Cover

Dear Reader,

I started this journey just over two years ago and what you are holding, Meet me at the Wedding, is the conclusion of this wonderful journey of friendship and romance and I couldn’t be more humbled knowing you have chosen to read it.

Immersing myself into the world of fiction has been both inspiring and cathartic. I had been struggling to find a romantic story that, to me, felt real and captured love in this day and age. I began by scribbling down a plot filled with characters I could both empathize with and identify within my friends and I hope I have delivered.

I have been overwhelmed by the response to all four heroines; Victoria, Malie, Zoe and Lily and the reaction to their personal stories, struggles and overcoming fears in their own way. They are brave, unapologetic and more importantly, true to themselves.

Thank you for your continued support, Meet me at the Wedding is such a special book, it is the culmination of four wonderfully diverse stories and I truly hope you have been immersed in a world of romance along the way.

With all my love,

Praise for Georgia Toffolo

‘A book with a huge heart, a dreamy location and a fabulous heroine, Meet Me in Tahiti is the very definition of romance. Sweet, funny and full of zest for life – I adored it!’

Veronica Henry, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wedding at the Beach Hut

‘Georgia [is] committed to tackling important issues, ensuring representation and writing strong heroines that are in control of their own narrative and sexuality…a must read’

Marie Claire

‘Uplifting, romantic and festive – the perfect book to curl up with. I couldn’t put it down’

Rosie Nixon, Editor-in-Chief, HELLO! magazine

‘Totally dreamy, funny in all the right places, and unabashedly romantic. I loved it!’

Laura Jane Williams, bestselling author of The Lucky Escape

‘The perfect escapism. Romantic, sexy and full of sunshine’

Lia Louis, bestselling author of eight perfect hours

‘Fresh, fun and full of romance! I loved it!’

Heidi Swain, Sunday Times bestselling author of Underneath the Christmas Tree

‘A perfect escapist, heart-warming read! I was hooked from the first line!’

Katie Ginger, author of The Perfect Christmas Gift

‘Unwrap and enjoy this Christmassy treat of a read’

Mandy Baggot, bestselling author of Staying Out for the Summer

‘A beautiful and heartfelt story of joy and glorious escapism’

Alex Brown, bestselling author of A Postcard from Paris

‘Meet Me in Tahiti arrived and I promptly devoured it! I fell in love with Finn and Zoe. I didn’t want it to end. Each book in this series has gotten better and better’

Sherryl Woods, New York Times bestselling author of the Sweet Magnolias series

‘A tender, beautiful book about missed chances, hope and true love. I was rooting for Zoe and Finn from the very beginning’

Cressida McLaughlin, author of The Cornish Cream Tea Wedding

‘Fun, flirty and filled with ex-appeal! I was on tenterhooks throughout this gorgeous book and LOVED Zoe’s strength of character’

Hannah Doyle, author of The A to Z of Us

‘I was blown away because it was so full of heart and love. And I cried happy tears at the end’

Jane Linfoot, bestselling author of Love at the Little Wedding Shop by the Sea

I thoroughly enjoyed this sparkling read. A delightful burst of sunshine’

Julie Caplin, bestselling author of The Cosy Cottage in Ireland

‘Fun, friendship, heartbreak and the hope of love – all wrapped up in the most breathtaking scenery!…The perfect heart-stirring escape-from-it-all read, whatever the time of year’

Zara Stoneley, bestselling author of The Dog Sitter

Readers Love the Meet me in…series

‘This was an absolute joy to read…It honestly ticked all of the boxes for me’

‘Get snuggled up and cosy with this joy of a read’

‘This has to be one of my favourite reads this year. From the first page to the last I was hooked’

‘A beautiful book that I will read over and over. If I could give 10 stars I would’

‘A brilliant book about Love and Friendship’

‘Fabulous friendships and a love story, what more could you want?’

About the Author

GEORGIA TOFFOLO is a broadcaster and British media personality. Meet me at the Wedding is the fourth book of her quartet. It is her fourth novel. She lives in South West London with her dog Monty.

Also by Georgia Toffolo

Meet me in London

Meet me in Hawaii

Meet me in Tahiti

Note to Readers

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• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008375942

Dedication

Dedicated to the great people of Devon – for your endless inspiration and fortune in residing in the best place on earth.

PROLOGUE

THE WINDSCREEN WIPERS FLASHED back and forth, sweeping the rain from view and strobing the headlights from an oncoming car. BBC Radio 1 was counting down the top ten and the girls in the car were laughing.

‘I can’t wait to see the expression on his face when he sees you, Zo. His eyes will be on stalks!’

‘Never mind me, what about V? Looking fiiiinne in that dress. I still can’t believe you made it yourself,’ Zoe said, switching the conversation to Victoria, who was driving her father’s car to the summer ball.

‘Thank you,’ crooned Victoria, clearly pleased as punch with the praise.

Lily saw the tight outline of Malie’s shoulders in the seat in front. Reaching forward, Lily rubbed her arm.

‘You OK?’

‘Yeah. You know …’ Malie shrugged, the tension still there.

‘Your folks again?’

A nod was her only answer.

‘You can stay with me tonight, if you like?’

‘Thanks, hun, but it’s probably best not to rock the boat,’ Malie replied with a sigh.

Lily leaned back, catching Zoe’s gaze, empathy bright in her eyes.

‘Wow. So this is it. End of A Levels, end of school …’

End of an era, thought Lily, peering through the darkness at her best friends. Hawke’s Cove wasn’t the smallest seaside village in Devon, but it wasn’t exactly a town either and having been in the same class since primary school, they’d always been there for each other. Birthdays, break-ups, frustrating parents, the loss of a parent, first kisses … Every defining moment of Lily’s life had them in it.

‘So what are we going to do with the first day of the rest of our lives?’ demanded Victoria in a bright voice.

‘Surf!’ said Malie.

‘Sleep!’ Zoe replied.

‘Work,’ Lily grumbled.

They all laughed, as she’d known they would. She loved her job at the Hawkesbury Hotel restaurant, but the early morning Saturday start had been gruelling throughout the whole of her last year at school and would just be as gruelling tomorrow.

But it would be her last shift. Lily had worked hard and saved a lot – enough to pay for culinary school in London. She’d done it. A true independent wow-man. She smiled at the errant thought, catching Victoria’s eye in the mirror.

‘And what are you smiling at?’

‘Nothing. Just thinking,’ she said on a sigh. ‘I’m gonna miss you guys!’

‘Hey, we’re not disappearing off the face of the planet. Besides, you and me are going to London to paint the town red!’

‘Not sure where I’ll be, but it won’t be here, that’s for sure,’ Zoe chimed. ‘But wherever it is, I’ll expect monthly visits from each of you.’

‘No plans to return to Ibiza then, no?’ Malie said, laughing from the front passenger seat.

‘Hey!’ Zoe cried. ‘We agreed! We don’t talk about that. Ever!’

‘It’s not that we don’t, it’s just that you can’t. It’s not our fault you can’t remember what happened … for, like, three hours,’ Malie replied, quick as lightning.

Lily felt the bubble of laughter rise within the car’s interior, taking over all the girls at the same time. But then collectively, as if each one of them realized that this might be one of their last evenings together, the bubble deflated just a little. In the silence, though, it wasn’t sadness she felt, but the strong bonds of friendship that would tie them together, no matter where they went. They’d always have this, Lily felt, knew even.

Victoria leaned towards the radio and turned the volume down.

‘Can’t believe you brought up Ibiza,’ Zoe grumbled.

Frowning, Lily peered at the road ahead.

‘Everything OK?’ Malie asked.

‘I think so, it’s just …’ Victoria peered in the rear-view mirror at something, causing both Lily and Malie to turn in their seats, trying to see what she was looking at. ‘It’s nothing, just the car behind acting a bit weird.’

‘Isn’t that Claudia and Henry?’ Zoe asked Lily.

‘How would I know?’ Lily replied, cringing at the defensiveness in her own tone which she knew would draw more attention from Zoe.

‘I don’t know,’ Zoe said, shrugging as deeply as the smile on her face was broad. ‘You just seem to be quite interested in Little Lord Fauntleroy.’

‘Don’t call him that. He’s my boss’s son, that’s all.’

‘Wish he’d inherited some of your boss’s kindness,’ grumbled Malie.

‘I’d heard they were going out. But I didn’t think he’d come back from uni for the summer ball,’ Zoe remarked.

Victoria’s attention snapped back to the rear-view mirror at the same time as Lily heard the rev of an engine over the quietened sounds from the radio.

Something changed then. Something in the air, a tension whipped tight, like a rope being pulled on either end, an infectious panic spread through the interior of the car, and Lily felt her senses heighten.

‘I’m going to—’

Victoria jerked the car to the side.

‘What’s going on?’ demanded Malie.

‘She’s trying to pass us. Crap, hold on,’ Victoria said, casting her eyes quickly back and forth between the road in front and the car behind. Lily turned, to see the car pulling out into the road beside them trying to overtake.

Lily felt Victoria ease off the accelerator to help the car pass them, the pull in momentum drawing the thud of her chest impossibly to her throat. The car had almost passed them when from the corner of her eye, Lily saw the back wheel spin out from underneath it.

‘Wait!’

‘Brake!’

‘Stop!’

‘No!’

CHAPTER ONE

Ten years later …

EVERY TIME LILY ATWELL punched a fist into the icing she was kneading, she imagined Henry Hawkesbury’s face.

Every. Time.

He had ruined everything. But she wouldn’t let him ruin this cake. It was the ninth incarnation of her best friend Victoria’s wedding cake. Finally having settled on the sponge – a delicious blackberry and lime – she was focusing her attention on the topping. Torn between buttercream and royal icing, she was trying them both. And resolutely ignoring the fact that because of her, or at least, because of Henry Bloody Hawkesbury, the wedding might not happen. Well, she mentally bartered with herself, it would happen, just not the way that Victoria had wanted it to happen. And that was unacceptable.

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.

‘Missed what?’ Lily asked, confused.

‘No, you’re just in time,’ replied Zoe. ‘I’m staging an intervention.’

‘Another one?’ Lily asked, thinking back to Zoe’s last unnecessary intervention after Malie had finally realized she was totally, one hundred per cent, head over heels in love with Todd Masters.

‘Yes. Because it’s been three weeks, Lils.’

Lily’s stomach roiled.

‘Have you told V yet?’ Malie asked gently.

‘Told V about what?’ Lily replied, folding the icing and punching at it again.

‘Lily Atwell. You are brilliant, amazing and beautiful, but also one hundred per cent deep in a river in Egypt!’ Zoe cried down the phone.

‘I’m not in denial, Zo,’ Lily exclaimed, letting out a puff of air as she switched to the rolling pin.

‘What time is it, Lils, and what on earth are you doing?’

‘It’s 6.30 and I’m making icing.’

‘Really?’

‘Not the point, Malie,’ Zoe interrupted. ‘Listen. Lils, it’s getting serious now. And if you don’t fix this, I’m going to come down there and—’

‘What, you’re going to get on a plane from Sydney and come all this way?’

‘No,’ Zoe replied after a strange pause, ‘Of course not. But this can’t carry on. V needs to know that she can’t have the wedding at the Hawkesbury estate.’

‘No she doesn’t,’ Lily insisted, which was met by a loud and painfully audible groan. ‘She doesn’t. Because I’m going to make it happen. I am.’

‘How, Lils?’ Malie asked, the doubt in her tone undermining Lily’s determination. ‘He’s already said no.’

‘Well, I’m going to make him say “yes”.’

‘Have you seen him?’

‘Not since …’

No. Absolutely not! No way.

Henry’s last words on the matter cut through her mind, making her want to lash out with the rolling pin.

‘Lils, listen. It’s not the end of the world.’

‘But it’s what Blake wanted,’ Lily replied both sadly and stubbornly, the ache in her chest expanding once again for the loss of her friend. But he’d been more than that. Boss, mentor … none of the words seemed to do enough justice to what he’d been to her.

Father figure.

‘I know, honey. But Blake isn’t here anymore.’ Malie’s words were said kindly, but they rubbed at a wound not even begun to heal and Lily hiccupped against a bubble of grief. ‘Look, do you want me to come back early? I could find someone to cover and—’

‘No, Malie,’ Lily interrupted. ‘Honestly, you don’t need to do that. I know you have things to finish up before you come home.’

‘Home. I love the sound of that,’ she replied, and Lily could easily imagine the smile on Malie’s face as she spoke. Lily couldn’t wait until Malie was back in Hawke’s Cove. Her friend had travelled all over the world making a name for herself on the surfing circuit, before her godfather offered her a job in Hawaii teaching at a surfing school where she’d finally settled.

Then Malie had found the perfect guy – Todd – who didn’t try to tame her beautiful wildness, but instead complemented it, pacified some of the white-topped waves that made her a force of nature and gave her a safe harbour when she needed it. And they had decided to return to Hawke’s Cove and no one could be happier than Malie’s parents at the news, not even Lily. It had done wonders to chase away the shadows that had hung about them since the loss of their son Koa, who had died from cancer when Malie had been sixteen. It had been such a tough time for Malie and her parents, who had turned their grief into a need to protect Malie at all costs, not realizing that they were stifling her so much that Malie had seized the first chance she’d got to fly halfway round the world for her escape.

But soon she’d be back, and would re-open her parents’ old surfing business. She’d be coming home. It was everything Lily had always wanted. Her friends, back in Hawke’s Cove … And while Zoe was still in Sydney, focusing on her writing, the most that Lily could look forward to was having them all back for the wedding. If there was going to be a wedding.

‘Do you know why Henry said no to the wedding?’ Malie asked, bringing Lily back into the present.

‘No idea.’ Punch, punch, roll. The poor icing.

‘Maybe you should find out why?’ Zoe suggested. ‘Then perhaps you could change his mind?’

Lily pulled up short, the rolling pin hovering mid-air. ‘That’s not a bad idea.’

‘OK, it’s the beginning of an idea, let’s not get carried away,’ Zoe cautioned.

‘No, I think … I think it could work, right?’ Lily said, finally latching on to some plan of action after weeks and weeks of helplessness. ‘All I have to do is find out why and then change his mind, offer him something in return.’

‘Oh yeah? You planning to—’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Just because you’re all having sex doesn’t mean that—’

‘Actually, it might really help take off some of the tension—’

‘I’m hanging up now!’ Lily cried before Malie could go into any further detail.

‘Lils, seriously,’ Zoe cut in. ‘I love you. Completely. But I’m going to give you a week. If you haven’t got him to agree to hold the wedding at the estate, then we’re really going to have to let V know. The invitations have been sent out.’

‘I know, I know. But don’t worry. I’m going to fix it. I have a plan,’ Lily said resolutely, half an idea forming in her mind.

‘Which is …?’

‘Bring him to the table, discuss terms, and get him to agree to the most perfect, amazing, beautiful wedding EVER.’

As she hung up the phone, she thought through what she needed to do. She’d go to the estate and call a truce. And while she was there, she might as well get the herbs she wanted for the evening’s service. She hadn’t been back there since …

Lily couldn’t quite bring herself to say the words in her head. As she leaned in to knead the icing, she put a little more force and determination into her fists. Blake’s death had devastated her. It had severed one of the few anchoring points Lily had left.

Fearing that the tears pressing against the back of her eyes might escape, she brushed at her cheek, unknowingly leaving a dusty smear of icing powder in its wake, and gave the white mound a gentle pat before placing it in an airtight box.

She would get Henry Hawkesbury to agree, because she wanted Victoria’s wedding to be perfect.

It had to be.

Despite her thoughts, Lily couldn’t help but smile as she pulled her bicycle out on to the cobbled main street that bisected the small seaside town of Hawke’s Cove. She loved this time of year. An early summer’s sun crested over the hill in the distance, looking out and down on the port town below. The fishermen were not yet back from their morning haul, the tourists were not yet in full flow. It was … peaceful.

She pedalled past the ever-twitching curtain of Mrs Whittaker’s house, waving a cheery hand to the local busybody who would be sure to notice Lily’s bike ride towards the estate. Especially since it was the first time Lily had ventured back to the estate since Blake’s … funeral.

There. She’d said it.

To herself, at least.

Swerving the manhole that had never caught her unawares since the first and only time it had knocked her off her seat, she took a left at the fork in the road at the top of the hill and cycled along the flat path heading towards the forest that bordered the estate. Each rotation of the wheel felt harder and harder the closer she came.

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