Blush by Nicola Marsh

ADELE, CHAT LATER? It had nothing to do with the fact he’d rearranged his schedule for the next forty-eight hours and jetted into Vegas this morning. Yeah, right.
    They hadn’t chatted yet, but Jess had said she’d stop by his hotel shortly. Good. He could grill her about Adele. Subtly.
    Like his sis hadn’t already picked up on the fact he was gaga for the woman.
    He needed a buffer to prevent interrogating Jess as soon as she walked in. And he knew just who to use.
    Allowing for the seventeen hour Vegas-Sydney time difference, he put a Skype call through to Jack. If the slick Aussie couldn’t soften up his sis, nothing could.
    The fact he’d probably be waking his best friend in the middle of the night? Too damn bad. Reid was desperate.
    Thankfully, when Jack’s face popped up on his laptop screen, the Aussie appeared wide-awake despite the hour.
    Jack cocked his thumb and forefinger in a mock gun and fired. “Lucky for you I keep restaurant hours, otherwise I’d kick your ass for Skyping me at one a.m.”
    “G’day to you too,” Reid said, putting on his best Aussie accent, guaranteed to make Jack laugh.
    “Dumbass,” Jack muttered, grinning. “Let me guess. Woman problems.”
    Resisting the urge to blurt ‘abso-frigging-lutely’, Reid shook his head. “Jess will be here shortly and I thought it’d be a good time to kill two birds with one stone.” He held up two fingers. “Chat to my best friend and let you catch up with Jess.”
    “Bullshit.” Jack snorted. “Jess and I speak daily, so the fact you’ve Skyped me at this ungodly hour means you want me to soften her up for something.”
    “Man, can’t you give a guy a break?” Reid couldn’t help but laugh. “Should’ve known a schmuck like you would be onto me.”
    Jack tapped his temple. “Doesn’t take a lot of gray matter to figure out this has to be about Adele. And seeing as Jess is in Vegas before she flies out here, you must want her to do something for you.”
    Reid shrugged, having to come clean. “Actually, Jess was out with her last night, and I want to know how Adele is.”
    Jack raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
    Sheepish, Reid shook his head. “Well, maybe there’s more.”
    Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you two were seeing each other? Has something happened?”
    “Shit yeah.” Reid dragged a hand through his hair. “She won’t see me. Called it quits over a month ago. Didn’t want a relationship.”
    Jack’s jaw dropped as he peered closer at the screen. “You? In a relationship? Fuck, what’s going on over there?”
    “Don’t be a dick,” Reid said, wondering how shallow he’d appeared all these years if even his best friend couldn’t contemplate him having a relationship. “You know my work has kept me busy and that’s why I don’t get involved.”
    “So what has changed now?” Jack edged away from the screen, his expression incredulous. “You’re still a politician, right? Or have you finally gained perspective and left that shitty job behind?”
    In the early days of their friendship, Reid used to bristle at Jack’s deliberate teasing. He’d wised up once he got used to the laconic Aussie sense of humor, where the entire nation ‘took the piss’ out of anything and anyone.
    “Actually, my shitty job is the major problem for us.”
    “How so?”
    Reid cleared his throat. “’Til I know where this is going with her, I kinda said we’d need to keep our relationship under wraps.”
    Jack grimaced and Reid rushed on. “In case it doesn’t work out, I didn’t want her dragged through the mud by smarmy muckrakers trying to get the dirt on me—”
    “You’re full of shit,” Jack said, stabbing a finger at the screen. “You didn’t want your precious bloody reputation tainted because of where she works.”
    “That too,” Reid admitted, hating how the truth stung.
    No wonder Adele told him where to stick his offer of a relationship. Which woman in her right mind would put up