Wedding Wishes: A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge

It was all as neat and nice as the vast bed that Gideon seemed to believe she would share with him.

‘Is everything there?’ he asked when she emerged, blinking, into the late sunshine. Looking up at her from the deck, where he was looking more comfortable that he had any right to be.

‘Oh, yes. They haven’t missed a thing,’ she said, sliding her dark glasses over her eyes.

‘Well, good.’ She noted that he sounded a little less certain now. ‘I know how busy you are and I thought it would save you some time.’

‘You thought that, did you?’

He shook his head. ‘Okay. Tell me what’s wrong.’

‘Wrong?’ she repeated, keeping it light, casual as if she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, all the while holding in the urge to laugh hysterically. ‘What could possibly be wrong?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve sorted out your accommodation problem. Your bride has got the room she wants. And that bed is big enough for both of us to sleep in without ever finding one another.’

There wasn’t a bed big enough in the entire world…

‘You were prepared to take the office floor, Josie. This has got to be better than that.’

‘Maybe so, but it should have been my decision.’

‘I made it easy for you.’

‘No, you made it easy for yourself. No argument. Decision made. Everyone happy. Job done.’

He didn’t bother to deny it but, with a shrug that could have meant anything, he said, ‘I get the feeling you’re about to prove to me how wrong I was about that.’

‘It’s just as well that sleeping on a hard surface is good for the back, or that since you’re not going to sue yourself, there can be no objection to you sleeping on the office floor. You are so out of here.’

Josie didn’t wait for his response, but went in search of Crystal, muttering a furious ‘damn’ with every step.

What was really galling was that she knew Gideon was right. She should be grateful to him for taking the time and trouble to summon David and sort everything out, relieving her of at least one worry.

He owned this place and he didn’t have to share one inch of his precious space with her. It wasn’t even the fact that he was a man that bothered her. She would have moved in with one of the Celebrity staff, male or female, without a second thought if they weren’t already doubled up.

It was the obvious answer, the grown-up answer, one she might even have got around to suggesting herself, given enough time and a lack of any other option—although she’d still have taken the office floor, given the choice.

But, while he’d no doubt acted from the best of motives, Gideon couldn’t possibly know how it made her feel to have control over what she did, where she slept, taken out of her hands.

How helpless, powerless that made her feel.

Or that it was something she’d vowed long ago would never happen to her again.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought, slowing as she approached the last set of steps.

There were two rules.

One—never make a threat you aren’t prepared to carry out or, worse, make one that you’re powerless to deliver on.

Two—if you can’t control the things around you, you can at least control yourself.

She’d just broken them both.

She stopped as she reached the steps to Crystal’s tree house. Took a moment to regain control over her breathing, wipe Gideon McGrath from her mind.

Crystal appeared, swathed in a gorgeous silk kimono wrap, before she’d managed either.

‘Josie! I was just going for a swim. Want to join me?’

‘I haven’t got time for a swim, but I’ll walk down with you. I’m sorry I was asleep when you arrived. You should have woken me and I’d have sorted out your room for you.’

‘No need. Gideon was so sweet; he sorted it all out in a minute. You must have been totally wiped to have slept through all that coming and going.’

‘Even so. It’s my job, Crystal—’

‘Cryssie, please.’

‘It’s my job, Cryssie. Come to me if you have any problems, okay? Day or night.’ Then, ‘How’s your tree house?’

‘Great. Really cute, although I have to admit that when we flew in I thought I’d arrived at the end of the earth. Then, when David took me right out there into the woods…’

‘Serafina thought, I imagine, that you and Tal would welcome the privacy.’

‘Oh, please. This is a media wedding; there is no such thing as privacy.’

‘So why did you do it? It’s not as if you’re keeping the money.’

She shrugged. The boldly coloured silk wrap shimmered in the sunlight and as they walked through the boma a couple of middle-aged men, showing off their day’s ‘bag’ of photographs over a sundowner, nearly broke their necks as they did a double take.

‘People think I’m just another dumb underwear model who’s bagged herself an equally dumb footballer,’ Cryssie, said, apparently unaware of the stir she was creating. Or maybe she was so used to it that she no longer noticed.

They were much of a height, but that was all they had in common. Cryssie was absolutely stunning and Josie, who’d never worried about her lack of curves or the fact that the only heads that turned in her direction were in disbelief, felt a pang of something very like envy as she realised why Gideon had suddenly become Mr Helpful instead of Mr Obstructive.

Who wouldn’t fall under the spell of such beauty?

‘We were going to have the press all over us anyway, so we decided to make it mean something.’ Cryssie stopped by the edge of the pool, oblivious to the sudden stillness as she slipped off her wrap to reveal a matching strapless swimsuit and a perfectly even tan. ‘We’re using the money to set up sports holiday camps for special needs kids.’

Not only beautiful, but caring too. Who could compete with that?

‘That’s a wonderful thing to do.’

‘We’ve been lucky and it’s worth the circus to put something back. But this is the last. We’re not going to be living our lives, having our babies on the front pages of the gossip mags. So,’ she said, turning a hundred watt smile on Josie, ‘we’re going to have to give them their money’s worth.’

‘I’ll certainly do my best.’

As she settled on a chair and stretched out, a white-jacketed waiter appeared.

‘Sparkling water, please. No ice. Josie?’