TORMENTED_ Jani Kay - Jani Kay Page 0,7

the couch by the dressing rooms, and drew me out of my thoughts and back to the present.

Guilt overtook me that I’d made her walk from one store to the other and still hadn’t purchased anything.

“How about I sit there and you parade for me?” She pointed to the seat and didn’t even wait for my answer. She crossed the room and sat down, kicking off her shoes and rubbing her baby bump in large circles.

“Sounds like a great idea,” I said, glimpsing at my watch and noting that it was close to lunchtime already. I gave her a warm smile. “We’ll do lunch after this, I promise.”

Jade grinned back at me when I mentioned food. She was so damn adorable; no wonder my brother had fallen so hard for this chick. I was glad that we could be friends, even though our brothers didn’t see eye to eye. I couldn’t help noticing how she’d changed. Her snobby attitude had completely disappeared and she was as down-to-earth as my brother.

Love changes people. My mother always said that, but I never understood what she meant until now. Jade was living proof that it was indeed possible. A sliver of hope that Harrison could change too filled my heart.

I flicked through the racks, nothing really catching my eye.

Jade looked up from her phone. “Are you going to be long?”

“No, why?”

“Two reasons. One, I’m freaking starving, and two, Harrison is on his way. He just messaged me.”

I sucked in a breath. So Harrison had persuaded Jade to let him come. I couldn’t deny that it made my heart beat a little faster and butterflies swarm my stomach. I’d purposely not asked Jade about it, and we’d been so busy talking about her pregnancy and the wedding in between shopping, that Harrison hadn’t come up until now. Besides, a small part of me would have been disappointed if he didn’t come, and I simply didn’t want to think about that.

Empty-handed, I smiled politely at the shop attendant. “I’ll be back later. Maybe after lunch.”

I could see she wanted to roll her eyes, because she’d probably heard that a few more times than she may have wanted to, especially since I’d seen the price tags on the dresses, but instead she just gave me a weak smile. “Of course, Miss Ryder.”

“Come. Let’s go feed that voracious bump of yours,” I said, smiling at my friend. “Luckily the restaurant is just around the corner.”

*****

Twenty minutes later, I was sipping a freshly blended fruit smoothie as I perused the menu. There was just something about the cool jazz music rising above the chatter that made me tap my foot to the rhythm. A group of hip young mothers and their babies, all dressed in the latest fashion, sat to our right and on our left we had three babes with banging bodies squeezed into the latest neon colored fitness gear drinking revolting looking green stuff.

I wasn’t a fan of tofu and couldn’t understand how people could eat that stuff. Running my finger down the list I found an interesting item with goat’s cheese and baby beets and candied walnuts that sounded yummy.

“I think I found something,” I said to Jade, after I’d complained about how damn healthy everything was. Shopping was hard work, and I needed something more than lettuce leaves.

“Great. I’m having the quinoa with pumpkin. I love that.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Harrison entering the room. The second I lifted my head to look directly at him, all of my senses honed in on the man as if he were the only person in the whole restaurant. Hell—the whole universe.

The noisy buzz filtered out and all I became aware of was how incredibly good looking, strong and masculine the man was. Harrison in a uniform was hot and sexy as hell.

His gaze fixed on mine. With a cocky grin spread across his face and a confident swagger he owned completely, he crossed the room to where we sat. He didn’t take his eyes off me, yet I was aware how the women at the tables around us had stopped talking and all focused their attention on the man.

Reaching Jade first, he leaned over to kiss her forehead. Still holding my gaze over her head, he winked at me. Playful Harrison had showed up today, and he could be naughty as sin given half a chance. My own grin grew wider the closer he got to me until my face was practically bursting.

I