‘You have never looked more beautiful,’ I whispered.
‘Well, that’s gone and done it,’ she said, stepping out of my hold and reaching for a tissue to dab at her now watering eyes. ‘I told you not to be nice to me. Weddings always make me cry.’
I had a feeling they might do just that to me later.
I’d been feeling emotional ever since Jackson had pulled me aside the previous day to ask if I’d mind looking over the speech he was intending to give at the reception.
‘You’ve always been good at that kind of thing, and I’d really appreciate your input on what I’ve written.’
‘Can I edit out all the four-letter words?’ I teased, secretly touched that I was the one he trusted enough to vet his speech.
‘No, definitely not. They all have to stay,’ he said with a wink, passing me his laptop.
I was teary-eyed before I was even halfway through. By the time I closed the document and passed the laptop back, I’d needed three tissues to mop up the mess he’d made of my mascara.
‘That is absolutely perfect, Jackson. There isn’t a single word I think you should change.’
The speech was an open love letter to his partner and a glimpse into my friend’s heart. And he certainly hadn’t pulled any punches.
‘That bit about how you’d known the moment you first met Lars that he was the one you wanted to grow old with...’ I said, my voice still wobbly with emotion. ‘And how sometimes, when you least expect it, lightning strikes—’
‘Ah, I thought you’d like that bit.’
I smiled. ‘That’s how you really feel, isn’t it?’ I don’t know why there was a question mark on the end of that, because the speech made Jackson’s feelings crystal clear. ‘It really can be a love that will last, can’t it? However fast you fall? That doesn’t mean it’s only infatuation or a fling?’
‘Are you asking me, or telling me?’ Jackson said, fixing me with a gaze that saw right through me.
‘Telling you,’ I said softly.
But this morning I’d woken up to a maelstrom of niggling worries. There’d been something distant in Rhys’s messages the previous day. I’d spent the entire rehearsal dinner on edge trying to decipher what was bothering me. He was saying all the right things, but something was missing. Something was different and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
‘Perhaps he’s worried about what will happen when Tasha is discharged,’ Mel had suggested, which was certainly a possibility. The doctors had been hopeful that she could go home after one more night in hospital. ‘It’s bound to be tough for him not being with her, after spending so many days right beside her.’
‘Perhaps he’ll stay over at Annalise’s place for the first night or two,’ Steve had innocently suggested. He seemed oblivious to the death stare his wife shot him across the rehearsal dinner table.
‘What? What did I say?’
‘Too much,’ muttered Mel.
‘Nothing that wasn’t already going through my head,’ I assured him with a rueful expression.
Later, in the hotel bar when guests had begun peeling off to bed in preparation for the big day, Mel had swooped down to give me a kiss and caught sight of the internet page displayed on my phone screen.
She pulled the mobile from my hand in the way only a best friend has the nerve to do.
‘Flights to London?’ she said, rapidly scrolling down the page I’d been studying. ‘You’re going back down?’ She turned to look over her shoulder and threw Steve a meaningful glare. ‘This is your fault.’
‘No, it isn’t. I was just looking . . .’
‘There’s a flight in your basket.’
My cheeks heated up. ‘I was just looking at the prices, that’s all.’
‘Prices for what?’ Jackson asked, sauntering up with a swaying gait that suggested he’d enjoyed quite a few glasses of the excellent champagne that had been flowing.
‘Ellie is worrying that something is wrong with Rhys and she’s thinking of doing a runner from the wedding.’
‘No, she’s not,’ I insisted, giving my friend a warning glare. The last thing Jackson needed to worry about was me going AWOL before all my duties had been carried out.