He rubbed at the back of his neck. ‘Look, Mum and Dad really wanted to help out. They’ve promised they won’t do anything else, at all, for the wedding. But Dad kept pushing me to talk about the wedding and the plans, and then I found out because of the date it’s actually partially refundable, too …’ He noticed something in my face. ‘You’re annoyed.’

Yes. We hadn’t made grand plans for the wedding. But of the plans we had made, the first thing we’d agreed was that we’d pay for it ourselves. ‘I thought we’d already talked about the money situation, though.’

‘Did we?’ He sounded genuinely perplexed. Yes, I thought, and your bloody mother knew about our agreement, too. ‘I mean, I know we talked a little about venues and stuff before I went away. I didn’t think we’d … I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but I really didn’t think we’d decided on anything.’

I could remember the conversation. We’d been sitting across from each other in this same room with a laptop open between us and a castle on the screen. In the space of an hour we’d moved from howling with laughter at the prices, all the way through to a grown-up talk about finances and … How do you not remember this happening?

‘Okay,’ he started again, plugging the silence, and I waited for the memory of it all to fall out of him. ‘Babes, I really can’t place that conversation ever happening, I’m sorry. I can call the venue tomorrow, tell them we don’t want it booked? Mum and Dad were only trying to—’

‘There’s no need for that, honestly.’ I flashed a tight smile. It wasn’t worth the trouble it would cause. ‘It’s a surprise, that’s all.’ I kissed his cheek and then picked up the flowers. ‘How did you even decide on a date?’

‘Easy. I picked the date when you conquered gender inequality in the playground.’

My whole body softened. The day Rowan and I first met was when I’d nearly thumped a boy in the face for not letting Molly play tag. Unless you ask Rowan about it, in which case he saved me with a punch that never happened. I hadn’t even wanted to play the game myself; I only wanted the right to. In the end, Rowan and I had been huddled out of sight at the top of the field because neither of us could be arsed with running about in the heat. And that was when it all started. God, oh God, how can I be annoyed about this? I was facing away from him, trimming the toes of the roses. ‘Rowan, that’s unbelievably sweet. I – Christ, you’re a good egg, you really are. Two years away, too …’ Snip, snip. ‘That’s a really good amount of planning time.’