14. Chapter 14
fourteen
“ H ow’s the pub coming along?”
Max took the beer from Ethan’s outstretched hand and sat down at the patio table on Adam’s back deck. There was a cool breeze coming off the dark, moonlit lake that chilled his still-sweaty skin. They’d played a late hockey game that went into overtime, and he really should have said no to a beer and got some extra work in, but he had to admit, he needed the downtime. And there was nothing better than a cold beer with his friends after a game.
“Surprisingly, everything is going well,” he said, sitting back and taking a drink. “Luis’s menu is great. He hired the kitchen staff, and he’s been training them. We have a lead for the dining room, and I have interviews this week with the wait staff. We’ll see how the soft opening goes in a couple of weeks, but I think it should be good.”
“And the brewmaster? How’s she doing?”
Max pushed his anger down and suppressed a grunt. “She just hired an incompetent weirdo who’s starting tomorrow, but at least she finally made some fucking beer.”
Antonio’s eyebrows shot up. “You two aren’t getting along?”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
He smirked. “Are you a pain in hers?”
Max shrugged and drank again to hide the smile forming on his lips. He knew he was being a pain in her ass, too.
It was 100 percent up to her whether she hired Jer, and if the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t have hesitated to tell her to go to hell and would have hired who he wanted. Honestly, he was happy she had enough gumption to stand up for herself.
He just wished she’d done that with the joker she was engaged to.
And that, he realized, was the crux of his problem with Willow.
If she wasn’t as pretty or funny or talented or, most of all, easy to talk to, he wouldn’t have any problem with her at all. But something about her drew him in, as if she were the perfect lure on the end of a line and he was all too happy to get hooked. In fact, he’d been ready to bite right before she told him she had a fiancé.
He took another chug from his beer.
“Chelsea and Ben love her,” Adam said, sitting back.
“ I love her,” Ethan said, then smiled when everyone looked at him as if he’d committed a felony. “She’s making a peach ice cream milkshake IPA. If it tastes even half as good as her other beer, I’ll shit myself.”
Max laughed at his friend with a roll of his eyes. Hopefully everyone else in town jumped on the bandwagon and fell in love with Willow’s beer. Then they’d have a shot at turning a profit in a couple of years, even with the massive debt hanging over the place.
“Have Chelsea and Ben even spent any time with her?” he asked Adam. “She was sleeping when I moved Cara’s stuff in.”
“No. You worked her too hard,” Adam said with a smirk.
Oh, if only. He’d love to work her hard. In more ways than one.
“It’ll be great once you’re open and we can go there for her beer after our games,” Antonio said. “Not that it isn’t great here. But it’s getting cold. ”
Max nodded. “It won’t be long. We’re opening on time, come hell or high water.”
He really had no choice. Every day they spent closed, they were losing money.
“Hey, look,” Adam said, holding out his phone. “The girls went out for dinner earlier.”
Max leaned forward and looked at the photo on Natalie’s Instagram. His gaze immediately landed on Willow. She stood out among them with her bright hair and pale skin. Actually, there was a lot of skin. Way more skin than he normally saw. She usually wore thick flannel and denim from head to toe.
He resisted the urge to grab the phone and zoom in.
“Damn,” Antonio said. “Who’s that?”
Max sat back, annoyed. She was gorgeous. Obviously, she would get a lot of attention.
“She looks like Mia Wallace.”
“Mia Wallace?” Max asked, looking over at Antonio.
“Yeah, from Pulp Fiction .”
Max racked his brain. “Yeah, I know, but Uma Thurman has black hair in that movie, not red—”
Then it clicked.
He wasn’t talking about Willow. He was talking about Cara .
“That is my little sister,” Max said, ready to smash his bottle over Antonio’s head.
“Oh,” Antonio said, recoiling from Max’s boiling rage. “Sorry.”
Ethan and Adam snickered.
“Don’t say damn when referring to her,” he said, trying to control himself. “And stay far away.”
Ethan’s brows drew together. “Why?” he asked. “Antonio is better than that kid with the mullet that you hate, right?”
Max met Antonio’s eye.
“Relax,” Antonio said, defusing. “I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere near your sister and I’m never dating again, anyway.”
“Why?” Adam asked.
Antonio gave a shrug. “My divorce has completely fucked me. It’s just not worth it.”
Max had heard all about Antonio’s fucked-up relationship when he’d first moved to Mapleton and they’d reconnected. He hoped Antonio would move on and be happy, just not with his little sister. He’d wanted to apologize for being too direct, but his phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that Cara was calling.
“Hey— ”
“Maaaaaaaxx . . .”
He waited for Cara to continue but couldn’t hear anything except distant giggling in the background. “Are you okay?”
“I’m greeaaaaate.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Are you drunk?”
“I just kot picked, I pot gicked . . .”
“You got kicked?”
“YES!!”
Max pulled the phone from his ear to save his hearing from Cara’s outburst.
“Who is it?” Antonio asked.
Max glared at him. “It’s Cara,” he said, before turning his attention back to his sister. “Where are you?”
“Misty Moose.”
“In Lakewood?”
“Mmmm-hmmmmmm,” she said.
“You need a ride?”
“We,” she said. “We need a ride.”
Max paused. “Who’s we ?” he asked, wondering whether they were all out still or whether she’d called up that fucking Cooper and gone out afterward with him. If she had, he’d leave Cooper in the gutter, where he belonged.
“Me and Willow.”
Max’s skin buzzed. “Stay where you are. Don’t leave with anyone. I’ll come get you.”
“ Us . Come get us. ”
Cara hung up, and Max rolled his eyes and stood. Then remembered he hadn’t driven. Antonio had.
“Can I get a ride out to Lakewood? I have to pick up Cara.”
“And Willow,” Antonio said with a smile.
“You could hear her?”
“I’m pretty sure the neighbours could hear her.”
Adam laughed. “At least she’s not with mullet boy, right?”
“Who’s mullet boy?” Antonio asked.
“This fucking guy that sort of dumped Cara. She’s not taking it well.”
Antonio let out a whistle as he stood. “Why haven’t you killed him yet? Are you planning to do it slowly? Make it look like an accident?”
Adam and Ethan laughed, then said goodbye, and he and Antonio went to his car.
It only took them ten minutes to drive to the Misty Moose, and another minute before they spotted them. Willow was sitting on the wooden bench outside of the bar with Cara’s head on her shoulder.
Max rolled down his window. “Cara!”
Willow glanced up toward the car, then shook Cara until she opened her eyes and lifted her head.
“Holy shit,” Antonio said with a laugh. “They’re loaded. ”
Willow stood and tugged down the short dress she wore that barely covered her ass, then grabbed Cara’s hands and pulled her up off the bench, throwing her arm around her back and trying to walk to the car.
Max unbuckled his seatbelt. There was no way Willow could hold Cara up. Cara had at least six inches on her.
Just as he was about to open his door and help them, Cara started losing her balance and tipping to the side.
“They’re going down,” Antonio said, unbuckling his own belt.
Together, they started tipping, with Cara flailing around. Willow spun and grabbed her arm, but clearly didn’t have the strength to pull her back, and they both fell sideways, disappearing into the bushes.
Antonio jumped out of the car, trying to contain his laughter as they jogged across the path. They arrived just as Willow was laughing and crawling out of the bushes.
She looked up at him, her eyes widening for a moment before she burst into laughter again.
“Are you hurt?” Max asked .
“No,” she said, turning and pulling Cara’s hand without enough strength to really help. “Your sister’s a lightweight.”
Max reached under Willow and pulled her up to her feet, where she swayed for a minute before righting herself. “Can you get to the car?”
Willow nodded. “Oh yeah,” she said, full of bravado. “No problem.” She took a single step before tipping again.
Max rolled his eyes and put a hand on her back to stop her from falling.
“Which one should I grab?” Antonio asked.
Max squeezed his eyes shut, annoyed. “Don’t say grab .”
Antonio snorted.
He was already holding Willow up, so he put one arm around her back, the other behind her legs, and picked her up. He expected her to resist him, but she did the exact opposite. Her whole body relaxed, and she snuggled into his chest as a peaceful look took over her face.
“I’ll get Cara,” Antonio said, but Max barely heard him.
The shadow of Willow’s lashes resting against her pretty freckled cheeks made him lost.
“So warm,” she said, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “I miss Barley. ”
It was as if she’d just slapped him back into reality. He shook off the feeling of her in his arms.
“Barley?” he asked, letting all his feelings loose. She was too drunk to realize how annoyed and jealous he was. “Your fiancé’s name is Barley ?”
She let out a way-too-pleasant-sounding giggle. “No, Barley is my dog. My fiancé’s name is—”
“Stop,” he said, his words coloured with disgust. “I don’t want to know.”
Willow lifted her head, stared at him. “Why?”
Max shook it off. Maybe she wasn’t as drunk as he thought.
“Why didn’t you bring Barley with you?” he asked, trying to get the conversation on a more comfortable track.
It worked. She dropped her head back down to his chest and let her eyelids flutter closed.
“Nana’s allergic.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “You’ve spun quite a web of lies. Do you miss your fiancé?”
Willow’s eyes stayed closed, but a line formed between her pretty red eyebrows. “I should, shouldn’t I?”
“Yes,” he said, wanting to lecture her again about how shitty her fiancé seemed, but his sister’s scream grabbed his attention.
“Get away from me!”
Max swung around with Willow in his arms to find Antonio still standing next to the bushes, his hands up like a gun was pointing at him.
“People are going to think I’m trying to abduct her.”
Max couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. He would have continued enjoying the show, but Willow’s eyes shot open as her head came off his chest, pulling his attention away.
“You laughed,” she said, shocked.
Max rolled his eyes. “Cara!” he yelled.
“Max?” Cara said from inside the bush.
“Yeah, that’s my friend. Let him help you.”
He turned and started walking to the car, smiling and shaking his head. “I told her to draw attention to herself if anyone ever grabbed her.”
Willow didn’t respond, so he looked down at her. She was still staring at him, wide eyed.
“I’ve never heard you laugh before.”
Max shrugged. “You’re too drunk to remember it.”
Willow’s head moved from side to side. “I’m not that drunk,” she said, then closed her eyes and dropped her cheek back down onto his chest.
He raised an eyebrow. She was obviously drunk enough to have the poor sense to cuddle into his chest, but would she remember any of this ?
He decided not to read into it too much as he arrived at the car and pulled open the back door. He tried to place Willow on her feet, but she wasn’t moving, so he squatted down without disturbing her and placed her gently in the back seat.
He closed the door just as Antonio arrived on the other side of the car, with Cara slung over his shoulder like a firefighter.
“You should have taught her how to drink,” Antonio said as they got in the front seat and he turned on the car.
“I tried to teach her not to drink at all.”
Antonio smirked. “Abstinence. Same route my overprotective parents took. Look where it got me.”
Max reflected on where he’d gone wrong with Cara as Antonio drove them back to Monroe Manor. He pulled up in front, and they each picked up the girls again.
“Which room is yours?” he asked as he climbed the giant staircase.
“Fourth door on the right, across the hall from Cara,” she said.
He pushed open the door, brought her to the bed, and laid her down. She rolled over until her butt was facing him, and he looked away, trying to give her some privacy. But he took off her shoes and pulled the blanket up to cover her .
He was just about to leave when a picture on the bedside table grabbed his attention. He knew he should ignore it but couldn’t help himself. Bending over, he looked.
It was an old photo of her, but she looked exactly the same, just a little younger, and she was sitting on a guy’s lap. Must’ve been the asshole fiancé. They were both smiling widely. One of his hands was on her waist, the other on her inner thigh.
That annoying jealousy started rearing its ugly head once more. It mixed with the newfound affection he had for her now that he knew how she felt in his arms and caused a rage to brew in his chest.
He opened a new mental box, labelled it Willow, and shoved all the feelings inside, then sealed it up and put it on a shelf, way, way in the back of his mind. Once it was gone, he immediately felt better about the whole thing.
But it didn’t stop him from turning the photo down.
He shook his head and left the room, telling himself to get a fucking grip.