The Return of the Rebel

‘Necessary qualities for all your various occupations, I would think,’ he said.

‘Thank you. I think so too. I particularly need to be on top of the details of Ben’s wedding which is aaargh...’ she mimed tearing her hair out ‘...only six days away.’ She mentally ran through the guest list. ‘Now I think of it, there is a Sam on the guest list; I’ve been meaning to ask Ben who it was. I don’t know anything about him—uh, I mean you.’

Sam spread out both hands in a gesture of invitation. ‘I’m an open book. Fire away with the questions.’

She wagged a finger in mock-warning. ‘I wouldn’t say that to a stickybeak like me. Give me carte blanche and you might be here all day answering questions.’ What was she saying? ‘Uh, I mean as they relate to you as a wedding guest, that is.’

‘So I’ll limit them,’ he said. ‘Five questions should be all you need.’

Five questions? She’d like to know a heck of a lot more about Sam Lancaster than she could discover with five questions.

‘Don’t mind if I do,’ she said.

Do you have a girlfriend, fiancée, wife?

But she ignored the first question she really wanted to ask and chose the safe option. ‘Okay, so my first question is wedding-menu related—meat, fish or vegetarian?’

‘All of the above,’ he said without hesitation.

‘Good. That makes it easy. Question number two: what do you plan to do in the days before the wedding? Do you need me to organise any tours or activities?’

With me as the tour guide, perhaps.

He shook his head. ‘No need. There’s a work problem I have to think through.’

She itched with curiosity about what that problem could be—but questioning him about it went beyond the remit of wedding-related questions.

‘Okay. J

ust let me know if you change your mind. There’s dolphin-and whale-watching tours. Or hikes to Pigeon Mountain for spectacular views. Now for question number three: do you...?’

Something made her look up and she immediately wished she hadn’t. Jesse. Coming in late for his lunch. She swallowed a swear word. Why hadn’t she made her getaway while she could?

Too distracted by handsome Sam Lancaster.

Now this first post-kiss encounter with Jesse would have to be played out in front of Sam.

Act normal. Act normal. Smile.

But her paralysed mouth wouldn’t form into anything other than a tight line that barely curved upwards. Nor could she summon up so much as a breezy ‘hi’ for Jesse—the man she’d been friends with all her life, had been able to joke, banter and trade insults with like a brother.

Jesse pumped Sam’s hand. ‘Sorry, I got held up.’

‘No worries,’ said Sam, returning the handshake with equal vigour.

‘Kate,’ said Jesse with a friendly nod in her direction, though she didn’t think she was imagining a trace of the same awkwardness in his eyes that she was feeling. ‘So you’ve already met my mate Sam.’

‘Yes,’ was all she managed to choke out.

‘I see you got the best table in the house,’ Jesse said to Sam, indicating the view with a sweep of his hand.

‘And the best deputy manager,’ said Sam gruffly, nodding to Kate.

‘Why, thank you,’ she said. For Sam, her smile worked fine, a real smile, not her professional, hospitality smile.

Jesse cleared his throat in a way she’d never heard before. So he was feeling the awkwardness, too.

‘Yes; Kate is, beyond a doubt, awesome,’ he said. Kate recognised the exaggerated casualness of his tone. Would Sam?