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Una laughed.

Sandy-brown hair and ravishing amber eyes. Maya had known a man of that description before, minus the beard. Though she’d been eager to forget him, and that task had taken her a little while. The realization hit that, very soon, she might see him on a more regular basis. Another reason to dread going back.

Kirsty was gesturing to the naked waiter. “The Diet Coke is for the lady over there, on the sofa.” Kirsty pointed toward Maya.

“Here you go,” Una whispered. “Brace yourself.”

Maya smiled, shaking her head. Who was this guy? Chris Hemsworth? She was sure he couldn’t be that devastating.

The man turned. Maya’s smile froze on her face, her jaw dropping as she took in his familiar, handsome features with a sinking heart. “Sam?”

His face fell, the creaminess of his cheeks staining pink. “Maya.”

Chapter

Two

The chatter across the room continued, but Maya’s section fell silent. Kirsty, Isabelle, and Una stared at her, clearly confused as to how she knew hot-naked-guy.

She glanced around, double-checking that there were no secret cameras and that she wasn’t on one of those prank TV shows. Unfortunately, it seemed real.

A million questions ran through her mind. The most pressing of which was Why the hell are you naked in my mate’s house? Though it was closely followed by Why did you lead me on, then dump me? However, she didn’t feel able to voice those queries, not in front of all these strangers. Especially when she hadn’t seen him apart from in passing over the last eight years.

Maya cleared her throat. “Hi. You look . . .” Naked? Hot AF? “Well.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, assessing her with a cool stare.

She shifted in her seat. Despite him not wearing a stitch apart from that tiny apron, it felt as if he had the upper hand, towering over her while she stayed put on the sofa. Maya tried to get up, but for a moment she wasn’t sure that her legs would hold her.

“I am well, thanks,” Sam replied, his face perfectly neutral. “And you?”

Bloody hell, this is beyond awkward. “Mm-hmm. Fine, fine.” That minuscule apron was practically at her eyeline, and she couldn’t bear it any longer, so she summoned the power to stand. However, she was then greeted by a better view of his naked torso and muscular arms, not to mention his amber eyes, which were still penetrating her inner being like some sort of alien mind probe.

“Anyway,” Maya said, fixing her eyes on the doorway. “I’ve got to pee. Just had a long journey from Glasgow, you know? Tiny bladder and all that.” She squeezed her eyes tight in discomfort as she walked across the room, closing the door behind her to pause at the bottom of the stairs. Feeling that it was safer to retreat up there, she climbed them, heading into the bathroom and shutting the door. She perched on the edge of the bath, taking a breath. This was worse than Moby Dick, Jaws, or Godzilla.

There was a knock at the door, and Kirsty stuck her head around it. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

Maya blew her fringe out of her eyes. “Don’t ask.”

Kirsty entered, taking a seat next to her on the uncomfortable porcelain. “How the hell do you know the naked waiter?”

Maya rubbed her temples. “Remember freshers’ week, when I told you I’d not long been dumped by that guy at home?”

“Hmm,” Kirsty said, frowning. “Not really.”

“It was at that tequila night at the students’ union.”

Kirsty pursed her lips, clearly not recalling.

“I got off my head and sang ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus at the karaoke and then cried to you about it in the toilets,” Maya said, raising her eyebrows at the apparent revelation that Kirsty hadn’t been paying attention to her display of teenage angst. Or perhaps that was a good thing, given how she’d murdered poor Miley’s song.

“Oh, wait,” Kirsty said, her eyes widening. “I do remember. That guy who was your best mate’s twin brother?”

“Yep,” Maya sighed.

“The one you were secretly in love with but he didn’t know you existed?”

“Yes, yes. That’s the one,” Maya said quickly, trying to silence Kirsty’s burgeoning stream of consciousness because, despite the passage of around eight years, it was still pretty gutting to remember the details.