Chapter 6 #2
“But Portland?” She wasn’t buying it. “Does Max know?”
“He knows I can’t stay at the inn forever.” My phone vibrated in my hand. My driver was two minutes away. “My ride is almost here. Please tell Lou thank you for everything, and I’ll send back the clothes as soon as I get new ones.”
I backed toward the door as I spoke and then slipped through it as soon as I was done. Having a place to stay was first on the list. Getting some clothes would be next.
“Daisy?”
Crap.
“Hey, Lou,” I said, watching her wide eyes scan over me.
“Where are you going?”
Apparently, I couldn’t even get jilted without having to do a walk of shame.
“I just told Harper…I’m heading back to Portland for right now until I figure things out.” I hiked my bag higher on my shoulder.
Her warm eyes rounded. “I told Max you were welcome to stay here as long as you need—”
“I don’t need a place to stay, Lou,” I insisted, softening my tone when I saw how my outburst hurt her.
I didn’t mean to be harsh, but I needed to be firm.
“I’m so grateful you’ve let me stay this week to…
let the storm pass, but I can’t just live at your inn, as wonderful as it is.
I need to figure out what I’m going to do and find something long-term for me and the baby. ”
Leaving the inn wasn’t just for practical reasons.
It was for emotional survival. Somewhere over the last few days, this place had come to symbolize everything I’d hoped—a wedding, a family, a man who would keep his promise to support me.
And staying was like clinging to an inner tube in the middle of a hurricane.
There was no hope left for that life. I needed to start on a new one, and in order to do that, I needed to leave.
Lou swallowed hard. “If you’re sure.”
If it were Frankie I was speaking to, she would’ve protested.
But Lou didn’t like to push, especially someone who was trying to strike out on her own.
While we were planning the wedding, she’d shared with me how she’d pursued her dream to own the inn and every hurdle she’d overcome to make it happen on her own.
“I need to figure this out on my own,” I said, the words as much of a benefit to myself as they were for her.
I couldn’t rely on anyone. I knew that—I’d known that.
I’d forgotten it for a blip when the baby was involved, and I decided to give Todd a chance, to give him the benefit of my doubt for every effort he’d put into the wedding.
But it was a mistake. Now, I couldn’t think of all the hurdles I had to sort out.
I had to take this one day—one problem—at a time.
First, a place to live.
My phone buzzed twice just as a dark blue Toyota pulled up to the curb. “Oh, I think my ride is here.” I pulled her in for a hug. “Thank you for everything, Lou.”
“If there’s anything you need…” She didn’t need to say the rest. I knew. I knew I could count on her the same way I knew I could count on Max, and that was the exact reason I refused to. I was grateful for everything they’d already done. I wouldn’t ask for more.
“Daisy?” The driver confirmed when I opened the door.
“Yes, thank you.” Tires screeched, and I jerked my head up to see Max’s white truck veer in front of the car, effectively blocking it in the spot.
What—
A door slammed, and then I saw him. He looked furious but ruggedly gorgeous in a pair of worn jeans and a soft flannel, stalking around his truck toward me.
This was the Max I was used to seeing. The one I’d ride shotgun with in the early days of MaineStems. The one who let Todd deal with suits and stuck-up investors, and opted instead for the cozy gentleman who just wanted to bring people flowers.
“Hey, man—”
“Daze, what are you doing?” Max ignored the Uber driver and came over to me, stopping just on the other side of the open car door.
Me? What was he doing? How did he—I caught Harper in my periphery as she appeared at the entrance to the inn, phone in hand. That was how.
I lifted my chin. “I’m going back to my apartment in the city.”
Letting Max Hamilton play my knight in steadfast armor these last four days was my second-worst mistake after agreeing to marry Todd McCormick. Max had an insatiable need to help everyone around him, just like I had an insatiable need not to be helped.
“You don’t have the lease anymore.”
“I’m going to get it back.”
His jaw flexed like the muscles were laying down roots. “You can’t.”
“Of course, I can. I’m sure Mike didn’t rent it again so soon—”
“I meant you can’t go back and stay in the city by yourself.”
“You mean like I used to?” I demanded, irritation clawing at the edges of my voice.
“Excuse me, do you need the ride—”
“Yes—”
“No!”
Max grabbed the edge of the door, looking like he might rip it from its hinges the way one would tear a Band-Aid off skin.
“You can’t go back to Portland alone, Daze. Not now. Not with the baby.”
“What am I supposed to do? Live here at your cousin’s inn and twiddle my thumbs until either the baby comes or her father does?
” I choked out a laugh of disbelief. At this moment, I wasn’t sure I’d ever let Todd back into her life.
Not until she was old enough to fully understand what she risked losing by doing so.
“That’s not me, Max. You know that. I can take care of myself.
I will take care of myself and the baby.
I’ll get my apartment back. My old job back. ”
“Bartending? On your feet all day?” He rounded the door like a lion stalking his prey.
Max was rarely this…intense. This demanding. Even when people tried to take advantage of him, of his business, he was still placating. The only time I saw him like this…was this week. Protecting me.
I stepped back, the thought more of an assault than his closeness or his earthy-mint scent that buried into my nostrils.
“It’s not forever. It’s for right now. For survival,” I argued. “It’s doing what I have to do to get by—”
“Look, I can’t wait around—” The driver’s interruption was truncated when Max shut the car door. I hadn’t even noticed I’d moved far enough for him to be able to do so.
“Then go,” Max snarled.
The driver didn’t need to be told twice. A second later, the engine revved, and he started K-turning his way out of the spot.
“Max,” I pleaded, hating the weakness in my voice, hating how my reserves of strength had been so depleted.
Why was he even here right now? He shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t be worried about me. I wasn’t his responsibility. But if I were…Goosebumps trickled through my veins.
He moved closer. “You need a job? Fine. You can work at MaineStems,” Max said, his low voice rumbling as he towered over me. For some reason, it didn’t feel imposing but instead like a shelter from the storm.
“Doing what? Delivering flowers?” I shook my head. How was I even considering this? “I can’t. I won’t take a handout. I don’t need one.”
“It’s not a handout,” he insisted harshly. “You know I need a driver. You’ve been riding with me all week. I’m not making up the fact that I’m short-staffed.”
I bit into my cheek. Well, that much was true. And the driving was easy, and it settled my mind. And Max was a good boss. Working for him would be a better situation than bartending into all hours of the night. I gripped my bag tighter. Was I really going to consider this?
It wasn’t just the job I needed.
“No,” I heard myself say. “My apartment is in Portland—”
“There’s an apartment above the MaineStems storefront in Stonebar. You can live there. It’s safe. Convenient. And I’ll take the rent from your pay.” He added that last for my benefit, knowing I’d refuse a handout.
My brows pinched, arming myself with skepticism. “Who lives there now?”
“No one,” he answered smoothly. “I’ve rented it to several employees before who needed time to get their bearings. It’s why I have it.”
I stared at him, lost myself for several seconds in the warm moss of his eyes.
There was something about his offer that pricked at me, like a thorn on the stem of a rose.
There was something he wasn’t telling me, but at this point, how much of a difference would it make?
I had to rely on someone’s charity right now, whether it was Max’s or my old landlord or last boss to take me back, knowing I’d be going out on maternity leave in a few months.
I rolled my bottom lip through my teeth, considering.
Rationalizing. It was a steady job. A place to live.
Even if it was temporary. Everything about my life was temporary right now.
I just needed something temporarily stable, and this…
this was so tempting, I thought as my gaze slid down the pulsing cords of his neck to the stretch of his broad shoulders and the hard planes of his chest.
The offer wasn’t the only thing that was tempting, my hormones whispered, like some kind of little devil on my shoulder.
Swallowing, I ducked my head to the side and then turned my steady, attraction-absent gaze up to his. “It’s just temporary.”
Every angle of his body sharpened. I hadn’t even technically agreed to his offer, but he saw I was going to, and somehow that made my acceptance feel that much more vulnerable.
Max lowered his chin, saying nothing.
“And as soon as I figure out where the baby and I are going to go, you’ll have to find someone else.”
“Understood,” he said, already removing my bag from my shoulder. I stood a little taller without the weight, thinking there was a metaphor somewhere in there to unpack.
“One last thing,” I said, waiting for Max to stop and meet my eyes. “I need you to tell me you’re not doing this because you feel responsible.”
Beggars couldn’t be choosers, but I needed to hear the words. His help, a handout—I could manage my resentment toward either of those things. What I couldn’t handle was being Max’s guilt trip.
My ex-fiancé’s best friend dropped his head for a second before looking up at me with pure anguish. “I’m not doing this for Todd or because of Todd, Daze.” His lips tightened. “I’m not thinking about Todd at all right now.”
Suddenly, I felt the soft weight of a blush on my cheeks and a strange, warm buzz trickle through my veins.
“Okay,” I murmured. “Then I accept your offer.”
Just temporarily.
A temporary job. A temporary home. A temporary connection to the man who stayed when the boy I was going to marry fled.
And then I would move on, independent and alone and without the forbidden attraction I’d harbored for Max Hamilton from the very first day we met.
Before I knew he was my boyfriend’s best friend… and then in spite of it.
It wasn’t ideal, but I was no longer a girl with options.
I was a pregnant woman whose only concern was her baby.
So I broke my own rule of not putting myself in front of temptation and followed Max Hamilton back to his truck.
He was the best thing for my daughter’s future, in spite of what he risked for mine.