“Max!” I heard a man yell, Max’s head turned and I let out my breath.
Then Max muttered under his, “Fuck.”
I looked into the restaurant to see a tall man with a handsome, open, boyish face, light brown hair and a lanky frame headed our way. He was smiling.
At his side walked a tall woman, thin and utterly beautiful in a very cool way. Flawless skin. Long, ebony hair, perfectly straight and gleaming, parted severely and then pulled back just as severely in a ponytail at her nape. She also wore no makeup. She had on almost the same thing as Becca this morning except her poofy vest was less poofy and was a muted, sage green and her shirt wasn’t a thermal, it was long sleeved, ribbed and dusky blue. She and the man were holding bottles of beer, Coors Light to be precise.
Her eyes were on Max and she was not smiling.
Then her eyes slid to me and for some bizarre reason her expression turned glacial.
“Max, didn’t know you were back in town,” the man remarked sociably as they made it to our table and stopped.
Max slid out of the booth and shook his hand. “Harry.”
Harry looked at me and greeted, “Hey.”
“Hello,” I replied.
“Nina, this is Harry,” Max said then jerked his head to the woman and I noticed Max was also not smiling, “and this is Shauna.”
Shauna? Shauna with a U of the password on Max’s computer? No wonder her look was glacial.
Oh my God.
“Hello, Shauna,” I said, trying to cover my surprise and discomfort.
Her eyes grazed over me and she said to the wall at my side, “Hello.”
“Man, it’s packed tonight,” Harry noted, looking behind him. “They’re clearing our table, you mind if we hang here with you while they do?”
Then without allowing Max to answer, he shoved our coats and my purse to the side and slid in the booth opposite me. Shauna’s entire face grew so tight I thought it’d split open but Harry just grabbed her hand and pulled her in, oblivious to her state of mind. Or maybe he didn’t know his partner’s name was the password on Max’s computer and all that implied.
I looked up at Max and saw just his mouth had grown tight but his face had grown that scary dark I’d seen the first night I met him. Nevertheless, without a word he slid in beside me.
“So, Nina, you come back with Max?” Harry asked me.
“Back?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” Harry said, grinning a somewhat goofy grin.
“Um…” I replied, answering his confusing question the only way I could, “no.”
“Nina rented the house,” Max told Harry and Harry nodded.
“Yeah, f**kin’ great house,” Harry remarked then took a drink of his beer.
“It is,” I agreed, not knowing what to do in this situation and hoping the icicles Shauna was so obviously willing to shoot out her eyes and pierce my flesh wouldn’t actually form.
“Pretty unbelievable, Max built it himself,” Harry said.
I stopped trying not to look at Shauna without looking like I was trying not to look at Shauna and my eyes shot to Harry.
“I’m sorry?”
“The A-Frame, Max built it himself from the ground up,” Harry informed me and my eyes moved to Max.
“You did?” I breathed, actually breathed. Then again, I was surprised. And impressed.