His Shy Cinderella. Kate Hardy

sure he could answer her unasked question. He wanted McKenzie’s. That was the main reason he was here. But he also wanted her, and that threw him. ‘Think of it as a sandwich at your desk,’ he said.

      She took a nibble of the cheese and then the bread. ‘A very nice sandwich, too.’

      ‘So who are the people in the photographs?’ he asked.

      ‘The one on the wall over there is my grandfather Jimmy, back in the early days of McKenzie’s.’ She gestured to her desk. ‘My mum and dad, Sadie and Max.’

      Just as he’d guessed; but there were no pictures of Esther, who’d been at the centre of the rift between Barnaby Stone and Jimmy McKenzie. He wondered if Angel looked anything like her. Not that he was going to ask. He kept the conversation light and anodyne, then cleared away when they’d both finished.

      ‘So,’ he said. ‘We managed to have a civilised meal together.’

      ‘I guess.’

      ‘We’ve done breakfast and lunch.’ But the next words out of his mouth weren’t quite the ones he’d intended to say. ‘Would you like to come to a gala dinner with me?’