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Alice let out a squeal, partly to hide her breaking heart but also because the part that wasn’t fatally damaged was overjoyed to hear it.
“To Leonie?”
“The one and only amazing Leonie.” Oliver grinned; his tanned skin flushed with delight.
He took another sip of his coffee and Alice was sure he was disguising another grimace at the taste. He put the cup down next to hers on the bench top. “Odd, isn’t it? There’s me, a one woman for life kinda guy, and there’s Aaron, who can’t settle with a woman for more than five minutes. A psychoanalyst would have a field day.”
Alice decided to only focus on the good news. “I’m so happy for you. Congratulations, Oliver.” Spontaneously, she gave him a big hug. His body was a lean, mean powerhouse of muscle and still—luckily—all she felt was the warm and friendly vibes she always got around Oliver.
He’d make a wonderful husband.
Unlike someone else she knew.
A lump formed in her throat and threatened to join forces with her prickly eyes. She swallowed around it. “How much longer are you in Perth?”
“About a month. Dad and I are collaborating on a project and it’s easier and pleasanter doing it together. I was hoping Leonie would get over at the weekend but she’s a wedding planner and there’s the society wedding of the year coming up.”
“No, Oliver, the society wedding of the year will be yours.”
“That will be next year’s.” He grinned.
“Well, I hope you get that drink with Aaron,” Alice said airily as she picked up the cups. “There’s no need to grill him about us; you know the full story now.”
“Who won the bet?”
“Sorry?”
“The bet. Did he take his arm away first or did you push him off?”
“Hahahahah.” The donkey bray was back.“Me, of course.”
Oliver shook his head. “You know the trouble with you two?” he said. “You can’t see what’s staring you both in the face. Great to see you anyway.” He gave her a wink. “Hope I sell well.” And with that he sauntered off.
Alice dumped the cups in the sink and hurried back to her desk. Her heart was heavy in her chest as she looked at the disarray.
She’d have to go back to the beginning and recalculate.
Who was she trying to fool? It wasn’t all these harmless scraps of paper making her heart feel like a lump of lead, was it?
No, it was something a thousand times worse.
With pursed lips, Alice grabbed the calculator, a wad of papers and started all over again.
* * *
The prongs of the fork skittered across Aaron’s plate and a spray of peas arced across the table. When would he learn to take Andrea’s advice and scoop them onto the back of his fork instead of spearing them? It was just… so counterintuitive to do that. Like winding spaghetti around your fork, when everyone knew what really worked was to shovel it at speed into your mouth and ignore the sauce spills until after.
He gave an apologetic smile to Jacinta. “Sorry, me and peas—never a good combo.”
Jacinta tossed a blonde tress over her shoulder and tinkled out a laugh.
Alice, in his periphery, was shepherding her peas neatly into a corner of her plate. “They’re delicious,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve never tasted such nice peas.”
“Fresh,” Jacinta replied with obvious pride. “It took me hours to pop them out of their pods, but with the salmon and horseradish the flavour issodivine.” She gave a pointed look at Aaron. “It’s an Andrea Blake recipe. I was so excited to hear from Hamish she’s your mum.”
“Stepmum.” Aaron turned his fork over and managed to balance three peas on it.
“Oh, your parents are divorced then?”
