by Sonya Weiss
“Three is once I kiss my soul mate and he’s on board with a relationship, that’s it. You’ll become my business partner.”
“And I’m not responsible if you blow it with one of your amazing soul mates or the guy bails in the end,” Max said firmly.
“Agreed. Though I’m not going to blow it, and my soul mate won’t want to bail. Now that we have the details settled, bright and early tomorrow morning, we’ll work on the first name on the list: Bennet. I’ll need to know where he hangs out now, so as soon as you let me know that, I can—”
“Brakes on there, runaway brain. I have a coffee shop to manage, don’t forget.”
She rolled her eyes, the “duh” implied. “I know that. But if we’re going to stage a casual run-in for me and him, you have to find out where Bennet is going to be. You can do that from the shop.”
Max exited the interstate to take the back road winding around the town leading to the heart of Bethel Heights. “You’re going to set up at the coffee shop?”
“Yes, but I won’t be in the way.” Haley wished she’d brought her tablet with her. She could start outlining their plan right now.
“You’re always in the way,” he said.
She looked at Max’s profile. Oh, there was a miserably unhappy man. She couldn’t help herself. “We could still seal the deal with a kiss. After all, you did say I was sooooo beautiful.” She made duck lips and smacked them loudly.
“I can barely contain my excitement.” He slowed to pull up the hill into the parking lot of Straus’s and set the parking brake. “Hard pass, thanks.”
Haley indicated the side of the main building. “They have a smaller combo-locked building in the back. We unload it there and—”
“Things have changed. Remember, I’m the one who’s worked with your dad all these years.” He nodded toward the first building. “The owners have a storage area in there for deliveries now.”
Ooh…judgy, like it was her fault she didn’t know and hadn’t come home to stay sooner. But now that he was going to help her, she took the high road and let that slide. “Oh. I didn’t know.” She got out with him, and together they climbed into the back of the truck.
Haley stood behind the sleigh as Max unhooked the ropes. When he finished the last one, the sleigh, propelled by the gravity of the hill, slid toward Haley. She stumbled over her feet, scrambling backward, trying to get out of the way.
Before the sleigh careened into her, Max was between it and her, his back taking the brunt of the impact. He grunted as the weight of it pushed him forward, and, bracing himself, he planted a hand on either side of Haley, cocooning her in his personal space.
He was so close, so warm and well built…
He gazed down at her. “You know what this means?” he asked.
Shaken by both her thoughts and the near accident, Haley worked to calm her breathing. “Yes,” she whispered. “You tried to kill me.”
Max threw his head back and laughed, and the sound jolted Haley. He had a full-bodied, strong laugh. When he sobered, and their eyes met again, she had more trouble getting her breathing under control. This—Max the Protector—didn’t jibe with all she knew about him. But he’d seen her in the line of fire and stepped in. Probably to protect his potential partnership. If she kicked it, he’d lose that.
Haley ducked under his arm and climbed from the truck, glad her legs were slowing the wobbling act, glad her heart was returning to its normal beat. “Thanks for—”
“Flexing my big strong muscles and saving the day? Pulling you from the brink of death? You’re welcome. Now move your little self out of the way, and let the man take care of business.”
She knew he didn’t really feel that way. He was only talking like that, picking at her, to get a rise out of her. They’d sparred from their first meeting, all the way back in kindergarten, but she wasn’t going to take the bait today.
Max arched and a hiss of breath escaped his lips.
“Why are you holding your back?” she asked.
Before she thought it through, she zipped over to him and tugged his shirt up to inspect his back. A red mark ran down the middle of his skin.
“Relax.” He pulled the shirt down. “I’ll live. Much to your dismay.”
Haley wouldn’t be deterred. “Is something else hurting? What about your ribs? You could have cracked one.”
“I’d know it if I had.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” She moved to stand in front of him and yanked the shirt up again. Hello, six-pack abs. So taut.
“If you could mop up your drool and step aside, we’ll finish the job and get back home.”
Haley dropped his shirt like it housed a family of spiders. “Drool over you? Guess you hit your head, too.”
“There’s enough drool to fill a kiddie pool. If you want the kiss after all, I’ll reluctantly do it, but fair warning: then you won’t be satisfied with any of the men on your list. I’m a hard man to forget.”
“Whenever I think there might be the tiniest speck of a chance that I could have been wrong about you all these years, you open your mouth and spew out a stupid or egotistical statement reminding me that, no, I was right the first time.”
If her words bothered him, Max didn’t let on. He just chuckled and worked silently alongside her until they had the sleigh unloaded and safely tucked in place in the Straus’s building.
Haley filled out the delivery form, jotted down her father’s cell number as a reminder in case there was a problem, and tore off the customer copy. She slid it into the clear plastic pouch attached to the front of the sleigh, then dusted off her hands. “And we can officially call it a night.”
Max locked the door after they exited. He stretched, then rotated his shoulders and winced.
He was hurting and covering it up. She didn’t know why guys had that walk it off mentality with injuries. “I’ll drive us home,” she said.
“Wake me if I snore.” Max settled in the seat and leaned his head back.
“No conversation with you? No side-seat driving? What a delight for me.”
“My back is killing me.” He shifted.
Contrite, Haley bit her lip. “Do you need me to stop and get pain medicine?”
He shook his head. “I think I’m going to have to take time off from work. I’ll head up to my grandfather’s fishing cabin and stay there for a week or three or four until it heals.”
“Nice try. I can’t believe you’d want to slither out of helping after you gave your word.”
“I could be next on the Grim Reaper’s visitation route. Do you really want the last thing you say to me to be something hateful? Then you’d have a small strange feeling of, hmm…could it be? Remorse?”
She shrugged and grinned. “That’s not an emotion I experience when dealing with you. I mean what I say.”
“Bluntly honest, as always. How’s that working out for your dating life?”
She shot him a look. “What about you? Catch that you are, Max, why haven’t you started dating again?”
Max tensed, his mouth drawing into a hard, straight line.
Ooh. Wrong question.
“Working at the shop and with your dad and helping with family stuff keeps me too busy to consider dating.”
“Uh-huh. Or maybe it’s because of Annalise.”
“Haley, I already said I’m going to help you with your man plan. Dissecting my life is off-limits.”
“Studies have shown suppressing painful emotional experiences can lead to stress, which can lead to impotence.”
Max shot into a straight position, sending her a withering look. “You want to talk? Let’s talk. How are you doing after the famous breakup with Doug?” He raised his eyebrows.
Ouch. Razor blade across the heart. “Fine. You made your point, but I wasn’t trying to be hurtful. I’m just saying that some
one new might help you get over her.” Haley suspected the first time she’d met Annalise that the woman was rotten to the core, more plastic than real. She’d hated sweet tea, country music, and football. All things that Max enjoyed. “You might want to think about being open to the idea.”
“Haley…” He huffed out her name in an irritated drawl and then set about ignoring her for the rest of the drive.
Which left her alone with her thoughts, and the more she thought about Max’s lacking love life, the more an idea took root. Maybe he wasn’t dating because he was busy and the opportunity hadn’t presented itself. She could introduce him to the women she knew. Just because she despised him didn’t mean they wouldn’t find him appealing. “If you could let yourself open up to possibilities, my friend isn’t dating anyone.”
He didn’t bother to look her way. “The woman who puts that yip-yip dog in tights and shoes? And calls him my sunny honey?”
“No, that’s Cami.”
“The one who dresses up like a pirate and goes to all those conventions?”
“No, that’s—what’s your point?”
“Your friends are weird.”
“Those are more acquaintances than friends. I was talking about Roxy.”
He opened his eyes. “The hot friend?”
A burn launched in the pit of Haley’s stomach. “That’s what you notice? Her appearance?”
“You are such a hypocrite,” he shot back. “At Straus’s, when you were frothing and filling the kiddie pool while gazing longingly at my abdomen, I’ll bet you weren’t thinking about my work ethic, were you?”
“Ha! There was no longing,” she said because she couldn’t think of a better comeback. What bothered her more than what he’d said was the way her stomach flipped when she imagined Max with Roxy. Until she rationalized she was bothered because she couldn’t stick a friend she loved dearly with Max, the fiend.
…
He’d already been hard at work for three hours by the time Haley walked into the shop at eight the next morning. Last night, after he’d driven to his own place, he’d thought he’d drop right off to sleep. He’d ended up tossing and turning instead.
Being forced to spend time in her company didn’t top his list of favorite things to do, but he’d thrown down the gauntlet—who would have thought she wouldn’t cave on the partnership point?—and she’d bested him. He wanted that partnership desperately but didn’t like the idea of being the dating go-to guy.
Max continued to stock supplies behind the counter while keeping an eye on Haley.
She set a tablet on one of the round tables, waved at someone walking past the shop outside, and then approached the counter. “Caramel latte, extra drizzle,” she told his employee and then pointed to the bakery case. “And add a blueberry muffin.”
“It’s on the house,” Max said when she tried to pay.
She gave him a suspicious glance. “Thanks. Ready?” she asked once she had her coffee and muffin.
Max noticed the shop was still filling up with customers, and he didn’t relish the thought of anyone overhearing their conversation about kisses and soul mates. Someone might get the wrong idea. “Let’s take this to my office.” He led the way down a short hallway in the back.
“First sucker on the list?” he asked as he shut the door to his office.
“First sucker? Think positive, Max. The first lucky guy on the list,” she corrected.
This morning, Haley wore a blue sweater over slim jeans that accentuated her long legs. Boots with heels that looked like spikes adorned her feet. She’d curled her hair and had done something to it to make it look fuller. She opened her mouth—her lips were lushly coated in pink lipstick that made it difficult to look away—and called his name.
Max broke out of his trance. “What?”
“Roxy told me Bennet has a new phone number. I asked if you know it.”
“No, but he works in the emergency room over at the hospital.”
“He’s a doctor now?” Haley sighed dreamily. “In high school he talked about going to medical school. He always did have such a deep concern for others.”
Max snorted. “He went into medicine for the money.”
“I assumed you and Bennet were friends.”
“We’re not,” he said flatly.
“Still, that shouldn’t be a problem.” She took a wallet from her purse, set it on his desk, and then pulled out a stylus to tap on her tablet. When she was done, she held it up. “Here’s his picture on the hospital website. Isn’t he handsome?”
“Adorable. My heart beats faster just thinking about him.”
Haley rolled her eyes and lowered the tablet. “Plan A is you contact the hospital and invite Bennet to lunch. You’ll happen to run into me at the same restaurant. You invite me to dine with the two of you, and then you make some excuse and leave. I wonder where he hangs on social media.”
“Leave without lunch?”
Her head snapped up. “Three’s a crowd, Max. Once you smooth over anything he’s heard about the video and—”
“Smooth it over by telling him what? Start by asking what he thought of you getting dumped and then attacking your ex-boyfriend’s new girl?”
Haley bared her teeth in either a poor imitation of a smile or because she was preparing to bite him and said, “I did not attack her.”
“You shoved her backward onto the curb.”
“Someone in the crowd pushed me. I tripped. I am not a violent person.”
Max held his fist under his mouth like it was a microphone. “Haley Bowman swore to that statement during her trial.”
Haley harrumphed and turned her attention back to her tablet. “Found him. It says Bennet is single and loves kayaking; mountain climbing; and long, romantic walks on the beach.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Buzzword,” he said.
Haley looked up impatiently.
“Guys don’t use the word ‘romantic’ unless they’re trying to impress a woman, hook up with a woman, or make amends with a woman.”
“Some guys do.”
“Name one.” He arched his eyebrows. “Dougie, the wonder boyfriend? Bzzt. Time’s up. See? You couldn’t name a single man.”
“Whatever, Max. I’m feeling too happy to waste time sparring with you.” She tore the end from an invoice on his desk and then liberated a pen from the stash in a cup. Her hand moved swiftly back and forth. “This is the hospital number. Call and ask for Bennet.”
Max took the paper, picked up the office phone, and dialed. When someone answered, he coughed and wheezed like he was on his last leg. “May I please”—wheeze, wheeze—“speak to Bennet Jameson?” He covered the receiver with his hand when Haley frantically tapped on his arm.
“What are you doing?” she hiss-whispered.
“He might come to the phone faster if he thinks I’m about to roll over and take a dirt nap.” He went back to wheezing.
Face red, Haley yanked the phone line out of the wall and held the end up like she wanted to strangle him with it. “Helping me means acting mature when you do it.”
Max put the phone down. “I didn’t realize you were going to critique my acting skills.”
A mutinous set to her jaw, Haley took out her cell phone and dialed. “Hi, this is Max Gallagher’s assistant. I’d like to leave a message for Bennet Jameson. Could you please have him call Max at I Bean Business? Thank you so much.” She jabbed the screen like she wished it were one of his eyes.
“See?” he said. “That wasn’t so hard. You can handle this quest yourself.”
She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. “You’re deliberately trying to sabotage the agreement so I’ll tell you to go away and leave me alone.”
“Me? Why would I not want to spend time with you? You’re as special as a long, romantic walk on the beach.”
>
“Screw this up for me, and I swear, Max Gallagher, not only will you not get the partnership but you’ll wish you’d never met me.”
“Like I don’t already?” He held his hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. I’ll stop teasing and make sure I truss Bennet up and hand deliver him to the restaurant. You name the time and place.”
She gave him a long, suspicious stare. No doubt her flushed face and heaving chest were a result of fighting the urge to separate his head from his neck.
“You look like you want that kiss now.” He imitated the duck lips she’d made in the delivery truck.
“In your dreams.” She checked her phone. “Lunch at Dollie’s. One o’clock.”
“And if everything goes well, you won’t need the rest of the list.”
“Not so.” She shook her head. “I have to kiss each of them to know which guy is the one.”
“When you do find the one, I’ll be able to say at your wedding that I played a small but pivotal part in getting the lovebirds together.”
She gathered her things. “What makes you think I’d invite you to my wedding?” She headed for the door paused, and her gaze drifted to his lips.
Max felt a jolt down to his bones, and his throat went dry. He imagined those full lips under his, moving hungrily, sensuously, as she pleaded with him, You need to come to my house tonight…
Her words faded as he stared at her lips until they stopped moving.
“Yes,” he said enthusiastically, attention snapping back to the present. Leaping to his feet, he added, “I’ll be there.”
She blinked. “Dad is making spaghetti. Nothing to get so excited about. He told me to invite you. I’ll be at Suzie’s going over wedding stuff, so you won’t have to worry about running into me.”
Feeling like an idiot and trying to cover his reaction, Max said, “Are you kidding? I love spaghetti. Especially your dad’s.”
“Okay… He said to come over about eight.” Shaking her head, she started to leave.
“Wait. You left your wallet.”
“Oh, thanks.” She reached for it, and their fingers brushed.
He couldn’t pull away, and she remained rooted to the spot. Did she…? There was the look at his lips again. A small V marred the skin between her eyes.
