The Winter Wedding by Abby Clements Read Free Book Online

that for me?’ Lila said, her eyes wide.
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Thank you.’ She beamed. ‘Yes please!’
    I felt a bubble of excitement at the task ahead. ‘How involved would you like me to be?’
    ‘Do it all,’ Lila said, her eyes alight with excitement. ‘I trust you completely. But you wouldn’t be working from scratch, obviously. I’ve got something for
you,’ Lila said, bringing a small embroidered notebook on to her lap. She hesitated for a moment before passing it over to me.
    ‘It’s not like I’ve been planning my wedding for years or anything,’ she said, suddenly sheepish.
    Her expression told me how treasured the possession was, and I opened it carefully. Inside each page was covered with sketches and ideas, collages of magazines and photos with notes next to
them.
    ‘You sure?’ I said, laughing.
    ‘Just since I met Ollie. But you can’t tell him that,’ Lila said, smiling.
    I took a closer look at some of the notes and ideas, and was pleased to see that they chimed with the initial concept I’d imagined for the wedding. ‘Well, this rather puts the brakes
on the Little Mermaid-themed wedding I had planned for you. You know how you used to love that film . . .’
    Lila’s eyes widened.
    I held my hands up. ‘I’m joking,’ I said. ‘Honestly, do you really think I’d do that to you? If we’re going to do this together, you need to have a bit more
faith in me.’
    She smiled, evidently relieved. ‘Sorry . . . I do trust you. Really I do. And I’m much happier with you doing this than a total stranger. I wish we’d done this from the very
beginning.’
    ‘You only had to ask.’ I tucked the book away in my bag. ‘Anything else I should know about?’
    Lila bit her lip, pondering the question. ‘Nope. I think that’s it.’
    ‘Then we’re all set,’ I said. ‘I can’t wait to start planning for you.’
    That weekend, Amber moved into the flat. I helped her carry her boxes of things up the stairs. We were on our second run, and she had piled two on top of each other, so that
only a glimpse of her eyes and the top of her head showed above them as she walked. Pablo wove his way around her legs and purred, then scooted off ahead, into her room.
    Once inside, I put her things down on the bare floorboards of what used to be Lila’s bedroom. It was simple, but full of light, and had a view of lively urban sprawl where mine looked out
onto the park.
    ‘Shall we go back for the rest?’ I asked. Her friend had dropped her off, and presumably was still waiting downstairs in the street.
    Amber gave a smile and shook her head. ‘That’s me. That’s everything.’
    I cast my eye over the half-dozen boxes and couple of bags we’d brought up.
    ‘Really?’ This couldn’t be everything. I had about four times this amount of stuff – most of which I could probably do without, admittedly – squirrelled away in my
room.
    ‘Yes,’ she said, unfazed, opening one box. ‘And most of it’s for the kitchen.’ She held a cherry-shaped biscuit cutter in one hand, and a tiny sieve for icing sugar
in the other. ‘There were some things that had to come, of course.’
    She dusted her hands off on her jeans and perched on the edge of the bed, testing it. ‘I feel quite settled already.’
    ‘Great,’ I said. It suited her, this room. The simplicity of it, the generous casement windows that let the sunshine fall in wide, pale trapezoids on the floor.
    ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes. ‘Why doesn’t this woman have any stuff?’
    I shrugged, but couldn’t tell her it wasn’t true.
    ‘Messy break-up,’ she said. ‘Three months ago. Jude. Musician and not-quite-a-grown-up. When we moved in together, I brought almost everything. He’d been living in a
houseboat, so he didn’t have much – and when I moved out, I left most of my things there.’
    ‘You couldn’t bring it with you?’
    ‘Oh, of course I could have – I