“I…er…” Damn it. That he didn’t know. He recalled telling her his full name but not getting her surname in return. He really was a prat. No wonder last night had gone downhill so rapidly.

“I didn’t catch it,” James said, sighing. “I guess we started talking about other stuff and it was missed. She runs an up-and-coming shoe design business. Sparkly heels and stuff, really girly.” He paused, thinking about her enthusiasm for her business. “And her best friend just got engaged. Although she seemed happy, I got the impression it made her sad, you know?”

“Probably in love with her friend’s new fiancé.” Grant chuckled. “Doing him on the side.”

The hairs on the back of his neck tingled. “No. It wasn’t that.” He wasn’t sure how he was so confident in that statement, but he was. Gut feeling. He just hadn’t got that vibe from Megan. There was no hankering after a spoken for man, he’d bet his Rolex on it.

Grant leant forward and concentrated on his screen for a moment, then said, “So what is it that makes this Megan girl sad?”

James shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“But you’d like to find out?”

Would he? Yes.

But he never would. Not now.

“What I’d like to do is get this done and fly back to LA.” James nodded at the screen. “I can hear the ocean already.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Grant moved his mouse around, cropping an image. “I guess it just goes to show London girls aren’t for us Californian men.”

“Hey, I’m a Londoner, remember.”

“Ah yeah. I guess you’ve just been in the Sunshine State for so long I think of you as one of us.”

“Thanks, I think.” James rubbed his fingers over his forehead. Eight years of working and living in LA had worn the edges off his homesickness for London, plus the work he’d been doing on documentaries was getting more and more challenging—though rewarding—as his reputation grew. He was being tasked by the studio to create real quality pieces of investigative interest. They were controversial and exposing. The kind of thing he’d hoped to do when studying at King’s College.

James loved his job—it took his mind off being single and being away from home. And there was still so much more to tell the world—wrongdoings, injustice, evil to expose—things ordinary people just wouldn’t see if it wasn’t for directors like him.

But he didn’t want to be a bachelor all his life. He had dreams of finding the one and enjoying a warm female body in his arms, in his bed, in his life. A string of accolades and reviews didn’t warm the sheets at night or satisfy the needs in him.