Sam cursed herself. She already felt that every word she said, every look, betrayed her feelings about Gabe. She felt like she was walking around naked – emotionally speaking – and that Gabe, her mates, even the other customers in the pub could see her disbelief and anger – not to mention the physical attraction that made her shivery with lust.

As Gabe waited at the bar with Drew, she couldn’t help but admire the breadth of his shoulders under his soft check shirt and – God help her – his firm bum in his faded jeans. The years hadn’t only added a few pounds of muscle to his physique, but also a self-assurance and quiet charisma that held her spellbound. He was still very much Gabe, winding up Troy gently and sharing a joke with Drew. Judging by the giddy look on Chloe’s face, he’d certainly succeeded in winning her over.

They returned with the drinks and Gabe slotted into the end of the booth next to Chloe. While pretending to be interested in Drew and Troy’s conversation about fishing quotas, Sam couldn’t help listening in on the conversation between Chloe and Gabe. After some initial chat about how the festival plans were progressing, Gabe started telling Chloe about some of the chefs he’d had to put up with when he was working as a junior in the kitchen of a very expensive hotel. One head chef had thrown a heavy pan at him that had missed and knocked the brand-new extractor system off the wall, costing the restaurant thousands.

‘The hotelier wasn’t very happy. Not long afterwards, the guy got the sack for telling one of the guests he had the brain of a gnat and the manners of a warthog. The guest was a restaurant critic for one of the big papers.’

‘Ouch!’ said Chloe. ‘Do chefs still behave like that? I know they can be divas and to be honest some of our events customers can be pretty rude, though no one’s resorted to actual violence yet. Not on my watch, anyway.’

‘A few still do get away with murder; it’s such a high-pressure environment in a top kitchen – or any food service place – but word gets around. Most top chefs realise they’ve got to manage their staff properly. Anyway, there is karma in the world.’

‘How?’

‘I got his job.’ Gabe became more serious. ‘And I changed the whole culture of the workplace.’

‘Wow. I’m very glad to hear it. What did you do?’

‘I started throwing knives at people instead.’

‘What?’ Chloe exclaimed.