“I can manage,” she said.
“I know. I’m being a gentleman. I’d make the most of it if I were you.”
It irked her that he thought she needed help, especially because she knew he’d spotted her reuse of the cane, although he hadn’t said anything. Still, she shouldn’t be rude. “Fair enough.” She gave him the bag, and he carried it up the path to the house.
Beck was sitting at the dining table with a bunch of papers spread out before him. “Morning,” he said as they walked in.
“Hey.” Genie kissed the top of his head as she walked past him to get the list from the coffee table.
“Have a good time?” He raised an eyebrow at Niall.
“Fantastic,” Niall said. “The restaurant did the best steak I’ve had in years.”
Beck’s lips twitched. “Glad to hear it.”
“Just ignore him,” Genie said, trying not to blush at the thought that her brother was aware they’d probably slept together. She came back to Niall and offered him the sheet of paper. “You choose this time.”
He put the sheet on the table, swirled a finger in the air and let it fall. Beck rose to peer across the table at the outcome.
“Speed dating?” Beck laughed. “Rather you than me.”
Genie felt a little sick. Why did it have to be that? She’d thought it might be nice to pick another activity that would give her and Niall time alone together. This wasn’t at all what she’d had in mind.
Niall slid his hands into his pockets, looking amused. “Well?”
She hesitated. She could veto, but then what message would that send him? A secret between friends. It had been a one-off, that was all.
“Sounds fun,” she said.
He nodded, his eyes meeting hers. The shutters had come down, and she couldn’t read what he was thinking.
“Do you know anywhere they do it?” she asked him.
“Not off-hand. I’ll have to look around.”
“No need,” Beck said. “Let’s do it at the bar.”
Genie raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. It’ll be fun. You know I’m always looking for ideas to bring people in. I’ll make some posters and spread the word. There are loads of singles around. We’ll do it next Wednesday, and we’ll make it a thing in Ciara’s honor, maybe raise some money for her favorite charity or something.”
“That’s a great idea, thanks mate.” Niall looked genuinely touched. “Let me know if you need any help.” He checked his watch. “Okay, I’m off. See you later?”
Genie nodded.
He hesitated. Then he held a hand out to her. His lips curved up, and his eyes were warm.
She walked towards him, and he put his arms around her and gave her a hug. She rested her cheek on his chest, inhaling his sexy smell, and trying not to think of his body on top of hers, his hot lips claiming hers while her teased her oh-so-slowly to fulfilment.
He kissed the top of her head, then moved back and walked out.
Genie watched him go. Then she limped over to the table and sat opposite Beck.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fabulous, thanks bro. Cool as. Couldn’t be better.” She leaned forward and put her forehead on the table.
“You want to talk about it?”
“Not really.” She banged her forehead lightly a few times, then sat back with a sigh. “It’s all right. I’m being an idiot, that’s all.”
He scratched his beard. “You want me to beat him up for you?”
That made her laugh. “No, it’s all good. I’m okay. I just…I like him, that’s all.”
Beck snorted. “No shit, Sherlock.”
Her eyes widened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He pulled some paperwork toward him and turned on his calculator. “I’m just amazed you both made it this far without hooking up.”
Her jaw dropped. Beck knew she’d always liked Niall? “He’s never been into me,” she said. “He was with Tamsin, remember?”
“Timing is a big factor in relationships. You were only fourteen when he met Tamsin. That probably had a lot to do with it.”
Genie reached out and touched his hand. “Beck… You and Josie…”
“Nope.” He turned over a page of his accounts. “Not going there. Don’t change the subject.”
“You know you can talk to me though, right?”
“No need.” He tapped on the calculator keys, then scribbled a few figures in a column.
She wasn’t going to get anything else from him. Pushing back her chair, she limped over to the windows and looked out at the view. Clouds had gathered, reflected in the gray sea. Memories of the dream lingered, giving her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It’s your fault Ciara’s dead…
Her fingers picked at the beads on her wrist, counting them in groups of two.
*
In spite of her misgivings, Genie enjoyed helping Beck organize the speed dating evening. It had been a long time since she’d turned her hand to anything creative, and she spent a few evenings with sheets of A3 paper, drawing and coloring some advertisements that Beck then put up around the bar. Those who were going to take part would pay a fee that Beck would collect and give to Starship, the charity for sick children that Ciara had sometimes raised money for in the past.
He pinned up a sign-up sheet with two columns, one for men and one for women, with enough space for twelve names of each gender. The age range was stated as twenty to thirty-two.
“What will you do if you don’t get enough people sign up?” Genie asked him.
“If we’re short of guys, I’ll be calling on everyone I know to fill the gaps,” Beck said. “If we’re short of girls, I’ll see if Josie can help.”
By the time Wednesday came, however, the sheet was filled. Genie arrived thirty minutes before the evening was due to start, brought there by Jonah, who was also taking part, and asked Beck if she could look at the sheet to see who’d be coming.
“I feel I should point out I won’t be giving you Jonah’s number.” Beck retrieved the sheet from behind the bar.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Thank God for that. I can’t imagine anything worse than dating Mr. Tom Cat here.”
Jonah just grinned and took the sheet from his brother. “Anyone good signed up?”
They investigated the list of names. On the guys’ side, Niall was at the top, followed by Jonah. Danny was also on there, halfway down, and so was Finn, Niall’s older brother. She didn’t know any of the others though. On the girls’ side, she recognized Billie Rutherford—a friend of Josie’s. And then, to her surprise, she saw Josie’s name on there too.
She looked up at Beck.
“Awkward, much,” Jonah said, pulling a face.
Beck shrugged. “Not really. We’re separated. She’s free to do as she pleases.”
Genie frowned. “Even so. It’s pretty insensitive.”
He turned away and began lining up glasses. “I’m over it, Genie. Forget about it.”
She exchanged a glance with Jonah, who mimed cutting across his throat to end the conversation, and she decided not to pursue it. God knew her own life needed sorting out before she started work on her brother’s.
She ran her finger down the rest of the girls’ names on the list, and then her heart stopped. “Tamsin?” She stared at Beck. “Oh shit. Surely not?”
“Sorry, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it,” he said. “It didn’t seem fair to say yes to Niall and no to her.”
“Beck, seriously. How awkward is that going to be for him?”
Jonah popped a peanut in his mouth and gave her an amused look. “Why do you care?”
“I…don’t…I…” She clammed up as his eyebrows rose. It was none of her business. The two of them were adults anyway—surely they could have a civil conversation for five minutes.
People began to arrive, and butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she pinned her nametag to her T-shirt
. Beck had organized the side room into twelve tables in two rows, each with two chairs, one on either side. The girls were to take the chairs on the left, and the guys would take a chair on the right, getting up to move along when Beck rang the bell, which would be at about five minute intervals. At the end, everyone got the chance to write down the names of the people they would be interested in seeing again. If both parties wrote down the other person’s name, Beck would pass on their contact details. If one party didn’t write the name down, no contact details would be exchanged.
Tamsin came in, and as she passed Genie she gave a small nod, which Genie returned. Genie sipped her cocktail and tried not to squirm. Tamsin wouldn’t know that Niall had slept with her. And even if she did find out, they’d broken up so it was none of her business!
As seven o’clock neared, Genie began to wonder if Niall was going to be a chicken and not show up. She’d just bought herself another cocktail for some Dutch courage when he came in.
Her heart doubled its pace on the spot. He looked gorgeous. Wearing tight jeans and a sexy casual grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he looked like a surf dude who’d been talked into reluctantly dressing up for the evening, which was pretty much the case, she thought. He’d showered, because his hair was damp at the nape of his neck and sticking up on the top. She knew how it felt in her fingers, short and spiky up the back, softer where it was longer. His lips curved in a smile as one of the waitresses welcomed him in and handed him his nametag, and Genie’s heart fluttered at the memory of those lips, the silky slide of his tongue as he thrust slowly into her.
She looked away and sipped her cocktail. Her stomach fluttered again.
Tonight she’d get the chance to speak to lots of different guys, and it should be fun, she scolded herself. Okay, so both Beck and Niall’s exes were there, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She had to concentrate on herself and put everyone else out of her mind.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As soon as he walked into the room, Niall spotted Genie standing by the bar talking to Beck. She looked stunning, slender but shapely in another long summer dress, this one a lovely pale blue with darker blue swirls, clinging in all the right places. To his surprise she wore her hair down, and it hung past her shoulders in a shiny blonde curtain. Even in her uniform with her hair up, she never looked mannish, but this womanly vision of her gave him goose bumps.
He didn’t go over to her straight away, though. He wandered slowly around the room, saying hello to Finn and Danny and the other people he knew.
Alarm shot through him when he saw Tamsin in the corner, sipping a cocktail as she chatted to a friend. She looked good; she wore jeans and a tight black T-shirt that complemented her red hair, the curls tumbling down her back. She was a good-looking girl, but he couldn’t help but compare her thin frame with Genie’s curves.
Tamsin saw him, but she’d obviously already seen his name on the list because she didn’t look surprised. She just nodded, and he nodded back, then turned and walked in the opposite direction.
He found himself at the bar. Beck gestured to the Mac’s Gold pump and Niall nodded.
As he poured, Beck glanced across at Tamsin, then back at Niall, lips curving. “Sorry about that.”
“Josie too, eh? I didn’t realize this was a torture session.”
Beck grinned and slid his beer across to him. “Have fun.”
Niall rolled his eyes and sipped the beer, then felt a presence at his arm and looked down to see a pair of bright blue eyes smiling up at him.
“Evening,” he said.
“Evening, sunshine.” Genie winked. “This should be fun.”
“Not. I can’t believe you talked me into this.”
She chuckled. “Aw, come on. It could be fun.”
“I haven’t dated for ten years, Gin. I’m a bit out of practice with chat-up lines.”
“Just be yourself.”
“And send all the girls to sleep?”
She grinned. “You never know, you might meet someone nice.”
“Yeah. You never know.”
Her eyes met his for a brief moment. Soon, she’d have eleven other men vying for her attention. Would any of them appeal to her? Envy stabbed him in the gut.
“You’d better take your place,” he said, knowing he sounded irritable.
She nodded, walked to an empty table, and sat, resting the cane against the wall.
By now the place was bustling, with regulars and tourists who’d come in for an evening drink watching the proceedings with interest. Beck rang a bell he’d bought for the occasion and called for everyone’s attention, then proceeded to explain the rules.
Niall tore his gaze away from Genie and focused on the piece of paper in his hand. The first names of the twelve women were printed there. He had to remember that although everyone was here to have fun, some of the women on the list would be genuinely interested in finding possible partners, and it wouldn’t be fair to them if he didn’t give them a hundred percent of his attention. It took courage to come to these events, after all.
What would Ciara have made of it? He wondered why she’d put this on her list. She’d been a pretty girl, kind and fun-loving, but had often been overshadowed by Genie, whose beauty and bubbly personality had radiated light, making others seem dull in comparison. Maybe this kind of event was somewhere that Ciara had thought she’d be able to hold a guy’s attention without him constantly turning to Genie.
Beck had finished his spiel and the guys were taking their seats. Niall chose one in the middle of the room, walked over to it, and sat. Opposite him was a shortish, dark-haired girl who wore a sticker with the name “Fran”. She gave him a mischievous smile. He smiled back, but couldn’t resist a glance along the tables at where Genie sat. She was exchanging an embarrassed smile with the guy sitting opposite her, and as Niall watched, she leaned forward and whispered something that made the guy laugh. He felt as if someone had stabbed him. What the hell was he doing there?
“And…go!” Beck rang the bell.
“Hey,” Fran said immediately. “I’m Fran.”
“I gathered that,” Niall said, then cursed himself as she reddened. “Sorry, what I meant was, I saw your nametag and I was wondering what it was short for. Frances?”
She giggled. “No, Francesca.”
“That’s a pretty name. Italian, isn’t it?”
“I’m from Auckland,” she said.
He stifled a sigh. “Tell me about yourself, Fran. What do you do?”
He listened to her chatter on and tried to concentrate on what she was telling him. She worked as a florist in Kerikeri. He never knew there was so much involved in arranging a bunch of roses in a vase.
“And there’s this special stuff that you put the stems into to hold it all up,” she said after a long monologue about which flowers to choose.
“An oasis.” Niall glanced at Genie, who was captivated by whatever the guy sitting opposite her was saying.
Fran laughed. “No, silly, it’s nothing to do with the desert. It’s made of foam.”
To his relief, the bell rang at that moment, stopping him from banging his head on the table. Her eyes widened. “Oh no. You didn’t tell me anything about yourself!”
“The time passes quickly, doesn’t it?” he said with relief. “Anyway, nice to meet you.” He stood and shook hands with her, then moved to the next table before she could express her disappointment.
Luckily, he knew the next girl. “Hey, Billie.” He leaned across the table and kissed her cheek before taking a seat.
“Niall!” She grinned. “What the hell are you doing here? You don’t need something like this to get a date, surely?”
“I could say the same of you.” Billie was a good friend of Josie’s, and she was a pretty girl with light brown hair, high cheekbones, and an Asian tilt to her eyes—her grandmother was from Korea, if memory served him right.
She shrugged. “It’s difficult to meet people sometimes. You kn
ow how it is.”
“Yeah.”
She’d had a bad breakup the year before. He didn’t know all the details, but he knew she’d walked in on her fiancé in bed with someone else.
Glancing across the room, she leaned forward conspiratorially. “I see Tamsin’s here.”
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Yeah. I didn’t know she was coming. It’s a tad awkward.”
“It must be, seeing her talking to other guys.”
He hadn’t meant that, and when he looked over at Tamsin and saw her fluttering her eyes at the guy she was talking to, he found it interesting that it didn’t give him the same twist in his gut that he got at the sight of Genie with another guy. He glanced over at her. She was laughing again, clearly enjoying herself.
“Are you and Genie having a thing?”
He turned his attention back to Billie, startled. “What made you say that?”
She shrugged and grinned. “Women’s intuition.”
Genie had said the same thing when quizzing him about Tamsin. How did they seem to know this stuff?
He decided to ignore the question. “How have you been?”
Her lips twisted wryly, but she took the hint and started telling him about her job. She worked at a health resort over in Russell, doing things like reflexology and aromatherapy. He wasn’t particularly into all that, but he liked her and was happy to chat.
They talked for five minutes, relaxed and without any sense of attraction, and when the bell rang again, she wished him luck as he rose and moved onto the next table.
He didn’t know the next three women, and he tried to concentrate on them and give them his attention as the clock ticked on. None of them attracted him particularly. One was incredibly tall—not that he had anything against tall women, but he wasn’t sure he’d be comfortable dating someone who had to bend down to kiss him. Another was dull as dishwater. He tried his best to ask her questions and get her out of her shell, but either she was incredibly shy and couldn’t bring herself to speak, or she really didn’t have anything interesting to say. Either way, he was glad when the bell rang again.
As he talked to the third girl, he was conscious of Tamsin on the next table, and his mouth went dry at the thought that he was going to have to talk to her shortly. He sipped his beer, conscious of Tamsin’s high laugh repeatedly ringing out, as if she was trying to show she was having a fabulous time and didn’t need him anymore. Fair enough, he thought.
A Secret Between Friends: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 6) Page 16