“Have you swallowed a thesaurus?”
“I’ve never understood why you’re so loyal to him.”
“Oh, look. They’re playing your song again.”
“Reuben.”
“You’ve said the same things every day for the last one hundred years.”
The trouble is that Grey doesn’t know Jez the way I do. I first met him when we were at boarding school together. I was a quiet, lonely boy who’d just lost his mother and was desperately trying to find some form of solid ground again. Jez provided that. He was funny, charming, impossibly loyal, and nothing seemed so bad if he was around. I could never understand what he got out of my company when he could have been friends with anyone. It’s one of the reasons I stay loyal to him despite that charming boy having largely disappeared over the last few years.
“Hello?” Grey’s voice jerks me back into the present. “Are you still there? Have you been abducted by aliens? Do you want me to warn them about your personality?”
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
“I don’t know why you’re doing Jez this favour. You could have been actually relaxing for a change in the sun and seeing Monique.”
I smile at the thought of my godmother. “I spoke to her this morning, and I’m glad I dodgedthatparticular bullet. She’s got a new psychic.”
“Shit.”
I start to laugh. “Yep. Another person who has an unwarranted interest in my life. It’s like being married to fifty people all at once.”
“You couldn’t manage one, babe. You’d come out in hives.” He pauses. “What did Monique say about the next trip?”
I shrug, smiling as I accept my beer from the barman. “She said she had a bad feeling about me going this time. Ably assisted by the new Mystic Maureen, I suppose.”
There’s a long silence, and I wonder if I’ve lost the connection. There’s a sudden movement to my right, and my unpredictable brain somehow decides it’s a threat. I grip the bar’s edge, rational thought and anxiety battling. Grey’s voice is background noise as I struggle for control.
I’m safe in the Cotswolds, in a cosy bar at a posh hotel. I am not in danger. There is no threat beside me. It’s simply another customer who’d like to order a beer.
Still, my heart hammers in my chest, and icy sweat erupts along my spine. I count my breaths for what seems like an absurd amount of time, willing my heart rate to calm.
I glance to my right. My next breath freezes in my chest. The young man on the barstool next to me is the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen. He’s slender with wavy hair that falls to hisshoulders. It’s a warm, light-caramel colour shot through with strands of sand and honey.
He looks sideways at me. His eyes are the colour of the sea in the Hebrides when the sun hits it and it turns a washed Caribbean blue, and his gaze is slowly itemising my face and body from my head to my toes. By the time he tracks back to my eyes, I’m half hard and feeling slightly objectified. Then he drops me a cheeky little wink.
I bite my lip, fighting a smile.Cocky little shit.
Grey speaks, dragging me back to the conversation I’m supposed to be having. “I can’t deny I’m worried too.”
“Worried about what?” I say blankly, still looking at the boy.
“Afghanistan. Reuben, are youlisteningto me?”
“I always listen to you. It’s what I was put on this earth for. Well, that and being able to touch my toes without drinking a vat of Cinzano first.”
The young man snorts, and I fight the urge to smile at him.
“I’m concerned about you going back to Afghanistan,” Grey says. “You only just got back for fuck’s sake. It’s too soon.”
“It’s fine.”
“You need to recover.”
I blink. “From what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. How about the teeny issue of being in a warzone for three months? You’re living on your nerves, and what happened to Max and Ivo can’t help.”
