture term at Stanford University. The guy who was going to do it had to drop out and I really don’t want to turn down the chance in case it doesn’t come around again.’ He looked at Peyton, who nodded and wrapped her arm around his biceps. ‘Peyton is going to come with me so she can visit her family and friends on the way.’

‘Also, I really don’t want to be away from Patrick for that long. I mean, I know I could fly back and forth but it’s not the same, is it?’

Ah, the benefits of never having to work for a living…

‘No… it’s not,’ I said, a little bewildered. ‘But you still want to get married at Christmas?’

‘Absolutely,’ Peyton confirmed. ‘All the plans are to be kept as they are. I mean, as far as we have plans – which isn’t much, thanks to our previous disaster.’ Worry showed in her eyes and she scrunched her arm around Patrick’s that little bit tighter. ‘But I have my dress, so that’s good, and the paperwork for getting married in Ireland is all done. The rest we thought, if you agree to it, we could do via video-conferencing and messaging. I know the time difference makes things a bit of a challenge but your references all said you could handle just about anything.’

‘That’s a bold claim to live up to,’ Lorcan said, fixing me with a cool stare. To be fair, I had to give him kudos for almost pulling the serious look off in that outfit. The only reason I didn’t crack up was because years of doing this job had had the benefit of enabling me to master my poker face. Also, I wasn’t intimidated by people. Even six-five, rugby-player types who towered over me. To be fair, I don’t think Lorcan was actually trying to intimidate me. He was sure of himself, and he wouldn’t know romance if it whacked him across the face with a box of Milk Tray, but he didn’t appear to be one of those idiots who tried to use their size as a weapon or tactic. Someone had tried that once and discovered, to their cost, it just meant my fist was perfectly placed to have them singing soprano for the next week.

‘It is, but one I feel I can back up.’ Admittedly planning a wedding almost from scratch without the bride or groom around was a new one on me but I didn’t think they needed to know that.