Playing by the Rules Read Online Free

embarrassment. As much to herself as to Jo, she moaned, ‘Oh, what must he think of me?’
    Jo hid her mouth with her hand, but not fast enough.
    ‘Are you laughing at me?’
    ‘No,’ Jo replied through her hand, unconvincingly.
    ‘You are so!’
    Jo abandoned her pretence and giggled openly.
    ‘I’m sorry, hon, but if only you could see your face!’
    ‘It was embarrassing!’
    ‘Oh, don’t be silly. I know my brother is a tease, but I don’t think he is
quite
vain enough to think you flung yourself at him deliberately. I think he liked it, though . . .’
    Kate’s ears, which had been burning with a mixture of mortification and annoyance, pricked up.
    ‘I could tell by the way he kept looking at your door this morning while he was supposed to be talking to me. He fancies you.’ Jo smiled at her slyly, and somewhere inside her, Kate felt her teenage self swoon. ‘And since he doesn’t have plans for this evening – he only got in in the wee hours of the morning and not even Josh makes plans that fast – he’ll be the perfect escort. Tell me I’m wrong!’
    Kate couldn’t, not least because a picture of grown-up Josh in a dinner suit had swum into her mind and stolen the breath she needed for talking. She shook her head to dislodge it and some sense filled the space where it had been.
    ‘But Jo, even if I agree to go to the reunion with him that doesn’t solve my other problem. I can’t exactly have a fling with your brother!’
    Jo shrugged.
    ‘I don’t see why you shouldn’t. Half of Melbourne has. He’s quite good at them. It comes from all the travelling he does for work. A girl in every port and all that.’
    Jo stepped closer to Kate, her face serious.
    ‘Look, I promise, I wasn’t thinking of him at first, but now that I have, I think he might be just what you need. He won’t hurt you, Kate. I do think you need a fling, but the last thing you need is a rebound relationship. With Josh you’ll be safe. He knows what’s going on with you.’
    Kate flinched. ‘Because you told him, I suppose?’
    ‘Yes, I told him. I had to explain what you were doing here! I didn’t give him any details, don’t worry. But he knows you’ve just broken up. So he won’t ask you for anything you’re not ready to give. But he will show you a good time.’ Her face broke into a grin. ‘And
I
will take pictures that you can plaster all over Facebook so that your deadbeat ex and all the guys at work know exactly how heartbroken you
aren’t
. What do you say?’
    Kate felt the way she had on the edge of the platform, the time that Jo had convinced her to go bungee jumping. As though something that had started out as a sensible, Kate-style plan was about to veer out of control. But this was no time for nerves. She had three weeks away from her normal life. If she was ever going to have a fling, shake off her mousy persona and grow some mojo, this was the time. She was never going to have a better opportunity. Or, she had to admit, a more attractive one. She took a deep breath.
    ‘I’m in!’ she said, with considerably more certainty than she felt. She paused, then grinned at her friend.
    ‘But if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll get
you
to open the door!’

CHAPTER THREE
    As luck would have it, when the doorbell rang Jo was still in the bathroom fiddling with her hair. She stuck her head around the door and smiled wickedly at Kate. ‘Do you think you can manage to open the door without fainting this time, Kate?’
    ‘I did not . . .’ Kate began indignantly, then stopped as she noticed Jo making reeling-in motions with her hands.
    ‘Still biting then, Kate? Good to see some things never change.’
    ‘Jo Marchant, has anyone ever told you that you are a pain?’
    ‘Frequently,’ Jo replied, serenely. ‘I take it that means you
can
open the door, then?’
    ‘Of course I can!’
    ‘Good. I’ll get on, then, shall I?’ said Jo, disappearing regally back into the bathroom.
    ‘Of