CHAPTER TWO
“As I live and breathe, Alice Hart, fancy running into you here.” It had only been a day since Brady had last ruffled Alice’s feathers, yet he could hardly wait to go another round.
He couldn’t help but grin as he watched her curse a blue streak under her breath. He was a bastard. He knew it. She knew it. But for some reason, he just couldn’t help himself. She brought out a side of him he never even knew he had. For once, he didn’t feel numb.
“Do I need to get a restraining order? Stop bloody following me, will you!”
Brady calmly greeted a startled George with a nod, who, by the looks of it, was examining Alice’s cracked phone screen.
Ignoring her outburst, Brady continued. “Let me guess. You cracked your screen by assaulting another unsuspecting victim with it?”
Before she could lay into him, George cleared his throat to get her attention, then declared, “I’ll have to replace the whole screen. Give me a day and you can come by and pick it up tomorrow.”
After waiting for her to thank George, Brady quietly followed her out of the store. She didn’t look back. Actually, she tried her damned hardest to pretend that he wasn’t there.
For a moment, he thought twice about following her. But as his gaze returned to the sassy brunette, in her pretty little sundress, he couldn’t resist.
Do her hips sway even more when she’s mad? Shit. Focus.
Easily catching up, he took his place walking alongside her on the cobbled sidewalk. “Something up, sweetness?”
Silence. She was definitely ignoring him.
“How ’bout you let me turn that frown upside down?” he tried again.
Nothing. Not even a glare.
“Come on, darlin’, you really gonna give me the silent treatment?”
Alice came to a halt and turned her flaming blue eyes at him. That was more like it. There was the fire he was looking for.
“What do you want, Brady?” Her voice was surprisingly composed, given the sparks of hostility shooting off her.
“Just being friendly, sweetness.”
He watched her attempt to cool down by taking long, deep breaths, as if she was trying to suppress the urge to throat-punch him. Despite the obvious danger, he couldn’t bring himself to walk away. Being in Alice Hart’s company made him feel alive. As sad as it was, trading barbs with her was the best part of his day.
Yeah, that’s healthy.
“Aren’t you supposed to be being nice to me?” Alice’s hands went to her hips as she waited for a response.
“Come again?” Brady’s head tilted to the side as he let his eyes roam over her.
“You didn’t get the talk the other day from Jake? The ‘you need to try to get along’ talk?”
Brady could feel his lips twitch. So that’s what she was doing, attempting to avoid conflict with him. He’d endured at least three of those conversations from his best friend already. Something told him this wasn’t the first one she’d received from her sister either. The real question was why Alice was choosing to listen now? Though if that’s what she wanted, he was more than happy to play nice.
“When have I ever not been nice to you, sweetness? How ’bout I prove it by buying you a cup of coffee? Come on, let’s go to Beano’s.”
She looked somewhat mortified by his suggestion, but he wasn’t going to dwell on that. Before she could protest, he placed his hand on the small of her back and nudged her forward toward the café. They barely made it a few steps before Alice being Alice, came to a standstill.