Chapter 45
45
Holly kept her mind on her baked goods. It was a fabulous distraction. That and ensuring she was as indispensable and helpful as possible throughout every moment of the naming-day ceremony. By busying herself in that way, she didn’t have time to speak to anybody. Let alone think about the damn kiss that continued to plague her every waking moment. That was the plan, at least. But the later in the day it got, the harder it was to keep herself separate from everybody. And by everybody, she meant Giles and Sienna.
‘Holly, come on, we need some photos,’ Jamie said.
‘I’ll be there in a second,’ Holly said.
‘No. Come now. This second. You already missed the first round.’
They had chosen a beautiful riverside area off the beaten track for the ceremony. It was a hippyish affair – at least, that was how Holly’s mother had referred to it. But Holly loved the informality of the day, the fun, the children playing, running wild. The photos she had from Randall’s naming day were some of her favourites, and they were filled with the best memories – memories that were a lot harder to create today, given how tense she was.
‘I just want to make sure the wasps and ants don’t get to the food,’ Holly said. ‘I’ll stay over here.’
‘You are being ridiculous,’ Jamie said. ‘We can’t have a photo without you in it. They’ll be fine for five minutes.’
Grumbling, Holly found a couple of serviettes, which she draped over the food before traipsing over to join the others.
‘About time,’ Jamie said. ‘Now come on. Squeeze in next to Giles.’
‘I’ll come and stand next to Hope,’ Holly said.
‘No, I’ve got a height thing going on. Come on, just squeeze in there. It’ll work much better.’
‘Sorry,’ Holly muttered as she squeezed herself in between Sienna and Giles.
She could feel her face glowing with embarrassment. ‘Do you really want me to go in between Sienna and Giles? Surely couples should be together.’
‘Not for this they don’t have to be. It works. Trust me.’
Holly was fully aware of the glares she was receiving from both sides as she wriggled into the gap, but while she couldn’t give a monkey’s how Sienna was looking at her, Giles’s glower caused a deep throbbing behind her sternum.
‘Sorry, I just?—’
‘It’s fine,’ he snapped.
It’s fine. Those were the first two words Giles had spoken to her in two weeks. What was he referring to? The fact that she had to press up close to him to get in the photo, or the email she’d sent, or the kiss? Was that what was fine? Or maybe it had nothing to do with that – maybe it was just because she’d had to jostle them out of the way a bit so that she could fit in the photo.
‘Okay, everybody get ready to say naming day !’ Jamie called out as she set the phone on a timer. ‘Here we go: three, two, one, naming day!’
Several of the children pulled funny faces at the exact moment the camera went off, but Holly wouldn’t have expected anything else.
‘Okay, a couple more with the guide-parents, then we’ll get to the food.’
Holly let out a sigh of relief – at least she didn’t have to be involved in that. That had to be the most difficult bit done, right? Now she could just avoid people she didn’t want to speak to and try to leave early. Maybe she could say she needed to see her parents. Yes, that would be the perfect excuse. After all, her mum had been struggling more and more recently.
She was just checking the time and wondering how long she would have to wait before making her excuses when a voice spoke to her.
‘Holly?’
She turned around; her stomach somersaulted. Sienna was there, looking straight at her.
‘Sienna?’ Holly knew her voice sounded strained.
‘It’s been so long. It feels like it’s been so long,’ Sienna said, reaching her arms around Holly and squeezing her tightly. ‘You know, the spa feels like weeks ago, doesn’t it?’
‘Well, it was two weeks ago.’
‘I know, but I mean weeks and weeks ago. And I need to apologise. I really hadn’t planned on telling Giles about our little tiff. We just share everything. You know what that’s like? You’ve been in relationships.’
‘I have,’ Holly replied, feeling a familiar twitch along her jaw. ‘The type where you actually tell the truth to one another. I was surprised to hear that I demanded to go to the pub. I hadn’t realised.’
Sienna didn’t so much as bat an eyelid.
‘You can’t say you gave us much choice, can you really? Come on, your entire apology finished with saying you were going to get McDonald’s delivered.’
‘It was a joke. As you know.’
‘Hmm, and did anyone find it funny?’
Holly wasn’t going to put up with it any longer. Sienna was nothing more than a schoolyard bully, only they weren’t in school any more. She was a grown-up and if she thought she was going to push Holly out of her friendship groups, not to mention out of Giles’s life, she was very much mistaken.
‘I know you think you know what you’re doing, but you’re not going to come out on top of this.’ Holly’s voice trembled.
‘I don’t know, I was on top last night, and the night before. Or is that not what you mean?’ Sienna smirked. ‘You really are an im?—’
‘Oh my God, I love these days. It makes me want to have another baby.’
Holly turned around to see Caroline standing there, with one of Holly’s naming-day biscuits in her hand.
Holly turned back to look at Sienna. Her blood was boiling. Had Sienna really just made that comment? And again, with no one there to hear. And now Holly couldn’t even respond. Not with Caroline there. Sienna would just return to being as nice as pie and Holly would look crazy if she said or did anything.
‘So, what are you talking about?’ Caroline said. ‘Wedding stuff? It must be so exciting. It feels like decades since ours. Actually, it was decades.’
Sienna offered a trite little titter that anybody in their right mind could tell was fake, but Caroline smiled.
‘So, how’s it all going? There must be loads to sort out.’
‘You have no idea.’ Sienna rolled her eyes. ‘I know it’s just one day, and it’s not what matters, is it? Even if everything goes wrong, it’ll still be a perfect day because I’m marrying the perfect man.’
‘Oh my God, you are so sweet,’ Caroline cooed. ‘Aren’t they so sweet, Holly?’
‘Sickeningly so,’ Holly replied.
Sienna shot her a glower before she continued. ‘There’s just so much to sort out. I’m trying to get the same photographer that Meghan and Harry had. I absolutely adored the photographs. And then there’s the flowers. I think a wedding can be ruined by bad flowers, don’t you? They’re basically the cornerstone of all the photos. It’s not just the professional photos you have to think of, after all. It’s all the guests who post them online. Good flowers can make such a difference to how the images look.’
‘What happened to “everything is perfect as long as you’re marrying the perfect man”?’ Holly muttered under her breath, yet once again, Sienna ignored her comment.
‘There’s a florist I follow online,’ she said. ‘Everything he does is phenomenal. It would be my absolute dream to have him do the wedding. He’s got an exhibition in Anglesey, just for two days starting tomorrow and I’m desperate to go, but I’ve got an event at work I just can’t get out of. It’s such a shame. I’m heartbroken, if I’m honest. I mean, I adore the photos he posts, but you never know how edited they are, do you? I really need to see what they’re like in real life. But Anglesey? It’s a four-hour drive. It would take a whole day just to go there and back.’
‘And you can’t get someone to cover for you?’ Caroline asked.
‘Mine isn’t the type of job where you can just get someone to cover you,’ Sienna said. Everything about her was so damn patronising, Holly wanted to hit her. She didn’t know how she was managing not to.
‘That’s such a shame,’ Caroline said, seemingly oblivious to the complete condescending manner in which she’d been spoken to. ‘Why don’t you see if there’s someone who can go up for you? Take photos? That way, you’d know if they were edited or not.’
‘It’s a great idea, but I’d have to find someone I could really trust.’
‘Well, I’m working at the sweet shop, but Holly is off. And I’m sure Giles is free. The pair of them could go up together, couldn’t they? There couldn’t be two people you trust more to take some photos, could there?’
Holly watched as a smile tightened on Sienna’s lips.
‘Well, I’m not sure it will be that simple. Photos are tricky to get right. The light and composition…’
‘But if you really want to know what they would look like unedited, like the guests would take at the wedding, then it would be better to have normal people go, wouldn’t it? Isn’t that what you just said?’
‘I understand what you’re saying, only… only?—’
Sienna was clearly trying to figure out a way out of the situation, and Holly desperately wanted to see what excuse she came up with, but Caroline was already waving her hand.
‘Giles! Giles, you haven’t got anything sorted for tomorrow, have you?’
Slowly he ambled over towards them.
‘Is everything okay?’ Giles asked. Holly wished her stomach would stop the strange fluttering churning it had begun, but she also wished Giles would at least look in her direction and stop pretending she didn’t exist. Although that was what she had been trying to do all day too.
‘Sienna wants someone to go and take some photos of these flowers she likes tomorrow,’ Caroline said. ‘Are you free?’
‘I can be.’
Sienna shifted a little. ‘It’s really not that important.’
‘A minute ago, you said that they were the most perfect flowers possible, and you were heartbroken you couldn’t go,’ Caroline said.
‘I’m not sure I worded it like that.’
‘Those were exactly your words.’
Holly wanted to hug Caroline. At least someone else was seeing a tiny snippet of Sienna’s fakeness. Caroline would be the person Holly finally told about the things Sienna had said at the spa and after this, she would believe her. She knew it. Feeling a sense of elation, Holly opened her mouth, ready to back Caroline up and say that those were, indeed, the words Sienna used, but before she could, Giles was speaking.
‘Is that right?’ he said. ‘You want to see this florist?’
‘I am a big fan of his work,’ Sienna replied eventually. ‘But there’ll be others, I’m sure.’
‘She can’t go and get photos. She wants some unedited ones, so I suggested you and Holly go and take some. Sounds like a perfect idea, don’t you think?’
Holly knew what Giles was going to say. Of course she did. There was no way he would agree to something as ridiculous as an eight-hour round trip alone with Holly when the last time they had been together, they had ended up kissing. He was going to say no and that was what she wanted him to say, wasn’t it? It was the right thing to say.
She looked at him, and for the first time all day, he finally met her gaze. Without warning, her chest began to flutter in a manner she had not believed was possible any more. Could he feel it too? He could. Somehow, she knew this wasn’t in her head. It wasn’t all on her. He could feel it too.
All of a sudden, the answer she wanted him to give wasn’t so certain any more. Yet he still wasn’t speaking. She waited. Her breath held. Every second dragging before he finally cleared his throat and offered Caroline a reply.
‘Sounds like a great idea,’ he said.