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Geoffrey loved his food and his work commitments left him little time for exercise, but he wasn't alarmingly overweight. 'Geoffrey, you're just...pleasantly rounded.'
    'Rounded?' He laughed then. 'Annabel, you're terrible for my ego. You know very well I was joking. All I meant was I can't cook. There's nothing wrong with my physique.'
    'Of course there isn't,' she said quickly, too quickly perhaps because he promptly looked offended.
    'I'm just short for my weight,' he protested.
    'I'm leaving,' Annabel declared with a smile. She slid off his desk. 'I'm going to put my foot in it again if I say anything more.'
    'Don't leave me.' His expression promptly turned back to mournful again and he made a playful grab for her arm and caught her wrist. 'Annabel, stay.' There was a brief knock at the door. Annabel heard it and stiffened, but Geoffrey seemed not to. 'You know I only eat to compensate for being lonely,' he teased. 'If you'd only agree to marry me—' He broke off, his expression dissolving into a grin as the door swung open to reveal Luke standing there.
    Annabel froze but Geoffrey seemed unfazed. 'Ah, the great professor,' he said with a laugh. 'Come in. Come in. I was hoping to catch up with you this morning.' Geoffrey dropped Annabel's wrist and went to greet Luke. 'Geoffrey Clancy. If I hadn't seen you this morning I'd have come looking for you this afternoon to introduce myself. It's an honour to meet you. I've read so much of your Harvard work I almost feel as if I know you already.'
    'Luke Geddes.' Annabel felt Luke's eyes briefly on her as he responded to the introduction. 'I'm interrupting.'
    'You're not. You're not.' Annabel looked up in time to see Geoffrey make a slightly sheepish gesture towards her and she stood silently by as the two men shook hands. 'Come in. Annabel and I were just fooling around.'
    'I did knock.' Luke's voice was calmly polite despite the cool green regard that swung to Annabel. 'You were preoccupied.'
    'Annabel has that effect on me.' Geoffrey gave one of his wry shrugs. 'Welcome to St Peter's, Luke. We're all still astounded at our luck in coaxing you here, but I imagine you've been told that often enough already. I've been away in Bristol, otherwise I'd have been back in time for the reception last night. How are you settling in?'
    'Well.' Luke's gaze tracked between the two of them in a way that left Annabel in no doubt about what he was thinking. 'Geoffrey, did I just overhear you asking Annabel—?'
    'Out of work already?' Annabel interrupted abruptly, preventing him from finishing his question. Ignoring the startled look her bald interjection provoked from Geoffrey, she rushed on, 'If you have, I'm sure Geoffrey has plenty of referrals you could see. He won't mind up giving a few. Swapping between us all is probably the most efficient way of building up your own list.'
    Geoffrey looked bemused. 'Well, I don't—' he began uncertainly, but Annabel cut him off, more gently this time than she'd cut off her ex-husband.
    'Professor Geddes wanted to start right in at the deep end,' she explained. 'He's already seen some of the general referrals on my list. You don't mind him seeing some of yours, do you, Geoffrey?'
    'Not at all,' Geoffrey blustered, beginning to look a little less confused now, although the look he sent Annabel was frankly questioning. 'I mean, if you just ask Wendy,' he said to Luke, his gaze swinging back to him, 'she'll pass on all you need. Help yourself. I'd appreciate the help.'
    'Thanks. And thank you, Annabel.' Luke looked thoughtful and she saw her intervention had raised his curiosity. 'Obviously I'm going to be able to rely on you to smooth over my transition here.' But his steady gaze said something far less polite to her. 'However, I have a pre-lunch meeting now through until lunch.'
    'Lucky you,' Annabel replied evenly, holding herself stiffly to stop herself flinching from him when, with a brief nod to Geoffrey, Luke spun on his heel and walked