were that steely gray Maya recognized instantly.
Stephen dropped her arm and swung to confront the man in business suit and tie. Not completely unintelligent, Stephen relaxed his belligerent stance and stuck out his hand.
"I'm Stephen James, an old friend of Maya's." He said that with enough emphasis even a fool could take his meaning.
Axell was no fool. He didn't take the extended hand. "I'm Axell Holm, Maya's husband." He turned to Maya and gently examined her bare elbow where Stephen had gripped it. "You bruise easily," he commented without inflection.
She didn't need auras or tarot or astrology to recognize the intense vibrations ricocheting between the two men. She'd suffer from testosterone inhalation if she stood between them too long.
"Redheads have thin skin," she responded ambiguously. "I'm taking Stephen to see Alexa, but I really need to go pick up Constance and get over to the school. I don't have time for discussions."
"Arguments," Axell corrected. "And you're very good at weaseling out of them. I'll get Constance and come back for you." He nodded at Stephen. "We'll talk later."
Axell didn't raise his voice, but the warning was clear. He might as well have posted a sign reading "Private Property. No Trespassing." Maya bit back an inappropriate urge to giggle. Grown women didn't giggle.
She stood on her toes and kissed Axell's cheek, just to watch both men flinch. "Don't slay any dragons on the way. You know how the scales litter the road."
She thought he almost grinned. Instead, he caught her waist, planted a much sounder kiss on her lips, and when she almost went limp, he set her back down again. "I'll just rip out his tongue and you can serve it for dinner. Don't tell Matty, though, or he'll turn vegetarian."
"That'll be the day." Last night, Matty had managed to pick every pea out of the casserole she'd disguised them in.
As Axell calmly walked away, Stephen growled in disgust. "You couldn't wait, could you? You had to go for the money."
Maya fisted her fingers and waved them in his face. "He doesn't like me to break my fingers, Stevie. Do you want to see Alexa or take me to the hospital?"
"You're a ditz, you know? A first class ditz. You've probably got the kid singing Aquarius." As she swung open the door to the new shop, he caught and held it for her.
"No, I'm into country now. We sing in the sunshine." Grateful for the wispy dress Axell had bought for her, Maya flaunted her newly slender figure past Stephen and into the chaos of the cleaning and unpacking of Cleo's stock. They were immediately swamped with a thousand questions, but she was determined to get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible. With a wave of her hand, she walked past the crew and headed for the stairs and the kids.
"What are you doing, taking up shop-keeping? I thought you wanted to be a teacher." Stephen followed close on her heels.
"I am a teacher. I'm part owner of a day school. This is Cleo's. I'm just helping out while she's away."
"Away, yeah. That's a polite way of putting it. C'mon, Maya. We know each other too well. You weren't cut out for this small town shop-keeper thing. Why'd you do it? If it's money, I'll have money. I don't want my kid growing up to be a country hick."
If she were the confrontational type, she'd shove him down the stairs, Maya mused. Normally, aggression wasn't her style. Maybe she'd absorbed a little of that loose testosterone. She didn't even bother looking at him. She couldn't imagine why she'd enjoyed looking at him before. Nordic gods were infinitely more appealing than skinny musicians with long hair. The adolescent tingle at the base of her belly threatened to ignite at the thought of Axell calmly stalking to her rescue.
"This is scarcely country. We're minutes from one of the fastest growing cities in the South. If you'd open your narrow mind, you'd see this is an ideal place for a child to grow up, with all the benefits of city and country and none of the disadvantages of the artificial life in L.A. I'm never going back."
Stephen didn't reply. Teresa appeared with Alexa in her arms, and his attention was focused entirely on his daughter.
Maya bit her lower lip and wondered how she'd thought this would be easy. Or if she'd thought at all.
Chapter 22
Out of my mind, back in five minutes.
Axell gritted his teeth and tried to pleasantly question Constance