‘It isn’t Jeremy’s dog,’ Anna said, turning away to receive her receipt from the sales assistant.

‘Who does it belong to?’

So much for keeping her friendship with Brody private and intimate. Gabi would want to know everything now.

Anna tucked her phone back into her bag and removed her credit card from the reader. ‘He belongs to a friend of mine – Brody.’

Gabi frowned. ‘Brody? Do I know him?’

Anna shook her head. ‘No.’

‘The text you got in the wedding shop. That was also from Brody?’

‘Yes,’ Anna said as they exited the boutique.

‘I never heard you mention anyone with that name before. Who is he? Why does he send you photographs of his dog?’

‘He’s just… someone I met… We talk. That’s all.’

‘One of Spencer’s friends?’

‘While he wasn’t a friend of Spencer’s, I suppose you could say I met him through Spencer.’ She was taking the coward’s way out of this conversation, she knew. She’d tell Gabi soon, but on her own terms, when she was ready for the full interrogation.

They started walking back down the High Street. Anna noticed Gabi wasn’t looking very happy. While one of her best traits was her fierce loyalty, it did sometimes mean she could get a little territorial about her friends.

‘I’m doing what you want me to do,’ Anna said. ‘I’m finding new things in my life – new experiences, new friends. I’m trying to move on. Be happy for me.’

‘I know,’ Gabi said, and her expression lost some of its hardness. ‘I am very proud of you.’

‘Good,’ Anna said, linking her arm in Gabi’s and turning her back in the direction they’d just come from. ‘Because I haven’t maxed out my card completely yet, so we’re going to go and get you that killer yellow dress. Teresa said I could bring a plus one, and we might as well walk in looking spectacular together!’

Chapter Thirty-Five

ANNA STEPPED FROM the passenger seat of the car and stared up at the imposing facade of the Warlingham Court Hotel. She was very glad she hadn’t come alone.

‘Nervous?’

She turned to face her ‘plus one’, who was not wearing a canary-yellow, figure-hugging dress but a well-cut suit and a shirt. A last-minute substitution. ‘A little,’ she admitted to Jeremy. ‘I’m glad you’re here.’

The yellow dress was currently five miles away in a smart modern-European restaurant. Gabi and Lee were finally having their ‘talk’ tonight. Lee had postponed two other dates already and Gabi was stressed out to the max, desperate to hear what he had to say. When she’d told Anna about the clash of dates and had said she’d put Lee off, Anna had shaken her head. She couldn’t put her friend through any more waiting.

However, until that point she hadn’t realized how much she’d been relying on the idea of having Gabi beside her as moral support when she saw Gayle this evening. And she didn’t want to rope Scott and Teresa in and make them choose sides, so she’d been planning to duck out. However, when she’d mentioned to Jeremy at salsa that she might be free on Saturday after all, and told him the reason, he’d volunteered to come with her instead. Anna had phoned Teresa to make sure this was okay, and Teresa had been… well, strangely excited about the whole idea, so that had been that, and now here they were.