sighed. “It’s not realistic though. Not with the life I lead. The constraints on it, constraints that whoever marries me will have to put up with.”
He’d deny himself love? Deny himself even the chance at it? And for someone as smart as he was, his reasoning was screwy. “Don’t you see? That’s why it’s more important than ever that there’s love. That she knows, whatever the constraints, that you, the real you—” She touched her fingertips just above his heart and the room seemed to shrink. She snatched her hand away. “—are worth it.”
Adam’s gaze followed her hand. “So, you’ll help me?”
Danni hesitated.
A fatal mistake.
“I have a date on Friday.” He spoke into the silence of her hesitation. “If you could drive for me then you’ll be doing me and my father and the country a favor.”
“So it’s my patriotic duty?”
“I wouldn’t quite put it like that but …” He shrugged. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the doctors have told Dad to ease up on work and watch his stress levels. This is one way I can help. So, I need to expedite this process. I want a date for Rebecca and Logan’s wedding, and I can’t take just anyone. It has to be someone I’m seeing seriously. So that means I need to be working on it now. We’ve only got two months.”
Danni sighed heavily. “See? Your whole approach is wrong. It’s not a transaction that you can expedite. You can’t put time limits on things like this.”
“This is why I need your help. As a friend.”
“You might think you want my help, but I remember you well enough to know that you don’t take advice or criticism well. Especially not from me.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I’m not looking for criticism as such, just pointers.”
“You might see my pointers as criticism.”
“I’ll try not to.” Sincere, with the merest hint of a smile.
There was a time when she practically hero-worshipped Adam and would have done anything he asked of her. So she had to fight the unquestioning instinct to agree to his request. Just because it wasn’t a big job and she had a little time on her hands didn’t mean it was a good idea. She hadn’t been this hesitant about anything since her skydiving course last year. She needed to know what she’d be getting into and she needed Adam to know she wasn’t that blindly devoted girl anymore. “Normal rules would have to not apply. Because if I agree to do this, there could well be things I want to say to you that usually I absolutely wouldn’t.”
“This is sounding ominous.”
“It won’t work if I don’t have the freedom to speak my mind.”
He hesitated. “If you do this for me, then I’ll accept that much.” His dark eyes were earnest. “I’d appreciate it, Danni.” When she was younger he’d called her Danni. But somewhere along the way as they’d both gotten older, and he’d gone away to school and become even more serious, formality had crept into their relationship and he’d switched to calling her Danielle with rare exceptions. Calling her Danni now brought back recollections of those easier times. He touched a finger to the small bump on his nose. Just briefly. The gesture looked almost unconscious, and she’d seen him make it before. But it never failed to make her feel guilty. Did he know that? Was it part of persuading her that she owed him?
Whether he knew it or not, it worked. “I don’t know how much help I can be.”
He recognized her capitulation. She could see the guarded triumph in his eyes, the almost imperceptible easing to his shoulders.
“I can’t guarantee anything. Like you pointed out, I’m no expert on romance.”
“But as you pointed out, you are a woman. And I trust you.”
She sucked in a deep breath, about to make a lastminute attempt at getting out of this.
“I’ll be seeing Anna DuPont. She fits all my criteria. I’ve met her a couple times socially and I think there’s potential for us. Drive for us. Please.”
He could, if he chose, all but order her to do it, make it uncomfortable for her or her father if she refused, but his request felt so sincere and so personal—just between the two of them—that the hero worship she’d once felt kicked in and she was nodding almost before she realized it. “One date,” she said, trying to claim back some control. “I’ll drive you for one date.”
Three
On Friday, Danni pulled up to Adam’s wing of the palace in the Bentley. The sandstone building towered above her, the shadows seeming to hide secrets and to mock her for how little she knew. What had she gotten herself into? There was no protocol for this situation, for being part driver, part honest adviser, part friend. She took a fortifying breath. All she could do was to stick with what she knew and maybe trust her instincts. At least she wouldn’t be expected to guard her tongue quite as closely as normal.
She got out and waited by the passenger door while he was notified of her arrival. On those occasions she had driven for him in the past, he’d been scrupulously punctual. Tonight was no different. As the clock on the distant tower chimed seven, he appeared, stepping out into a pool of light.
Danni looked at him and couldn’t figure out whether this was going to be ridiculously easy or ridiculously difficult.
She was still shaking her head as he stopped in front of her. “You have something to say? Already?”
“Yes. You’re wearing a suit and tie.”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to have dinner at the riverside jazz festival?”
“Yes.” He managed to make that single word of agreement intimidating.
But it was clearly time for some of the honesty he’d said he trusted her to voice. “Nobody wears a suit and tie to a jazz festival.”
“I do.”
“Not tonight. This is not a state dinner.” She held out her upturned palm. “Hand over the tie.” For a moment Danni thought he might refuse. “You want my help?”
Gritting his teeth, he loosened his tie and slid it from around his neck. He dropped the strip of fabric into her hand. “Satisfied?”
She closed her fingers around the warm silk. “No.”
“No?”
“The top button.” She nodded at the neck of his shirt.
His lips pressed together but he reached up, undid the button then dropped his hand and looked at her patiently. Obviously waiting for her approval. But he still didn’t look quite right. He still looked tense and formal. A little fierce almost.
“And the next one.”
He opened his mouth, about to protest, she was certain, then closed it again and
