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‘Trevor Osborne, yes, I recognise her now. Goodness, the years haven’t been kind.’
Every part of him cringed at the slightly too-loud tenor of her voice. Guess that was what came of being out of the scene for so long—she’d lost her social skills when it came to business matters. Though he couldn’t even imagine her working a room quite as fearlessly as Tash, even at the top of her game.
He shepherded his mother across the crowded room until they caught his father’s eye. It widened with alarm—as well it might....
‘Laura?’
She leaned in for an air kiss—so she hadn’t completely forgotten how to be Mrs Nathaniel Moore—and then smiled at her husband’s surprise. ‘I know. I’m as flummoxed to be here as you are seeing me. Your junior partner invited me.’
His father seemed about as discomposed as Aiden had ever seen him. ‘You’re always invited, Laura. You know that.’ Dark eyes scanned the room and then flared even further.
‘Nathaniel, should we—?’ Tash appeared by Aiden’s side and then jerked to a halt at the immediate tension in his father’s body language. ‘Oh, I’m sorry for interrupting.’
She turned her curiosity to his mother, who stood politely blank-faced.
His father quite literally couldn’t speak.
‘Laura Moore,’ his mother finally said, introducing herself on a smile, her dark brows slightly folded in. ‘And you are?’
‘I’m—’ Tash opened her mouth to speak but both men rushed to cut her off.
‘The guest of honour,’ Nathaniel said.
‘Natasha’s here with me,’ Aiden blurted, simultaneously. The surprise Tash turned on him very neatly matched his own. Why the hell had he said that? Was it because inviting his mother here tonight suddenly seemed like the worst idea ever?
Or was it because he didn’t want to be proved correct all of a sudden?
‘Oh, you’re the artist?’ Laura covered for both her momentarily inept men. ‘Nathaniel has brought home photographs of your work. Just lovely.’
Tash smiled and Aiden recognised it instantly as her game-face smile. The one she’d been feeding everyone here. The one she’d used with him the first few times they met. The fact that she couldn’t be genuinely polite to the wife of her biggest commissioner instantly brought his suspicion screaming back to the fore.
Why not—what did she have to lose? Or hide?
But her answer gave nothing away. ‘Thank you, Mrs Moore.’
‘Please, call me Laura.’
That offer seemed to actually pain Tash, but she kept the fake smile glued to her face. Was he the only one who could see how it paled just slightly at the corners?
His own frown deepened until it must have matched his mother’s.
‘Have we met?’ Laura queried. ‘You seem so familiar....’
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