Max raised one back at me. “We can’t ask her to share everything if we aren’t willing to do the same. I don’t know what time frame we’re working with here. For all we know, Xen and Haylen could already be planning your wedding. Do you really want to wait? We either take a leap of faith and trust that everyone wants the same thing, or we waste time dancing around each other.”
Myla glanced at her phone and cursed under her breath. “I have to go. But you’re right, we should lay everything out on the table. I don’t think there’ll be a rush to marry us off. We have a funeral to get through, after all, and it would be in pretty poor taste to announce my new fiancé while Lee’s body is barely cold. But I would like to get together again as soon as possible. I can tell my dad that I want to get to know you better. It’s not a lie, and he can’t very well object since he’s the one arranging this marriage.”
I flinched at the wordmarriage.
None of it had sunk in yet.
I cast a helpless glance Max’s way, beyond grateful when he spoke for me.
“Give us your number,” he said, pulling out his phone. “Then we can arrange to meet up again.”
They exchanged numbers while I stood there and watched, unable to do anything other than imagine being with Myla for the foreseeable future. Because that was what was in store for me if we didn’t think of some way to get out of this with my dad still in one piece. Not that Myla wasn’t attractive, because objectively speaking, she was a stunner. All dark hair and dark eyes.
But my heart was already leaning in another direction and from the sounds of it, hers was too.
“Right,” Max said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “I guess we’ll wait to hear from you.”
She nodded. “I’ll try and make it as soon as possible.”
Max saw her out while I leant against the kitchen worktop and closed my eyes. I was tired, the adrenaline from earlier having all but left my system by now. All I wanted was to go to sleep and then wake up realising this was all a bad dream.
I heard the front door close, then Max’s soft footfalls as he made his way back into the kitchen. I felt him come to a stop in front of me, but I didn’t open my eyes. Couldn’t look at him and face the reality that I no longer had the freedom to touch him when I wanted.HowI wanted.
“Hey,” he murmured, strong hands grasping my arms and stroking up and down over biceps that were tight with tension. “Look at me.”
I shook my head. What expression would he be wearing right now? Pity? Despair? Acceptance? Not sure I was a fan of any of those.
“Jake.Please.”
Fuck.
Thatpleasewould get me every time. So I opened my eyes to find Max looking at me with such fierce determination that my breath caught.
I hadn’t expected that, but I should have. This wasMax, after all, offering his strength and support like he always did, and I needed it more than ever right now. Needed his big arms wrapped around me, crushing me to his chest and blocking out the rest of the world.
Could we still do that? Or had Xen robbed us of that too?
Only one way to find out.
“Hold me?” I asked, heart rate spiking as he nodded.
Tentative hands moved to my waist and tugged me closer.
Please let us still have this.
I set my hands on his shoulders, heart banging against my ribs now as his hands found purchase on my back. When nothing happened, no invisible barrier forcing me away from him, I sank into his embrace with a choked sob, clinging to him with everything I had.
We weren’t that much different in height or build, but Max had always seemed bigger, and I closed my eyes again, chin resting on his shoulder as he held me tight.
The comfort and reassurance his scent brought was something I’d come to take for granted, even more so lately. I couldn’t imagine not being able to lose myself in it whenever I wanted.
As if his thoughts were on the same track, he turned his head until his nose skimmed the side of my neck and he inhaled.
I held him tighter, his weight pressing me into the hard edge of the worktop, but the discomfort barely registered.
Neither of us spoke. But then, what was there to say anyway?
He couldn’t promise me we’d find a way out of this, and I couldn’t promise him that I’d be okay.
