But Lily was standing in front of a wide, thick wooden circle, cut away about a metre wide at the bottom so that it rested perfectly on the floor, while looking as if it continued into it. The floral display hung on an asymmetric line, on either side, exploding with beautiful white and cream flowers, offset by the rich dark green leaves supporting it with surprising bursts of blue from the hydrangea that Devon was known for. The wood of the circle could be seen between the two hangings, making it sophisticated but rustic. Lily looked as if she’d fallen in love.

Her fingers were pressed against her lips and her eyes were shinning.

‘This is it. This is … perfect. It’s so much better than what My Dream Wedding had planned to provide.’

He came to stand beneath the arch and when he looked down at Lily, he was struck by such a strange sense, as if he had one foot in the present and one in a possible future that he might never have.

She looked up at him in that moment and he felt floored. The ground dropped away, everything dropped away, apart from her. Even the reasons he’d piled up against doing what he wanted most at that moment. To kiss her.

Snap.

He reared back as the sound of a camera shutter cut through the moment.

‘Sorry,’ he heard a man say, ‘but I couldn’t help myself.’

Henry turned to find a skinny guy with thick black-rimmed glasses brandishing a camera before him. The guy shrugged and introduced himself as a wedding photographer. Henry didn’t know whether to kill the man or thank him.

‘I thought you might like a memento. And,’ he shrugged hopefully, ‘maybe a photographer?’

Lily smiled awkwardly. ‘Thank you, but that’s been arranged.’

Henry wondered how on earth she could speak, because in that moment, his mind was completely blank.

‘Oh well. But if you would like a copy of the photograph, I can email it to you? And then you have my contact details just in case?’

Henry saw the manager of the warehouse and nodded him over so that Lily could tell him what she wanted from the arch, as he gave his email address to the photographer.

While Lily wrangled the manager into submission over the arch and the delivery, Henry struggled to get his feelings under control.

He and another staff member from the store cruised the aisles getting multiples of the items Lily had picked out, before paying and arranging delivery of it all, including the arch, to the estate. Less than forty minutes later they were heading back out into the car park and towards the Jeep, Henry relishing the slap of slightly cooler air against his skin.