Page 82 of Crazy Thing

I roll my eyes. “You need to mind your business.” I take another bite of bacon. Ziggy’s right. I probably went a little overboard with the four sides of bacon.

My older brother shrugs. “Look, man. Just don’t get involved with Ziggy unless you know what you’re actually doing. She…” He quickly glances around the restaurant. “She can be intense. She’s not the kind of girl you can play with and just discard when you’re done with her.”

“That’s not the way I operate.” Damn, what does he take me for?

Felix presses his lips together. “I’ll have to take your word for it, because I have never seen you behave the way you’re behaving with Ziggy today.” Then the annoying asshole stops and frowns, staring at me for a long moment before he speaks again. “But I’ve also never seen you grin like that. I’ve never seen you light up like a damn street lamp just because a woman is laughing at your lame ass jokes.”

My heart pounds harder. “Shut up.” I don’t want to hear his assessments of my personal life.

There’s no way I’m finishing my last few bites of bacon. I just want to get out of here. I’m tired of being under Felix’s spotlight.

So I get up from the table, leaving him scarfing down his omelette like it’s his last meal. I head to the cashier to pay our bill. I cover Felix and Daphne’s meal, too.Maybe he’ll be so thankful that he’ll leave me alone now.

My hope lasts all of two seconds, because Felix is following after me, crowding me at the register as I wait for the card processor to do its thing. “Stop running away from me, asshole,” he says, violently bumping me with his shoulder. “You’re different with her.”

“I know,” I growl.

Felix exhales, like I’m the one who’s being annoying. “Just know that your face will definitely end up on a voodoo doll if you fuck things up with her.”

My gut twitches with a flash of fear. But then it’s gone and I don’t care. I’m in too deep. Come what may, there’s no walking away from Ziggy now.

My eyes find hers from across the room as the girls exit the bathroom and spot us.I instantly fall back under my Ziggy trance. She’s so fucking beautiful.

She has no makeup, and her hair looks exactly the same way it did when she woke up. But she looks even morebeautiful now than she did all dolled up for the charity event last night.

When I tune back into the room, Felix is still giving me some sort of strange lecture on the supernatural ramifications of breaking Ziggy’s heart. “…And if the threat of hexes doesn’t scare you into acting like a goddamned gentleman, I don’t know what will,” he mumbles under his breath as the girls approach.

I ignore the asshole as Ziggy and her sister meet us at the cash register. I sign my receipt with a quick scribble and then face Ziggy. “You ready to go?”

“Yes,” she says with a shy grin.

Grateful to get out of here, I turn to my brother and Daphne to say a quick goodbye.

Before I can get any words out, Daphne is hugging her sister and then throwing herself at me for a hug as well.

“I’m so happy for you!” she squeals into my ear. And she keeps squealing—at an almost-concerning level—about how happy she is to see me and her sister together.

I’m…shocked.I don’t know what to do with this.

But I like Daphne. She makes my brother more tolerable, so I don’t want to make things weird. Correction: I don’t want to make things weirder than they already are.

“Um, thanks.” I stiffly pat Daphne on the back with one hand.

My asshole brother laughs as he peels his woman off of me. “Babe, stop. Whatever trance he’s in, you’re going to snap him out of it. Then he’ll go back to being Darius The Heartless Asshole. And then everybody loses.”

Ziggy and Daphne laugh.

I do not.

Shaking my head, I glance over at Ziggy. I grab herhand.“Goodbye, Daphne,” I say, ignoring my brother, as Ziggy and I leave the restaurant hand-in-hand.

Felix shouts something after me but I ignore him. Instead, I lead Ziggy down the block to where our bikes are locked up.

Before we climb onto the bikes, I face her. “What are you doing for the rest of the day?”

She pauses and glances at her wristwatch. “Well, it’s Saturday. I’ve got to go open my shop. I’m already so late.”

I wrap my arms around her, right here, out in the open, on the sidewalk. “Spend the day with me.”

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