One More Sleepless Night by Lucy King Read Free Book Online

when to stop, and that he’d had a brief but disastrous marriage. She’d also discovered that, despite his apparently innate talent for identifying and fixing problems, much to Gaby’s and her sisters’ frustration, he channelled this talent into his business, and steered well clear of entangling himself in any trouble that might involve his siblings.
    Not that she’d be spilling all that out, of course. If anyone revealed that they knew so much about her she’d have had them arrested on the grounds of an invasion of privacy. ‘Oh, this and that,’ she said vaguely, aware that he was waiting for an answer.
    ‘So you and Gaby haven’t been discussing me?’
    He looked so unexpectedly and endearingly put out by the idea that Nicky found herself in the unusual position of grinning. ‘Well, you may have come up once or twice in conversation.’
    He grimaced. ‘I don’t know whether to be flattered or worried.’
    ‘You should be flattered.’
    The grimace eased. ‘Why? What did she say?’
    ‘That you’re a corporate troubleshooter and you like solving problems,’ she said, deciding that if she condensed the facts it wouldn’t sound too stalkerish, and actually feeling relieved to be talking about him rather than herself. ‘That you’re very driven and that your successes are stellar, both with work and with women.’ She paused and then added, ‘Oh, and that you’re divorced.’
    Rafael winced and she instantly wondered exactly what had gone wrong with his marriage. ‘So perhaps not quite so successful with women.’
    Telling herself that she had no business wondering and even less asking when they barely knew each other, Nicky tilted her head and had to agree. ‘No, perhaps not.’
    ‘Gaby has been chatty,’ he said dryly, twisting the stem of his wine glass between long brown fingers.
    ‘She’s fond of you. And proud.’
    Her heart squeezed in the same way it had done every time Gaby had either sung her brother’s praises or lamented his failings.
    She really ought to be used to it by now because, while the envy she felt at Gaby and Rafael’s evident closeness had taken her by surprise at first, she’d lived with it for as long as she’d known her neighbour. If anything, though, instead of lessening the envy had grown and, the more she’d listened to Gaby, offering words of either awe or sympathy depending on the circumstances, the more she’d come to realise that she didn’t have anyone who knew her or whom she knew quite that well. And in the early hours of the mornings when she’d been unable to sleep she’d begun to wonder if she might not be in the state she was in if she too had had someone that close to turn to.
    ‘It must be nice to have siblings,’ she said a little wistfully as the image of a two-point-four family popped into her head.
    ‘Don’t you have any?’
    ‘Nope,’ she said, pulling herself together because there she went again, wishing for the impossible. ‘It’s just me and my parents.’
    ‘Lucky you,’ he muttered, then got up and headed to the barbecue.
    As she watched him slap the steaks on the grill Nicky frowned. She’d always got the impression from Gaby that while there was frustration aplenty between the sisters and their brother there was also a lot of affection. ‘Really?’
    She heard him sigh. ‘No, not really,’ he said, leaving the steaks to sizzle and spit on the grill and returning to the table. ‘They’re fine. Except when they’re hassling me.’
    ‘Do they do that often?’
    ‘More often than I’d like,’ he said, sitting back down and taking a mouthful of wine.
    ‘So what do you do about it?’
    ‘Well, the last time it happened I came down here.’
    The tone of his voice made her insides cringe. ‘Which was when?’
    He set his glass down and gave her a look. ‘Yesterday.’
    Oh, dear. ‘Looking for a bit of peace and quiet?’
    He nodded. ‘Only to be attacked with Don Quijote .’
    Nicky felt her cheeks flush with