CHAPTER 6
Arlo
I drove to the Hellstone Ranch with a scowl on my face. Something wasn’t right about Maxie. She was being agreeable but there was a flatness in her voice and expression I didn’t understand. I wanted to shake her. It wasn’t a good sign that I’d been around her for less than an hour in total since arriving back in town and I already felt out of control over her. I didn’t remember her being so cold when she was eighteen. She’d always done whatever anyone else wanted or needed but she’d done it with a smile on her face. The new Maxie seemed to fight every single emotion that might cross her face.
Shep tapped his fingers against his thigh over and over again, until Rhett growled and reached back to slap them. Glaring at Rhett, he crossed his arms and groaned.
“It’s weird, right? Her whole attitude? I don’t like it. She was on fire yesterday, wanting to scratch our eyes out, and today she’s like a fucking robot.”
I was glad we were on the same page.
“Let’s just see how she acts around other people so we can at least know if it’s us that’s got her acting so strangely.”
“Maybe we’re reading too much into it. We just got back and we left things bad with her when we went. Maybe she’s just unhappy to be around us.” Rhett sighed. “I need to get that vacant stare off her face. I hate it.”
I agreed. I had a vision in my head of Maxie the night we’d kissed her and she’d been so full of fire. Even when she was angry at us the night before, her face had been animated and full of life. Whatever was happening with her that morning, though, I didn’t like.
Maxie was waiting on us when I pulled to a stop in front of the main house on her family’s ranch. She climbed into the backseat and greeted us with a nod.
I shifted in my seat, physically uncomfortable and annoyed at the way she was acting. I wanted a reaction. Before I could say or do anything, Rhett subtly patted my arm and shook his head. Swallowing down the need to prod at Maxie, I focused on driving into town instead.
The silence in the truck stretched on until I wanted to tug at my hair. I knew I wasn’t imagining the change in Maxie. We’d visited the Hellstone Ranch enough times to get to know the sweet younger sister of our buddies. She’d been kind, always had a bright smile on her face, and went out of her way to make sure we had everything we could ever have needed. Her parents had still been around then and it’d been clear she was obedient to them in ways the rest of her siblings weren’t. Even when she was cleaning up after a house full of her brothers’ messy friends, she’d always had a smile for us.
I understood her being angry at us and maybe even hating us for the way we’d treated her the morning after we’d kissed the shit out of her. She wasn’t just angry, though. She was a wall. I hadn’t seen her smile even once. Sitting next to her on the porch, I’d seen just how red and raw her bottom lip was from her chewing on it. She wasn’t just angry. She was unhappy.
I parked in front of the general store and looked back at her through the rearview mirror.
“Are you okay, Maxie?”
Her eyes snapped to mine and for a second, her mask slipped and I saw so much sadness in her eyes that I couldn’t catch my breath. As quick as it appeared, it disappeared, though.
She nodded and pushed open her door.
“I’m fine. I’ll just go pick up what I need.”
The three of us got out and followed her into the store, much to her displeasure. She’d tried to leave us behind but I wasn’t comfortable letting her out of my sight, not until I knew if she was okay, or not.
I caught up to her in the cleaning supply aisle and rested my hand on the small of her back. I felt her shiver and smiled as a bit of hope blossomed. Maybe she wasn’t immune to us. I wanted more of that human response. Leaning down, I lowered my voice and spoke so close to her ear that my mouth brushed against it.
“Thank you for helping with the house.”
She shuddered and her knuckles went white as she clutched a broom in her hand.
“It’s my job.”
I turned my back on the cleaning supplies so I could watch her face. She’d turned pink but I still wanted more.
“Do you want to know a secret, Maxine?”
Her eyes met mine finally, her curiosity getting the best of her.
“What?”
“I remember everything.” I let the words hang in the air between us for a moment before smiling. “If you’d been a few years older, you wouldn’t have gone home that night.”
Her mouth fell open and gone were all signs of that colder version of Maxie. Her cheeks were darker pink and I could see her pupils dilate as I spoke.
“We were too goddamn old for you but that didn’t mean you didn’t fucking ruin us for every other woman who came after. You made this little moan when we kissed you that I still hear in my head.” I moved closer and gripped her hip. “You want to know what I regret about that night?”
Her eyes pleaded with me to tell her everything but she was slowly dropping that wall back into place between us.
“No.”
I squeezed her hip.
“I regret not taking you and knocking you up with our kid that night. We knew what we wanted ten years ago and we were too worried to take it. We thought you needed to live your life without being tied to three men who were too old for you. Maybe what you needed was us, though. I know that we have a lot of work to do, convincing you we’re worth a shot again. No one has ever accused us of having poor work ethics, though, Maxine. Understand me?”
Her eyes were as wide as I’d ever seen them. Her mouth opened and closed a few times and her cheeks were bright red but she didn’t slap me so I counted it as a win.
I could sense someone behind me and I turned around to see Nellie, the youngest Hellstone sister. Her mouth was hanging open as she looked between me and her sister.
Stepping away from Maxie but leaving my hand on her hip, I smiled.
“Hey, Nellie. We wanted to say congrats and apologize for crashing your wedding yesterday but you were gone by the time we finished talking with your brothers.”
She was still staring at Maxie with her eyes bulging.
“Holy shit.”
Rhett came around me and pulled Nellie into a hug.
“Hey, kid. Congrats on the wedding. Did I see a wild little kid running around who looked just like you yesterday?”
Nellie seemed to remember herself then. She shook her head and laughed.
“Um, yeah. That’s Waylan, my daughter. What are… Why… How…”
Shep stood at Maxie’s other side and casually put his arm around her shoulders.
“I never knew you to ever be speechless back in the day, Nellie.”
“Yeah, well, I never knew my big sister was sneaking around, kissing grown men when no one was watching.” She reached forward and lightly slapped Maxie’s arm. “Go, Maxie!”
Maxie finally came to her senses and pulled away from us. She didn’t look back at any of us as she walked away, muttering. “I just need cleaning supplies.”