Yeah, that’s exactly what a woman wants; a strange man chasing after her. Idiot.
He pulled in a deep breath, drew an image of the woman in his mind, and filed it away. A fleeting moment he would never forget. Ha, at least he finally understood that old James Blunt song now. They’d shared a moment—he and the American—and he’d have that moment to the end.
End of what? Your sanity? You interacted with this woman for a few minutes. Now get your shit together and get to—
“Boss?”
He turned away from his restaurant’s famous view and gave Kara a sheepish grin. “I should be in the kitchen, right?”
“Depends on if you wanted to give it a going over before your friend and his table arrived.”
He frowned. “Of course I do. I might be a little jet lagged, but I’m not going into the kitchen cold. God knows what you’ve done to it while I’ve been gone.”
She pulled a face. “Got it running like a well-oiled machine, thank you very…ahh shit, Nora’s back.”
Angus stiffened as Kara scowled in the direction of the restaurant’s main entry. Damn it, he didn’t feel like dealing with the TV producer so soon after returning to Australia. He was tired, and when he was tired, he got angry quickly. When he got angry, the fear always whispering in his head that he was just like his father grew to a scream.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, he turned toward the entrance.
And froze.
“Fuck me,” he murmured, his stare locked not on the beaming woman in a yellow power suit striding toward him, but on the woman walking into Buckley’s Chance a few steps behind his best mate. “I don’t believe it.”
“What?” Kara muttered back. “You honestly thought Nora was going to back off? She told you she was making it her mission to get you on that show of—”
“No,” he whispered, unable to take his eyes off the woman walking behind Owen. “It’s the American.”
“From the airport?” Disbelief laced Kara’s voice. “You’re kidding me?”
“I’m—” Angus’s throat seized shut as the woman he’d thought he’d never see again looked at him.
Her eyebrows shot up, and then dipped into a frown. A wary frown. She stopped walking. Her identical twin stopped beside her,herfrown puzzled as she said something to her.
Angus straightened a little as her twin shot him a stunned look, and then he straightened even more as another woman with copper-red hair who looked almost identical to the twins but not quite stopped on the other side of her, frowning at him as well.
“Daniels!” Owen’s jovial shout sounded through the restaurant as Owen spied him. “We’re here.”
A shy smile curled his American’s lips as she looked at Angus, and she gave him an equally shy wave.
Hell, he liked that smile.
Smiling himself, he stepped toward her.
Just as Nora Young, TV producer and professional annoyer, blocked his path,hersmile growing sharkish. “Angus. Told you I wasn’t going to accept no.”
3
“Oh my God,” Zeta whispered, her fingers curling around Elisa’s wrist. “Your hot Aussie is Owen’sfriend?”
“What?” Confusion laced Bria’s voice. “Who?”
Elisa stared at the man from the airport currently being spoken to by a woman in a yellow pantsuit. Except his attention kept flicking to her, and every time their eyes connected her stomach did a little flip-flop.
The woman in the yellow—was that Kara? Maybe?—either didn’t notice she didn’t have his full attention or didn’t care. Elisa couldn’t help but notice however, that every time he looked at the woman in yellow, he grimaced.
Bria jabbed Zeta in the ribs with her elbow. “Who’s Owen’s friend?”
“The hot Aussie in a suit,” Zeta said. “The one from the airport. That’s him.”