“Mhmmm,” he says as he slips into his room, and I close my door, thinking that his question is a bit weird since we had been talking for a while in the gym. Oh, crap, I hope he didn’t hear me crying myself to sleep. Surely not, otherwise he would have said something.

* * *

The morning goes quickly, and I’m in the taxi on the way to The Ritz for lunch and going over in my head things to talk about so I don’t look stressed or worried about anything. I don’t want them to know anything about Chester or that something to do with Dad has resurfaced after all this time. My mum is living her best life now and deserves to stay that way. I’ll handle this on my own, that’s what I’ve always done. Put my family first.

I end up being fifteen minutes late, and when I finally walk in, my sisters both give me the glare of thanks for leaving them alone with Mum for all this time.

“Here is my last beautiful girl. Harper, sweetheart, how are you?” She tilts her cheek toward me as I lean down to give her a kiss and then go to both my sisters and do the same.

“Doing great, Mum, how about you?” And if there is one thing mothers like to do, it’s talk about who in their friend group is sick, getting a grandchild, has a child getting married, or sadly, which friend has died. Every person she mentions is always with the added clause of “you know she lived down the street when you were five,” or “remember she used to deliver the groceries to us.” Obscure things, but all three of us just sit here nodding and listening intently like we know exactly who she is talking about.

And then we start around the table with her favorite questions, especially for Rachel and me, being single, “Are there any boyfriends on the horizon?” Amanda gets the other ones, “How is Stephen, and any wedding bells on the horizon?” Which has gotten worse since Felisha got engaged, because Mum sees her best friend Ivy getting to plan a wedding. Well, let’s just say plan her outfit for a wedding, because Felisha and I are keeping her right away from the plans because we don’t want it to be some big socialite event of the season. Ivy might, but it’s just not Felisha’s style, thank goodness.

By the time we have finished eating and had a few champagnes, Oliver is here and ready to pick up my mother to escort her home. He is a sweetheart, and I’m so happy she found him.

“Right, now she’s gone, so let’s move to the bar and we can really catch up.” Rachel is up and already walking out of the restaurant, and Amanda looks at the bill sitting on the table.