What the Lightning Sees: Part One by Louise Bay Page B

relaxed than I normally saw her. I couldn’t help but grin.
    “This is Luke and Ash. You’ve met Ash before.” Her cheeks colored slightly and I grinned at the memory of her drunk in her pyjamas in the street.
    “Mr. Aston Martin, nice to meet you,” Ash said.
    “You see.” I turned to Beth. “The DB9, basking.”
    She ignored me and introduced herself to Luke and Ash and I shook Luke’s hand. I couldn’t work out how he fit in to the picture. Ash was the best friend, that I understood. Was Luke the gay in their relationship, or her boyfriend? If she was involved with someone, she wouldn’t have kissed me back, and she surely wouldn’t have brought him here. Right?
    “Sorry to be a drag, but I need to introduce you to some people, Harry,” Dave interrupted our introductions.
    “No. I warned you about this.”
    “Don’t be a brat,” Haven said.
    “You took the words right out of my mouth,” Beth agreed.
    “So who’s the blonde?” Dave asked as he dragged me through the crowd.
    “A girl I work with. The one on the Sandy story.”
    “Really? Sandy didn’t mention her. Probably because she’s gorgeous and you’re so obviously interested. It must be sending Sandy into a tailspin not having your full attention.”
    “I’m not interested, stop trying to make trouble.”
    Dave raised his eyebrows at me.
    “What do you think of the guy? Does he play for your team?” I asked.
    “Luke?” he clarified.
    I nodded.
    “Unfortunately not. Although I might try and turn him, he’s very handsome.”
    I scowled at Dave. So Luke wasn’t gay. And I wasn’t a believer in the theory that men and women could be friends. He was either in Ash or Haven’s underwear—or wanted to be.
    “Let me introduce you to Daniel Armitage and his lovely wife Leah. Daniel, Leah, this is Jake Harrison, star of our show tonight.”
    “You’re very talented,” Leah said.
    “Thanks. This isn’t really my thing. I just do it for fun,” I said.
    “Oh, you’re one of those are you?” Leah asked.
    “One of what?”
    “I’ve got one here,” she said, squeezing her husband’s arm. “Super talented and successful, but too modest to see it. Well, we love your work.”
    I nodded, hating the attention but trying not to be rude and excused myself. I scanned the room, trying to spot Haven. She wasn’t where I’d left her. I wanted to get to the bottom of who Luke was to her.

Haven
    When we had arrived at the gallery, I’d wondered if we were in the right place. The exhibition was for a Jake Harrison. It was only when I saw Harry that I was convinced we hadn’t got lost.
    “These photographs are beautiful, Haven,” Ash said, turning her head from right to left.
    I nodded. “Yes, they’re better than I expected.” She was right, they were beautiful. I could see some portraits across the space from where we were, but we were surrounded by landscapes. They were huge and some of them were exposed in a way that gave them an abstract quality. But overwhelmingly, they were very romantic.
    “Don’t be a bitch¸” Luke said.
    “I’m not, it’s just, he works at Rallegra. I didn’t expect him to be a serious, proper photographer. You know what Robert’s like, he’s always getting his friends jobs that they’re not qualified for.”
    “I think Robert asked Jake, not the other way around. Jake’s got so much on with raising the money for Elemental Energy that I don’t think he would have done it for anyone else,” Beth said.
    I hadn’t realised his sister was still around, I’d been too distracted by Harry’s unexpected talent.
    “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to—”
    “It’s fine,” she said as she rested her hand on my shoulder. “Really, I know Robert and he has loads of friends who dabble in things but aren’t really interested in doing anything with their lives. You should know by now that Jake doesn’t fall into that category.”
    I nodded politely. I supposed there was no specific example of him being