Her father laughed. ‘Nervous? Our Charlie? That’ll be the day. She’s just excited.’
Excited…
Charlotte glanced up into Daniel’s dark eyes, which glittered back down at her.
‘Just a tad,’ she confessed with considerable understatement. ‘Come on, let’s get you in here to eat.’
Taking her mother’s elbow, she ushered her into the bistro. Daniel and her dad trailed after them, chatting away as if they’d been best mates for years.
‘Have you decided what you might like to eat yet?’ she asked her mother after the woman had spent several minutes perusing all the options. Daniel and her dad had already ordered steaks, medium rare. Men, Charlotte had always found, were more decisive with food than women. She herself didn’t feel like eating at all. Stress always doused her appetite. Excitement, too.
She’d had more than enough of both for one day.
Her mother continued to dither whilst Daniel proceeded to the bar to order the drinks. Beer for the men. Cream sherry for her mother and a dry white wine for herself.
Meanwhile, her dad claimed a booth-style table for them next to one of the wide windows that overlooked the city street outside.
In the end, both her mother and Charlotte ordered the same as the men, though they chose smaller steaks and ordered them well done. Their drinks had arrived by the time they sat down. Charlotte immediately swooped up her glass and was having some soothing sips of the crisply chilled wine when a mobile phone started ringing.
Charlotte knew it wasn’t hers. Wrong tune.
It was Daniel’s.
CHAPTER SIX
‘EXCUSE me, everyone,’ Daniel said as he fished his slimline cellphone out of his back pocket, flipped it open and put it to his ear.
Charlotte gave him a slight dig in the ribs, reminding him he’d have to be careful what he said.
‘Hi there,’ seemed safe enough.
‘Beth here. I’m finally finished with the doc. Everything’s fine, though I’ve put on another damned kilo. So where are you and how did things go? Did you find out her name?’
‘I’m having lunch with Charlotte and her folks right now,’ he replied, hoping that would floor his sister into silence.
He was right. It did.
‘Don’t worry about me,’ he went on hurriedly. ‘I’ll take a taxi back to your place after we’re finished, though that might not be for a while. Arrangements to make, et cetera. Thanks for calling. See you later. Ciao.’
Turning his mobile right off to stop any further awkward calls from Beth, he slipped it in his pocket, vowing to give her a call back as soon as he had the chance.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said brightly. ‘It was the lady whose place I’m staying at tonight. She and her husband are friends of friends of mine. I didn’t think it would be right to stay at Charlotte’s place. Not the night before the wedding, anyway.’
‘Are these people coming to the wedding tomorrow, Charlotte?’ Betty Gale asked her daughter.
‘Er—’
‘No, they’re not,’ Daniel jumped in. ‘I didn’t ask them. I didn’t realise it was going to be such a big wedding, remember?’
‘But that’s not right,’ Mr Gale said. ‘They should come. Charlotte, surely something could be arranged.’
Charlotte groaned inside. ‘I don’t think so, Dad. The numbers for the reception were finalised a couple of days ago.’ The last thing she wanted was to cost her dad more money.
‘Please don’t concern yourselves,’ Daniel said swiftly. ‘They really wouldn’t expect to come.’
‘If you say so, Gary.’
Charlotte winced. How she hated hearing them call him Gary! Daniel was a much nicer name.
Their meals arrived. Charlotte only picked at hers, her mind drifting back to names.
Daniel. Daniel Bannister. Mrs Daniel Bannister.
‘You’re not dieting, are you, darling?’ Daniel suddenly asked her.
Her sharp intake of breath reflected the shock produced by her own foolish thoughts, not by his calling her darling. She knew he was only acting. No way was she really his darling, or anything close. Yet there she was, fantasising about being married to him.
God, she was hopeless. Hadn’t this fiasco with Gary taught her anything? Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. If she started imagining she was falling for Daniel, she needed her head read. OK, so he was utterly gorgeous-looking and incredibly sexy, with the kind of powerful and dynamic personality you usually only read about.
Charlotte had no doubt he would be very good in bed.
But he wasn’t good at love. Or commitment. He couldn’t have made his intentions clearer. He said he was allergic to marriage, and his own sister had called him the love ’em and leave ’em type.
Common sense demanded she not weave any romantic fantasies around him. He was not some knight in shining armour. His aim hadn’t been rescuing her damsel in distress, but seducing her.
She had to keep that fact in the forefront of her mind during the next couple of days or she’d end up crying a whole lot more than she had about Gary.
‘Charlotte never eats much when she’s nervous,’ her mother answered for her, which brought a grateful smile from Charlotte. She put down her knife and fork, picked up a chip with her fingers and nibbled on it.
‘I’m just the opposite,’ Daniel said. ‘I eat like a horse when I’m nervous.’ And he forked a large piece of steak into his mouth.
‘I can’t imagine you ever being nervous,’ Charlotte said with a dry laugh.
‘You’d be surprised,’ he returned.
Charlotte wouldn’t mind betting he’d never suffered a crisis of confidence in his entire life, whereas she’d spent most of hers not even knowing what she wanted out of life. Even when she thought she did, her life had still lurched from one disaster to the next.
‘Everyone gets nervous occasionally,’ her father joined in. ‘Caring makes any man nervous. I was nervous when I married your mother. And each time she was expecting. I dare say I’ll be nervous again when you and Gary have a little one.’
The threat of tears came out of nowhere. Charlotte knew she would not be able to explain them, so she had to get out of there. At least for a minute or two.
She dropped the rest of the chip and stood up abruptly. ‘Sorry. Have to go the ladies’. The wine.’
Bolting for the powder room did the trick. Not only did it stop the tears, but it also gave her the opportunity to call Louise.
‘Goodness knows what she’s going to say,’ Charlotte muttered as she raced into a cubicle and punched in Louise’s work number.
The owner of the hairdressing place Louise worked at didn’t like her taking personal calls, especially on a Friday, but this was an emergency. It took a while before she came on the line, during which Charlotte’s already over-active stomach did the tango.
‘Yes?’ Louise asked agitatedly.
‘Louise, it’s Charlotte. You haven’t told anyone about what happened with Gary this morning, have you?’
‘No. Why?’
‘Not even Brad?’ Brad was Louise’s boyfriend and the best man.
‘Haven’t had the opportunity. I was going to tell him tonight. We’re meeting for drinks