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‘That’s not true. I never said that.’

‘If I’ve taken a strong stand with Carlos, then it’s because I’ve had to.’

‘Why?’

‘Why?’ he echoed.

‘People don’t necessarily thrive when they’re constantly being told what to do and what not to do,’ she pointed out drily.

‘Ah, so now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. Is that why he had to go AWOL? Needed some time out to brace himself for the nightmare future ahead of him of secure work earning a fortune?’

‘That’s a very blinkered approach.’

‘And this is a tangent that’s going nowhere. If Carlos is there, then we have to agree how we’ll deal with the situation. Especially if we find him in no fit state to have a rational conversation.’

‘You mean if… Look, I honestly think you’re jumping the gun thinking that drugs might be involved.’ She paused. ‘There might be other factors at play.’

‘Other factors such as what?’

Hope shrugged.

‘Sometimes…’ she started slowly. She wondered if it might be just the right time to start introducing Javier to the possibility that things might not be what they seemed with regards to his brother. ‘Sometimes people hit crossroads in their lives that give them pause for thought.’

‘Is that a general statement open for discussion or is it specific to my brother? I would advise that this isn’t the time to cultivate an air of mystery. Just get to the point.’

‘I’m just saying… I mean, didn’t you have a few doubts when you left university about walking straight into a career you might not have wanted?’

‘No.’

‘None at all?’

‘Tell me where you’re going with this.’

‘Can I ask you something?’

‘It feels…’ Javier said wryly, ‘…as if that’s precisely what you’ve spent the past twenty minutes doing.’

‘Are you always so sure of yourself?’ There was genuine curiosity in her voice. ‘I mean, everything seems to be so black and white for you with no grey bits in between. It’s almost as though you’ve locked away all your emotions and thrown away the key.’

* * *

Javier paused and stared at her, eyes narrowed as she breached an impregnable wall. What did this have to do with anything? It certainly had nothing to do with Carlos.

He opened his mouth to repeat his lecture about his boundaries but then stopped.

She wasn’t trying to stoke his interest. She wasn’t being coy. She wasn’t flirting with him or, worse, trying to dig a little deeper.

She was curious. Baffled even. He could detect it in the tone of her voice.

That in itself felt unfamiliar.

Was he so accustomed to women pandering to him, trying to garner his interest, that to be in the company of one who didn’t give a damn was unsettling?

And what were his boundaries worth to her?

He had warned her off turning this functional arrangement into anything more because that was what he had always been used to and it was what he protected himself from.

Women who wanted too much from him, who wanted what he wasn’t interested in giving.