‘You tell me.’
‘OK, well, a date would be a good start.’
‘April,’ he said. ‘Or possibly March.’
‘Could you be a little more specific?’
‘Not immediately.’
‘Right,’ she said with a doubtful nod. ‘Venue?’
‘I’ll have to get back to you on that.’
‘Approximate number of guests?’
He shrugged.
‘Food? Drink? Entertainment? Budget?’ At his lack of response Abby arched an eyebrow. ‘Let me guess—you’ll be getting back to me on those too.’
‘How could you tell?’
Stifling a sigh, she closed her book and put her pen do
wn on top of it. ‘Do you have any idea at all of what you’d like?’
‘Not off the top of my head.’
This was all very strange, she thought, trying not to frown. Clients usually had at least some idea of what they wanted, but with Leo it was as if he’d only come up with the plan five minutes ago. And couldn’t this initial approach have been done over the phone? ‘Is it to be a surprise?’
‘Why not?’ he said, flashing her a quick smile that flipped her insides. ‘It was to me.’
‘What?’ she asked, momentarily dazzled.
‘Never mind.’
Hmm. ‘Do you know what your parents like?’
‘Not especially. But my mother’s best friend will know who to contact and what they like. I’ll let you have her details.’
‘At last,’ said Abby with a grin. ‘Something you do know.’
‘Makes a change, doesn’t it?’ he said, and she had the weirdest feeling that he wasn’t just talking about the party.
‘OK,’ she said, shaking off the feeling, because anything other than the party was of no interest to her, and putting her pen and book back in her bag. ‘I’ll firm up the initial details with Jake and get a contract drafted.’
‘Not Jake,’ he said and she glanced up at him, somewhat surprised by the sharpness of his tone and the narrowing of his eyes.
‘No?’
‘Jake will be travelling. A lot. He won’t have time to organise a party. You’ll liaise with me.’
‘Fine,’ said Abby, although it wasn’t fine at all because how the hell was she going to be able to keep her mind on the job when she was finding it so hard to resist the temptation to jump his bones? ‘No problem. Just one thing though...’
‘What?’
‘Won’t it be awkward?’
‘Won’t what be awkward?’ he said, looking at her as if he didn’t know perfectly well what she was talking about.