‘I agree. But she’s not allowed to deafen my dog.’

‘He wouldn’t be deafened if you hadn’t brought him,’ Patrick pointed out.

‘He’s officially part of the wedding planning team. See?’ Lorcan held the little dog up to show that he was currently sporting a deep-wine-coloured tee shirt that said ‘wedding crew’ to coordinate with the wedding colours. Over dinner, Izzy had found out about Bod and within days had whizzed up a little tee shirt for him and sent it over. To be honest, when I’d presented it to Lorcan, I’d expected a sniff of derision, but his reaction had been entirely the opposite and he’d immediately sent Izzy flowers – from Bod – as a thank you and sent Rob a photo of the dog modelling his wife’s latest creation, knowing he'd show Izzy. The two men had bonded over rugby during our dinner out and were now firm friends.

Having known him for a while now, I’d thought I’d have had Lorcan O’Malley all figured out, but he continued to surprise me. Although there was still one subject we butted heads on and that was the whole wedding/marriage thing. There seemed no changing his mind on that and as much as I found him attractive – even if it hadn’t been for the whole ‘no mixing business with pleasure’ thing – that was a deal breaker. Stealing a glance at his profile, the hard biceps peeking from the tee shirt he wore, perhaps that was just as well. I already knew from his friends Lorcan was a heartbreaker. But I hadn’t forgotten about the strange exchange with the woman who’d entered the pub just as we were leaving. There was definitely history there. He’d not spoken about it, despite the fact we’d been spending more and more time together. He’d been nothing but helpful and determined to help his friends have the wedding of their dreams and, despite our initial ability to rub each other up the wrong way, we seemed to have adjusted. Not that he didn’t still give me a hard time about the fact I planned everything, but I was better at ignoring his digs now or providing pithy comebacks if I was feeling in the mood.

‘So, your flights are all booked?’ Peyton asked me for the fourth time.

‘Babe, she’s already confirmed that,’ Patrick said, taking her hand and coaxing her to sit down. ‘Stop worrying.’

‘I’m not worried,’ she said. ‘I know Maddie has everything totally under control.’