‘Good point. Fiver says they both do it?’

‘I’m not touching that bet with a bargepole.’

‘And I wondered,’ Victoria said over the boys, ‘if you might be free this afternoon?’

Lily knew she was worried about asking because rarely was she able to drag herself away from the restaurant. And suddenly she was sad. Sad that her best friend was so worried about asking if Lily had time for her. Had she been that lost in her work? Her restaurant-the estate – that her closest friend feared that she might say no?

But in the last few weeks she’d allowed Vihaan free rein in the kitchen so she could prepare for the wedding.

‘Of course!’ Lily replied, covering the sense of guilt stirring in her chest. ‘I’m free right now and for as long as you need me,’ she insisted.

‘That’s amazing, because I was hoping that you might like to try on your bridesmaid’s dress?’

‘Yes! Yes, yes, yes!’ cried Lily and they descended into another round of excited squealing.

‘And that’s my cue to leave,’ Oliver said with a smile.

‘Mine too,’ Henry said, backing away from the table.

‘Actually,’ Oliver said, halting Henry’s departure, ‘I was wondering if you might be able to show me around the estate? I haven’t seen it yet.’

‘Sure,’ Henry said. ‘While we’re at it, we could … Sample the wines,’ he concluded at precisely the same time as Lily said, ‘Stay off the wines.’

‘What,’ Victoria said, gently draping the garment bag over the back of a chair in Lily’s apartment, ‘is going on with you and Henry Hawkesbury?’

‘Nothing,’ Lily replied, not making eye contact with her closet friend. Or she’d see. She’d see the very thing that Lily had been trying to deny to herself.

‘Don’t give me that, Lily Atwell.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘You do.’

‘Nope. No idea,’ Lily replied determinedly, leaving Victoria in hysterics as Lily muttered about not being a river in Egypt.

‘A river where?’

‘Denial! I am not in denial,’ she said, spinning around and collapsing on her bed.

‘Protesteth much?’

‘Probably,’ Lily groaned, throwing her arms over her eyes. ‘Oh, V, I don’t know,’ she said helplessly. ‘He’s not the boy we remember.’

‘No, he’s not. He’s very much all man now,’ Victoria teased.

‘Hey! You’ve got your own one, V.’

‘I’m engaged, not blind, Lils. So Henry’s yours now, is he?’