Wedding Wishes: A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge

He’d known that she wasn’t going to be happy about it and, under the circumstances, it didn’t take a genius to see what she must be thinking.

‘I’m sorry, but David and I went through the guest list to see if there was any way either of us could double up. But, like the Ark, everyone is coming to this wedding two-by-two. We are the only singles.’

‘You could leave,’ she pointed out.

‘I did consider it,’ he admitted. ‘I even made it as far as the bathroom, but it seems that the very thought of getting on a plane was enough to make my back seize up again.’

‘How convenient.’

‘You think I’m enjoying this?’

‘Oh, God, no,’ she said, her face instantly softening, full of compassion, and that made him feel like a heel because right at this moment he was enjoying the situation rather a lot. ‘I’m sorry. That was a horrible thing to say…’

He could have told her that she had an instant cure, but under the circumstances he thought it unwise and instead watched as, for the second time in ten minutes Josie struggled to come to terms with a situation she couldn’t quite get her head around.

‘Is flying a problem for you?’ she asked.

He laughed. He knew he shouldn’t but he couldn’t help himself. ‘Are you asking me if I’m afraid of flying?’

‘It’s nothing to be ashamed of,’ she assured him.

‘Have you any idea how many miles I fly each year?’

‘Well, no, but it’s a fact that the more miles you fly the shorter the odds become…’

‘Stop. Stop right there. I have a pilot’s licence, Josie. I own my own light aircraft. I stunt fly for fun.’

‘Stunt fly?’

‘It’s one of the extreme holidays my company offers.’

‘Oh. Right. It’s just that if the problem is psychological…’ She stopped. ‘No. Right.’ Then, ‘But if you can’t move, how are you going to move rooms?’ she asked.

‘I’m not moving anywhere. You’re moving in here.’

Josie frowned. ‘Say that again?’ she said, hoping that she’d misheard him, misunderstood.

‘You’re moving in here.’

‘Dammit, Gideon, you are not listening to me,’ she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air, walking around the deck in an attempt to expel all that pent-up emotion she’d been keeping battened down. Refusing to look at him. ‘This is Tal and Cryssie’s room. It’s all been planned.’

‘Yes, well, the first casualty of battle is always the plan,’ he said. ‘You—or rather Cara’s aunt—looked at the layout and saw privacy. Cryssie took one look and saw herself isolated about as far from civilisation as it was possible to be and her response was a firm thanks, but no thanks.’

‘What?’ Josie came to a halt. In front of her, at the water’s edge, a line of zebras raised their heads, looking for all the world like a row of startled dowagers at a wedding who’d just heard the vicar swear…‘But she had already approved everything,’ she said, turning back to face Gideon.

‘Maybe it looked different on paper. Whatever, she flatly refused to be “stuck out here where anything could eat me”.’

He put on a high-pitched girly voice and, despite the fact that she was already furious with him on a number of counts, would have happily throttled him at that moment, she snorted with laughter.

‘She didn’t say that.’

‘No? Ask her.’ Then he smiled too. ‘I really do think you’d have been better off with the petting zoo.’

‘It would have been my choice too, but it’s too late for that,’ she replied. ‘So where have you put her?’

‘She’s in the tree house nearest to the central lodge, which was, fortunately, vacated this morning. David has put the photographer and make-up artist who flew in with her next door.’

‘In my room? I close my eyes for ten minutes—’

‘Three hours.’

‘—and you move someone else into my room.’

‘You’d already accepted that you would have to surrender your room, Josie—’

True, but she didn’t have to like it.

‘—and the rest of the guests won’t have gone until the morning. You might believe that we’re in need of a major PR hit, but Leopard Tree Lodge is always full at this time of year. Cryssie did turn up a day early with her entourage and she’s lucky to have any kind of room.’

‘I know and I’m sorry about that, but you should have woken me up.’

‘I’m too soft-hearted for my own good.’

‘You’re too chicken. You knew you’d get an argument and hoped that if I was faced with a fait accompli I’d just roll over.’

‘That too,’ he admitted, with just enough of a grin to suggest he believed he’d got away with it.

‘I’d better go and shift my things,’ she said. ‘But this isn’t over.’

‘No need. Alesia did it for you.’

‘Alesia…’

Not only her client, but half the staff had apparently walked through here this afternoon. Seen her “snoring her head off”. Discussed what was best without reference to her.

He’d been right about one thing. She’d needed the sleep. But that was all he was right about.

This was her job, her responsibility, but she didn’t bother to say what she was thinking. Instead, she turned on her heel and went inside.

Her toothbrush was sitting in a glass beside his on the bathroom shelf. Her clothes were hanging beside his cream suit. Her purple wheel-on suitcase was snuggled up cosily alongside his battered soft leather grip.

Even her briefcase had been brought in from the deck and placed tidily on the desk. And she knew exactly what he had done.

He hadn’t discussed this with David. Employee or not, as the manager of this hotel he would never have agreed to something like this without consulting her. It was Gideon. Determined not to leave either Leopard Tree Lodge or surrender his own precious tree house to the unwanted bride and groom, he’d told David that this was her idea.

No doubt he’d shrugged, brushed aside the inconvenience, done a good job of presenting himself as the nice guy who was putting himself out to do everyone a favour.

And why wouldn’t David have believed him? After all, there she was, fast asleep, totally at home in Gideon’s tree house. Jane to his Tarzan.