Page 12 of Max

"Um, hello," I closed my eyes in despair.

Damn.

"You know it's all right; he usually brings him back," the woman kept talking when I didn't turn around. "I promise it's okay."

Her voice came from my side, which meant... Yep, she was standing right next to me.

"Hi, I'm Rory," she smiled when I looked at her, and I realized it was the woman from the photos. The one Max was holding in his arms. “Max’s sister.”

She pointed out over her shoulder to the man in question. The relief that that little tidbit of information gave me, almost brought me to my knees. Weird. I glanced at my friend but quickly averted my eyes when I saw her head was tilted and a small, questioning smile playing at her mouth. Damn. Knowing her, she’ll get weird ideas. And get them soon. When I didn't say anything, just kept staring at her, Melanie took over.

"Hey, I'm Melanie, and this here is Skylar. She's not usually this rude, but we'll give her a pass. She had a rough day."

I bugged my eyes out to Melanie to stop her from talking further, but as always, she ignored me.

I needed to get out of there, not have my former best friend spill my secrets to a woman I didn’t know.

“Oh, what happened?”

“She was supposed to get married today, but the hot guy over there got her out of the church,” Melanie pointed to a seriously pissed off looking Max.

“You kidnapped Skylar, too?” Rory turned to Max, her arms at her waist, her whole torso leaning towards him. “What the hell is wrong with you? And bring my boyfriend, we’re late for dinner.”

I didn’t know the man. I barely had two whole conversations with him, but even I knew any sane person would go hide in a corner the moment he took a step towards Rory. Hell, I glanced around, trying to find one to crawl into with Melanie.

“I did not kidnap, Bean,” he barked.

“Bean?” Rory’s eyebrows hit her hairline.

“I didn’t kidnap Jason,” he ignored his sister’s question about the nickname he gave me. “Carter did.”

“That little bastard,” Rory’s arms on hips became fists. “Where is he?”

“Who?” Max strolled back to the counter and leaned on it as if nothing weird was happening, and he wasn’t discussing a kidnapping of his sister’s boyfriend.

Just thinking about it made my head spin. And what’s with the mood swings? How can he be pissed off one second, laid back, and relaxed the next?

“The Pope!” Rory fired at Max. “Who do you think? Jason! Where is Jason.”

“He’s safe, don’t you worry about it.”

“Do not make me call Mom! If you don’t release him, we’re going to be late, and we can’t be late. It’s the signing dinner!”

Max just stood there, his face now back to looking bored.

“He doesn’t know who it is. I didn’t tell him because I knew you would do this.”

Max was still silent.

“You know I can’t tell you who it is, either.” Rory kept going.

Max crossed his arms on his broad chest, his muscles jumping, and in response, my mouth watered. Two siblings went into a stare-down, and my eyes went from one to the other like I was watching a tennis match. And Melanie started opening and closing cupboards.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“Looking for popcorn,” she shrugged her shoulders. “This is better than an episode of Lucifer.”

“The one by the fridge,” Max said to Melanie, still not looking away from his sister.