‘We’re going to be a team,’ Tom was telling everyone. ‘I’m going to be a celebrity chef, own Michelin-starred restaurants and write the most amazing recipe books ever and Luc’s going to take pretty pictures of all my food and we’ll both make our fortunes.’
Tom’s sister, Hannah, was hearing the same spiel as she threw herself into her brother’s arms.
‘Don’t ever do that to me again,’ she told him.
‘Do what?’
‘Disappear. Foryears…’
‘I did invite you to come and visit. You missed a great weekend doing a balloon ride in Cappadocia.’
‘There was baggage handlers’ strike going on at Heathrow. My flight got cancelled.’
‘What about Paris? You could have come on the train anytime.’
‘I was having too much fun here,’ Hannah said. ‘Youcould have come back on the train anytime, too.’
‘Maybe Luc and I were having too much fun.’ Tom was grinning, as happy as Hannah was to be reunited.
‘I’ll bet…’ Hannah stood on tiptoes to give Luc a tight hug. ‘I hope you managed to keep him out of trouble.’
He hugged her back. The bond they had in both loving Tom was as solid as any relationship could be. They were family.
‘Did my best but you know what he’s like.’
They shared a smile. That bond extended to doing whatever was needed to keep Tom Baxter safe and happy. To keep the sun shining in their worlds.
‘Oh…’ Hannah’s turn was like a choreographed dance move. ‘Tom – this is Sophie Spencer. My flatmate that I’ve told you all about? My best friend?’
‘So it is…’ Tom’s smile started slow but kept growing. ‘I’ve seen your photo.Enchanté, Sophie Spencer.’
Luc had to stifle a groan as he watched Tom lift Sophie’s hand and press a kiss to the back of her fingers. He made it even worse by winking at her.
‘I’ve been living in Paris for too long,’ he excused himself. ‘But I am very pleased to meet you, Sophie. You’re the guardian angel that’s been keeping my little sister out of trouble, which was always my job.’
‘Ha,’ Hannah scoffed. ‘As if. Luc’s the only guardian angel that’s needed around here. Sophie, meet Luc – my other brother.’
A pair of astonishingly blue eyes met his for no more than a heartbeat but it was long enough to put together the impression of… whatwasit? Luc couldn’t put a name to it but he knew it was something a lot deeper than simply being a gorgeous-looking, blue-eyed blonde.
She was looking at Tom again now.
And he was looking back at her. Their eye contact held just long enough for Luc to know that something was happening. Something… different. Something unlike any of the adventures they’d had with casual hookups or girlfriends over the years.
A feeling of discomfort grew that evening and coalesced into something undeniably disturbing when Luc realised he was watching his best friend fall head over heels in love. Or maybe hefeltit happening rather than seeing it – almost as if it was happening to him as well. It was disturbing because he knew that something huge was about to change. He could already feel the whole foundation of his world shifting beneath his feet.
When the party was over, he found Tom staring at the door that Hannah and Sophie had just gone through.
‘I told her I was going to marry her,’ Tom said.
Yeah… the ground was shifting. He could almost feel a barrier forming between them. The solid shape of an extraordinarily attractive young woman. His words came out in a low growl.
‘What did she say?’
‘She laughed. She thought I was joking.’ Tom’s eyes were sparkling. ‘But I wasn’t. You just wait and see.’
* * *
It was the most natural thing in the world for both Sophie and Luc to be included on the occasions that Tom and Hannah had a sibling catch-up. The wariness that Sophie felt around Luc – the feeling that he was the odd one out and didn’t quite fit – became easier to mute. She really liked Tom Baxter and ifheliked Luc Moreau that much, she needed to get over whatever it was about him that she found a little disturbing. Maybe she was being a snob and letting the fact that he’d grown up on a council estate influence her. Or maybe it was that edge of something European in his looks, which was a bias she should have grown out of by now. He wasn’t dangerous when she had the buffer of both Hannah and Tom to protect her. She just needed to make sure she kept her distance and Luc was making that easy. He was perfectly friendly but Sophie was quite sure he didn’t really like her at all. That he couldn’t understand why his best friend was so keen on her. The distance between them was solid.
