Crazy Stupid Bromance Read online

  The act worked. The young woman approached with a tentative smile. “D-Do you need some help?”

  Alexis schooled her face into what she hoped was gentle friendliness and hid the fact that her insides were skipping rope and singing a summer-camp song. “Thank you, yes,” she said, hoisting the box against her chest. “I need more hands.”

  The woman reached around Alexis to open the door and then took another step back to allow Alexis to walk outside.

  “Chilly today, huh?” Alexis said, bending to set the box on the sidewalk.

  The girl let the door swing shut. She pulled her hands inside the cuffs of her sweatshirt as she answered. “Yes. I—I didn’t expect it to be this cold here.”

  “You’re not from Nashville?” Alexis crouched to pretend she was looking for something in the box. She wanted to keep the conversation going but didn’t want to be too aggressive. The last thing the women who found their way to her café needed was someone prodding them to talk before they were ready.

  “Huntsville,” the woman said. “It’s still a lot warmer there than here.”

  Alexis found her gardening gloves and stood, as if that’s what she’d been looking for all along. “I’ve never been to Alabama. How far of a drive is that?”

  “Only a couple of hours. That’s why I thought maybe it would be the same weather here.”

  Alexis shoved her gloves in her pocket. “We’re just having an early cold snap,” she said, keeping her voice as light and casual as possible.

  “Maybe.” The young woman bit her lip.

  Alexis extended her hand. “I’m Alexis. I’ve seen you come in a few times, but we haven’t formally met yet.”

  The woman swallowed nervously before accepting the outreach. “Candi,” she said, curling her fingers around Alexis’s. “Well, Candace, but everyone calls me Candi.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Candi.” Alexis nodded back toward the door. “Can I make you something to drink?”

  “Oh, no.” The girl shook her head almost frantically.

  Disappointment silenced the camp song. But then Candi swallowed and said, “I mean, yes. I came for something to drink, but you seem busy, so I can just go to the counter.”

  “I’m happy to do it.” Alexis smiled. “And then maybe you can keep me company while I try not to kill these plants.”

  Alexis held her breath until Candi offered that hesitant smile again. “Sure. Yes. That—that would be fine.”

  “Cinnamon chai latte?”

  The smile grew. “You already know my order?”

  “Have a seat,” Alexis said, nodding toward one of the outdoor patio tables. “I’ll be right back.”

  Alexis kept her gait as natural as possible as she walked back inside. She caught Jessica’s gaze behind the counter. “I need a cinnamon chai latte,” she said with a furtive glance behind her.

  “She finally talked to you?” Jessica asked, eyes lighting up as she started to prepare the drink.

  Alexis grabbed a muffin and a scone from the bakery case. Food had a way of breaking the ice and giving people something to focus on when eye contact became too painful. Many a secret had been softly revealed to Alexis over a plate of pastries crumbled by worried fingers.

  She returned to Candi and set the plate and latte in front of her. Candi pulled a wallet from her pocket. “How much—”

  “On the house,” Alexis said, walking back to the box of gardening supplies.

  “Oh, I can’t,” Candi rushed.

  “Consider it a Welcome to Nashville gift.” She tilted her head. “Have we met before?”

  Candi’s eyes widened for a split second before she once again shook her head. “No.”

  “You seem so familiar to me.”

  Candi blinked. “Familiar how?”

  “I don’t know. Something about your eyes, I guess.”

  Candi went still. Like a stunned rabbit caught in the act of eating grass.

  Alexis grabbed her pruning shears and went after the worst of the potted mums, which had started to wilt from neglect and the growing chill in the air.

  Alexis snipped off a deadhead. Waited. Snipped another one. The quiet clink of the mug against the table was the only sound save the clip of her shears.

  When the silence dragged on, Alexis finally said, “I want you to know that you should never feel pressured to talk. If all you want is someone to sit with you, I’m here whenever you need me.”

  “O-Okay.”

  Another deadhead dropped to the ground. “Many, many women just like you have come here looking simply for someone to sit with.”

  Candi’s swallow was audible. Alexis lowered the shears into the box and rose. Candi followed her with nervous eyes as Alexis took the seat across from her at the patio table. From her apron pocket, she withdrew a business card reserved only for women like Candi. “My cell number is on there. You can call me anytime.”

  Candi studied the card as if Alexis had just handed her a one-hundred-dollar bill.

  “I know how hard this is,” Alexis said. “It’s a suffocating secret to keep.”

  “I—I do need to talk to you.”

  “Whenever you’re ready.”

  But then a screeching voice interrupted. “Excuse me, but I have a bone to pick with you.”

  Candi’s eyes widened as she turned to look over her shoulder to watch Alexis’s nemesis storm up the front sidewalk and march to the table.

  Alexis tried to keep her voice calm. “I’m sorry, Karen. I’m in the middle of something. Can it wait?”

  “It absolutely cannot.”

  And just like that, Candi blanched, shot to her feet, and stumbled backward. “I—I can come back.”

  “Candi, wait.” Alexis tried to reach for the girl’s arm to stop her from fleeing, but Candi slipped from her grasp and disappeared down the sidewalk.

  Alexis gathered the dirty plate and coffee mug and stood. Ignoring Karen, she turned toward the door, walked inside, and approached the counter. She set the dirty dishes into a plastic bin beneath the counter and wiped her hands on the towel tucked into her apron before turning to face Karen again. “Something I can help you with today?”

  “You haven’t been exactly helpful before, so I seriously doubt it,” Karen responded.

  Alexis forced her muscles into some semblance of a smile. “I’m sorry to hear our previous encounters haven’t been satisfactory to you. Would you like to sit and talk? I can make you a cup of tea on the house.”

  “I wouldn’t eat in here if you paid me.”

  “Then how can I help you?” Her attempt to remain calm wasn’t for Karen’s benefit. It was for her own. If she’d learned anything in the past eighteen months, it was that people were going to believe what they wanted, and few of them were worth the emotional effort it took to try to change their minds. Besides, Alexis was used to dealing with Karen Murray. The owner of the antiques shop across the street had been a thorn in Alexis’s side since the day she’d come forward with her accusation against Royce. Karen had never even spoken to Alexis before then, but now her complaints were a weekly annoyance.

  Karen whipped an overstuffed baggie from her purse. “You can help me with this.”

  She dropped the baggie on the counter, and Jessica leaped back with a screech as its contents became clear. Two tiny dead eyes stared out through the plastic in a silent plea from what had once been a rat in life.

  Alexis stepped closer and lifted the baggie by one corner. “I appreciate the gift, Karen, but I’m a vegetarian.”

  “Everything is a joke to you, isn’t it?” Karen hoisted her purse higher on her shoulder. “That thing was left on the welcome mat outside my store this morning.”

  Alexis dumped the baggie in the trash can beneath the counter. As soon as Karen left, she’d have to empty it and hose the counter down with b
leach. “I’m not following,” she said. “Why is that rat my fault?”

  “Because your cat left it there!” She said that part with a disdainful point and glare at Beefcake, the rescue Maine coon who was sound asleep on the cat tree by the window.

  Alexis forced her lips into a smile. “Karen, there is no way Beefcake did this. He goes home with me every night, and he has been inside since we arrived this morning.”

  Jessica began squirting the glass countertop with industrial cleaner. Karen took a massive step backward, her purse clutched tightly against her stomach. “You know, it was bad enough when we only had to put up with your weekly cat adoption events, but now we have to put up with this too?”

  Karen waved her hand toward the dining area, gesturing at the tables full of women who were deep in conversation—some gleefully, others tearfully.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Alexis said. “You’re mad that I have a lot of customers?”

  “These women aren’t just customers.”

  “They all buy food. They look like customers to me.”

  “You know what I mean. These women fill up the parking lot and never visit any of the other stores on the block. It’s not fair that you take up all the prime parking spots for your little crusade.”

  Alexis crossed her arms. “By crusade, I assume you’re referring to my attempt to offer a supportive, judgment-free environment to women who are survivors of sexual assault and harassment?”

  Karen rolled her eyes, which said more than words ever could. “Just because someone claims they were a victim doesn’t mean they were. For all we know, these women just want attention.”

  “Yes, because nothing garners positive attention for a woman like reporting sexual harassment against an employer.”

  Karen’s face turned a disturbing shade of red. “I will take this up with the city if I have to.”

  The old Alexis might have been intimidated by the threat, but that version of herself had disappeared when she finally went public with what her old boss had done to her and a dozen other women. It took a lot more than Karen to scare her now. “Be sure to say hello to the council president for me. Let her know that I’ll be putting the pumpkin spice scones back on the menu soon.”

  Karen turned on one high heel and stomped toward the door. It opened from the outside just in time, and Alexis laughed openly when she saw who was on the other side. Her best friend, Liv Papandreas, stood back to let Karen walk out, but then she made an obscene gesture behind the woman’s back.

  Alexis gave her a scolding look but loved her for it. She wouldn’t have survived the past year and a half without the support of her friends.

  “Do I need to throw hands?” Liv asked, coming to the counter. She carried a garment bag slung over her shoulder.

  “I’m going to throw hands soon,” Alexis said, tugging the trash can from beneath the counter.

  “Now that I would like to see. It’s about time you fought back against that woman.”

  “I don’t think my therapist would call it a healthy coping skill, and it wouldn’t make a difference, anyway.” She looked over her shoulder and nodded toward the back for Liv to follow her. “Whatcha got there?”

  Liv nearly skipped. “I have a present for you two,” she said in a singsongy voice. She paused behind the counter to fist-bump Jessica. The three of them were bonded for life after working together to expose Royce.

  “Bridesmaids dresses?” Jessica asked, grinning.

  “Yep. They finally came in.”

  Liv followed Alexis through the swinging door that separated the dining area from the kitchen and Alexis’s small office. As Alexis emptied the offending trash can into the dumpster by the back door, Liv hooked the garment bag over the top of her office door. She unzipped it just as Alexis returned. Liv pushed open the sides to reveal two floor-length strapless gowns made of ruby silk.

  “Wow,” Alexis said. “They’re even prettier than I remember. Mack did a good job picking these out.”

  The fact that Liv had turned all wedding planning over to Mack was all anyone needed to know about their relationship. He was the romantic one. Liv was the Let’s elope to Vegas one. And Alexis loved them both.

  Liv stood back with a cheeky smile. “I can’t wait to see Noah’s reaction when he sees you in this.”

  Alexis’s cheeks warmed. Her friendship with Noah Logan was a constant source of speculation and teasing among their group of friends.

  “Look at you,” Liv laughed. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you and Noah are just friends.”

  But it was true. They’d met during the crazy fallout of the Royce incident, and they just clicked. Next to Liv, he was her closest friend. He was funny, smart, kind, and, above all else, safe. With Noah, she felt like more than the two-dimensional caricature crafted by the media of a woman scorned. There might have been a time when she’d longed for more with him, but he’d never let on that he felt the same. And Alexis was still too skittish about men in general to risk ruining the healthiest relationship she’d ever had with a man by pushing for something more now.

  The kitchen door swung open suddenly. Liv laughed again. “Speak of the devil.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  It didn’t take a genius to know when you were being talked about. And even though Noah was, in fact, a genius by IQ standards, he could tell strictly by the pink on Alexis’s cheeks and Liv’s grin that he had just walked in on a conversation about himself.

  He strode through the kitchen door and held out the white paper bag that was his reason for stopping by the café. “Am I the devil?” he asked.

  Alexis’s eyes went wide. “Not if that bag contains what I think it contains.”

  “It does,” he said, moving forward. Alexis made a sound of pure lust and lunged for the bag. He laughed as she tore it open and pulled out a foil-wrapped vegetarian taco from the Mexican food truck near his office building.

  Alexis scarfed down half a taco and then set it down on the counter next to Liv. “Don’t touch that,” she warned Liv.

  “Where are you going?” Noah asked as she disappeared into her tiny office.

  She emerged with a wrapped box and handed it to him. “Happy birthday.”

  He accepted the gift with a half smile. “I thought we weren’t celebrating until tomorrow night.”

  “I know, but I couldn’t wait to give this to you. It arrived this morning.”

  She clapped as he tore off the paper. His eyes bulged out of his head. “Holy shit. Are you serious?”

  Alexis squealed. “I know! Can you believe I found one?”

  In his hands was an impossible-to-get, limited-edition Doctor Who Lego set. “Where the hell did you find it?”

  “I’ve been battling some dude on eBay for a week for this thing.”

  Noah turned the box over in his hands. “It’s still in the original box?”

  “Yes!”

  “I don’t even want to know how much this cost,” he said, looking up.

  She waved her hand. “Doesn’t matter. The only question is, are we going to leave it in the box or build it?”

  “Build it,” he said, nodding reverently. “And we can watch that documentary on how purple dye was discovered.”

  Liv snorted and slid from the stool where she’d been sitting. “Okay, this is the nerdiest shit I’ve ever seen.”

  Noah made a psh noise. “This isn’t even in the top ten of nerdy shit we do.”

  Alexis nodded as she took a massive bite of her food. After chewing fast, she said, “Last weekend, we attended a lecture by a Vanderbilt professor on the history of female Viking warriors.”

  Liv mouthed the word wow and then leaned in to give Alexis a quick hug. “I gotta run. More dresses to deliver.” As she walked past Noah, she grinned. “Did you survive today?”

  Noah gro
aned and put the LEGO set on the counter. “Your fiancé is out of control.”

  “Go easy on him,” Liv said. “He’s been planning his dream wedding since he was a little boy.”

  Liv rose on tiptoe to peck his cheek before sailing from the kitchen. Noah watched her go before turning back to Alexis, who greeted his glance with a teasing smile. “What crazy idea does Mack have now?”

  “We have to learn a dance routine.”

  Alexis tipped her head back and let out a laugh that made everything worth it. He’d endure any humiliation known to man to make her laugh, because he remembered far too clearly when laughter was a hard-fought victory. She was literally crying when he first met her. It was just hours after they’d exposed Royce Preston for the predator he was. They were at Mack’s house, celebrating, when she suddenly slipped out the back door.

  “Alexis.”

  At the sound of his voice, Alexis jumped and turned, wiping madly at her face.

  He held up his hands in apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you run out here and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  Alexis wiped her cheeks and shrugged. “No, it’s fine. I—I was just . . .” She waggled her fingers in front of her puffy eyes. “Letting out some tension.”

  “Adrenaline crash.”

  “Is that when your body says oh my God what the fuck have you done?”

  He chuckled quietly. “I think that’s exactly what it is.”

  She sucked in a steadying breath and held out her hand. “You’re Noah, right?”

  He closed the distance between them and accepted her handshake. Her fingers were small and warm within his. “Noah Logan.”

  Alexis pulled her hand back. “Thank you for what you did. Helping us, I mean.”

  “I should be thanking you for what you did.”

  Alexis hugged her torso. “I should have done it a long time ago.”