‘You invited me, remember?’ she said, looking a little embarrassed.
‘Yes, yes, but I didn’t think you’d come.’
‘Well someone had to watch over you. You know what usually happens when you get in front of a crowd.’
‘I’ll have you know that the assault and battery charges against the photographer have been dropped.’ He grinned.
‘Does that mean I can’t charge you for danger money any more?’
He laughed and motioned to a rickety stool. ‘Sit down. Beer?
She waved her hand. ‘All yours. You deserve it.’
He watched her face, looking for traces of pity or sympathy, but she seemed genuinely excited. Even so, there was something reserved, impenetrable about Anna Kennedy; he never could quite work out what she was thinking. Handy for a lawyer, he supposed.
‘So. What did you think?’
?
?Honestly Sam, you were brilliant. Both of you. And I’m not the kind of girl who gives compliments willy-nilly.’
‘And it was funny?’
‘Bloody funny. Smart, self-deprecating . . . I bet Eli and Jim are on the phone right now setting up Madison Square Garden and Caesar’s Palace.’
Sam took a pull of his beer and grimaced.
‘Actually they’re not. They don’t know I’ve done this.’
‘You’re kidding me! I thought you were joking when you said you weren’t going to tell anyone.’
He shook his head.
‘They’d have put me off doing it. Or even worse, turned it into a circus.’
‘Hey, it is a circus out there, a total scrum.’
‘So it was good?’
She chuckled. She had a lovely laugh. Knowing, tinkling, genuine.
‘Sam, I’m not here to massage your ego,’ she said. ‘I think you’ve got enough people to do that already.’
Suddenly the door burst open and in stumbled Mike McKenzie, wide-eyed happiness oozing from every pore. ‘We did it!’ he cried, flinging his arms around Sam and spinning him around, laughing. ‘You clever, clever bastard! I could never have done anything like this on my own. We fucking rocked out there!’
‘No, you rocked,’ insisted Sam. ‘They all came to see you, after all.’
‘But it was you they loved, you daft pillock,’ said Mike.
Finally he noticed that Anna was in the room. ‘Oh, sorry, not interrupting anything, am I?’ he said, extending his hand with a playful smile.
‘This is my lawyer, Anna.’
‘Dammit,’ joked Mike. ‘I thought we’d got our first groupie.’
‘I’m sure there’s plenty to go round. They were practically drooling,’ replied Anna.
‘Excellent news,’ boomed Mike, turning to Sam. ‘You back off, pretty boy. I get first pick of the scrubbers, okay?’