“Really, Evie?” Bryson asked. “You sure you want to talk about how the other half lives?”
She spun around and stared at him with raised brows. “What?”
“Do you remember back when we were at The Sanctuary and your car wouldn’t start? I brought you to that behemoth of a house you lived in.”
Pulling his fifteen-year-old Nissan Altima into that circular driveway had been the beginning of the end of whateverhe’d hoped to have with Evie. Bryson had known from that very moment that he would never fit into her world.
“That’s my parents’ home, not mine,” Evie said. “I live in a humble little house once owned by my grandmother.” She walked over to the lone chair across from his desk and sat. “It’s a cute house, but not a mansion by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Well, I’m in a short-term rental with the most uncomfortable bed known to man, if you want to know how the specialtiesreallylive.”
She tilted her head to the side, her brow lifting again in inquiry.
“How short-term is that rental?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, are you planning to rent something more permanent, or are you still trying to decide if you’re going to stay?”
Well, damn. He was quite the open book, wasn’t he? But he was no longer vacillating between staying in New Orleans or returning to Raleigh.
“I’m home,” Bryson said. “At least for the foreseeable future. In fact, my Realtor may have found me a condo. She sent a virtual tour, but I plan to visit before I make an offer.”
“You’re buying?” Her voice rose in surprise.
“Specialties,” he said; then he winked. “It’s how we roll.”
Evie burst out laughing and every muscle in his body grew tight. It was that lyrical laugh he remembered. The laugh he’d become instantly addicted to the first time he’d heard it. He’d spent an entire summer chasing after that laugh, behaving like a lab rat repeatedly pulling a lever for another hit of dopamine. He’d been willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to hear that sound again and again and again.
Don’t turn into a lab rat.
Bryson leaned forward in his chair and set both elbows on the desk.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m joking. There’s nothing inherently special about the ‘specialties.’”
“No, no, no,” Evie said. She held her hands up. “Don’t downplay your success on my account. You worked for it.”
“You helped. I honed a lot of those skills trying to show off for you that summer.”
“Show off for me, or for Doc?”
“Definitely for you,” Bryson said.
She looked away but couldn’t hide the twin, dusty rose spots that blossomed on her light brown cheeks. His chest tightened at the sight. Exquisite. She had always been the most beautiful, most alluring being he’d ever encountered. It was nice to know some things never changed.
“That was a long time ago,” Evie said. She shifted in her chair. Crossed her legs, then recrossed them.
Shit. He’d made her uncomfortable.
Maybe if he could find a way to not fucking flirt with her within ten minutes of having her in his office, she wouldn’t be sitting there looking like she wanted to bail.
“Of course, the competition between me and Derrick played just as big of a part,” Bryson said. “Like a couple of know-it-all assholes, we were always trying to show each other up.”
She laughed, and some of the tension in the room began to dissipate. “Neither of you were know-it-alls,” she said. “And, in the end, the animals at The Sanctuary benefited, so no harm done.”
She sat back in her chair, appearing more at ease. A smallsmile tilted up the corners of her gorgeous lips as she rested her folded hands in her lap.
“All joking aside, I’m proud of everything you’ve accomplished, Bryson,” she said. It was the sincerity in her voice that caused his breath to hitch.
