Sheri poured out their coffee as they were seated in the lounge. ‘Did you borrow James’ trousers the weekend you took Kate away?’ she asked conversationally, obviously curious about them, having received no information from her husband. Besides, the intent looks Damien was giving Kate were not going unnoticed by James—and he was getting angrier by the minute.
‘Yes,’ Damien answered shortly, still looking at Kate.
‘Do you have to make it sound like that?’ James demanded of his wife. ‘It was all perfectly innocent.’
Sheri wasn’t sure this could be true, not by the look of embarrassment on Kate’s face and the look of derision in Damien’s eyes. ‘I only mentioned it because that weekend has happy memories for me. That was the weekend we got engaged.’
She saw her husband’s face darken and the sharp look Damien gave him and she wondered what she had said wrong this time. Kate merely looked resigned, and Sheri’s puzzlement grew.
Damien looked at her now. ‘You got engaged that weekend?’
Kate felt sorry for her sister-in-law, she could have no idea what she had just done. Herself, she felt relieved the truth was at last coming out, but James just looked angry. She wasn’t sure how Damien had reacted to this information; after his first initial surprise his expression had become deadpan.
‘Yes,’ Sheri smiled happily.
‘I somehow thought it was much later than that,’ Damien persisted.
‘No, that was the weekend James popped the question.’ She gave her husband a loving smile which he reluctantly returned, realising that he couldn’t stop the truth coming out now. ‘You probably got that impression because I had to return to the States to fulfil a contract and so the engagement wasn’t actually announced until later. I left the day after we got engaged and was away a few weeks.’
Poor Sheri, she had quite innocently made her husband out to be a liar. Not that Kate minded, it just proved to Damien that she had been telling the truth when she had told him she had never had any intention of marrying James. Not that it would make the slightest difference to Damien’s opinion of her, but at least in that he would know she hadn’t been lying.
She looked at her wrist-watch; it was getting quite late and she would have to get back to town for her date with Alan. She stood up, making her excuses. ‘I’ve enjoyed my dinner,’ she added politely.
James stood up too. ‘You won’t leave it so long next time? A week is much too long for you to stay away.’
‘I’ll be over again in the next few days,’ she promised.
‘I’ll drive you back to town,’ Damien offered softly.
She gave him a cool look, steadily meeting his probing green eyes. ‘That won’t be necessary. I have my own car.’ It was a green Spitfire, an eighteenth birthday present from James.
His mouth tightened. ‘Then I’ll meet you back in town. I want to talk to you.’
‘That isn’t possible either, I’m afraid,’ she refused.
Damien’s look was challenging. ‘Why not?’
‘I’m meeting someone. That’s why I have to leave so early.’
‘Alan?’ For the moment the two of them had forgotten they were not alone, the old antagonism and attraction coming to the fore.
Kate blushed. ‘That’s right.’
‘Have you met him?’ James broke up the intimacy of their conversation. ‘Nice chap, isn’t he?’
The look he received from the other man was glacial. ‘I’ve hardly spoken to him.’ But that Damien disliked the man was obvious.
‘Oh. I just assumed—’
‘Well, don’t,’ Damien told him shortly. ‘I have to be going now too. Thank you for the dinner, Sheri. I hope you’ll all excuse me.’
His departure was so abrupt that for a few minutes none of them spoke, staring in amazement at the firmly closed door.
‘Well!’ James finally burst out. ‘The nerve of the man!’
‘Now come on, James,’ Sheri chided. ‘It wasn’t wholly his fault. You set out to antagonise him from the start, pushing Alan down his throat when even a blind man could see he fancies Kate like mad.’
‘That’s why I pushed Alan down his throat. I don’t like him chasing my sister.’
‘You made that pretty obvious,’ she returned dryly. ‘And I didn’t help the situation. What did I say to upset him, Kate?’ She looked at her pleadingly. ‘He suddenly went all narrow-eyed and watchful.’
Kate shook her head. ‘I think you should ask your devious husband that—he’s the one with all the answers. Now I really do have to get back to town or Alan will think I’ve stood him up. I’m probably going to be late as it is.’
That Sheri wouldn’t rest until she had extracted everything from James Kate had no doubt, but she didn’t have the time to stay around and watch the fun. One thing she was sure of, Sheri would have little patience with James’ interference.
Alan was sitting in his car outside her apartment when she arrived home. She invited him in, pouring him out a whisky before sitting down next to him on the sofa.
‘I’m sorry I’m late, darling.’ She leant against his chest, his arm about her shoulders. ‘I spent the afternoon with Sheri.’
‘Have a nice time?’
‘Yes, thank you. It was just the usual girlish chatter, but I did enjoy myself.’ Until it came to dinner!
‘Good. I’m glad.’
Kate looked at him sharply. There was something wrong. Alan wasn’t his usual cheerful self. And now she came to think about it his hello kiss had been much more restrained than normal.
‘Is there anything wrong?’ she asked him worriedly.
He looked down at her vaguely. ‘Wrong? Why should there be anything wrong?’
She sat up on the sofa, her legs tucked beneath her. ‘You’re different, I can tell that. What’s happened?’
Alan removed his arm from about her with a sigh. ‘Am I that transparent?’
‘Just tell me what’s wrong.’
He put up a hand to gently caress her cheek, a look of tenderness for her in his face. ‘Why couldn’t
