Chuck looked totally taken aback. ‘You mean you were prepared to get hitched, just to get a partnership with me?’

‘It seemed a good idea at the time.’

‘And?’

‘Natalie refused to find me a wife on the basis of a business-only arrangement.’

Chuck was beginning to look a bit confused, which rather confirmed what Natalie had said. He hadn’t had Mike investigated.

‘I see,’ his host said. ‘Sort of. So what happened next? Nope!’ Chuck held up both his hands in a stopping gesture, his eyes twinkling. ‘You don’t have to tell me. I can guess. You took one look at each other and fell madly in love.’

Mike opened his mouth to deny it, then closed it again. It was perfectly clear Chuck didn’t want to hear the truth. He wanted to hear romance. The man was an incurable romantic!

‘How did you guess?’ Mike said.

‘Same thing happened to me. With Rosalie. One look and pow! She was driving this car—a snazzy little red convertible—and we pulled up next to each other at a set of lights. Her eyes slid over my way and that was it. Love at first sight. I had that girl in bed before the afternoon was out. Three days later, we surfaced and headed for Vegas.’

‘Weren’t you worried it might not last?’

‘Nope. I knew it was the real deal, you see, the same way you knew. I’d already been married and divorced twice. To girls who had dollar signs in their eyes when they married me, not love. I knew straight away that what Rosalie and I had together was different. It wasn’t just the sex. It was how I felt when I was with her. Like we were soul mates. I’ve never talked so much to a woman in all my life. Never felt so happy, either. Nope, neither of us had any doubts, despite our age difference. And here we are sixteen years later, as happy as pigs in mud, with two great kids and a lifestyle second to none.’

‘Looks like you have it all,’ Mike said.

‘No need for you to envy me, my boy. You play your cards right and you’ll have it all, too.’

‘If playing my cards right means sucking up to you and your rather late-in-life moral standards, Chuck, then you’ve got the wrong man.’