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black suit and sombre manner, that he’d thought she was about to cry. But she’d put on a smile and handed over the designer clothes without a blink, and then she’d gone and found a bottle of this expensive wine.
    Though she acted differently, Zoe reminded Nick of his sister Kitty in some ways. After their father had left them, Kitty had cultivated the same skill of putting on a brave face. Kitty hadn’t done such a good job of it.
    Then again, Nick had already known what was going on underneath Kitty’s brave face. Somehow he felt that Zoe wouldn’t let him underneath her defences very easily.
    ‘You want to be like Xenia, don’t you?’ he asked.
    ‘I want to be like myself,’ she replied, and immediately shoved the rest of the pizza in her mouth. Amused, he watched her chew. She definitely wasn’t letting him underneath her defences.
    ‘And what is yourself?’ he asked. ‘Are you fantastically rich, too?’
    She swallowed. ‘I drive a cab.’ She took a drink of wine. ‘And teach exercise classes.’
    ‘Really?’ He remembered the glimpse of her legs he’d had, and looked more closely at her arms. She was definitely fit, and she had that sureness of movement you found in people who used their muscles a lot.
    ‘Really. And what about you? Do you get paid for counting birds on islands or is it just an eccentric hobby?’
    ‘I get paid for it. I’m a park ranger.’
    She put down her wineglass. ‘A park ranger.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Specialising in conservation, I bet.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Principled,’ she muttered. ‘I knew it. Brother.’
    ‘Excuse me?’
    ‘Nothing.’ She picked up her wineglass again and drank deep. ‘A park ranger where?’
    ‘Maine. I’m mostly based in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, but I do some work on the outlying islands attached to the park, too.’
    ‘A lone bird-counting ranger.’ She polished off her wine. ‘You must have to get back to the park pretty soon, huh?’
    ‘I’ve got a week off. It isn’t high season.’
    ‘You’re planning on staying here a week?’ Her voice pitched up on the last word, probably, he thought, a result of the wine.
    ‘It depends how long it takes to find my father. I can have more time off if I want it. I’m due some annual leave.’
    ‘Aren’t you worried that the Great Outdoors might perish without you to look after it?’
    ‘Yes. But finding my father is more important.’
    ‘Great. I’m trapped inside an apartment with a park ranger for a week.’ Zoe reached for the bottle and splashed more wine into her glass.
    ‘I’m hoping my father will turn up before then.’
    ‘You’re hoping he’ll turn up tonight,’ Zoe corrected. ‘Well, I hope he does, too. What will you do if he doesn’t?’
    Nick picked up the bottle of wine. Zoe had taken the last of that, too.
    ‘I’m not going to think about that possibility,’ he said, and reached over. He took the glass of wine from her fingers, drank, and then held it back out to her.
    She didn’t take it. He looked at her face to see she was staring at him, her eyes wide, her generous mouth partly open. Her cheeks were flushed.
    For a moment he thought he’d misjudged the situation, that he’d felt too comfortable with her, and that he’d forgotten himself and done something rude.
    But she wasn’t telling him off, and she wasn’t looking annoyed. She was just…looking.
    ‘Maybe I should finish this,’ he said. ‘You look like the wine’s gone to your head.’
    ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘The wine.’
    The words were slow and spoken softly. He saw her bite her bottom lip.
    Then she closed her eyes and shook her head, as if she was deciding something with all of her will. She scooted to the edge of the couch and stood up.
    ‘I think you’re right. I think I should go to bed.’
    She moved off, and her foot snagged on the rug in front of the couch. Nick saw it before she even started to fall, and in an instant he was up off the couch and catching her