Page 75 of Ever With Me

She shared a laugh with him, amazed at how well he’d been able to lift her spirits. “Both. But if you are still in town, consider coming. Audrey would love it. You don’t have to do any of the contests, obviously. Most of them are for teams of two, so a lot of couples do them together.”

Like Josh and Gina.

Then she made the mistake of glancing back toward the café. Everyone was staring.

Everyone.

Including Gina, who looked less than thrilled that Brooks’s presence was supplanting her big news. All her friends, who had gathered at a table to celebrate, were looking at Brooks instead.

Maddie rolled her eyes.

Was this what his life was like?

God, this had to be annoying.

She pulled away from Brooks and stood on the seat. “Listen, people. Yes. It’s Brooks Kent. He’s here visiting one of our own—Cormac Doyle. And I’m trying to show Brooks around Brandywood today, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d all do me the favor of acting like chill human beings and treating him that way, too.” Her gaze snapped to Henry Clayton, who had taken his cell phone out. “What are you taking a picture for, Henry? You going to stare lovingly at it night after night? I have a feeling you won’t look at it again after today, so why bother take it at all?”

A couple of people snickered, looking away, embarrassed.

“Can I ask for an autograph?” another woman asked.

“For what purpose? Hanging it in your living room?” Bunny spoke up from behind the counter.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself. So maybe let’s show Brooks the side of Brandywood we all know and love and let him enjoy himself. Text your friends and family. Anyone who messes with Brooks will have Maddie Yardley’s wrath to pay. And I amnotas nice as the rest of my family. For that matter, you can count on the rest of the Yardleys giving you hell, too. Right, Bunny?”

“You got that right.” Bunny crossed her arms in a no-nonsense look.

Maddie’s face burned with a delayed sense of awareness as she sat again, but a moment later, normal conversation seemed to resume in the café. “That should take care of that.”

Brooks was giving her an odd look.

“What?” She avoided looking at him, lifting her breakfast sandwich. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until now.

The package of oyster crackers beside her bowl crinkled as he opened it and popped one into his mouth. “No one has ever done that for me before,” he said at last.

“Told people to stay away from you? Don’t bodyguards do that?”

“I meant stand up for me when they didn’t have to.” He emptied the crackers into his soup and lifted the spoon.

Really? No one? Ever?

Sadness filled her. He wouldn’t want her pity and hadn’t been asking for it, though.

“Well, you had the good fortune of falling in with a Yardley.” Maddie put on her brightest smile. “Everyone knows who my family is.”

“So you’re a celebrity around here.” Brooks grimaced as he hesitated, then sipped at the broth. He gave a look of surprise. “This is better than I thought it would be.”

“I told you.” She took a large bite of her breakfast and tried to keep from groaning. Jen Cavanaugh, who had learned from Bunny, had some of the best baked goods in town, butnobodybeat Bunny’s croissants. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stick with me, Brooks.”

He chuckled, then sipped his soup again. “You want to know a secret?”

She looked over her shoulder at him, batting her eyelashes prettily. “I’m a girl. Of course I do.”

“I wouldn’t want to be in Brandywood with anyone else.”

Maddie smiled, but her throat clenched. Man, he had a nice smile. It was easy to forget how gorgeous he was when he was scowling.

Crap.

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