by Jolie Day
“Excellent!” she exclaimed, turning away—but not letting go of his appendage. “Regina!” She waved at the bartender and Regina gave her a tiny grin as she walked over and placed down her drink.
“What can I do you crazy kids for?” she asked, smiling in amusement at Max, who glared back.
“Get this handsome young man another drink, darling; whatever he wants,” Pauline purred, fluttering her eyelashes up at Max, whose smile was more like a grimace. Regina snorted and cleared her throat.
“Another shot of whiskey?” she asked. He nodded, pressing his lips together and she laughed, reaching behind her for the whiskey and pouring Max another shot. He wasted no time before downing it. “Another?” she asked. He nodded and she poured another. He downed it and tapped the glass for another. “Last one,” she warned. “Beer for the rest of the night.”
“Whatever,” Max husked. “Just pour the damn shot.”
She did and he downed it, starting to feel the effects of the alcohol running through his veins. He turned to the clinging woman and gave her an almost serene smile. “Hi,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Max.”
She gave him a man-eating smile. “Pauline,” she greeted.
“Pauline,” Max purred. “What a lovely name. Would you just give me a moment?” He slipped off the stool and turned to Regina. “Can we talk?”
“I have customers,” she pointed out, though the bar was pretty empty.
“I don’t think your business is going to suffer for one minute,” Max deadpanned. Regina rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” she said, placing down the cup she was wiping and walking down the bar. Max gave Pauline a small, polite smile as he followed her.
Once they were safely out of earshot, he turned to look down at her, glaring. “Did you do this?” he hissed.
“Do what?” Regina asked, grinning up at him.
“Send that in my direction.” He pointed at Pauline and Regina frowned, slapping his hand down.
“Don’t be mean,” she chastised. “Pauline is a very nice woman. I’ve known her since I was a kid. She just comes on a little…strong.”
“She’s married, isn’t she?” Max asked, folding his arms over his chest.
“There’s no ring on her finger,” Regina pointed out.
“That’s not what I asked.”
Regina sighed. “Yeah,” she finally admitted, “she’s married. So what? Her husband is kind of an ass. She just wants a little fun.”
“But she’s married,” Max sighed. “I don’t do married women.”
“So you have standards?” Regina snorted.
“Yes,” Max said, seriously. “Of course I do.” The look in his eyes was like stone and Regina found herself turning away.
“Fine,” she said. “Just humor her a little, okay? You don’t have to take her to your room or follow her home. Just flirt with her a little bit; let her get it out of her system.”
“As long as she keeps her hands to herself,” Max grunted.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” Regina laughed. “Is that all you needed to talk about?”
“No. There’s, uh, something else I need to ask you.” He hesitated, looking away. Regina’s eyes tracked the way his biceps quivered underneath the leather of his jacket. She swallowed thickly and tried to focus on the matter at hand.
“Well?” she asked, after a moment of silence. “What do you need to ask?”
Max took a deep breath and looked deep into Regina Carlisle’s eyes, searching the deep blue depths. “Okay,” he said. “Okay. Would you want to…accompany me to dinner tomorrow night?”
Chapter Three
Regina
The words were blurted out without any breath in between them. It took Regina a moment to process them, but then she was gaping and glaring and pulling away from him.
“What?” she said. “No! Absolutely not.”
“Look, it’s not what you think,” he said, tugging at her wrist as she turned to walk away. “I ran into an old friend of my father’s in town today.”
“And?” Regina asked, pulling her wrist away and crossing her arms over her chest. She could still feel his warmth on the skin of her wrist and she tried to ignore it in favor of lifting her brow at him. “What does that have to do with me?”
“Do you know Ray Sawyer?” he asked. “He has a wife named Grace and a daughter, Mary.”
Regina softened a little. “Yeah,” she said. “I know Mary. I’ve seen her around with her son. Never met her parents.”
“Well, they’re old friends and I used to…I used to date Mary.” Regina’s eyes widened at that. “Yeah, it wasn’t for long, but we have a bit of a history. Anyway, Ray invited me for dinner tomorrow night and he seemed like he wanted to try and get me and Mary back together, but I’m not…I don’t have time for that, you know? I have business to take care of.”
“So why didn’t you just say no?” Regina sighed. “Why’d you have to drag me into it?”
“You’re the most convenient choice,” Max admitted. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Regina replied, dryly.
“Look, I can’t exactly say no to Ray, okay? He was my dad’s best friend and I…I haven’t exactly kept in touch since he passed. It’s just a couple of hours.”
“I have to work,” Regina argued, weakly. The bar was all but dead on Monday nights. Not even Jimmy showed up.
“You can open a couple hours later than usual,” Max pointed out. “Hell, I’ll pay for any business lost. And I’ll buy the first two rounds when we get back. Come on, help me out here.”
Regina took a deep breath, considering him, her arms still folded over her chest.
“Fine,” she said, finally. “But you don’t kiss me or call me any cheesy nicknames. Deal?”
“Of course,” Max said, with a nod. “Thank you so much, Reggie!”
“It’s Regina,” she reminded him.
“Right,” Max laughed, scratching the back of his neck. “No nicknames. Got it.” Regina rolled her eyes and looked him up and down.
“Did you go shopping for new clothes today?” she asked.
“Um…no,” Max said. “I got a little…distracted. I’ll go tomorrow and get myself a little something for our date.”
“It’s not a date,” Regina retorted, but Max was already striding away, a bounce in his step. He winked at her over his shoulder and Regina felt her entire body go hot. “It’s not a date,” she repeated, under her breath.
But even she didn’t know if that was the truth.
*****
The next evening found her standing in front of her bedroom mirror, holding two dresses up to her body. They were both black, but one had a shorter hemline while the other had a deep vee that would show off her cleavage. They were both casual dresses, for the most part, but each showed off a different part of her curvy body. She’d never quite liked her legs, but she’d caught Max staring at them earlier, when she went up to clean his room.
She was wearing a pair of jeans that were tight around her entire bottom half but really showed off the curve of her ass. That’s where she’d thought he was looking as he watched her change the bedsheets, but she’d realized that his gaze was a bit south of there and found herself flushing and speeding through the rest of the change, fluffing his pillows and popping a mint on one of them—smiling when she heard his chuckle—and then moved towards the door.
Max’s arm blocked her from leaving completely and she looked up at him with wide eyes. He gave her a charming grin as he leaned against the wall.
“So,” he said, “what kind of clothes should I be looking for while I’m out?”
Regina frowned at him. “You haven’t gone shopping yet?” she asked.
“When would I have gone?” Max asked. “I was in my underwear not ten minutes ago.”
“True,” she conceded, sighing. “Well, just get something nice.”
“Nice how?”
“Something with a collar,” Regina clari
fied. “And buttons.” She furrowed her brow, eyeing his uneven facial hair and the hair on his head that was growing a little long and remained uncombed. “And maybe go see a barber for a trim, huh?”
Max stroked his chin and frowned at her. “What’s wrong with how my face is now?” he asked.
“You look a little…homeless. No offense.”
“None taken,” he replied, dryly. “Okay. Haircut and a shave, and a shirt with a collar and buttons. Anything else?”
“Jeans that aren’t ripped or stained,” Regina added. “You don’t have to get anything fancy, though. Just something…nice.”
“Good to know,” Max said with another grin. “Thanks, Reggie.”
“It’s…never mind,” she sighed, ducking underneath Max’s arm and heading towards the stairs, trying to suppress her smile and force away the flush that was spreading from her cheeks down her neck. She bit her lip, willing it away as she made her way to the bar to start setting up.
Regina had worked for about an hour before informing her clients that she would be closing for a couple of hours that evening. She’d gotten plenty of groans, but ignored them in favor of shooing out the men perched at the bar and around the pool tables, promising that their first—and second—round of drinks would be covered by her inn guest if they came back a little later.
By the time she got them all out and locked up, she only had about two hours to get ready.
She’d showered when she got home, did her makeup and placed her damp hair into curlers. Now she was standing there, half an hour before she had to leave to meet Max back at Carlisle’s, and she couldn’t figure out which black dress to wear. And she didn’t want to go through the fuss of trying them both on. She knew that they both fit fine (she’d worn both of them in the last month, when she’d allowed herself the rare night out with some local friends of hers), but it was hard to know which one of them would be appropriate for a night like this.
She was going to pretend to be the girlfriend of a man staying at her pub. A man that she hadn’t even known a week ago. She was going to meet his friends—and his ex-girlfriend—and have to pretend that she’d been dating him and learning all about his life. She was going to have to know things about him.
The realization hit Regina like a punch to the gut and both dresses almost slipped from her fingers because she didn’t know anything about this man. Other than his name and the fact that their fathers were apparently friends and now they were both dead. She honestly knew more about Mary Sawyer, whose boyfriend had run out on her and their son not long after he was born. She knew that Mary was a sweet girl and a good mother and came in for a drink every once in a while. She knew that Mary carried several photos of her son, Sam, in her wallet and shared them with anybody who would listen. She never spent more than an hour at the bar because she missed her boy so much.
Mary was a good person and Regina felt like a jerk for lying to her and her family about something like this, all for some guy who refused to call her by her proper name and made her chest flutter when he smiled at her. She was acting like a teenage girl.
Regina’s phone vibrated on the bed next to her and she reached for it, opening it up to check for notifications. Her heart thrummed as she opened the text Max had sent her and found a picture of his clean-shaven face smiling up at her.
What do you think? Handsome enough for dinner at Ray’s?
Regina found herself smiling before she could help herself. She shook her head and bit her lip, thinking for a moment before she responded.
Never said you weren’t handsome. But you look less like a bum now.
She took a deep breath and hit send. Max’s reply came in under a minute.
Thanks, sweetheart. You’re a peach. See you in 20.
Regina tossed the phone aside and flopped back on her bed, covering her face with her hands. She was so screwed.
*****
Max
Regina was right. He would never admit it out loud, but she was. A shave and cut had been a good idea. His face felt soft and smooth and he could actually appreciate the sharpness of his jawline. It didn’t hurt that the clothes he was wearing—a light blue dress shirt and dark, form-fitting jeans—fit him like a glove, hugging his muscles when he flexed. He grinned at his reflection and winked, cockily.
The collar didn’t quite go up high enough to hide the tattoos that curled around his neck, but Ray wasn’t exactly a clean slate himself. Max remembered watching him and his father trade stories behind each of their body art pieces. Ray had even given him a pat on the back when he came home with his first tattoo of a viper crawling up his bicep. He was sixteen and his mother had slapped him upside the head, but getting Ray’s approval had meant everything to him.
Ray Sawyer was always like the cool uncle he never had. Making him proud was as important as Max making his own parents proud—if not more. It’s why breaking up with Mary all those years ago was so hard for him. Ray and Grace had practically been planning their wedding, but Max hadn’t been able to…
It just hadn’t been right. Especially after his father’s death. Max had changed and Mary couldn’t exactly handle it, though she tried to. God did she try to.
Max shook thoughts of Mary and Ray out of his head as he tried to focus on the task at hand. He ran his hands through his hair, which was shorter and styled now on top of his head, sticking up slightly, but no untidily. He had to admit that he looked handsome—in a preppy way. He’d never been one for prep.
Still, he looked good and he felt…as good as he could probably feel looking the way he did, on his way to where he was about to go, with a near-stranger on his arm. It was a weird situation all around, he could admit, but he was nothing if not a risk-taker.
Checking the time on his phone, Max took a deep breath and grabbed his leather jacket from the bed, slipping it on over the dress shirt and heading towards the door. He could do this; it would be fine.
*****
Max couldn’t breathe.
He tried but he couldn’t seem to get his lungs to work, because right before him stood a goddess. A goddess with long legs and dark curls that cascaded over her shoulders and bright blue eyes that seemed to glow in the late afternoon sun. A goddess that wore a smirk as fitting as the curve-hugging black dress draped over her body.
“Hey,” Regina greeted, after a moment of just staring.
Max swallowed thickly and cleared his throat. “H-hey,” he said, giving her his patented charming grin. “You clean up nice, sweetheart.”
“Thanks,” Regina replied. “As do you.”
“I know it,” Max said, smoothing down the front of his shirt. Regina laughed and his smile widened. “Ready to go?”
Regina nodded and followed him down the street, only pausing when they reached his bike and he reached for the helmets. “Oh,” she said, “I…I thought we’d be walking.”
“In those heels?” Max scoffed. “Ray’s place is two miles away; it’ll be quicker if we ride.” He handed her a helmet and she hesitated. “I’m sure your hair will be fine.”
“That’s not…” She took a deep breath. “Are you sure this is safe? I mean, I’m in a dress.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Max said. “Do you need help getting on?”
“No,” Regina sighed, slipping the helmet over her head. “I’m fine. My uncle had one of these.”
“Is that so?” Max said, holding the bike steady as she got on.
“Yeah,” Regina confirmed, leaning back while Max slung his leg over, situating himself on the seat and placing his hands on the handle bars. “I mean, he wasn’t really my uncle but he gave me and my mother rides all the time. He and my father were really close.”
“What happened to him?” Max asked, revving up the engine.
“He died in a motorcycle accident.”
That gave him pause and Max looked back at her over his shoulder. “Do you wanna walk?” he asked.
Regina shook her head. “I’m fine. At least I’m wear
ing a helmet. Uncle John wasn’t really a stickler for safety. Not like you.”
“Gee, Reggie,” he huffed, “you make me sound so boring.”
Regina laughed and then squealed as Max suddenly took off, pulling away from the curb and into traffic. She reached out, grabbing him around the waist and holding on for dear life. Max laughed and raced faster through the streets, all while she squealed and cursed him out and laughed.
It was like music to his ears.
*****
Regina
“Maxwell!”
“Hello, Grace,” Max greeted the tiny, gray-haired woman that immediately pulled him into her arms the second the doors opened. “How’ve you been?”
“I could ask you the same question,” Grace replied, smacking his arm as she pulled back. “Three years and no phone calls. Not even a postcard! How dare you?! You coulda been dead in a ditch for all we knew.”
“Sorry, Grace,” Max sighed. “I was just going through some stuff. You know.”
“Well, next time you go through ‘stuff’, you could at least send me a letter or something to let me know that you’re alive. Understood?”
“Of course,” Max laughed. “How could I have been so selfish?”
“You get it from your father,” Grace huffed. “Such a selfish man.”
Max laughed and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She smiled brightly, before pushing him aside and setting her gaze on Regina. She tilted her head as her eyes scanned over the younger woman’s face.
“I know you,” she said. “You work at that pub across town, don’t you?”
“She owns it, actually,” Max replied, proudly, placing his arm around Regina’s shoulder. “Inherited it from her father. Remember Danny?”
“Oh, that man that used to keep Ray out drinking until the early hours?” Grace frowned. “Yes, I remember him. You’re his daughter?”