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“Hi.” His gaze bounces back and forth between me and Loomis, not missing the fact that Loomis is standing close, and his hand is now on my shoulder. “Um.” He takes Loomis in briefly before returning to me. “I went to the hospital, and they said it was your day off. I figured you might be here.”

I frown. “What do you want, Alden?”

Loomis stiffens beside me. “Alden?”

I glance up at him. “Yes. My ex-boyfriend.”

Loomis’s eyes round, just as astonished as I am that he’s here when we were just talking about him. “Well, what are the chances of that? And here I was, just plotting all sorts of fun with his name on it.”

“Who are you?” Alden asks with an edge, obviously not liking our proximity or Loomis’s hand on me. Not that he has a right. Not anymore.

Loomis smirks and shifts in closer beside me, his hand roving possessively around to my hip so he can pull me against him. “I’m her new boyfriend.”

2

“Her what?” Alden barks like a rabid dog, and oh shit. What the bloody fuck have I done?

I’m supposed to be keeping a low profile. In fact, I wasn’t lying to Keegan when I told her no one knew I was in town. Because I’m supposed to be keeping the lowest of low profiles!

But her expression when she told me they broke up—that sad, heartbroken, disappointed expression—hit an ancient and familiar spot in me and thrust every protective instinct I have to the forefront.

Truth? I knew it was Keegan the moment she stepped out of the café. I was a half block away, and I still knew it was her. The long red hair, the petite frame with unstoppable curves, visible even beneath her coat. Her smile lit up the gloomy sky.

Seeing her made me pause, uncertainty about whether or not I should approach her warring within me, which is why I didn’t get to her in time when she started falling. I haven’t seen her in months, not since she came out to LA for some medical conference, and we spent time together.

I’ve always liked Keegan a little too much.

She’s sweet, smart, funny, and bloody gorgeous. Plus, she has her life together, and it’s perfect. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s alluring if for no other reason than my life has always been anything but. Since the moment I met her over a year and a half ago, I’ve been drawn to her in a way I never am with anyone. It’s one of the many reasons why nothing could happen between us despite my wanting it to when she came out to LA.

Chaps like me with our poor, bad boy roots barely hidden beneath posh accents and easy smiles have no business touching princesses, and that’s precisely what Keegan Fritz is. She’s not the casual hookup sort despite her cool and casual bravado. Women like her expect to be girlfriends.

Case in point, the bloke standing before us.

I’d heard about this Alden. Tinsley loved to regale me with unwanted details about Keegan’s relationship with him because Tinsley was hoping it would spring me into action and I’d scale the wall of impossible relationships and make it to the summit with Keegan as mine.

Something Tinsley knew I not only didn’t have the time or desire for but had sworn off long before I ever made it as an actor. It wasn’t some there’s a million fish in the sea, or I’m famous now, so I have the right to be an arsehole and fuck around shamelessly doctrine.

No, my moratorium on love and relationships is one of the few good things to come from my childhood.

Regardless, Tinsley liked to press me because she knew I fancied Keegan, and with that, I came to the obvious conclusion that Alden was not only a twat but all wrong for her. Clearly, I was right, and the idea of making him suffer a bit because he had her and was daft enough to let her go is too sweet to pass up.

“Her boyfriend?” the git continues when I don’t reply, and neither does Keegan, his pretty boy complexion growing sullen. “That’s impossible.”

I can feel Keegan’swhat the fuckeyes on me, but I ignore them, refusing to back down since I already started this.

“It’s not, though. Have you ever heard the sayingsyou snooze, you lose, orthe early bird catches the worm? Keegs and I have been friends for ages, but truth be told, I was biding my time until the opportunity to officially make her mine presented itself. Lucky bastard that I am.” I wink arrogantly, and Alden sputters out a harsh breath.

Keegan chokes out a series of rapid-fire noises that would have me laughing if I weren’t trying to ward off her ex.

The guy is nonplussed.

“I’m sorry. And your name is?”

Isn’t that the tricky part?

“Alden, what are you even doing here?” Keegan jumps in, saving me.

He forgets me for a moment as he turns his focus to her, his features softening. “I wanted to see you. I need to talk to you.”