I’d been light on detail when he’d pumped me for information about my date with Hollie. Partly in an effort to throw him off the scent and also because it had taken me by surprise. Yes, she was fun and warm and so beautiful. But the way she’d called me out—us both out—for hiding things on our date, the way she’d confessed what she’d been trying to hide and had me do the same . . . It wasn’t what I’d expected, which made her all the more intriguing. I’d thought she’d just be another date, just a bit more of a challenge. And I suppose I thought she’d be funny, given her messages after we’d first met. But I hadn’t imagined her to be so . . . beguiling.
I never talked about what my brother had done, conspiring behind my back to sell off everything my parents loved to a predator. As much as I’d like to put it down to the cheese, I knew differently. She’d been right when she’d accused us both of dancing around secrets and half-truths, but we’d been on a date at a restaurant that pretended to be tucked into the Swiss Alps, not on a psychiatrist’s sofa. You weren’t meant to confess your deepest, darkest secrets on a first date. Hollie hadn’t got that memo, and apparently, I didn’t mind too much. There was something in those green-blue eyes that made me want to tell her whatever she wanted to know.
“You’re not going to meet her tonight,” I said. “This is a work thing. We’re here to find out which five jewelry houses are through to the finals. You’re supposed to be moral support.”
“But she’s here?” he asked. “In this room?”
God, why did I have to bring Beck? He needed to accept that what he’d found with Stella wasn’t for everyone.
“Focus, Beck. Moral support. Remember?”
He snapped his head around. “What? Are you worried or something? Of course you’re going to make it to the finals.” He looked at me as if I’d just told him I was worried about losing a leg bowling, or crashing my car in an empty car park. He had complete faith in me. That’s why he was my brother.
“So how many events like this are there?” he asked. “You seem to have had a lot of man dates recently.” Today’s reveal of the finalists was a buffet lunch overlooking the Thames.
“A lot,” I replied. “They’re trying to raise a ton for charity. I said to Primrose I’d much prefer to write a huge check than turn up at all of them but—”
“No, you need to show your face,” he said. “You don’t want to piss off the organizers and have them think you think you’re too good to mix with your peers.”
“It’s not that. I’m just antisocial.” It wasn’t just that. And Beck knew it.
Beck chuckled. “I know. But they don’t. Sometimes you’ve just got to play the game.”
He sounded like Primrose. But the people I surrounded myself with all had my best interests at heart and that’s why I was here. “That’s why I have so many man dates.”
I spotted Hollie across the room and the tips of my fingers twitched with a need to touch her. It was difficult to miss her. She was all tumbling pre-Raphaelite curls and pale skin, like she belonged in a different century.
My gaze slid from her to who she was talking to and my stomach began to churn. Charles Ledwin, CEO of Sparkle and a face I’d never forget. He’d aged, but his face young or old was burned into my memory. The first time I saw him he’d dropped into my parents’ shop on Hatton Garden as if he were a customer. Only instead of trying to buy a ring, he offered to buy the place. My father had barked out a laugh and sent him on his way, but he’d appeared a couple more times. It was as if he were circling the place, waiting for his prey to weaken. When my parents died, I told my brother we shouldn’t accept the offer, that we should run the place together, just as our parents had wanted. But David had been selfish and greedy, and he’d taken Sparkle’s money.
Even now, thinking back to what he’d done, the wound was still fresh. How could he have cared so little for me?
A microphone squeaked across the room, catching everyone’s attention. The head of the environmental charity being supported by the lunch made a short speech before thanking the room for their donations. Despite each event being voluntary, every jeweler who’d entered the competition had written a check in support of the charity being spotlighted. It was smart of the Finish royal family to design a mutually beneficial arrangement—the jewelers all got publicity and the charities received generous donations.