Page 28 of Mad Rivals
His dad did something that cost my dad business, andthataffects me. It’s my future company for better or worse, and who knows what sorts of irreversible damage Thomas Bradley did to VBC.
Thatis why we can’t get involved.
No matter how hot his stupid face is.
I turn and spot Clem grabbing a table, and I take the sandwiches over to join her, not giving Madden a second look on my way by.
“Hottie alert in line,” she murmurs when I sit and pass her the sandwich. “Thanks.”
I glance over and know who she’s talking about, andgreat, justgreat, he sees us both ogling him from our table. “Warn a girl when the dude’s looking straight at us,” I mutter.
She giggles. “But how hot, am I right? He must be…what, like six-four?”
“Six-three,” I say, and then my hand flies to my stupid mouth.
“Kennedy Jayne Van Buren, how in the hell do you know that?” she demands, pausing in her pursuit to extract her sandwich from the brown paper bag it’s wrapped in.
“That’s Madden Bradley.”
“The football player?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“And before you get any ideas, he’s the heir to Bradley Group, and he’s an asshole.”
“He’s still looking over here.” She waves, and goddammit, why did I pick such a friendly, inviting person for my best friend? A bitch who glared across the room at him would’ve suited me better in this moment.
I shake my head at her. “Knock that off.”
“There issomethingcrackling in the air here. Talk to me, VB,” she says, abbreviating my last name to two letters as she tends to do. It’s either Kenny or VB, and she’s always Clem or Carter. “Do you know him?”
“He bumped into me at Starbucks one morning, literally. The morning of the bid walk for SCS. We ordered the exact same thing. I was flustered and ran out of there becauselook at him, and then we ran into each other again at the bid walk. VBC was awarded the residential, and he was awarded the commercial.”
“So now you get to work with that fine piece of dreamboat?” she asks, folding her hands and leaning her cheek on the back of them as she closes her eyes to feign dreaminess.
“Mm,” I grunt. “Something like that. But my dad and his dad hate each other, and my dad already warned me off the entire family. So yes, we’re working side by side, and yes, he’s gorgeous, but it doesn’t matter because he’s the enemy.”
“Don’t you see?” she asks. “That makes it forbidden, which makes it even hotter.”
I roll my eyes. “It is no such thing.” I take a bite of my sandwich, and lettuce falls out everywhere. It’s hanging out of my mouth and sitting on my chest, and wouldn’t you know it? The mule chooses that moment to appear at our table.
“Need some help there, tiger?” he asks me.
Oh, Jesus. Now he’s calling me by his new pet name for me.
Clem’s wide eyes shift from him to me, and I see it all there as I glance up at her.
She wants this for me.
Well, too damn bad.
“I got it,” I say thickly around the food in my mouth. I grab a napkin to clean up my mouth, and I brush the lettuce off my top. “Aren’t you, like, a famous NFL star? Don’t you have somewhere else to sit? Someone else to sit with?”
He shrugs. “I get recognized, but I don’t care to sit with people I don’t know.” He pulls a chair from a nearby table and sets it on the side of ours so he’ll be sitting right in between Clem and me. “Hi, Madden Bradley. Nice to meet you,” he says, sticking his hand out toward my friend while he completely contradicts what he just said.
“You don’t know us,” I say.
“Correction, I don’t knowyour friend.” He says it with more than a hint of flirtation, and I know what he’s doing here. He’s trying to get a rise out of me. He’s flirting withmy friendright in front of me to see how I’ll react.
“Oh, well, allow me to introduce you, then. Clementine Carter, this is Madden. Madden, Clem. Fair warning, Madden’s an asshole, and Clem is as kind as they come, so backthe hell off.”
