'So ... why are you here? How did you get here? I can't believe you! What about school?'

'I know, I know ... I didn't mean to give you such a shock. Poor you.'

He moved round to sit on the bench beside Annie and wrapped her up in his arms: 'You won't believe this, but Owen bought me the flight for my birthday.'

'Owen!!'

She hugged him back and let herself be kissed on the cheek.

'I know. I think he got a great deal, but still. And then we all got a bit carried away with the idea of it being a surprise.'

'Lana sent me to the boating pond!' Annie was working it out now, 'so she knew.'

Ed nodded: 'My partner in crime.'

'You're not planning on staying at the flat, though, are you? It's the size of a stamp.'

Ed shook his head and smiled at her: 'No. I've booked us a hotel ...'

'A hotel? A real, live hotel? Where I'll be able to sleep in a non-sofa bed and order room service?'

She was almost starting to relax and enjoy this surprise now.

'It's not far from your flat. It's nothing flashy, but hopefully nice. Birthday treat,' Ed said and kissed her again.

'Three nights?' Annie asked, pulling away from him once again, 'is that all?'

'I'm afraid so. Better take advantage.'

He'd taken a transatlantic flight for a weekend with her. That was romantic, that truly was romantic.

She slipped her hands around his neck and looked into his face. Despite the travel and the jet lag, he looked well.

'How was the plane?' she asked.

'No idea. I got on at Heathrow, put in the earplugs, woke up at JFK. Best sleep I've had since the twins were born. Do you know, this is the first time I've been away from them?'

'No!'

Annie felt shocked. She'd regularly been away, ever since the twins were tiny, on trips for the TV show. How had she let Ed go for almost a year without a single night away?

'You deserve your New York birthday treat,' she said. Moving her lips against his ear, she promised, 'I'm going to make sure you have a very good time. Really.'

'Really?'

'Oh yes ... but what am I going to do about the birthday treat I've organized to arrive at the house on Sunday?'

'Cancel,' Ed said. 'just phone, email, whatever. I'm here ... this is the best! Remember the last time we were in New York?'

'Oh yes. I definitely remember ...' For a moment, a little vision of their very first long weekend together filled her mind, but then like a pin p.r.i.c.king a bubble, the troubling question returned: 'Ed, how did Owen get the money? I mean ... he sells second-hand CDs and DVDs. How can he just drop 200 on an airline ticket for you? That seems too generous. And did you know that he lent Lana 600 spending money to bring over here?'

'Stop worrying,' Ed said, 'Owen is fine. He really is perfectly fine. I've seen him at his stall and he's good. He's a natural salesman, which I would never have suspected when I first met him.'

'But I knew there was this bubbly, funny person in there all the time just dying to get out.'

Annie had to kiss him properly now, because Ed had been one of the most important people to help Owen transform from shy boy to market stall trader.

'Mmmmm ... you taste good,' he told her. 'Do you want to hire a boat? We're snogging on a bench, when we could be snogging in a boat.'

'This is how it begins. Next you'll only want to snog on a yacht ... then only a private jet will do. It's the New York one-upmanship thing. Don't you have luggage?' she wondered.

'It's at the hotel. I tried to see Lana, but she was heading out.'

'Ah yes ... Lana has met this Vogue writer guy and she has it bad.'

'Vogue writer?'

Annie loved the way Ed's hackles were rising, just like Lana's real dad's would have.

'No, I know, you're thinking old, suave and sophisticated ... but he's a student, doing work experience at Vogue. He seems OK ... bit full of himself. Bit big-headed, but she really likes him and I am trying to step back.'

Ed gave a wince. 'Big bad scary New York boys, though. Is she ready for that?'

'I think you mean: are we ready for that? C'mon let's go and get into a boat. I bet you can row, can't you? It's going to be another of your many school-boyish talents, to go with your schoolboyish charm.'

'Oh yeah, I can row, baby. Somewhere in the bottom of my sock drawer, I even have a rusty old medal to prove it.'

He stood up and offered her his arm.

As they walked together in the direction of the boating hut, Annie finally grinned at him with a stunned excitement. 'I'm so chuffed you're here.'

'Are you sure? You looked a little appalled back there.'

'I'm still shocked. But I'm very pleased to see you. It's getting a bit intense with the dress thing. It's all still very up in the air. We may have a factory, we may not ... they may do the dresses in time, they may not.'

'Inner calm,' Ed suggested.

'Inner Valium, more like.'

Annie watched Ed row with giggly admiration.

'Ooooh, what broad shoulders you have,' she teased, 'oooh what strong arms.'

It was so strange to see him here and to see him without at least one baby in his hands. It was rekindling all sorts of tingly romantic thoughts.

A hunk in a college letter sweater streaked past them, rowing so hard he was pink with effort.

'Harvard rowing team?' Ed asked. 'You've got to get the practice in.'

The water smelled clean and green as they floated over it. On the rocks beside the sh.o.r.e small turtles were basking in the sunlight.

'This is so nice. Why didn't we do this the last time we were here?' Annie wondered.

'We were too busy exploring other important new areas.'

'We were.'

Almost all the sightseeing on their last visit had been done inside their locked hotel room.

'Have you flown all the way over here expecting the same again?' she asked with a smile.

'Well ... hoping for some of the same,' Ed answered. 'If you can fit me into the hectic schedule, obviously.' He pointed to her bag where her phone was now ringing.

'Hi?' Annie answered.

Elena was on the other end of the line: 'The factory we like, the one in Connecticut. The owner wants me to meet him there, this afternoon. Annie, you have to come with me.'

Chapter Seventeen.

Business Elena: Grey silk shirtdress (Perfect Dress sample)

Snakeskin courts (Ferragamos via Svetlana)

Large purple tote (Marc Jacobs via Century 21)

Total est. cost: $160

'We long way from Manhattan now.'

As Elena stood in the hallway urging Annie to hurry up because otherwise they would miss the train, Annie explained at speed to Lana that Ed was in the cafe downstairs working his way through the m.u.f.fin menu.

'He's expecting you to go and join him. I've told him to wait there for you. Then you have to look after him until I get back. He's flown all this way!' Annie was flooded with guilt: 'Now I have to go off for the afternoon.'

She really didn't want to be in a factory for possibly four or five of the precious hours that Ed was here on his surprise visit. But Elena needed her and Annie was going to have to put business first. It was the reason she was here. They would all just have to get on and deal with it.

'We'll have a wonderful evening ... and the whole of Sat.u.r.day and Sunday. And he'll enjoy being with you today,' she added, to try and calm her guilt. 'He's in the cafe,' she repeated.

Lana, freshly showered it was a teen thing, teens had showers whatever the time of day, maybe because they had no routine stood holding her towel about her, hair dripping into a little pool on the floor. She knew that when her mother was this wound up it was best to just stand and listen, nodding frequently.

Then, all of a sudden, Lana's towel slipped and Annie found herself faced with a full frontal view of her daughter's full frontal waxing.

She gasped, and it was hard to recover the conversation from there.

'Probably on his fifth m.u.f.fin ...' Annie attempted, but then she just had to blurt out: 'A Brazilian? Have you seriously had a Brazilian? Here? In New York?'

All the things that this meant whirled around Annie's head. You didn't have a Brazilian just for yourself, you had a full frontal scalping to show off to someone else, that much was fact.

'Lana, you've not known this guy for very long,' Annie said gently. 'Really I should sit you down on the sofa and we should talk right now ... but I have to get into a cab with Elena.'

'You're talking all New York,' Lana said with a smile.

'You're looking all New York,' Annie replied, pointing low.

'Muuuuum, you'll have to step back a little and leave this to me. I know you want me to look after myself and I will. Now go. Go!' Lana insisted, 'I'll look after Dad for you, even though he probably has a map in his wallet of all the music shops he wants to visit now that you're out of the way.'

'Probably.'

Annie kissed her daughter on the forehead. Even in her heels, she had to reach up to do that now. 'See you later.'

Pittsfield, Connecticut was not Manhattan. This was obvious as soon as the cab had pulled away from the station and Annie and Elena, along with their fabric rolls, were being driven through a suburban landscape of long streets, grocery stores and houses hidden behind gardens and fences.

'Those cute little mailboxes with flags,' Annie heard herself pointing out.

'Ya,' Elena was intrigued by this different scene too, 'we long way from Manhattan now.'

The factory was a low brick building right on the outskirts of the small town. A row of cars sat in the joyless car park. Peeling paint and faded signs showed that there had almost certainly been better days at Fashion Parade Inc.

Elena paid the taxi fare and then the two hauled their fabric towards the reception.

The man at the door didn't exactly scream 'fashion'. In his baggy checked shirt, faded beige cords and small gold-rimmed gla.s.ses, 'Grampa' was the word more likely to jump to mind.

But Brad Barrington seemed pleased to see them at first. He shook their hands, ushered them into his neat office and made some small talk.

But when they lifted the fabric up onto Brad's big table, along with the design sketches and thin paper patterns that Elena took out of her bag, he didn't look quite so enthusiastic.