The Rebound Guy by Fiona Harper Page A

be long, but his were longer and her stride was hampered by both heels and a skirt. It wasn’t long before he caught up and fell into step beside her. She didn’t look at him.
    â€˜Is something up?’ he asked. ‘Did I do something to make you mad?’
    He didn’t get it. He thought he’d been a great guy this evening, but when she kept her focus on the brightly lit Tube sign a little farther along the street he knew his gut was right. She was mad. Now he just had to find out why.
    Most women would have iced him out, punctuating the silence with only a few choice phrases designed to make him quit and go back to the bar. But Kelly Bradford wasn’t most women.
    She tried, he could tell, but he almost heard the snap in her resolve as she turned to him and opened her mouth.
    â€˜Typical man,’ she muttered. ‘The world revolves around you, doesn’t it? It has to be all about you.’
    â€˜No,’ he said too quickly—and maybe a little defensively.
    â€˜Maybe I just need to get home to my boys,’ she added. ‘Maybe there’s more to my life than propping up a bar and making everyone think I’m God’s gift by cracking jokes and flashing my wallet around.’
    She was mad at him! He knew it!
    â€˜Kelly...are you saying that the only reason you’re sprinting down this street is because you need to catch a train? That’s what all this is about?’
    â€˜Exactly,’ she said, and smirked to herself.
    Jason smothered his own urge to smile. ‘Then why have you just walked right past the station?’
    Kelly let out a short pithy word, turned on her heel and headed back in the other direction. Jason took a moment to enjoy his little victory, smiling at her back as she stalked away from him, and then he began to jog lightly to catch her up.
    But as he reached her his smile faded. He gently reached for her wrist. She pulled it away before he made contact, but at least she stopped and faced him instead of walking on.
    He needed to know. He needed to know what was driving her nuts. Him, yeah, but it was more than that, and suddenly finding out what was becoming inexplicably important. ‘This isn’t just about getting home for bath time,’ he said.
    Kelly’s jaw tensed and she shot him a guilty look. No poker face at all, this one.
    â€˜You said those shoes were your baby,’ she said, accusation rich in her tone.
    He nodded. Yeah, he had said that. So what?
    â€˜Well, your baby is lying critically ill in hospital while you’re living it up down at the pub, celebrating.’
    He found his blood pressure rising to match hers. ‘So I decided to cheer myself up a little. Hardly a crime! But it’s my project that’s been knocked back, my dream lying in the gutter. Who gave you the right to judge? Why should you care?’
    Okay, he should pay attention to that throbbing feeling in his temples. It was when he got this way that he did dumb things. Things he regretted. Usually things other people regretted too. But Kelly had a way of making the adrenalin course through his veins, despite all his best efforts to keep it locked away.
    She put her hands on her hips, glared at him with glistening eyes. ‘Because you made me care, damn you!’
    Her words were like a slap. That couldn’t be right. Nobody cared about the things he cared about. Because all he cared about was having a good time and messing up other people’s lives, apparently. Now the adrenalin was pumping harder, faster, but it brought with it a chill he recognised, a chill he didn’t care for, and he realised he couldn’t let Kelly care. Because if she cared, he would care, and that was something he really didn’t want to do. He’d better do something about that fast. Something to make her not care. Something to make her believe he was exactly who she thought he was.
    He didn’t even think about his next move; he just