Page 76 of Ever With Me

No. Don’t even think about it, Maddie.

He’s leaving. He’s famous. His life isn’t here.

So don’t get attached.

But she had a feeling it might already be too late for that.

21

MADDIE

“Is therea reason we’re crossing the street before we get to your family’s store?” Brooks asked as they made their way down Main Street later in the afternoon.

Dammit, he noticed.Maddie winced, then peeled off her sweater and tied it around her waist. It had been cold when she’d headed out the night before to Brooks’s place wearing a sweatshirt and joggers.

In fact,thisclose to her apartment, she could just as easily hop over there and change.

But she hadn’t considered it because Naomi might see her.

She’d taken so much time off work this week. Devoted soooo much time to Brooks. After how hurt Naomi had been the night before—which was justified, really—she wasn’t prepared for another run-in whilewithBrooks.

Maddie pulled her hair into a messy ponytail and met Brooks’s awaiting stare.

“My sister—the one who runs the Depot with me—didn’t exactly take the news about our arrangement with the accident too well.”

His gaze clouded over some, his lips drawing to a line.

Right. He wasn’t thrilled about me telling anyone, either.

“I had to tell her,” she started, shifting her weight to her back foot. “She was suspicious anyway about the time I was taking from work, and then she suggested getting video footage from the shop across the street.”

Alarm filled Brooks’s face. “Does that exist?”

“Probably. I didn’t really think of that. But I’m sort of hoping that as long as we don’t say anything about what happened, they won’t go looking for it.”

Brooks crossed his arms, clearly unconvinced. “What sort of people are the shop owners across the street from you?”

Maddie looked around. Two o’clock on a Thursday in September wasn’t exactly crowded on Main, but sometimes it felt like the walls and alleys had ears. She stepped closer to Brooks and sighed.

“Truthfully, they’re terrible. It’s an ice cream shop, and the owner, Fred Strickland, has had it out for my grandfather for a couple of years now. He claims that when Pops opened his shop, the town council promised him he’d be the only ice cream shop on Main Street. He has no record of that, of course, and nothing in writing, and until a few years ago, he took no issue with anyone else in town who sold ice cream in their stores. That all changed when my grandfather built the Depot across the street from him.”

“Your Depot sells ice cream?”

Maddie nodded. “Gelato, actually. My grandfather is half-Italian, and he wanted to pay tribute to his mom with that. Fred started a campaign with a few rival families to get the Depot kicked off Main. It didn’t go through the council, but he almost got half the town on board for a while.”

Brooks scowled. “This is the bullshit that makes me loathe small towns.”

Ouch.

“Also, his daughter is the one who just got engaged to my ex. So . . . yeah, we’re not exactly friendly.”

“Sounds like an understatement.” He drew a sharp breath. “So how do we get that footage? I could try to get my lawyer involved, see if they’ll sell it and sign an NDA.”

Maddie shook her head. “I wouldn’t trust Fred Strickland—or Gina. They hear you want money for that videotape, and they’ll blackmail you. Might even shop it to the tabloids if there’s anything worth seeing.”

He gave her a dead stare. “Yeah, sounds pretty terrible, doesn’t it?”

Oof.His words hit her square in the chest, her mouth going dry.

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