‘Felice?’
‘Hey, it’s me,’ Kate said when Felice answered.
‘Hey, what’s up?’
‘Sorry to call when—’ she shot a glance at Simon ‘—you’re holidaying, but you’ll never guess who has shown up. I have the seventh Lord of Holm sitting across from me as we speak.’
Dead silence greeted her pronouncement. It did nothing to allay her unease. ‘Felice?’
‘Simon? Simon is there?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘What have you told him?’
Felice’s shriek nearly deafened her. She wondered if Simon could hear it from the other side of the table. He moved as if he might try and take the phone from her. Kate shifted so he couldn’t. ‘Nothing. Why?’
‘You don’t understand!’
‘Obviously not.’
Simon stared at her as if he couldn’t believe she had his little sister on the other end of the line. He stared at her as if he wanted to hug her. As if he wanted to kiss her in gratitude like she’d kissed that folder. All because she’d rung his little sister. Had he thought she’d leave him to stew in all that worry and concern he’d done his best to hide but couldn’t?
‘He will ruin everything!’
For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that.
‘Please, please, please, Kate. Promise me you won’t tell him where I am.’
‘I can hardly do that when I don’t precisely know where you are myself.’
‘You can’t tell him I’ve married Danny!’
Kate bit her lip. Simon narrowed in on the action and Kate recognised the flare of desire that burst to life in his eyes. She did her best to un-bite it, but it was too late. Blood started fizzing through her veins and her mind filled with images in instant response.
Oh, stop it! He was a tourist. She didn’t mess with tourists. She shook herself and forced her mind to focus on her conversation with Felice.
‘Kate, promise me you won’t tell him I’m married.’
Oh, dear. ‘I…er…was hoping you’d do that.’ She didn’t want to be the one to tell Simon his sister had eloped. Amazingly, her voice was steady. Unlike her pulse.
‘I will. I swear I will. I’ll tell him I’m married just as soon as we get back.’
In a fortnight!
‘I can just see him.’ Scorn dripped from Felice’s voice. ‘He’ll be sitting there with a frown creasing up his forehead, his chin jutting out, and he’ll be drumming his fingers, just waiting for me to prove that I’ve done something stupid.’
Her description was so spot on that Kate had to voice her growing fear. ‘Have you?’
‘See?’ Felice shrieked her outrage. ‘He’s got to you already.’
Kate didn’t need to see Felice to know exactly how she’d just thrown her arm in the air or how she’d turned away only to swing back again. She put on her best employer’s voice. Her boss’s voice. ‘Just answer the question, Felice.’
‘God! You make a good pair, you know that?’
Kate shot Simon a grin. He didn’t smile back. Kate pointed to the phone. ‘She just said we make a good pair.’
He grinned at that.
‘He really is just right there, isn’t he?’ Felice said.
‘Yep.’
‘I haven’t made a mistake, Kate.’
The panic left Felice’s voice. Kate blinked, averting her gaze from Simon and his body, with all its intriguing distractions and temptations.
‘I love Danny.’ Felice’s sincerity rang out in the quietness of her tone, and in the simplicity of her claim. ‘Marrying Danny is the one good thing I’ve managed to do with my life.’
‘Okay, okay.’ Kate nodded although she knew Felice couldn’t see her. ‘But will you at least do one thing for me? Will you speak to Simon and tell him you’re fine?’
‘I don’t want to speak to him.’
Kate had never heard that stubborn note in Felice’s voice before. ‘Please?’ She held her breath.
‘He’ll make me hang up on him,’ Felice warned.
She let out her breath. ‘Nevertheless…’
‘Will you promise to call me back when he’s not watching over you like a guard dog?’
It was another apt description.
‘Please, Kate?’
She bit back a sigh. ‘Deal,’ she said. Then she handed the phone across to Simon. ‘Be nice,’ she ordered.
He held it to his ear. ‘Felice? Thank God! Are you all right?’ He listened for a moment and his brow darkened. ‘What the hell are you playing at? I’ve—’
He broke off and held the phone away from his ear. Kate wanted to tell him he wasn’t doing a very good job at being nice.
He slammed the phone back to his ear. ‘I’ve been out of my wits with worry!’ His teeth clenched for a moment. ‘Out with it, then,’ he ordered, unclenching said teeth. ‘What kind of trouble have you managed to get yourself into this time?’
In fact, he was doing a really bad job of being nice. She had a sudden flash of empathy for Felice. Felice, who was so full of life and laughter…and love.
‘What do you mean, it’s none of my business? I—’
Kate took a sip of her coffee and watched him. He had that over-protective big brother thing down pat. She wondered if she’d ever smothered Danny like that.
There was only five years’ difference between her and Danny, though. There was ten years between Simon and Felice. Ten years. That was a lot.
‘Then why the hell haven’t you called?’
She set her coffee back down at that. Good question.
‘You could’ve at least had the common decency—’
His free hand—the one not holding the phone—curved into a fist. ‘Of course it’s my business. I—’
The fist started to bounce on the table. ‘That’s rubbish and you know it. I—’
He broke off to stare at the phone. He shook it, then put it back to his ear. ‘Hello?’ Then he turned to Kate. ‘She hung
