Her Charming Heartbreaker Read Free

Eddie
realized she’d forgotten to apologize to Theo Kendrick.
     
     
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    “Eddie! This is the
second morning in a row you’re having breakfast here. What’s up
with that?”
    “Keep it down. I’m
trying to avoid drawing more attention to myself.”
    Joyce laughed. “You
don’t have to try. I’m so used to seeing you at the pub, I didn’t
recognize you outside of it. It’s to do with how our brains
perceive information. If you don’t expect to see something, you
don’t see it, even if it’s standing right in front of you. Hang on
a tic, I’m going to get myself a coffee.”
    Another trivia buff,
Eddie thought as she recalled the brief conversation she’d had with
Theo Kendrick a couple of days before.
    So far, he’d had all
his meals at the pub, which made avoiding him near impossible. Not
that he’d made any effort to engage her in conversation. In fact,
he always seemed to be on the phone. Desperate to at least spare
herself the sight of him first thing in the morning, she’d been
hiding out at Joyce’s Café down the street.
    “I thought you only
read fiction,” she said when Joyce returned with her coffee.
    “It’s been fairly quiet
around town so I’ve been reading up on useless information. It
fills the void in my head.” Joyce drew out a chair and sat next to
her. “So who’s looking after the pub?”
    “The boys, of course. I
played the pity card.” Eddie sighed. “I don’t like my chances of
trying it for a third day in a row.” Seeing more customers walking
into the café, Eddie lowered her head and focused on her
coffee.
    “You’re going to do
your head in thinking everyone is talking about you.”
    “But they are.” Eddie
threw her head back. “I made such a fool of myself.”
    “And you’re still here.
The condition isn’t terminal.”
    “So why does it feel
like a life sentence?” For two months she’d been rehearsing how
she’d ask Adam to be her date so she wouldn’t have to go to Sophie
Wright’s wedding alone, only to see her efforts blow up in her
face. “I don’t know what happened. I’ve tried figuring it out but
it makes my head hurt.”
    “You spent too much
time working up your courage. Whenever Adam came into your line of
vision, your voice trailed off and we all disappeared.”
    “Why didn’t you tell
me? You should have stopped me.”
    Joyce stirred her
coffee and sighed. “Infatuation’s a bitch. You had it bad.”
    Eddie tried to deny it
but deep down, she suspected she had been head over heels in
infatuation, or at least convinced she should try to be because it
was better than not being interested in anyone. “I’m blaming my
last birthday. Who knows what I’ll do when I turn thirty. It would
be best for everyone if I left town.”
    “Adam is a good guy. He
won’t rub it in.”
    It was Eddie’s turn to
sigh.
    “I’ve seen your new
guest drive by in his convertible,” Joyce said after a brief
silence. “If I had a guy who looks like him staying under my roof,
I wouldn’t dwell on someone like Adam.”
    “Newsflash. While I
like your coffee better than ours, Theo Kendrick is the other
reason I’m here.”
    Joyce chuckled. “I wish
I’d been there to see your attempt on his life. I hear it was a
close call.”
    “If I hadn’t pulled
back at the last nanosecond, he would have ended up pinned to the
wall.” She covered her face with her hands. “Remember the movie you
forced me to watch for the umpteenth time?”
    “Pride and
Prejudice
?”
    Eddie nodded. “One of
the lines keeps crisscrossing my mind.
I could die of
mortification
. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say to the
guy.”
    “You’ll have to give me
a heads up when he’s at the pub. I wouldn’t mind a closer
look.”
    “Sure.” Eddie was about
to take a sip of her drink when she saw him. Her hand dropped. The
cup rattled on the saucer. “Speak of the devil.” She took in the
smooth line of Theo Kendrick’s body. The broad shoulders.