19

Five minutes later, I’d been deposited in a golf buggy with the name of the castle written on the front and Lorcan was driving us around the grounds.

‘How come you didn’t just suggest this to Calum? We could have taken our time and left you to your afternoon snooze and kept everyone happy.’

‘Who said I’m not happy?’

‘Without being rude, you rarely look happy when you’re in my company and it’s no secret you’d rather not have anything to do with this wedding for whatever reason. Calum, on the other hand, is enthusiastic about the plans, as it’s his job. And even if it wasn’t his job I get the feeling he still would be.’ I shifted in my seat. ‘I know Patrick gave you instructions about making choices by proxy, but I have a pretty good idea what they want and this is what I do for a living. I’m good at it. You really don’t need to shadow me around the whole time when it’s obvious you’d rather be anywhere else – and understandably so.’

‘Me being here has nothing to do with questioning how good a planner you are. Just because the last experience of one blew up in our faces doesn’t mean I think you’ll be the same or that I don’t trust you to do a great job for them.’

‘So why are you here?’

‘Maybe I enjoy it.’

‘I think we both know that’s not true.’

He turned briefly, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth. There was something in that moment, a lowering of shields, even temporarily, that caused me to return the smile, his own widening as I did so.

‘Here we are. The best view is from down near that bench,’ he said as he came around to the side of the buggy. ‘I’d rather you were off that leg entirely but perhaps we can come to a compromise?’ He offered his arm.

The waves were crashing below, out of sight, and Lorcan had to raise his voice a little to make himself heard as the wind off the ocean whipped away some of his words, but I got the idea and nodded, taking his arm as I exited the vehicle, careful to put most of the weight on my good leg and Lorcan’s arm.

‘Ready?’

‘Yes, thank you.’

We headed a little closer to the edge before turning right and coming to three wide stone steps that led into a beautifully tended area of garden, a few late summer blooms still hanging on, surrounded by bursts of early autumn colour. A large oak tree stood sentinel over all of it, and a freshly white painted Lutyens-style bench was placed under it, facing out towards the sea.