Lily felt the rising panic in her chest and forced a fist back into the firm icing on the smooth metal workbench in the kitchen of her restaurant. How dare he come back after ten years and mess everything up. How dare he go against his father’s wishes and refuse to hold Victoria’s wedding at the Hawkesbury estate?

The sudden vibration of her mobile phone, loud and angry, cut through the silence and made her jump. And then, as it vibrated perilously close to the edge of the shelf she’d put it on, she reached up just in time to catch it as it fell.

Lily answered without checking the screen. She didn’t need to. Only three people would call her at six thirty in the morning and she’d pick up no matter what she was doing because that’s what it was like between Victoria, Malie, Zoe and her. They were her rocks. They’d been there for each other before, during and after the accident ten years ago. They’d cried, laughed and shared everything, but most of all, they’d loved each other unconditionally. And Lily honestly didn’t know how she could have survived without them. She wedged the phone between her shoulder and ear.

‘Hello?’

‘Good, you’re awake.’ Zoe’s crisp voice came down through the speaker.

‘Of course I’m awake. What normal person wouldn’t be at 6.30 on a Sunday morning? Everything OK?’

‘Yes,’ Zoe replied in a voice that indicated anything but.

‘What’s wrong? It’s not Finn, is it? You haven’t changed your mind, have you?’ Lily rushed out as she continued to press into the icing. She’d been surprised to see how the years had turned Finn from an angry teen into the tall, handsome, dark-haired man she’d met only a month ago and couldn’t have picked a better man to have captured Zoe’s deserving heart.

‘No! No, no. Not at all …’ And there it was. The faint trace of dreamy wistfulness that seemed to have infected her friends in the last few months. That they had each found their happy ever afters made Lily’s heart soar. And even the slight twinge of loneliness she felt being so far from them couldn’t take away from her happiness for them. ‘Hold on, I just want to get Malie in on this.’

‘In on what? Have I missed a Lost Hours? Pretty sure it’s too early for V—’

‘Nope, just hold on …’

The Lost Hours had become their code for a drop-everything-now-no-matter-what-damn-time-it-was call. A ‘break in case of emergencies’ – or news. It had saved them, supported them and connected them across continents and years.

‘Hola, ladies.’ Lily couldn’t help but smile reflexively at Malie’s greeting. ‘Have I missed it?’ she asked. As Lily heard a rustling through the phone, she imagined Malie sweeping the mass of her beautiful curls away from her ear.