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Carts gave a resigned nod. “Who told you?”
She couldn’t lie. “Aaron.”
“Not all the sordid details?”
“No, just that it hadn’t ended that well.”
Carts lowered himself onto the stool and hooked his feet on the rungs. A gap between his socks and his pants hem gaped, showing off bony ankles. Alice had the sudden urge to hug him or take him shopping. Possibly both.
Carts huffed air out of his lungs. “Guess I should have seen it coming. But, hey—” He brightened, his grin, always his best attribute, lighting up his face. “My wounds will heal. And at least I got the money back on the ring.”
Alice’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t realise you got engaged.” No wonder he looked so down-hearted.
Carts fidgeted. “Not exactly. Probably best not to go into the finer details. Anyway…” He slapped a palm on his knee. “I’m not here to whinge.” He was suddenly looking at her intently. A little sheen of heat built on the back of her neck. “I was wondering…”
Alice stepped back, knocked a stack of books she’d been pricing earlier off the counter, and busied herself picking them up off the floor. “I was wondering if”—he bent over, coiled out an arm, picked one up and handed it to her—“you’d like to come to a quiz night.”
At that moment a customer strode up to the counter and Alice had to focus on totting up their eclectic mix of Stephen Kings and Sufi poetry.
Once they’d gone, Carts was still looking at her out of large, moony eyes.
There was clearly no escaping a response to his question. “What kind of quiz night?” She must have sounded a little sharp because he looked taken aback.
“It’s for my sister Avery’s school orchestra trip. They’re going to Japan. Maybe you didn’t know but she plays the flute; she’s really good—the school’s encouraging her to apply for a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire.” The hurt glint still underpinned his features and now Alice felt horribly mean. Carts wasn’t going to do anything silly, like ask her on a date. She was getting tickets on herself.
She gave him a dazzling smile. “Oh, that would be fantastic; of course I’d love to support her. When is it?”
“Thursday of next week. I could pick you up—”
“This looks cosy.” The deep timbre of the voice that had interrupted made a shiver skitter up Alice’s spine. She spun round to see Aaron standing behind her. Telltale heat swamped her cheeks. How come she hadn’t noticed him come in?
And even more odd, Carts and Aaron weren’t surveying each other with any of their usual camaraderie. In fact, they were both glowering from under beetling brows.
“What brings you here, Carts?” Aaron’s tone held a definite note of accusation.
“Could say the same to you, Blake-o. You don’t work near here, last time I checked.”
“Neither do you.”
What in heavens name?
Alice tugged at her ponytail and made clucking noises. She felt like a librarian dealing with two recalcitrant schoolboys. Aaron didn’t look at her—he didn’t need to, the air between them was vibrating. He dug his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I was at the law courts, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to come and buy myself a book.”
Carts scoffed. “What for?”
Aaron’s lip curled. “To cut my back teeth on. Seriously, what do you think?”
“You never read books,” Carts muttered.
“I’ve started to enjoy quite a few new pursuits lately.”
The colour heightened in Alice’s cheeks. If that was meant for her it sure hit the mark.
Still Aaron’s gaze pinned Carts with the ferocity of a puma. “What’s your excuse?”
Alice’s eyes rounded and her breath shortened. Aaron was almost staking a claim. Which was outrageous, even if the adrenaline spiking round her system told another story.
Carts was pushing out his chest and his lower jaw at the same time. “I’ve asked Alice to Avery’s fundraiser.”
