Amy shrugged. “She’s a big girl. She can do what she likes.” She waved at the girls and headed for her car.
No. This wasn’t right. Georgie wasn’t herself, but he couldn’t tell anyone that without explaining why. And he could hardly demand that he take her home. It would give everyone the wrong idea, and he didn’t want to hurt Georgie more than he already had. He swore under his breath as Jerry and Georgie drove out of the car park together.
Then he stalked over to his car, more pissed off than he’d been in ages and at a loss to explain why.
***
Georgie’s hangover punished her for the entire day. Normally a couple of painkillers would fix it, but not today. She’d had to deal with an obnoxious set of customers and the hot Australian sun on top of it. She shouldn’t be complaining. Most people would kill to have her job swimming with the biggest fish in the sea every day, snorkelling and seeing turtles and other marine life.
When she finally finished, Gretchen’s boat wasn’t back yet, so she stumbled down the road to the restaurant where she’d left her car and drove home.
All she wanted to do was take more painkillers and lie down, but she’d promised Sam she’d look at the townhouse and she’d organised a viewing with Cindy in half an hour. She placed the key in her door and twisted, grimacing as the memory of last night hit her. She shouldn’t have taken up Jerry’s offer to drive her home, but she hadn’t been able to pass on the opportunity to show Matt what he was missing. Jerry’s parents had recently been on a tour and they’d been so sweet, his mother trying to set them up. She figured it was karma.
Only when she got home, the karma was on her. Jerry had expectations of his own. He’d been insistent about coming inside and she had to stamp hard on his toes to stop him. She’d shut the door in his face with his curses coming in loud from the other side. Not her finest hour.
She had a quick shower, took two more painkillers and grabbed her purse and phone. Cindy was waiting for her outside the townhouse when she arrived.
“Hey, Cindy, sorry I’m late.”
“You’re not, I’m early.” She had the townhouse open so Georgie walked inside.
“Nice,” she breathed. She video called Sam. He answered wearing his military fatigues. She grinned. “Good look.”
“Don’t you know it.” He struck a pose, making her laugh. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with Sam instead?
Georgie followed Cindy around as she highlighted the pertinent points of the property. The patio overlooking the canal was one of them. “We could have some great parties out here,” Georgie said.
Sam chuckled. “You already planning my life up there?”
She grinned. “Someone has to.”
Cindy went to wait outside while Georgie took a slow tour of the townhouse with Sam. It was unoccupied so she poked into all the wardrobes and drawers to show him how much space there was. Three bedrooms upstairs, with a study, living room and kitchen downstairs. Georgie wished she had the funds to afford it.
“How’s the location?” Sam asked.
“Well, you could walk to work every day,” Georgie said. “It’s maybe a two-minute drive into the centre of town and it’s got a double garage if you’ve got a whole bunch of toys. The only thing it doesn’t have is a shed.”
Sam pursed his lips. “Show me the garage again.”
Georgie walked into the enclosed garage, switched on the light and panned her phone around so he could have a closer look.
“There’s enough space there for what I want,” Sam said. “So what do you think? Should I buy?”
Georgie wasn’t totally comfortable about him making such an expensive decision based on her thoughts alone. “I’d buy it,” she said. “But I’m not you. It’s very modern and clean, but you could probably make it cosier if that’s what you wanted.”
“Right now what I want is somewhere easy.”
“Well, this is definitely easy. You won’t need to paint or fix anything. It’ll be move in and start living.”
Sam nodded. “Sounds perfect. Let me talk to Cindy.”
As Georgie walked to the front door she spotted movement behind Sam as Dobby, his commanding officer, rushed into the room. “Sherlock’s been injured!”
Sam whirled around and Georgie couldn’t see anything except the floor as Sam asked, “Where? How bad?”
“It’s bad,” Dobby said. “They’re rushing him home.”
Georgie’s head spun. She’d heard them talk about Sherlock before and she had a feeling he was important. He was part of their team, but not someone who’d come to Brandon’s wedding. He’d been called away on another mission. Her mouth dropped open. “Is Sherlock Amy’s brother?” she called.
