Chapter 1
‘Here you can see the way we’ve planned the chairs for the ceremony to capture the sunset.
I’ve sent this diagram to Donatella at the hotel and it’s not too different from our last wedding on the island, so she knows to have staff available to help set up the seating.
I’ve printed all of this and got it bound into a book for you, but it’s all on the tablet as well, including the master contact list.’
Toni fumbled to accept the slim tablet. Taking in the barrage of information her friend and colleague was rattling off, as well as maintaining enough hand-eye coordination to not drop a device that was worth more than all of the electronics in her entire household, was about as much as she could handle.
The Falkirk-Mason wedding would be even more of a challenge.
It was difficult not to compare herself to the put-together wedding planner. Sophie-Leigh had subtle highlights in her blonde hair, a well-cut jacket that was just the right side of casual and a serene, unflappable smile for brides.
Toni had a low-maintenance bob, a two-minute make-up routine and a constant buzz in the back of her mind, hoping her son was coping well with the longer hours she was working these days.
Being a single parent had changed the wiring of her brain permanently.
‘I know you’ll do brilliantly,’ Sophie said with a tone of finality.
‘I don’t know about brilliantly, but I’ll do,’ Toni joked. ‘And Reshma is coming out two days before the wedding to help, so I’m sure nothing can go wrong.’
Nothing could go wrong. Sophie was pregnant, with a host of tests due and results to study. Her busy schedule of weddings had been thinned to a handful of important ones.
‘That’s kind of how I feel about motherhood,’ Sophie said through her teeth.
‘That’s all anyone feels about motherhood,’ Toni quipped ruefully. ‘How are you doing? I kind of assumed you’d pin me down to… talk some time.’
Sophie’s heavy sigh made Toni regret broaching the subject.
She hadn’t exactly looked forward to that ‘talk’, but since she was the only mother among both of the teams at Great Heart Adventures and I Do Destinations – unlikely and reluctant partners in the adventure weddings business – she was willing to offer support.
Work commitments had meant Sophie had had to share the news of her pregnancy quietly in the team earlier than usual and she seemed nervous, but Toni understood she’d always wanted a child, so those nerves would resolve.
‘I’m so tired all the time. It’s frustrating. And this is before he or she actually comes out and wakes me up at all hours. I should feel fortunate I didn’t have morning sickness, I suppose. Did you have a rough time?’
Honestly, Toni didn’t remember, but it was too soon to burst Sophie’s bubble with the realities of motherhood, and her friend wouldn’t be doing it all alone anyway – unlike Toni. ‘Oh yeah,’ she replied lightly. ‘Terrible.’
‘I’m not good at change,’ Sophie groaned. ‘And I’m worried I’m too old for this.’
‘Nonsense. Lots of first-time mothers are over thirty-five these days.’
‘You know I count as a geriatric mother?’ Sophie said, scrunching up her nose. ‘What about geriatric fathers? Andreas is forty-one, but nobody seems to care about that. I’m the old one.’
Toni wasn’t sure if she was supposed to laugh or not. She went with not. It seemed safest.
‘How is Andreas holding up? He hasn’t been around the gym much.
’ Her old friend – her husband’s oldest, closest friend – was the father of this surprise bundle of joy and to say parenthood was an unexpected role for Andreas to find himself in was an understatement.
The surly mountaineer had been staunchly opposed to all forms of family but the most necessary, until he’d finally given in to his feelings for Sophie.
Sophie’s sigh this time was more of an ‘oof’.
‘You know Andreas. It was like hitting him over the head with a rock when I told him, especially since we hadn’t exactly finished the babies discussion.
I made a mistake with malaria tablets for that wedding in Madagascar and then this happened.
But after he wrestled with his unexpressed emotions for a week, he turned right around and insisted we start planning a wedding.
Who wants to think about a wedding at a time like this? ’
‘That does seem like a lot. You’ll be a family whether you’re married or not and you don’t want a half-arsed wedding.
’ At least, Toni suspected Sophie wouldn’t want a half-arsed wedding.
Toni’s had been a brief civil ceremony in a dark and draughty town hall in Austria eleven years ago, just before her new husband left for an expedition – not that she wanted to think about her own ill-fated wedding right now, when she was two weeks away from organising someone else’s happy day.
After the merger between her employer and I Do Destinations, organising wedding travel had become part of Toni’s job, but she’d never had to travel herself to attend one – until now.
‘Exactly!’ Sophie agreed rather aggressively. ‘I never thought I’d be trying to convince Andreas not to get married, but at least he’s dealing with the news constructively, which is more than I’d dared hope for at the beginning.’
‘If you want to meet up when I get back—’
‘Toni, you’re an angel for offering and, out of desperation, I imagine I’ll take you up on it, but right now, you have a week of holiday to enjoy and then a wedding to run – flawlessly.’
Toni wasn’t sure if that was a vote of confidence or a threat.
‘Are you sure it’s okay that I’ve tacked this holiday onto the beginning?’
‘Of course! We’ve all done it, although usually, it’s better the week after a wedding, not before. More relaxing.’
‘Cillian has a football camp and my parents can’t have him, so it’s now or never.’
‘Better be now, then.’
‘And you’re sure Reshma and the clients don’t mind that Mum and Cilli are staying in my hotel room during wedding week? It’s my first time at one of these events and I don’t want to be unprofessional, but I also—’
For years, Toni had had no choice but to let others help, make special arrangements for her. Now her parents had retired and moved to Weymouth, she’d assumed she could start giving back to Great Heart, but two weeks away from Cillian had been a step too far.
‘Reshma herself suggested it, didn’t she?
’ Sophie reminded her, speaking of the indomitable founder and head of I Do Destinations.
‘Look, if you don’t get special consideration because you’re a mum, then what message does that send me?
’ she asked gruffly, hands on hips. Her pregnancy wasn’t showing yet, but there was something in the way she held herself that Toni recognised with a twinge.
Motherhood was not for the faint-hearted.
‘You’ve been spending too much time with Andreas,’ she joked, mimicking Sophie’s pose and fierce expression.
As she’d hoped, Sophie’s demeanour softened immediately. ‘I have,’ she agreed drily, but her smile was two parts giddy. It made Toni feel a thousand years old.
Her own soulmate was no longer on the earth, just the little bits of that soul she would always carry and the big chunk that lived on in her son’s smile.
Toni’s phone vibrated in her pocket and she tugged it out to see a message from her friend Gabri.
It still seemed surreal that after a year of messaging online about anything and everything – as well as wedding flowers, Gabri’s profession – Toni would meet her in person in just a few days.
Ever since they’d firmed up plans, her friend had been sending photos of the most beautiful corners of the island: rugged cliffs with the crashing, turquoise sea below; an endless sky over vineyards with a glimpse of the Mediterranean in the distance; clay roofs and stone churches baking in the sunshine.
Today’s photo was a flower, but she didn’t have time to look more closely. She didn’t want to rouse Sophie’s curiosity.
‘Where are you staying? Somewhere nice?’
‘Oh, somewhere my budget could stretch to!’ Toni fudged.
It was true. She would never have spent the money on a holiday apartment when there were so many other uses for it – like little shoes that only lasted a few months on growing feet.
The only reason she was taking a week’s holiday on her own was because of Gabri’s offer, but Toni was reluctant to mention it to Sophie.
Using the expenses-paid flights for a holiday was one thing, but staying with the wedding florist for free was another.
Besides, everyone at Great Heart and I Do paid such close attention to Toni’s welfare, she’d enjoyed having an online friend who never sent her pitying glances – never any glances at all, only words on a screen.
It would be difficult to explain to her friends and colleagues without suggesting she was lonely, which she absolutely was not. Being a single mum was not a diagnosis.
Toni took a deep breath to lie when it was clear Sophie was waiting for details.
‘Marciana Marina,’ she said. That was the name of the nearest town, Gabri had said.
Apparently, she lived in a villa on a cliff with a sea view, ten minutes’ drive out of town.
While Toni loved the colourful waterfront and long, sandy beaches of home, she lived in a two-up, two-down row house in Weymouth West and needed a wetsuit year-round when she went open water swimming – which she’d done less and less since Cillian was born.
A villa with a view and some hot, August sunshine sounded heavenly.
‘That’s on the other side of the island from the wedding venue,’ Sophie said with a nod. ‘That’s good, since you’re not to do any work stuff while you’re on holiday,’ she added sternly.
‘If necessary, I’m more than happy to,’ Toni contradicted her gently. ‘It’s my first time doing this.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Sophie reassured her. ‘I’m in the office a few days next week to sort any last-minute queries and we’ll chat the Monday before the wedding when you’re back on the clock, but we’ve used all the suppliers before and the island averages only two days of rain in August. I talked the clients out of the scuba wedding, so there are minimal variables. ’
Toni assumed Sophie was joking about the scuba wedding, although she couldn’t be sure. Since I Do Destinations prided itself on providing whatever the clients dreamed up – from mountaintop ceremonies to snowed-in chapels drenched in mistletoe – a scuba wedding wasn’t much of a stretch.
‘You’ve organised a lot of the details for several weddings already. It makes sense that now you’re going to be there for one,’ Sophie finished, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
Toni gave a noncommittal, ‘Mmm,’ in response.
‘I’m quite jealous you’re going. Every Elba wedding is special – something to do with Gabri’s wonderfully unusual flowers. He’s such an artist. You’ll have to say hi from me.’
For a second, Toni thought Sophie had said ‘he’, but she must have been mumbling.
‘Of course.’ Toni would say more than ‘hi’, but Sophie didn’t have to know that.
Farewelling Sophie with a hug that only made Toni marvel at how much had changed over the past year since the merger of the two travel companies, she carefully took the tablet and the bound printouts and headed out to her little Corsa.
The gleaming Bath offices of I Do Destinations were a far cry from the faintly whiffy climbing gym at Great Heart, but at least at Great Heart, she belonged – because Miro had belonged.
Once upon a time, she’d been the one recklessly in love, bringing a child into the world with no concept of the things that would go wrong.
How could she watch this wedding, with everything she knew, and still hope for the best?
Her friends at Great Heart – Willard, Kira, Andreas and the others – had always thought she was the one who believed in love.
She was supposed to be the bridge between the optimistic wedding planners at I Do and the sceptical, down-to-earth guides at Great Heart.
It was true, she’d known a great, soul-deep love, like these clients who wanted to make a statement of their feelings in a beautiful place as the sun set behind them. But she also knew how na?ve they were to think this would be the defining moment of their love.