6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Apang of guilt swirled through Cillian as the girl went off to get their drinks.
He should have been more gentlemanly and offered to help, but it was best for everyone if he pretended he had no recollection of the night he’d spent with her.
It would only lead to false hope, and he was in no position to be committing to anyone, no matter how attractive they might be.
His sister and her friend were exclaiming to each other about the unlikelihood of May not recognising him. They were obviously disappointed, as though a carefully planned surprise party had just been ruined by the guest of honour coming home early.
Cillian wouldn’t have believed it himself, except she seemed so genuine. He didn’t think there was anyone left in the country who didn’t know his name, and the thought, while a slight hit to his ego, also brought comfort. Perhaps it would be possible to live more of a normal life.
‘So you’ll be planning the wedding with May.’
Cillian snapped his attention back to Kitty and stared at her. ‘What? Me? And May?’
‘Don’t look so scared.’ Kitty laughed and shook her head at Alice. ‘It’ll be fun.’
Cillian’s heart sank. He was hoping his time in Saffron Bay would be about getting some perspective on his life, taking some time out to recover from the relentless schedule of the past few years.
Wedding planning – ironic as that was – was not part of the plan.
He thought Kitty had invited him for a bit of moral support, nothing more.
‘So, ladies,’ he said, trying to regain some composure. ‘What ideas do you have for this double wedding of yours?’
‘Let’s wait for May to come back,’ said Alice, ‘as you two are going to be working together on this.’
‘OK,’ he said.
May came back into the snug, four drinks balanced precariously between her fingers.
Once again he cursed himself for not helping.
But he couldn’t be alone with her. Not yet.
She appeared to want to forget she’d ever seen him before, and Cillian was happy to go along with the pretence. Easier for everyone, no strings.
‘What did I miss?’ asked May, handing out the drinks.
‘Nothing.’ Alice set her wine on the table. ‘We were waiting for you to come back, and now you’re here, we can tell you our plans.’
Kitty laid her hands flat on the table. ‘Because this is a double wedding, and because we’re best friends and don’t want anything getting in the way of that, we thought a way of not falling out over this would be to hand the entire wedding over to the pair of you.’
‘What?’ May’s head jerked up. ‘You can’t do that!’ Cillian silently agreed.
‘We can,’ said Alice. ‘You two know us better than anyone, probably even better than our fiancés. We trust the pair of you to create a day we’ll both love.’
‘What do Luke and Nick think about this?’ asked Cillian. ‘Surely they want to have a say?’
Alice shrugged. ‘They’re both pretty easy-going. Obviously, you can run any ideas past them, but they’re both up to their ears with work right now. They haven’t got spare time to think about planning a wedding.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said May. ‘Why would you do this? It seems crazy – handing over all the decisions. What if you hate what we put together for you?’
Alice placed a hand over May’s. ‘That’s not going to happen.
We trust you guys. We know you want to do the right thing by us.
And anyway, it’ll be like one of those TV programmes where they hand over wedding preparations to a team.
It’ll be fun.’ She grinned, in what Cillian assumed was meant to be a reassuring way.
He wasn’t convinced. ‘We’re not going to have to choose the dresses, are we? That’s way beyond my field of expertise.’
Kitty laughed. ‘No, that’s one thing we won’t be handing over. We’ll be doing that ourselves. In fact, we’ve got a shopping trip planned for the weekend.’
‘So what exactly do you want us to sort out then?’ asked May. ‘I’m really struggling to wrap my head around this, so help me out.’
Cillian’s phone pinged with a message from his manager. Yet again, hassling him to confirm his plans. The man was still fuming that Cillian had turned down a tour of Australia and New Zealand to be at his sister’s wedding, as though a family wedding should be far down his list of priorities.
Too bad. He’d had enough of missing out on family.
Kitty had been through a lot, and he wanted to be there for her on the most important day of her life.
If that meant being a wedding planner, so be it.
At least – he eyed May – he didn’t have to deal with an adoring, eyelash-fluttering fan to carry out his sister’s wishes.
He deleted the message without reading it and switched off his phone.
Alice reeled off a list on her fingers. ‘Ceremony venue, reception venue, catering, evening entertainment, transport if needed, decorations … a theme, if you want to go down that route.’
‘Hold on.’ Cillian pulled a little black notebook from the pocket of his leather jacket. May raised her eyebrows. For some reason, he wanted to tell her it wasn’t what she thought, it was his book for jotting down song ideas. Now didn’t seem the time or place.
‘Say that list again,’ he said, writing each one down as Alice repeated them.
‘Flowers,’ added May, pointing to Cillian’s notebook.
‘And when you say theme,’ he asked. ‘Did you have anything in particular in mind?’
‘Surprise us.’ Kitty grinned. ‘Honestly, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t plan their weddings this way. It’s going to be so much fun.’
Cillian nodded and did his best to smile, despite his sinking heart. His intentions were good, but faced with this list, he wasn’t sure he’d have agreed to come if he’d realized what Kitty had in store for him. A holiday on a Greek island was looking like a better prospect.