‘Why would you think I did anything?’
‘It’s that time of year. Makes you morose. Edgy. Unpredictable. But more than that, she was fine when I asked her to go up and find you.’
‘Maybe she had a call. Maybe something’s gone wrong with the catering. Who knows?’
There was a pause and Leo glanced at Jake to find him looking back shrewdly. ‘I think I might have some idea.’
Leo went still, his fingers tightening around the stem of his glass as his pulse sped up. Had Abby said something? Given Jake a minute-by-minute account of what had happened? And were there perhaps ramifications to what he’d done? Hadn’t people been sued for less?
‘Really?’ he said, hedging his bets but bracing himself for the worst.
Jake nodded. ‘Yup. She’s a perfectionist. She doesn’t like things to go wrong.’
‘No, well, what event planner would?’
‘So perhaps finding you passed out after a drinking session piqued her sense of responsibility and orderliness.’
Leo frowned and wondered if his brain was still on go-slow because what on earth was Jake on about? What drinking session? ‘Passed out?’ he echoed.
‘That was her guess.’
‘It was the wrong one.’
‘You should have mentioned the jet lag,’ said Jake dryly. ‘Then she might have been a little less disapproving.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Leo, wishing that his state of sobriety had been the only misunderstanding of the night.
‘Why, what else happened?’ said Jake, and Leo mentally kicked himself for forgetting that while his brother sometimes came across as being so laid-back he was horizontal, he also had a sky-high IQ and an irritating talent for zooming in on things that one might prefer to be glossed over.
‘There may have been a slight misunderstanding,’ he said, resigning himself to the knowledge that he was going to have to divulge at least something of the events of half an hour ago because Jake could be surprisingly tenacious when the mood took him.
‘What kind of misunderstanding?’
‘Nothing important, and it was cleared up.’
‘Did it involve me?’
‘Why would you think it involved you?’
‘Because when she was telling me you were on your way down she kept giving me the filthiest looks. It made me want to ditch the champagne and break into the bottle of single malt I was planning on giving to you.’
Leo went still. ‘Single malt?’
‘To drown your woes and cheer you up. The present I was talking about to get you through Christmas.’
‘That was the present?’
‘Of course. What else would I have meant?’
What else indeed? Damn. He really had got things wrong. Badly badly wrong.
‘Are you all right?’
Leo snapped back to find his brother watching him closely. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘You’ve gone pale and you’re frowning.’
‘I’m fine.’ Or he would be once he’d come to terms with the realisation that for the first time in years he’d abandoned logic, reason and self-control, and had basically totally lost his mind.