Next, she watched him walk away and quietly out the door.
The ache grew and encompassed her heart, making it clutch in her tight chest.
At that moment, realization hit like running full speed into a wall of stone. She, never going to fall again, O’Connor, had taken a nose dive off that cliff and had fallen in love with Max Whitfield.
“Fudge!” she muttered aloud, hoping she wasn’t going to do a belly flop into the bottom of that rocky canyon.
But how could she stop the disastrous outcome from happening all over again? Her heart just could not take that much damage; this time she feared it would be even worse.
Because it was the amazing, incredible, funny, caring, sexy, one-of-a-kind Max Whitfield.
A band of pain wrapped around her chest and squeezed tight. “What have I done?”
Chapter 17
Max tucked away the pain as best he could and strolled through King’s. He needed to see Danny. Maybe his sweet older brother could get his thoughts off the sassy lady he’d just left. The image of her eyes, wide and filled with hurt, haunted him. He was only trying to help. She’d thrown it back in his face.
But the hollow sensation grew as he only noticed happy families shopping together—mother and daughter holding up a dress in front of the younger one, husband and wife holding hands, and even siblings squabbling over a toy.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Danny popped up from straightening a shelf in the housewares department.
“Just visiting.”
“Yeah, right. What’s wrong?”
“You know me so well, brother.”
“Hmm…” He scratched his head. “Wonder why? You’re not the only one who sees things. Come on, I’m heading down to the storage room.” He nodded to the shelf. “More product.” He flicked his hand scanner over the label and the little machine beeped. “Out? How can you be out?” He shook his head.
“Looks like you're busy, so I’ll just go.”
“Nope, not getting away with that. Tell you what. I’ll take my break early.”
“I don’t want to bother you, bud.”
“No bother,” Danny insisted and latched a hand onto Max’s arm and directed him through the store.
“Pushy, aren’t you?”
“I learned that from Jay, Jonathan, and you.” He grinned, dodging a sudden rush of shoppers.
“The one thing that stuck.”
“Oh, there’s more. I just don’t tell you guys.”
A smile tugged up the corner of Max’s mouth. His mom and dad would be so proud of Danny and all he’d accomplished. In fact, they’d dreamed big for all their sons and the Whitfield brothers were doing their darnedest to live up to it.
“This way, Max.” Danny guided him through a maze of back corridors and stairs.
“Where in the world are you taking me? I thought the break room was that away.”
“It is. But this is even better.” He got to the top of the stairs and shoved on the metal bar. The door popped open and sunlight streamed through.
Racing the rest of the way to keep up, Max grabbed the door and walked out into the sunlight. “The rooftop,” he murmured.
“Like it?” Danny asked, turning around in a circle with his arms spread wide. “Uh, the sunshine. A lot of us come up here for breaks and lunches. Paige sits over there.” He nodded to a corner. “And draws while I talk to her.”
Max walked around, peeking over the almost neck-high wall and down at the traffic. He took it in and realized what a perfect spot this was and Annabelle would make it come to life. Irish! He tried to hide the sudden wave of sadness crashing over him.
Danny fished in his top pocket and yanked out a pack of trail mix. “Share?”
“It’s no cheese fries, but it will do.”
“You had to go and mention them, didn’t you? Now I want some.”
He followed his brother to a shady area and leaned against a cool, concrete wall. “Dinner? I’m game if you are.”
“Count me in.” He nudged Max, waiting for him to hold out his hand.
When Max did, Danny spilled some of the trail mix in Max’s palm. “Thanks, buddy.” He popped some in his mouth and chewed, but his mind was elsewhere.
“What’s eating you?”
“It’s a girl.” Why try to hide it?
“Annabelle. I like her.”
“Me, too.”
“She doesn’t like you? No way! Everyone likes you, Max.”
“Not her. Not in that way.” He sighed. “Just forget it, all right.” But he couldn’t. It nagged at him. No, her sweet face and the sadness that clung to her a few minutes ago refused to vanish from his mind and his thoughts.
“I can fix you up. There’s plenty of girls I know who work here.”
He shook his head, too fast. Yep, you got it bad, Whitfield. “I’ve got other things to concentrate on.” Tests, working out, practicing at the gun range… Right now, he forced them back to the forefront of his mind, but Annabelle teased him away.
“Is she worth it?” Paige asked from a short distance away.
Max and Danny jumped back.
“Paige, cripes, you scared us.” Danny swiped a hand over his forehead.
Pressing a hand to his racing heart, Max asked, “You’ve been there all this time?”
Sitting on the ground and with her legs crossed, she held up her sketch pad. “Working. I needed a breather from all that madness down there as they try to get the new wedding wing together.”
“You could have warned us, you know.”
“What, and miss the guy talk? Not on your life.”
“Does Jay know about your bad habit of skulking around?”
She chuckled. “I hide. I hear the most interesting things. What can I say?”
“You were supposed to be working on losing that fear of the spotlight thing,” Danny pointed out.
“Takes time, fellas. As my futures, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t bring up my flaws.”
“And right back at you, Paige,” Max added.
“Want some?” Danny held out the trail mix.
“Sure. You know how I have to feed the beast a gazillion times a day.” She took a heaping handful and gobbled it up.
“Fits right in to the Whitfield family.” Max grinned. “Healthy eater.”
“Enough about me, dear Max. Now, you haven’t answered my question.” She rolled to her feet and then brushed off her backside while holding the sketch pad and pencil in the other hand.
He got that sinking sensation in his gut as she faced him. He glanced at his watch. “Wow, look at the time. I’ve got to run.”
“Hold your horses,” Danny said.
Blowing out a pent-up breath, Max gave in. “I like her. She doesn’t like me. Not enough. We have other things to do with our lives. End of story. Now, I’ll see you two at the house later. Paige, you in for dinner?”
He didn’t even wait for her to answer; he’d already turned around and walked straight into Annabelle, along with Charlie and Peg and Griff. Max halted in his tracks, raised his hands, and then backed up a few steps.
“You heard?” He looked from Griff’s grim features to Charlie and Peg’s wide grins and then to Annabelle’s face as she hissed at him.
“Seriously, Max? Can’t you keep a lid on it?” she asked between gritted teeth. But her gorgeous green eyes studied him, searching, wondering.
Ah, there was his Irish! Full steam! “Apparently not. Got anything to say about it?”
***
“What invitation? When?” Annabelle asked a smiling Gigi and equally happy Joey as she walked in the door. They sat side by side, dressed in their best outfits. Joey’s dress pants, shirt, and tie looked rather cute under the cape. But, hey, it was much better than Superman pajamas day in and day out.
“Max called,” Joey said. “You’re invited too, Mom.”
She gulped hard. What part of no didn’t he get? But a hidden spot inside her did tingle in anticipation. He liked h
er. She felt like a teenager and the cutest guy in high school just asked her out.
Somewhere along the way, maybe when he’d studied her gaze earlier today and she saw something, an intensity—hunger for her—she’d stopped comparing Max to Joseph.
Spending time with Max and seeing how he was with his brothers, Joey, Gigi, and others showed he wasn’t reckless or selfish. In fact, just the opposite. He had nothing to prove. His place in his world was secure and it showed with his confidence in who he was. And Max’s innate sense of helping burned bright. That appealed to her.
No, that triggered something deep inside.
That great big heart of his expanded and enveloped her, making her sink and slide right into a huge pile of thirsty, helpless need.
Annabelle shook her head, hoping against hope it would knock some sense into her. Guard up! Hold steady!
“What a sweetheart, isn’t he?” Gigi placed an arm around Joey. “He wants us to meet his family.”
Okay, now her heart jumped into her throat. He was playing dirty. “That’s nice.” She tried to sound neutral, but she quaked. How could she spend any more time with him and not give it away?
It was bad enough on the rooftop when she and essentially her new bosses for the biggest job in her entire life overheard him discussing her with his brother and Paige today.
Max lied; she liked him way too dang much for her own good.
And what had he done? Tested her resolve yet again.
“I almost forgot. Annabelle, I got the call. King’s is bringing me back for a live sewing spot or is it a live sewing interview? Either one. I got through the initial phase.”
“That’s great, Gigi! I’m happy for you.”
“Hurry up, Mom, and get ready. Do your hair or something. Max will be here any minute.”
“Here?” Annabelle lifted a hand to pat down her wayward hair. “Now?” Yep, she was reduced to teenage angst all over again.
Chapter 18
Awkward couldn’t even describe how she felt at the moment, pressed along Max’s side at the large circular booth.
“Comfy?” he whispered in her ear.
She shivered, having a sudden and wild craving for him to kiss her neck where his breath trailed. “You are going to regret this,” she said as she smiled at the others watching them. His brothers were particularly interested.
“Not at the moment, I’m not.”
“Later.”
“Promise? That means I get a later.”
Tingling sensations raced down her spine. She couldn’t trust herself being so close to him. Away was bad enough, but this near, he’d be her undoing.
“This is lovely,” Gigi exclaimed again from across the table, sandwiched between Danny and Jonathan. “A private dinner party here at Whitfield’s Sports Bar? Thank you for asking us.”
Joey beamed up at Jay. “Yeah, thanks. I love my football. Max bought me a special case to put it in and everything. I’ve got it right beside my picture of my dad and me.”
“It was my son’s football,” Gigi explained. “Now it’s Joey’s.”
“And Max bought me a new one, so I could still play. And we threw it around in my backyard and it was so cool.”
Jay raised his eyebrows as he looked over at Max. “That’s my brother, one of the good guys.”
“He’s my friend.”
Annabelle swallowed hard. Joey finally had someone to gush about, someone real and alive. Why Max? How could she fix this?
“That’s our Max,” Danny said, raising a glass. “Cheers to my little brother, who by this time next week will find out if he gets the a-okay.”
“Where? To the funny farm?” Annabelle asked under her breath.
“Now I see why you can’t make a living at doing stand-up,” Max chimed in.
“Here’s to Officer Whitfield!” Jonathan clinked his glass of lemonade with Gigi’s.
“Cheers!” the others called out in unison.
“Officer?” A chill went through Annabelle as she turned to fully face him. “You’re enlisting?” Her lips were numb. No, not again!
“The police academy,” he corrected.
“A cop?”
“It’s my calling, I guess you could say.”
Annabelle swerved away from him, mindful of the others chatting. “That’s dangerous.” Had she been wrong about him?
“It can be sometimes.”
“You’re risking your life.” She purposely kept her voice low and steady, even though she wanted to scream and shake her fists at him. The memory of doing the same to Joseph when he’d finally told her he was enlisting in the Army reared up. How could she have been so foolish as to think Max was any different?
“A peace officer.”
No matter what he said to defend what he was doing, she couldn’t ignore the danger he’d be in. “Excuse me,” she said, nudging him to move. “Ladies’ room.”
In less than five minutes, Annabelle scrambled to the restroom where she’d hustled into that first night. It was as big and beautiful and impressive as it was then. However, she stood at the sink with her hands under warm water, trying to get it to seep into her freezing blood and invade her cold, shaking body.
“No,” she whispered. You let your guard down and see what happened. “Not again.” The long days that dragged by and the even longer sleepless nights when she tossed and turned wondering if Joseph would make it home replayed themselves in her head. But it was her heart that beat in a wild tempo, fear rising up and nearly choking her.
“You care,” Max said from behind her.
She whipped around, spraying herself and him with water. “What are you doing here?”
Max walked to her and then reached around, turning off the faucet. He was mere inches from her and searching her gaze.
“How could you?” A weak sob broke through. She felt helpless and out of control. Again. “You have a family.”
“I have an obligation, too.”
“It’s your duty?”
“It’s my right, Irish. Just like it’s my right to want to stop the bad guys from hurting the good guys and leaving their families fatherless or motherless.”
His dad! It made so much sense now. She closed her eyes and tipped her forehead until it touched his big, wide chest. In seconds, he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back. “Why?”
“I just told you why.”
“No, why do I get mixed up with guys who want to save the world?”
“’Cause we’re cute?”
Her soft chuckle eased some of her anxiety. “And obviously have a big ego.”
“Ouch! Now tell me how you really feel about me.”
Was he joking or just curious?
Lifting her head, she allowed her gaze to travel upward over his solid chest, then the small V of his open buttoned-down dove gray shirt, the light tanned skin it exposed, up to his neck and the pulse thrumming there, to his strong, smooth jawline, to his mouth with those hot, firm lips of his, and then to meet his light brown eyes.
They were soft and searching hers. She saw questions there and a hint of vulnerability.
The last tugged at her heart. He wasn’t joking one bit. “Max…” Annabelle stopped herself from brushing it all aside. “I never wanted to feel again. It hurt so much to watch on the sidelines as he made the decisions about our life. He was hell-bent on providing for us, but it backfired. It cost us all. Gigi, me, and especially Joey. I can’t let that happen again.”
“You like me.” He grinned.
She jabbed him in the gut. “Is that all you got out of this, Whitfield?”
“Good right punch. You may pass the academy’s self-defense class with flying colors.” He raised his eyebrows.
“You’re exasperating, do you know that?”
“Wow! I just slid up a notch. You really like me.”
Throwing up her hands, she said, “Just shut up and kiss me one last time, all right?”
“I like when you’re feisty.” He slid his fin
gers through her hair.
There was a noise near the door. She stilled.
“Hold on to me.”
“Huh?” But she did touch his sides and felt him quiver in return. It sent a tiny thrill through her.
“Come on, walk with me.” He took several steps back and she went with him.
“Where?”
“The stall.”
He reached the door to one. Visions of Charlie racing to get to it in the nick of time popped in her head. “Not that one. Long story.”
Max grinned as he allowed her to back him to the next stall. She squeezed in first, dragging him in behind her. Together they shimmied to get the door closed. It banged shut, but they didn’t bother with the lock.
His large frame filled the tiny enclosed space. His shirt, wet with the water she’d sprayed on him, dampened the front of her white blouse. He was here. So real. So overwhelming to her senses. She’d take this moment with him, savor it, and hold it close in the long, achingly lonely days she knew would come. “Kiss me.”
“Shhh!” He pressed a long, warm finger against her lips. “Someone’s—”
The bathroom door thrust open. “I gotta go,” Gigi said. The clicking of her heels on the tile floor echoed in the room.
“Max,” Annabelle hissed as a wave of humiliation swept through her. Her mother-in-law?!
Instead of backing off, he teased her, softly tracing his finger over her lips. It did the strangest things to her, making her sizzle from where he touched and all the way down to her core.
“Stop,” she mouthed. But inside, she felt sexy and wanton and alive.
He leaned so close that his lips were a hairsbreadth away. He brushed his against hers and she let out a soft moan. A rush of tingles scattered through her.
“Don’t mind me, you two,” Gigi called out. “Just keep on doing what you’re doing. Not for me to judge. Here, I’ll put on the water so you don’t have to hear me.”
The spigot turned with a slight squeak and a gush of water rushed out.
“How’s that?” She didn’t wait for them to answer. “Oh, geez, that makes me have to go even more.”
once upon a romance 08 - making a splash Page 11
