Page 25 of Lie For Me

Ollie took Jack’s hand and pumped it up and down, then drew himself up to his full height, eye to eye with Jack, and said, ‘My sister is amazing. You look after her.’

Jack understood his earnestness and intent and didn’t laugh at the tough little brother act. He kept hold of Ollie’s hand as he replied.

‘I’ve known Lucy for five years now. She is truly one of the kindest, funniest, most creative people I have ever met,’ he said. ‘Not to mention beautiful. I know I am a lucky man.’

Jack looked past Ollie and met Lucy’s gaze, his expression serious, not a trace of mockery playing about his mouth.

Lucy’s face flushed pink, and she fiddled with a giant lavender chair-bow.

Ollie squeezed Jack one more time.

‘Well, good, that’s all right then!’

He looped his arms between each of theirs.

‘You can use our wedding to get inspiration for your own.’ He winked. ‘When it gets to that.’

‘Good idea,’ Jack nodded. ‘What do you call this colour you’ve chosen?’

Lucy glared at him, and he swallowed down a laugh as Ollie led them over to where his bride-to-be was sitting.

‘Sophie,’ Ollie called as they approached. ‘Look who’s here!’

Sophie, dressed in an off-shoulder empire line lavender coloured dress, jumped up and skated around the table to greet them. As tanned and lithe as Ollie, she grinned broadly as she came up to them.

‘Lucy!’

Sophie wrapped slender arms around Lucy and hugged her with rather more gentleness than Ollie had.

‘Or should I say sister?’ She grinned. ‘Since it’s almost official now.’

‘And you must be Jack.’ Sophie was embracing him, folding him into the lavender. ‘We’re practically family now, too.’

She pulled back and turned her full-beam smile on him before planting a kiss on his cheek.

It was impossible not to like Sophie, Jack decided. She was part human and part Labrador puppy. She had the rare gift of centering her attention on you in such a way that you felt like you were the only person in the room.

‘So?’ Sophie asked, clasping her hands and gesturing for everyone to sit. ‘Do tell! How did you two get together?’

She waved down the passing waitress, grabbed four glasses of bubbly and passed them out, then perched on Ollie’s knee, eyes fixed on Lucy and Jack.

‘I want to hear allll the details.’

As Jack opened his mouth to speak, Lucy beat him to it.

‘Oh, no, this weekend is all about you guys!’ She waved her glass about. ‘Tell us about how all the planning has gone. Are you happy with how it all turned out?’

A lavender-coloured balloon was losing its helium and drifted slowly down behind Ollie and Sophie to land on a tray of chutneys.

‘Actually,’ Ollie said, ‘we didn’t get too involved in the end. The mums did most of this.’ He gestured to the room and the decorations. ‘We’d have been happy with something more low-key—’

‘Yes,’ Sophie interjected, ‘but when the mums got together, it sort of kept growing and growing. It’s lovely. We love that they get on so well and have enjoyed planning all this. They’ve been so generous in every way.’

‘Couple of compromises,’ Ollie said, wrinkling his nose. ‘Not a massive fan of lilac—’

‘Shh, lavender,’ Sophie whispered, looking over her shoulder lest either of the mothers be in earshot. Sophie’s mother was by the buffet table, admonishing the shy serving boy who looked like he was trying to dissolve into the wall behind him. Valerie was at the entrance, noisily air kissing Lucy’s Aunt Paula, who was making a hot and heavy entrance, puffing about the late summer heat and holding a tiny battery-powered fan in front of her damp, florid face.

‘But it was the only colour scheme they could agree on.’

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