10. Theo
10
THEO
M ore pushback from Ford.
I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, making the words blur on my screen.
I’d sent him an email to find out where his lawyer stood on the contract only to get a song and dance and promises that it was “coming soon.” I was positive that Pam was behind the delay, and it made me furious. Having Max be my fake girlfriend had calmed Ford down, but it had obviously pissed Pam off. If I could’ve cut ties with Ford I would’ve, but no one built a boat like that man. Plus, I liked that our backstories were similar. We’d both come from nothing and risen to the top of our fields. It made sense for us to chart new territory together.
If only his wife—and his own ego—would move out of the way and allow us to get to work.
I sighed. I hated waiting, for anything.
A few more emails pinged in and I sorted through what needed to be done. I smiled when I saw the one from Max, even though it was a reminder that I still needed make my choices out of the hundreds of incredible images she’d sent over. I’d looked at them a dozen times already and still couldn’t make up my mind about which ones to use in the new marketing campaign.
Our up and down shopping excursion had ended abruptly when she’d taken the phone call about her family. Even though we’d agreed to no complications, I wished there was something I could’ve done to help her. Her face had looked so sad and anxious as she left the restaurant, and I could only imagine what she was facing.
Yeah, I could only imagine it because that’s all she’d allow me to do. Max had a wall up and there was no way she was going to let me in. But then again, it was what we’d agreed to.
I squinted at the images. Could I reach out to her? Maybe say I wanted her opinion about the images as my excuse for the call, just to check in and see if she was doing better? I stared out the window in my office to the water beyond as I considered it. It wasn’t a lie, I did need a second opinion. Of course, I could’ve just forwarded the images to my marketing director and let her make the selections, but something was pulling me to stay on top of this campaign personally.
I didn’t want to admit that the “something” was Max.
My schedule for the rest of the day was ridiculous. I had more work than I could handle yet all I could think about was the way Max had looked when she left the restaurant. I picked up my phone and dialed her before I could second guess myself.
“ Now ?”
I pushed on despite the tone of Max’s voice after I’d explained what I wanted to do. “If you can. There’s no pressure at all. It’s just that I want to get this off my plate, and I really feel like having you weigh in would be a big help.”
“I’d be happy to but I’m not alone right now.”
I felt myself get immediately and irrationally defensive. Who was she with, and why?
“My brother is over ...”
Her brother ? I smiled at my stupid presumption. “Bring him. I’d love to meet him.”
The line went quiet. “I thought you said no complications.”
Damn it, she’d called me on my own bullshit. “Well, I don’t consider family a complication. After all, you’re going to be meeting all of mine. It only makes sense that I meet at least some of yours.”
“Okay, fine, yeah. We’ll come. Be there in thirty.”
I hung up and tried to imagine what Max’s brother might be like. Tall, probably with the same intense eyes that she had. Would we get along? I could find common ground with most guys, especially once we started talking sports, or boats. They were pretty safe topics of conversation in Miami.
I actually managed to get some work done while I waited for them to show up. My assistant buzzed me once they arrived in our showroom waiting area, and I went out to meet them.
“Max, thanks again, for coming,” I boomed as I walked out of my office. I braced myself to meet her brother and froze when I saw who was with her.
A boy . Not exactly a child, but certainly not the man I was expecting. Max was in her early twenties so there was obviously quite an age gap between them.
“Theo, this is my brother Rafe.”
He nodded at me, unsmiling through a mop of curls. I stepped closer and held out my hand.
“Rafe, nice to meet you. Welcome to Barnes Oceanic. Do you like boats?”
He gave me a halfhearted shake and shrugged a shoulder. “I guess?”
“He’s more of a beach guy,” Max explained. “But you should see Theo’s yachts, Rafe. They’re incredible.”
“Cool.”
The single syllable made it clear that he thought yachting was anything but.
“Rafe, why don’t you take a seat while I meet with Theo?” Max said gently.
“Yeah, wherever you feel comfortable,” I added. “We’ve got the captain’s chairs in the waiting area, or if you feel like some fresh air you can go out to the deck.”
Rafe headed to the sliding door without another word. I turned to Max once he was outside. “How old is he?”
“Thirteen.”
“Are you … babysitting him? Isn’t he old enough to stay home alone?”
Max’s eyes narrowed to slits, making it immediately clear that I’d misstepped. “You don’t need to get involved, okay?”
“Okay, okay, sorry,” I answered quickly. Max seemed to have a fierce protective instinct and I wasn’t about to mess with it. “Let’s head to my office, I’ve got the photos up on my screen.”
I pulled up a chair beside mine at my desk and Max and I settled in to work through them.
“Do you have a favorite?” I asked her, scanning the thumbnails of the images.
She took a minute to consider. “Sort of. I have a favorite sunrise shot. A favorite dock shot. A favorite horizon shot. The lists goes on. What about you?”
“I sort of like this one,” I answered, clicking on the photo that was framed so the docked boat looked like it was in the middle of the ocean. “I never would’ve thought to shoot it this way.”
Max flashed me a cocky smile. “Well, that’s why you hired a pro.”
Damn, I liked it when she was confident.
“But I also like this one,” I said as I scrolled to a photo of the teak deck gleaming in the sunlight.
“And that’s before retouching,” she said proudly. “The light was so perfect that day. I got lucky.”
I tried not to stare at her as she studied the image on the screen. “You might have gotten lucky with the sun but the rest is all you. You’re really good, Max.”
She gave me a quick glance and half smile. “I still have lots to learn, but thank you.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, touching the screen to enlarge a photo of the main room with the lights on and the bright blue horizon visible through the window, framed to make it look like it was a mile long. “Just putting the lights on changes everything. It draws the eye around the room.”
“One of my many tricks of the trade,” she replied. “So what exactly are you using the photos for? You mentioned a new marketing campaign, but what does that mean?”
I leaned back in my chair. “We’re refocusing our social media to have more of a uniform look. So, a color scheme that runs through everything, and planned-out posts, rather than just throwing any old photo up.”
“And what about your website?” Max asked.
I frowned. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Well, you should. You’ve got a million new images, you might as well use them. Can I see what it looks like?”
I navigated to the site I’d had designed a few years prior.
“Hmm,” Max said, her mouth twisting to the side. “That’s right, I totally forgot that I looked at it prior to my session. And that’s not a good thing.”
“But it’s clean … professional …” I protested.
“It’s boring ,” Max said. “I can’t tell what you do from the landing page. And that photo is out of focus.”
Is squinted at it. “It’s artistic.”
“It’s amateurish,” she corrected. “ This should be your primary image.”
She scooted closer and scrolled through her photos, which gave me a few seconds to breathe her in. Same layered, cupcake scent mixed with something a little floral. Or was it raspberry? I inhaled.
She said she didn’t wear perfume. Maybe it was her shampoo?
“What, you don’t like it?”
I snapped back to attention, hoping that Max hadn’t caught me breathing her in. “Oh, yeah, that photo would look fantastic.”
Max started explaining how the four quadrants of the photo worked together to create movement that would draw the viewer in, and as she talked I realized just how much thought and effort she put into her images. It wasn’t simply snapping a pretty picture—Max planned . There was a science behind the perfect photo.
She became more animated as she explained her technique, and I found myself smiling and nodding at her. I could listen to her talk all day. Max was passionate about her art, and there was nothing sexier to me than a woman who loved something so wholeheartedly.
And speaking of sexy, Max embodied the word without even trying. She was wearing a grey skirt, just a simple cotton thing that looked like it was made of sweatshirt material that rolled up along the hem. It shouldn’t have been exciting at all, but it showed off her long, tan legs, which were more muscular than I’d realized. On her feet? Improbably perfect motorcycle boots. And her sheer white t-shirt kept slipping down her shoulder, drawing my eye to the thin pink bra strap. Pink ? She’d claimed to hate the color at the dress shop even though it looked great on her. Maybe it was a secret favorite, for her eyes only?
I started imagining if her undies matched and felt heat and pressure start building inside of me. No, I was not going to get hard just because Max was sitting beside me.
Looking incredible.
With her thigh nearly grazing mine.
I let out a long sigh, causing Max to snap her pretty mouth shut abruptly.
“I’m sorry, am I talking too much?” she asked, her brow furrowed.
“No! Not at all,” I said quickly. “I was … I was just thinking that the last thing I need is to add a web redesign to my to-do list. But you’re right, it needs to be done.”
“Excellent, I’m glad you agree. Now let’s narrow down what we’ve got here for all of your upcoming projects. I still need to edit, you know. That takes time.”
Time. I wished we had more of it.
“Hey, it’s almost lunch hour. Can I take you and Rafe out for a bite? I’d love to get to know him better. Maybe get some dirt on you.”
Her eyes flashed at me, and I realized that I might have overstepped.
“No pressure if you have plans together,” I added.
“Let me go ask him,” she said, pushing away from my desk.
My office had a wall of windows that looked out to the reception area, with blinds that I could close with the push of a button. I was glad I’d left them open so I could watch Max go out to where Rafe was sitting on the patio. She approached him slowly, like he was a skittish colt. He tossed his phone on the table and listened as she spoke to him. I looked away seconds before he glanced toward my office.
Lunch with a surly teen wasn’t an optimum way to spend time with Max, but her brother was obviously important to her, and it felt like getting to know him—or at least observing them together—would make it easier for me to understand where she was coming from.
Rafe rag doll-ed his body out of the chair and followed Max inside. She was smiling when she walked back into my office.
“We’re in for lunch. But Rafe has a request.”
She glanced at him expectantly.
He shuffled, staring at his feet. “Tacos.”
“A man after my own heart. You got it, I know just the spot. My family’s favorite taco joint.” I glanced at Max. “I’ll text the address, it’s a five-minute drive.”
I watched as Max draped her arm over Rafe’s shoulder as they headed out. I half expected the kid to step away, but he leaned against her in a patient way that suggested it was the most physical contact he’d tolerate.
Ah, adolescence. I could only imagine the abrasive, grunt-filled meal we were about to share, made tolerable only by the sweetheart of a woman we both seemed to appreciate.