“Fine, I'll teach you,''Besides, there's only so many times a girl wants to fall on her butt in front of the boy she's out to impress.”

“Yeah, well, not many boys take their girls out on a duck shoot with them as target for a first date. You have to give me points for style.”

“Xav sprinkled olive oil on his lettuce. 'Lola was very particular that it all had to fit properly.' 'Lola?' squeaked Diamond. I wanted to warn her not to rise to the bait Xav was dangling in front of her but it was too late. Xav added some Parmesan and pepper. 'Suspicious, Diamond? You should be. This is a bachelor party I'm organizing, not a school outing, and it is going to tick all of Trace's boxes. Lola is either a very efficient water sports instructor or an exotic dancing girl; I'll leave it your imagination.' I rolled my eyes at Diamond. 'Myabe she's both. I mean the guys will really go for that, I guess. Don't worry,Di, Luigi and his crew will not disappoint us girls.' Luigi was in fact Contessa Nicoletta's little bespectacled chef with whom I had been consulting about the menu for Friday, but the Benedicts weren't to know that. 'He has promised to provide something suitably spicy for our tastes.”

“I revised my opinion that the girl was timid. She appeared to have her giant well under control and a disturbing ability to know what I was feeling.”

“He said he needed to unwind. He was furious we all let you go so far. That boy would stop you so much as breaking a nail if he could.”

“I...I'm sorry to come like this,' I murmured.'Stop being so damn British about it-you don't need to apologize. Ssh, it's fine.”

“Get out of here. Yoda so does not have an English accent!''Other than that you're saying I'm a dead ringer?''If the shoe fits.''Sheesh, I hate tall girls.”