Page 90 of Ever With Me

Brian shook his head, a knowing look coming to his eyes as his lips spread in a smile. “Oh, you did it now, sonny. Tasted our food. Spent time with our women.” He ribbed Peter. “Did you see the way his face changed? He’s a goner for sure.”

A goner?

Brooks laughed. “How so?”

“Tell him. You saw that look,” Brian said to Peter, taking out an apple turnover. He split it in half and handed it to Brooks.

“Brian, I’m never gonna be able to convince him to come fishing again if you keep yammering on like this.” Peter opened his tackle box. He pulled out a tub of bait, then smiled at Brooks. “You met a woman, after all.”

Met a woman. Maddie’s flustered face after he’d crashed into the store came to mind. Then he saw her tentative smiles when he’d offered parts of himself. Her ferocity when she stood up for him when in that café.

Then her hurt when I told her I was done with anything to do with her.

“He met a woman.”

What did that phrase even mean? The attraction was clearly there.

Tentativeness, too.

“I don’t know if I’d call it that. We’re friendly.” Brooks finished the sandwich, then took the rod and bait Peter offered him. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but he wasn’t about to look like a moron either.

“Friendly is the first step. Is she a looker?” Brian asked shrewdly, still munching on his turnover. Brooks got the feeling he came more for the gossip and food than the fishing, but who was he to judge?He had no reason to be here.

“She’s gorgeous. But it’s not going to go anywhere.”

“And why’s that?” Peter asked him. He finished baiting his hook, then scanned the water.

“To begin with, I don’t think either of us is looking for anything—that’s if she’s even interested. I’m not from here, she loves it here, and I’ve got a lot I’m currently dealing with. Life would need to slow down a lot more for me, and I don’t see it happening.” If anything, with the threat of lawsuits, trying to find a new label, starting over again with management, and making new contacts, he’d have to work even harder.

Brian gave a slow shake of his head. “Life doesn’t slow down, young man. Ever. If anything, it just keeps going faster and faster until all of a sudden, you’re creeping on eighty and you’re not sure when in the hell you got here. You wait for the right time for anything, and that time’ll pass you right by.”

Now he sounded like Cormac.

“Have you asked the woman if she’s interested?” Peter cast his line out into the water, then sat.

Ask her?What was he supposed to say?Do you like me, circle yes/no/maybe?They’d kissed in her apartment. She’d shut it down when things could have progressed. That was a clear enough sign.

She defended you to her sister, who she clearly loves very much.

“I can usually tell when a woman is interested,” Brooks said with a chuckle. If anything, women made it a little too painfully clear to him. Did they usually talk this much while fishing? Didn’t it scare away the fish?

“That’s a no.” Brian started in on the next apple turnover. “He hasn’t asked her. Probably hasn’t told her he’s interested either. That’s the problem with young people.”

“I’m not that young,” Brooks answered with a roll of his eyes. “And as a matter of fact, I did . . . tell her I was interested.” The manner of his delivery had been less than ideal, though. Telling her he’d fantasized about sleeping with her probably hadn’t been the best way. Fucking bourbon had screwed him on that one.

Brian gave a protracted sigh. “Listen, spring chicken. You have to a woo a woman. Bring her flowers. Make her feel special. You can’t just offer her the sausage and think you’ve done your part. Most women think it’s ugly anyway, so you got to give her the pretty things first.”

Brooks had heard plenty of so-called locker room talk before, but this was . . . this wassomething else. He tried not to laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind, Brian.”

As though it could really be that easy. He didn’t deserve a woman like Madison Yardley, and all the fame and fortune in the world couldn’t make up for what he lacked. Bringing her into his problems and crazy life was unfair and selfish.

But if I truly had a choice, I wouldn’t be walking away from her.

“Sorry about this idiot,” Peter said with a shake of his head. “He’s lost his filter.”

Brian cackled. “You’re assuming I had one in the first place.”

Brooks looked back toward the shore, as though expecting to see the house he’d rented, which had long since left his sight. “What sort of advice do you have about how to handle an angry sister?”

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