Page 112 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

He should have known that they would never stop loving him. That they had signed up to be his parents for life.

Joan was still mopping up her tears when Lily returned to the table. He was grateful that she pretended not to notice as she sat down. That she had allowed him the space to say his words in private.

Jack glanced over at her and gave her a brief smile before looking back at his parents. ‘So, this big wedding anniversary of yours? We should do something to celebrate,’ he said. ‘How about a party?’

His parents fell silent, their mouths open in shock. ‘You want to do that for us?’ asked Joan.

Jack looked at Lily, who was nodding enthusiastically at him. ‘Of course,’ he said, quickly. ‘I think it’s the least I can do for such a special celebration. After all, isn’t that what sons do?’

The tears flowed once more before Joan finally managed to pull herself together.

‘You realise that I’ll never be able to dine in here ever again,’ said Jack, but he reached out to take his mother’s hand to soften his words. ‘You’ve ruined my carefully cultivated reputation as a hard, unfeeling property developer.’

Joan squeezed his hand in reply. ‘You were never that,’ she told him.

‘So do you often get time to go to the theatre?’ said Lily, once the high emotion around the table had settled down again.

Jack was grateful for her subtlety in steering the conversation on to more unemotional topics.

He looked at the woman sitting beside him at the table. All the private moments they had shared these past few weeks kept running through his mind. He had finally discovered the real Lily beneath the brittle outside.

And it turned out she was an incredibly special woman. He realised with a start that she wasthe onethat everyone talked about. And he had no idea what to do about it.

44

The lead-up to the album launch was incredibly hectic, but Lily found herself enjoying every moment.

Her lists helped, of course. But this time the event meant something to her as opposed to one for some meaningless corporate company.

The personal touch was helped along by Skye, who was very artistic and in charge of, in the words of Alex, ‘making the place look pretty’.

Alex was also around as often as possible and Lily found she enjoyed his company.

‘Shout out to my ex,’ sang Alex, along with the radio that was switched on in the kitchen.

‘Too many of them,’ murmured Annie, with a smile on her face.

‘What design is that?’ asked Skye, taking the jam jar from him and peering at the fresh gold paint on the outside.

‘It’s an ear of corn,’ Alex told her.

Skye’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Is that what it’s supposed to be? Perhaps we can make it into a leaf of some sort,’ she said.

‘Rubbish,’ said Alex, snatching the jar from her. ‘It’s very artistic. Hey, Jack!’ he called out across the kitchen. ‘What do you think this looks like?’

Lily looked up from her phone to see Jack walking in through the back door. She found herself blushing as she seemed to do whenever he was nearby these days.

It had all started with those couple of shared kisses. And then the dinner with his parents where she had pushed him into a reconciliation. Now she saw him each and every day. In fact, she looked forward to it every morning and it was the highlight of her day.

But it most certainly wasn’t love, she reminded herself. That was all in the past. So they’d had a couple of kisses. So what? Jack wasn’t one for serious relationships and nor was she.

However, she couldn’t stop her eyes from following him across the room to peer at the jar that Alex was holding out.

‘Is it modern art?’ asked Jack.

‘It’s an ear of corn,’ Alex told him, with a huff.

Jack broke into a wide grin. ‘If you say so, mate.’ He wandered across to where Lily was standing at the kitchen counter. ‘All the apple juice and pulp are loaded up in the garage. Were you able to get hold of all those spirits?’