“I thought it was,” she replied wearily. “I managed to get round most of my last-minute hitches. But now there’s a problem with the caterers I’d booked for the party.” Her shoulders slumped defeatedly.

“What? Very last minute, isn’t it? What are you going to do at this stage?”

“I don’t know.” Kim bit her lip.

“Ah, feck it, let’s just have a cocktail and you can sort it all out later,” Annie suggested, falling back on her default in the hope that it might cheer Kim up.

“Hey,” a smooth American voice interrupted them, and Annie jumped a little to see Gabriel standing there, a little girl hoisted up on his hip.

“Hey, Annie, glad you could make it,” he said, smiling. Annie didn’t know where to look when he reached across to peck her on the cheek. “It just wouldn’t have been the same for Kim if you and Colette weren’t here, too. Back to where all the magic happened.”

He winked at his wife and Annie noticed her shoot him a definite look in return.

“It wasn’t magic for everyone, you know. And speaking of which, I really need to see if I can work some magic of my own to try and get this latest snag sorted,” she grumbled, putting her phone to her ear once again. “See you guys later, OK?” Kim reached over and gave Lily a quick kiss on the cheek.

“She’s tired,” Gabriel said. “I’m going to take her up for a nap for a little while.”

“Sure...”

But it was obvious that Kim was already miles away, and Annie couldn’t help but notice the irritated look on Gabriel’s face as he walked away.

Trouble in paradise?

Now that was interesting...

Chapter 50

Now

“Oh my God! Colette? You almost gave me a heart attack,” Kim heard Annie exclaim behind her, as she put the phone to her ear, and she turned back, unable to believe her eyes. “You’re here—already? I thought you weren’t making it out until the launch day?”

“Well, I was, because Ed couldn’t get away till then, but then last minute I decided to come out on my own and he’ll follow. He has a lot going on at work and couldn’t get away,” Colette explained to Annie.

Kim rushed back to embrace her friends, delighted all three were reunited at last. The strain in Colette’s voice was evident, though—as it had been when she’d initially called to explain about her and Ed’s arrangements, and Kim suspected that perhaps she wasn’t the only one having family issues.

While in her own case there might still be a way to remedy those, she knew in her friend’s situation, it wasn’t so easy.