“Won’t work,” he said, swirling a fried shrimp in the sauce that had trickled to the bottom of the bowl.
“Why not? I’ve taken part in those before.”
“The permits you’ll have to get from the city will be a pain in the ass. Then you have to pay the police department for securing the route. And don’t forget the people you will piss off for closing down streets. It’s just not worth it.”
He had a point.
“Okay, that’s fair,” Evie said. “Now, I thinkthisidea would be a ton of fun. We host a scavenger hunt! We charge a registration fee and hide items for the participants to collect all around the French Quarter.”
“I guess that’s a little better,” he said with a shrug. “But it seems like a lot of work on the front end.”
Evie threw her hands up in exasperation. “It will all be work! You have to put in some effort if you want to achieve your goal.”
“Why are you getting testy with me?”
“I am not getting testy.” She pointed to his phone. “Look up the wordtestyand tell me if that describes me right now.”
His eyes glittering with amusement, he slid his phone from the table and swiped across the screen. Evie’s eyes narrowed as she watched him type with his thumbs. He turned it to face her.
“Irritated, impatient, and somewhat bad-tempered. If I snapped a picture of your face right now and submitted it to Merriam-Webster, they would use it as an example oftesty.”
Evie rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said, trying not to laugh.
“You always made it way too easy to get under your skin.”
The grin playing at the edges of his lips made her want to choke him. Or kiss him.
“And you were always quick to do it,” she said, pitching her napkin at his head. There would be no kissing.
Bryson caught the napkin in one hand, then made a production of folding it neatly and handing it back to her. She snatched it from his fingers.
“I’m not apologizing for throwing this at you,” Evie said, setting the napkin on the table.
“I’m sure you’ve convinced yourself that I deserved it,” Bryson said.
She gave him the same treatment she’d given Ashanti and Ridley earlier, pointing both of her middle fingers at him.
Bryson’s head snapped back with his shocked, sharp laugh. Evie tried to hold it in, but her own laugh bubbled up so quickly that it escaped before she could stop it.
“You can be so annoying,” she said.
He repeated his assertion from earlier when they’d first arrived, his brown eyes alight with amusement.
“I am nothing if not consistent, Ev.”
He broke your heart once. Never forget that.
She would have to hammer that reminder into her brain. She feared if she didn’t, she would fall for Bryson even quicker than she had the first time.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Bryson tracked the slow, methodic up-and-down motion of the stark white sail bobbing along Lake Pontchartrain. The movement had lulled him into this peaceful, relaxed state that he couldn’t seem to shake himself out of.
To be fair, he hadn’t tried to shake himself out of it. Staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows in his newly purchased condo, it was the first time he truly felt at peace with his decision to move back to Louisiana. He could stand here doing this exact thing for hours.
He glanced at his watch.
Shit. It had been nearly a half hour since he’d stopped to take in the view. The can of sparkling water he’d been drinking had long since lost its fizz, and Bella had since awoken from her nap, but every time he thought of stepping away, something on the water caught his attention.
