The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd Page B

blades,’ she said. ‘White, tipped with gold.’ And no clothes at all.
    ‘All the better to fly you away with me,’ he said. ‘You must have wings too.’
    ‘Blue and silver, I think,’ she mused.
    She enjoyed their light-hearted banter. After three days with him she didn’t expect anything deeper or more meaningful. He was charming, fun, and she enjoyed being with him.
    But he wasn’t the Jake Marlowe who had so intrigued her with hints of hidden depths when she’d first met him. That Jake Marlowe had been as elusive as the last fleeting strains of the Strauss waltz lilting through the corridor as she had fled that ballroom in Montovia. She wondered if he had really existed outside her imagination. Had she been so smitten with his fallen angel looks that she’d thought there was more there for her than physical attraction?
    ‘We did an angel-themed party a few months ago,’ she said. ‘That’s what made me think about the wings.’
    ‘You feasted on angel food cake, no doubt?’
    ‘A magnificent celestial-themed supper was served,’ she said. ‘Star-shaped cookies, rainbow cupcakes, cloud-shaped meringues. Gemma planned it all from Montovia and Andie made sure it happened.’
    The angel party had worked brilliantly. The next party, when Gemma had been too caught up with her royal duties to participate fully in the planning, hadn’t had quite the same edge. Four days of vacation on, and Eliza was still no closer to finding a solution to the lack of Gemma’s hands-on presence in the day-to-day running of the company. Party Queens was heading to crisis point.
    ‘Clever Gemma,’ said Jake. ‘Tristan told me she’s shaken up all the stodgy traditional menus served at the castle.’
    ‘I believe she has,’ Eliza said. ‘She’s instigated cooking programmes in schools, too. They’re calling her the people’s princess, she told me. Gemma’s delighted.’
    ‘No more than Tristan is delighted with Gemma.’
    Gemma and Tristan had found true love. Whereas she had found just a diverting interlude with Jake. After the royal wedding both Gemma and Andie had expressed high hopes for romance between the best man and the bridesmaid. Eliza had denied any interest. But deep in Eliza’s most secret heart she’d entertained the thought too. She couldn’t help a sense of regret that it so obviously wasn’t going to happen.
    Idly, Eliza swished her toes around in the water. ‘They call these wet-edge pools infinity pools, don’t they? Because they stretch out without seeming to end?’
    ‘That’s right,’ he said.
    ‘In some way these four days of my vacation seemed to have gone on for ever. In another they’ve flown. Only this evening left.’
    ‘Can you extend your break? By another day, perhaps?’
    She shook her head. ‘There’s still the Gemma problem to solve. And there are some big winter parties lined up for the months ahead. I have back-to-back appointments for the day after I get back. Some of which took me weeks to line up.’
    ‘That’s what happens when you run a successful business,’ he said.
    ‘As you know only too well,’ she said. Party Queens was insignificant on the corporate scale compared to his company.
    ‘I’d have trouble squeezing in another day here, too,’ Jake said. ‘I’m out of the country a lot these days. Next week I fly to Minnesota in the United States, to meet with Walter Burton on a joint venture between him and Dominic in which I’m involved. My clients are all around the world. I’ll be in Bangalore in India the following week. Singapore the week after that.’
    ‘Are you ever home?’ Her voice rose.
    ‘Not often, these days. My absences were a bone of contention with my ex. She was probably right when she said that I didn’t give her enough time.’
    Eliza paused. ‘It doesn’t sound like you have any more time now.’
    Jake took a beat to answer. ‘Are you any different? Seems to me you’re as career-orientated as I am. How much room does