The things she could no longer do herself, like VAT and tax, she’d employed professionals to see to, and now, five years on, things were finally working like a well-oiled machine.

She turned her attention to that morning’s post, raising an eyebrow when she saw a familiar logo on one of the envelopes and prying it open to find Kim Weston’s invite to Villa Dolce Vita’s grand reopening in Italy.

Annie smiled. So she’d actually done it then.

Though, as always where Kim was concerned, she felt an instinctive pang of envy, and quickly pushed it aside.

Of course she had done it—the same girl never let anything faze her.

Annie also raised an eyebrow at the launch party date, only a month way.

As if she could just swan off to Italy for a long weekend at such short notice. She had a business to run.

She then spotted the flight and hotel confirmations, and how everything had been booked and paid for.

Nice, but Annie was perfectly able to pay her own way. Then she took a deep breath.

There she was getting her back up again—exactly the kind of thing Kim used to always warn her against. She should just accept her friend’s generosity and leave it at that.

But Annie couldn’t help it. Despite their closeness that summer, there was always a fault line where she and the other two were concerned—and probably always would be.

Right from that first day at the villa, she’d always felt somewhat on the outside and knew she’d never share the same rapport Colette and Kim had, and probably still did now.

But maybe that was understandable.

In truth, Annie was somewhat surprised to actually get the invite. Colette and Kim had kept in much closer contact since that summer in Italy—they had even attended each other’s weddings, whereas Annie couldn’t make either at the time.

She didn’t think they ever resented her for that or anything, but in all honesty, she hadn’t really expected their time together to spill over into their lives once they got back home.

It was just a holiday thing. Time and place.

Of course, it was easy to keep up with Kim’s life on social media (or at least the version she shared of it) and she knew that she now had a young daughter with her gorgeous husband, Gabriel.

Annie had met the couple briefly when one time Kim was on a business trip to Dublin, and he was exactly the kind of guy the likes of Kim Weston would find herself ending up with—a drop-dead gorgeous hunk with oodles of natural charm and an even greater amount of adoration for his wife.

Again, Annie chided herself for her envy.