out and Jason stayed boy slender.
When he thought about all of the times they had swopped places and fooled people over the years. Playing tricks on teachers and girls was their favourite—Jason was naturally more academic and a whizz at exams. He could never understand why Miles only wanted to learn about the things that interested him—like sports science and geology and the weather.
Then there had been that one time when Miles had taken the boat out to show off to some girl and it had run out of diesel in the middle of nowhere. And Jason had taken the initiative to sit the exam in his place, and not one of their tutors realised. What made it especially annoying was that Miles had been given top marks, and Jason had only studied climatology for a few months before dropping it for computer science.
But somehow it had worked. Jason was the brains of the family and Miles was the professional sportsman who was on the way to being world champion.
And that was okay. Hell—it was better than okay. The Gibson twins were the stars of the surfing world and Cory Sports went global.
Miles inhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders back as that cold icy feeling of dread welled up from the pit of his stomach.
Correction. That had been okay. Until the accident.
Now he was back in London to pretend to the sporting world that it was business as usual for Cory Sports.
If only that were true.
Oh—he knew what the sports journalists were asking. Jason was at the helm and still one of the brainiest bachelors in London. But what about his brother? What was Miles doing in the business apart from learning to walk again? What future did he have when he stopped being the sporting hero? Good question. Pity that he did not have a smart answer for them. Not yet. But he would. He had to.
Sitting up taller, Miles decided to focus on something he could control and snorted in derision at the fawning press article before sending a suitable reply about how Jason’s smart-boy haircut was bound to wow the ladies—if, big if, he ever found the time to meet any.
Jason was brilliant and had taken Cory Sports to places neither of them had ever expected.
But when it came to girls? Hopeless. No. Make that worse than hopeless.
His brother seemed to attract girls who either saw him as someone who they could get free sportswear from, or as a geek who they could persuade to run the IT in their companies in his spare time, then dumped him when they found out that he did not have any spare time.
Or then there were the worst kind. The professional gold-diggers who were happy to pursue any man who could even vaguely be described as a millionaire. Or, in their case, multimillionaire, although Jason would be the last person to brag about the money.
And Miles knew all about gold diggers.
Lori had been in his life for three years and not once did it cross his mind that she was using him and his status to get where she wanted to be. He was actually deluded enough to believe that she wanted to be with the real Miles Gibson, when in fact, she had a lot more interest in how he could further her career.
But when he had the accident? Well. He had stopped being useful to her any more and she had moved on to the next world-class sportsman who could give her the A-list profile she wanted. Having her own TV show was just part of the perks of that celebrity world.
And so was being invited to the Sports Personality Award show next week.
Which made it even more important that he walk into that sports event, on his own two feet, with a new woman on his arm and a twinkle in his eye.
The twinkle he could manage on his own.
But the woman? He wanted the right woman. Not another lingerie model like Lori.
No—he needed a stand-in date for one night—and just one night—who could hold her own.
A date with spark and energy and her own life and independence who could guard his back when he showed the world that Miles Gibson was not going to let a car accident stop him doing what he wanted.
Moaning to Jason that he did not want to go solo to the sports personality event had been a mistake. The last thing he had expected Jason to do was set him up on an Internet dating site. And he hated it when Jason got it so right. Andy was interesting. Funny. Oblivious to the fact that her real personality was there in every line of the emails that she had sent.
She had been worth coming out on a wet November evening.
All he had to do was turn on the charm and talk her into coming with him to the event. Done deal.
Suddenly there was a bustle of activity and Andy breezed past him, picked up her coat from the back of her chair, slipped it on without saying a word, and slung her bag over one shoulder.
He was just about to say something when she turned towards him, and the words stuck in his throat. Her skin was as white as paper, and from the quivering mouth it was obvious that she was upset about something.
Over him? Damn. Those girls must have got to her. Kissing her just to make an impression had been a big mistake, even if it had been the highlight of his day.
‘It was very nice to have met you, but I need to head back. Urgent business. Thank you very much for the dinner and best of luck with the dating scene.’ Then she gave a quick nod and turned away from him towards the door.
‘Hey. Wait a moment,’ he said, not wanting to draw attention to her, but if she heard him she pretended not to, and in one smooth motion flicked her collar up, flung open the door and strode away into the rain as fast as her legs could carry her. And was gone.
Miles stood up and tried to move after her, but he had been sitting in the one place too long again. His leg instantly cramped up and the pain in his knee switched from being just tolerable to pass-the-painkillers so quickly that he had to sit back down and massage the injured muscle back into life.
Well, this day got better and better.
He had just driven away the only online date he had agreed to meet.
And then he spotted something purple and umbrella shaped propped up next to her chair.
Saffie’s house was in complete darkness when Andy walked up the path and turned the key in the front door. The rain had turned into a driving sleet and as the warm air hit her face and ears she could feel her cheeks tingle from the icy blast.
She had already been halfway down the street before she realised that she had left her purple umbrella back in the coffee shop—probably hidden below Miles’s jacket. So she had waited for the bus that never came. So then she had gritted her teeth and walked for twenty minutes in her smart boots rather than just stand there and wait.
Waiting was for losers. Miles would never have waited—and neither would she.
Because standing on her own at that freezing bus stop with the rain running down her neck and inside her boots Andromeda Elizabeth Davies had come to a major conclusion. After twenty-eight years on this planet she had done enough waiting for other people in life.
She had waited for her parents to stop working just long enough to pay her some attention.
She had waited for someone to explain why they had to move out of her home and her own room with her own things into the hastily rearranged study of her grandparents’ apartment, which she would be sharing with a lifetime of hoarded unwanted clutter.
She had waited for her parents to stop telling her how lucky she was to go to the private boarding school that was soaking up the trust fund her parents had started when they were rich and had money to throw away.
And then she had waited for her school friends to realise that she was just the same girl, only without any money. Saffie and her close pals had been brilliant but the others like Elise had dropped her in a week.
She had been prepared to wait for Nigel to make the first move and start dating her properly. Too busy with