International Player(12)

“God, now that I’m about to be a mother, I wonder how Mum did it.”

“Have you seen her?” I asked.

“Yeah. Rob and I went on Monday for an hour—she had no clue who I was.”

My stomach churned. Our mother might be still alive but the vibrant, determined woman who’d started and run the Harbury Foundation had been lost to dementia a long time ago.

“Last time I was there, I gave her an update on some of the fundraising figures. You know how much she liked the detail. I thought it might reach her in some way.”

“Anything?” Abigail asked.

I couldn’t answer. I just shook my head.

“She’d love what we were doing for the rehab center this year.”

“Hey, girls,” Rob called, stopping the conversation from getting any sadder. “You got good seats, well done. With you two on the team, we’re bound to win this week.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Rob was delightfully upbeat ninety-nine percent of the time. I blew out a breath, and avoided glancing at Noah, whose heat radiated from him, while Abigail wiped her eyes.

Rob frowned. “You two okay? Did I say something?”

I patted one of the two empty chairs between me and Abigail. “No, sit down. We’ve ordered some wine.”

Noah kissed Abigail on the cheek and slid onto the chair next to me, then leaned over to kiss me, too. It was almost too much. He was too close. His scent, his warmth, his hard body was almost overwhelming. This was precisely why I needed to avoid him wherever possible.

“Hey,” he said. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

“Me neither. I mean, I hadn’t planned to come, and I didn’t realize you would be here.” Jesus, I should just write it all down for him, just to be clear. How did he have me so nervous? “Abigail dragged me by the hair. Sometimes it’s easier not to argue.”

Noah chuckled. “As Rob likes to remind me, I’m unemployed so I have no good excuse to say no.”

The waiter arrived, and Abigail didn’t even let her mojito touch the table before she’d ordered another.

“It’s true,” Rob said, pouring the wine between the three glasses. “Jobless. Unemployed. A statistic.” Rob shook his head as if disappointed. “I hope you’re not claiming benefits. I don’t want my taxes going toward—”

“I’m staying plenty busy,” Noah said, shutting Rob down.

“Anything exciting on the horizon?” I asked, watching as he turned a coaster over in his hand. There was always more going on below the surface with Noah, which you had to dig to discover. It was one of the things I liked about him best.

“I’m going to invest in startups—I’d like to give businesses I believe in a chance like the one someone gave me and Concordance Tech. And I’m looking into a few other things as well—I just need to figure out—”

“Don’t think you’re getting out of that abseil,” Abigail said. “I’ve already set up your fundraising page.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he replied.

Noah wasn’t the type to go back on his word. I wouldn’t have developed a crush on any man that did. And he’d always loved to push himself in everything. It wasn’t just extreme sports, either. It was as if every part of him dared me to fall for him.

A tap of the microphone brought our attention to the front as one of the barmen distributed blank answer sheets.

“We need to think of a name,” Rob said, pointing his pencil at the blank space at the top of the sheet. “Last time we were the Bulls.”

“That’s a terrible name,” Noah said.

“It’s because—”

“I don’t care about the reason,” he replied. “It’s a shit name. What about Quizteama Aguilera?”

I giggled. “Or the Quizzard of Oz,” I suggested.

Noah grinned, and I tried not to enjoy the fact that I’d amused him.

“Or Les Quizerables,” Noah countered. “Or Trivia Newton-John?”

I laughed out loud. “Let’s get Quizzical.” I expected Abigail to laugh, but when I glanced over, her gaze was fixed on the bar.

Rob looked irritated but scribbled down Les Quizerables at the top of the sheet. “Come on, guys. We have to take this seriously.” He nodded at Noah and me. “With you two brainiacs we could win this week.”

“Oh, we’ll win,” Noah said with such authority that he left no room for doubt. “But it doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”

“Round one,” the man at the front with the microphone announced. “General knowledge. Granadilla is another name for which fruit?”

Noah and I answered at the same time, “Passionfruit.”

I glanced at Noah, who grinned right at me.

Rob narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he knew better than to question what we were saying and he wrote down the answer.

I tentatively looked over at Abigail but she had her eyes shut. When she grimaced, I reached over and patted her hand. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked.

She plastered on a smile. “Of course. I think maybe I need to eat something. I’ll go and order some snacks.”

“Pudong, meaning ‘east bank’, is the financial district of which city?”