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“I know promises are as important to you as they are to me.” Carly gave him a hard stare. “So here’s my promise. Even though I have to leave in the morning, I promise I’ll get that special guacamole made and drop it by before I leave Chicago. Do we have a deal?”
“You drive a hard bargain.” Bran twisted toward her, a wry grin on his face.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Carly disappeared into the hallway.
Resigned, Liam levered his chair back to a sitting position.
“Sorry about that,” Bran said. “I didn’t mean to run her off.”
“It’s not your fault she forgot to call her roommate.”
“If that’s true.” Bran obviously doubted it.
“Yeah, I think she made it up as an excuse to get away. I don’t know why, but you make her really nervous.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
How would Bran know? They’d only spent a few minutes together.
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yes.” Bran chuckled. “You’re so concerned and defensive.”
“She’s beautiful.” Liam rubbed his face with his hands. “It could be a superficial attraction, but I don’t think so.”
“Does she like you?”
“I can’t tell. One minute I’m reading all the right signals, and the next, she’s scrambling to get away from me.” Liam sighed. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a girlfriend, it’s probably just wishful thinking on my part.”
“I hear you.”
“Give me a break. You’re with a different woman every few weeks.”
“That’s right. Because every woman who agrees to go out with me is only interested in one thing... my money. That’s why I don’t stay with one woman long enough to get emotionally involved.”
“I still say you’re underselling yourself.” Liam knew the argument was futile. Despite his brilliance and good looks, Bran was convinced women weren’t truly attracted to him.
“I could say the same for you.” Bran sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Except I wasn’t rich when Elle and I were dating,” said Liam. “Her problem wasn’t that she was pretending so she could bag a billionaire. She had the same issue I’m afraid Carly has.”
“What’s that?”
“She liked the top half of me, but the bottom half was too much to handle.”
“What’s your evidence that Carly is anything like Elle?”
“For starters, she shot out of that plane like she was relieved to be rid of me and refused to even make a date for lunch at the convention. Yet, I’d have sworn she was flirting with me before that.”
“Hmm...” Bran rubbed his jaw. “Has she told you what her doctoral research is about?”
“No. She said she didn’t want to talk about it on vacation.”
“Vacation?” Bran’s brows drew down over his eyes. “She did tell you she’s here for the convention, right?”
“She’s going to the convention, but she came early to have a vacation. She was hoping to see the fall colors until this crazy blizzard hit.”
“Then you don’t know about her research?”
