The Girl in the Yellow Vest (51 page)

Authors: Loretta Hill

But Amy was in her element. ‘Once upon a time, there was a young girl called Sarah Dubert who needed to fall in love in six weeks. So she gets onto soulmates.com, finds her prince and together they break the evil Valentine’s Day curse and live happily ever after. See?’ Amy looked around at her friends for kudos. ‘It’s a fairy tale waiting to happen.’

‘It’s brilliant,’ Mia breathed.

Sarah’s head jerked up. ‘Are you high?’

‘Maybe a little tipsy,’ Mia conceded. ‘I’ve had two glasses of wine. But I still think this plan could work. Obviously there are a few kinks to iron out.’

‘No, no kinks.’ Sarah made a cutting motion with her hands. ‘No plan either. I’m not getting on soulmates.com. Period.’

Her two friends, who had clearly been getting excited by this idea, turned to her in dismay.

‘Why the hell not?’ Amy demanded. ‘It’s foolproof.’

‘Yeah, like a bucket with six holes.’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, don’t be a spoil sport.’ Mia swatted her hand. ‘It’s much better than picking up men in bars. Besides, we’ve already established you’re no good at that.’

‘Speaking of picking up in bars,’ Amy drawled. ‘Look who’s at it again.’

Mia and Sarah slowly lifted their eyes and followed the direction of her hungry expression.

He was dark-haired and olive-skinned. The white shirt he was wearing, with its unbuttoned collar and rolled up sleeves, only seemed to accentuate a strong muscular upper body. His eyes, the colour of a short black without the crème, were currently trained on two ladies at the bar whom he appeared to be chatting up. At least that’s what Sarah had to assume, given they were hanging on every word that fell from that sumptuous mouth of his.

Sarah sucked in a breath. ‘
Man
, is he gorgeous.’

Amy sighed. ‘Tell me about it. The bad ones get all the looks.’

‘I found out his name the other day,’ Mia informed them both with a certain amount of pride to be the only one at the table with the scoop. ‘It’s Owen Black.’

‘Ooooh, Owen Black,’ Amy repeated lazily. ‘I like it.’

‘Yeah, so does every other woman who walks into this bar,’ Mia replied. ‘He seems to do very well for himself.’

Amy nodded. ‘Have you ever seen him not pick someone up when he’s working a shift?’

Sarah shrugged. ‘I’m just glad he hasn’t made any changes to our bar since he took over.’

‘I’ll say,’ Mia agreed.

Sarah and her friends had been using The Blue Saloon as their meeting place for every crisis, catch up, commiseration or congratulations between them for the past three years.

They loved the place.

The décor was comfortable yet eye-catching. A long traditional polished timber bar ran the length of one wall. An array of polished circular tables populated the floor in front of it. The windows were large and framed by huge royal blue curtains that were never closed. There was no dance floor but a number of blue couches dotted the corners for those quieter, more relaxing nights. The food was excellent, the music tasteful and the booze flowed freely as long as you paid.

When they’d found out the old owner Mr Martinelli was selling they were devastated. The last thing they wanted was for new management to make a stack of changes to their favourite haunt. But when Owen Black had sauntered in a few weeks later, the only thing he seemed to be taking out was the ladies.

One by one.

Amy nudged Sarah. ‘Why don’t you ask him out?’

‘Are you mad?’ Sarah squeaked. ‘I’ve just made a resolution to fall in love, not get my heart broken. Owen Black is a player. Any girl with half a brain can see that.’

‘Woohoo.’ Amy gave her shoulders a squeeze and said to Mia, ‘She’s made the resolution. Now all we need to do is get her on soulmates.com.’

With a helpless laugh, Sarah shrugged off her arm. ‘Don’t you ever give up?’

‘Not when I believe in something.’

Sarah shook her head. ‘Now I really need that drink.’ She pushed out her chair and stood up. ‘You guys want anything from the bar?’

‘No, thanks.’ Her girlfriends shook their heads and she walked away from them in relief. She hoped the conversation would turn as soon as she left them.

As much as she appreciated Amy and Mia’s support, sometimes their first instincts were a little out of whack. Not that she had anything against internet dating. She was sure that it had helped a lot of people find love. But the thought of putting all her personal details into a computer database so it could spit out a name and contact number just seemed a little too clinical for her.

Sarah had always been a romantic at heart. Her idea of meeting true love involved glances exchanged across a crowded room or a misunderstanding that leads to lunch. Even hitting it off in a supermarket checkout line seemed more romantic than surfing the net. Dating websites just took all the fun out of it.

Better to stick with traditional methods.

They were slower but safer.

She drummed her fingers on the bar as she waited, pleased with her own sense of purpose. This year she was going to fall in love. She just needed to be a little more careful about it.

A little more choosey.

As though mocking the thought, a shadow crossed her body, causing her fingers to stop drumming. She looked up and to her dismay was unable to stop heat from infusing her face and goosebumps from rising on her flesh.

With eyes like that, Owen Black was even more dangerous up close. She swallowed hard and tried to smile, hoping her News Year’s resolution was more solid than butter. He returned her gaze with his own lazy, seductive appraisal.

‘Now what can I get for
you
?’ he purred.

Loretta was born in Perth, the eldest of four girls. She enjoyed writing from a very early age and was just eleven years old when she had her first short story published in
The West Australian
newspaper.

Having graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and another in Commerce, she was hired by a major Western Australian engineering company and worked for a number of years on many outback projects. She drew upon her experiences of larrikins, red dust and steel-capped boots for her bestselling novels
The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots
,
The Girl in the Hard Hat
and
The Girl in the Yellow Vest
. She is also the author of two rom-com novellas,
One Little White Lie
and
Operation Valentine
.

She lives in Perth with her husband and four children.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian
Copyright Act 1968
), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

The Girl in the Yellow Vest

9781742757384

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

A Bantam book

Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060

www.randomhouse.com.au

Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
http://www.randomhouse.com.au/about/contacts.aspx

First published by Bantam in 2014

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry