Brady stares at me for a few minutes and when I don’t respond to his statement about him being the bad guy, he shrugs it off like he never expected me to disagree. Without saying another word to me, he turns around and takes off jogging on the trail leaving me standing there staring after him.
“You better move your ass if you want to get all five miles in before this trail gets packed with tourists,” he shouts over his shoulder as he disappears around the first bend.
I stand there just long enough to curse his name in my head, then take off running faster than I normally start off so I can catch up to him. Out of spite, and because I’m pissed that my morning routine is thrown off by his presence, I speed past him until I’m a few legs in front of him and slow down so I don’t get winded too early.
I can hear his feet pounding on the trail right behind me, and before I can get too cocky about being in front of him, he actually has the nerve to come up on my right and go around me.
“Passing on the right,” he says jovially, continuing the fast pace I’m not used to.
My eyes immediately zero in on his ass in those stupid shorts as I watch him pumping his legs to go even faster. The thin material is molded to it, and it’s almost impossible to turn my eyes away, but I do so I can once again leave that ass behind in the dust.
Pushing my legs as hard as I can, I make up the distance between us.
“Passing on the left.”
Two can play at this game.
I stay in front of him just long enough to wonder if he’s looking at my ass. I’m wearing a pair of tight pink, lightweight running shorts, and even though I’m pretty confident in how great my butt and legs look in them, I don’t want him staring.
Regrettably, I slow my pace until he makes it back up to me and we’re jogging side-by-side at a more normal speed.
“I thought for sure you were going to keep that shit up for the entire five miles,” he says with a laugh. I notice he’s not even breathing hard, and I immediately want to stick my leg out and trip him.
“Figured I should slow it down for you. A man of your age could have a heart attack at any moment, and I’m not really up-to-date on my first aid training.”
We jog in silence for a few minutes, the sounds of nature filling the air and making me momentarily forget that my best friend conspired with the enemy.
“You know, I didn’t mean to make things strained between you and your body guard,” Brady says, reading my mind. “I asked your mother to give me a print-out of your normal routine when you’re home. I thought I would case the place ahead of time and make sure there weren’t any threats in the area. It took me a little longer than I expected, which is why I was still here when you guys showed up.”
I don’t reply right away, taking some time to process what he's just told me. He had checked things out before I got here to make sure I’d be safe. It's a sweet thing to do, and I want to tell him I appreciated it, but I can’t. I’m a job to him. That’s it. He’s not doing anything out of the kindness of his heart. He’s doing what he was told and what he’s being paid to do.
“So, tell me about your mother.”
My steps falter a little as I turn my head in his direction. He doesn’t look my way, just continues to stare straight ahead at the trail in front of us. I pull my gaze away from his profile and grit my teeth.
“I’m sure you already know everything there is about Eve. Just like you already know everything about me. You probably had a team of people digging into our lives weeks before you even showed up in the conference room the other day.”
He doesn’t reply and I know I’m right. Being right about something like that doesn’t make me feel victorious; it just makes me feel sad. Yet another person to add to the list of those who think they know everything about me.
“I know what the public knows. That she was a secretary for Hummingbird Records,