Page 46 of All Yours

‘Nonna, they are all amazing.’ Isabella hugged her grandmother. ‘Thank you.’

‘Made with love,’ Nonna said back, and again Robyn had to look away. Wow, this wedding was going to be emotional in ways she hadn’t even considered.

‘So which one is the winner?’ Nonna prompted.

Isabella looked at them all.

‘Was there a favourite?’ she asked.

‘I loved the French one,’ Amber suggested, already serving some more puffs to her plate.

‘Me too,’ Rosie agreed, nudging Amber to put some on her plate too. ‘And I love the fact that it represents the community around you. I feel like we’re part of that. And Honeybridge.’

Isabella nodded thoughtfully.

‘I loved the Italian one,’ Robyn said. ‘It’s the most beautiful dessert I’ve ever seen. And I love the idea of you and Etienne dusting the cake with sugar at the reception, your first task together as husband and wife.’

‘I agree,’ Wren said, wiping her finger around her plate and licking it clean.

Isabella laughed.

‘I’m so torn!’ Isabella said. ‘I know Etienne would love it if we had a French wedding cake. But I also love the thought of my own country’s cake. The millefoglie.’

Nonna kissed her granddaughter’s cheeks and stood.

‘Then I will make both,’ she said, delighted.

‘Isn’t that too much?’ Isabella said.

‘Who can have too much cake?’ Nonna said with a smile, before serving everyone another slice.

Fox’s post was still on the table when she got back from the school run that afternoon, and she moved it to one side so that they could have dinner. Again, he was distracted, texting on his phone and frowning at replies.

‘Everything okay?’ she asked and he blinked at her, obviously miles away, before nodding.

‘Sorry, I’ve had a funny day.’ He pushed his hands through his hair and sighed. ‘I might go for a swim and clear my head.’

She loaded Willow into the buggy and set off for the pool house, nothing else to hold her in the main house. Later, she was getting ready for bed when she remembered the parcel. She carried it through to the bedroom and sat cross-legged on the bed to open it.

A new electric toothbrush fell out of the box. Top of the range, with several different cleaning functions, but a toothbrush.

She hadn’t ordered a new toothbrush.

Confused, she turned it in her hands. What the hell?

Suddenly flooded by dread, she grabbed at the packaging again and pieced it together to see the label.

Fox James.

She slapped her forehead. Hard. She had the wrong parcel. Which meant that Fox had hers. And she remembered exactly what she had ordered recently. Oh. My. God.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Fox

Fox’s day had been a strange one. Unsettling.

Starting with Robyn in his kitchen with her hair up in a messy kind of bun thing at breakfast time. He knew she was meant to be there, it was her job. But it didn’t help that she always smelled so good from the shower, and looked so energised and optimistic for the day ahead. She made him want to cancel work and do something fun, and he didn’t have time for fun. Not for the next month or so. Every time she passed him on her way to help Reggie with his shoes, or to hand a spoon to George, he could smell that vanilla smell of her shampoo, or shower gel, or whatever it was, which was distracting to say the least. He tried to maintain a bit of distance, so he could keep his mind on his emails, but he was always aware of her.