Escaping Mr Right

Chapter 2

The cruise progressed the way such events usually did. Marcus was his gregarious self, ensuring we were surrounded for the duration. There were speeches, during which, Marcus was presented with the prestigious team medal, making him even more popular. There was conversation and laughter and entertainment. And, of course, the free flowing booze resulted in a smattering of incidents – one broken toe, a flare gun being accidentally set off, and a girl stripping to her underwear and throwing herself at Nick Savage.

Nothing unusual about any of it (except that for once, Nick didn't seem interested in the nearly-naked girl), but by the time the boat docked I was longing to have Marcus to myself. Just the two of us, calm and steady, so I could re-set my equilibrium.

Marcus had booked a limousine to pick us up. Once we were seated in the back and on our way, he reached for my hand in one of those taking-for-granted actions I liked, holding it loosely as he checked the texts and emails he'd received while on the cruise. And just like that, things felt normal again.

'Ah, I meant to show you this before,' he said, passing his phone to me.

I read the email quickly then handed the phone back to him. It was an invitation to lead a school holiday football clinic in a remote rural community. A great cause, but the timing was hell – hot on the heels of Marcus's end-of-season trip to Hawaii with the guys. 'Are you sure you can you fit it in?' I asked, even though I knew it wasn't in Marcus – a country boy at heart – to turn down such a request.

He smiled at me, all confidence. 'Too easy.'

'Hawaii's only a week away, and even that's not nailed down yet.'

'I'll fly out to do a recce at the school on Tuesday, then dot and cross the i's and t's for Hawaii on Wednesday night over pizza with the guys, fly to Hawaii as planned, tie up any loose ends on the clinic while I'm there, and when I'm back I can head straight to the school. As I said, too easy.'

'Wednesday night?' I said, with sinking heart. 'Did you forget you were supposed to come with me to Evie's for dinner on Wednesday?'

'I thought that was tomorrow.'

'No, she lands tomorrow. We're giving her a couple of days to move into Jack's penthouse before we descend on her.'

'Hang on, let me just check what I've got coming up . . .' Head bent to his phone, he started looking through his calendar, and murmuring to himself. 'Can't move that. Maybe that . . .? Uh-uh, no. How about . . . Nope, scrap that.'

'Drew asked me particularly to get you there,' I said mischievously, just because I knew it would get a reaction. Drew put Marcus a little on edge. Inevitable, given Marcus was what you'd call a blokey bloke while Drew was . . . flamboyant, shall we say?

'Drew?' Marcus asked, looking at me warily. 'Why?'

'Because he's got the hots for you,' I teased. I saw the alarm chase across Marcus's face, and almost laughed. 'I'm joking, Marcus. He's got the hots for half the rugby league players in Sydney, you know that. Look, it's just a low-key catch-up to hear about Evie's time in Morocco, but she'll understand if you can't make it. It's not like it hasn't happened before.'

'How about if I popped in for coffee afterwards? I'm sure I could manage that.'

'You're sure?'

He grimaced. 'I'll try.'

'Okay, you'll try,' I said, resigned to the fact that I might see him . . . but I probably wouldn't.

Silence reigned for a while, and then Marcus put his phone into his shirt pocket and took my hand again. 'Chloe . . .?'

He sounded nervous – which made that shimmering premonition take hold of me again. We were sitting together as usual, holding hands like we always did, having one of our normal conversations about who had what coming up . . . but something had changed. What was it? What?