Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

I was staring around the shop, seeing it with new eyes now that it was mine—I still couldn't believe it was mine—when Max came out of the kitchen with a can of Coke as Poppy passed by him, smiling widely through her tears, to go back into the kitchen.

"Nice kids." He took a drink.

I surveyed him the way I'd surveyed the shop. He wasn't mine, but I might be able to get him on a short-term lease.

He really wasn't my type, but my type is bastards, so that was good. Non-bastard is a step up. He's tall—that's good, I'm tall—and he's thin—although he was looking healthier; he'd been eating mice, for cripe's sake, but tonight he was getting mustard chicken—and he had one of those good faces, high cheekbones, sharp features, not pretty but compelling—and then I realized I didn't care what he looked like, he was Max and that was all I wanted.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he said.

I opened my mouth to tell him I was looking at him with gratitude, but that was a lie. That look was pure lust, and it was because he was Max and I wanted him, and not just for sex.

Although that would be good, too.

"I'm thinking," I said as I went toward him .

"I'm not sure that's good," he said as I got closer. "Are you going to hit me with the Maltese Falcon?"

"Sort of." I grabbed his shirt and kissed him.

He put his arm around me and kissed me back, and it was a good one, no slobber or pressing too hard, just Max kissing me, his mouth hot on mine, and really, Selfish Day Two was going great.

I pulled back to breathe. "Sorry for lunging at you."

He put his Coke on the shelf behind him. "I forgive you. Come here."

So I did, and he kissed me this time, both his arms tight around me, and I just fell into him, my whole body focused on his mouth, the hardness of his chest pushing against my softness, his hands pulling me close and wrapping around me and?—

Darius came out of the kitchen saying, "Hey, Max—whoops," and retreated again.

Max broke the kiss and looked behind him. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Inside the kitchen, Poppy said, "YES!"

"No problem," I said. "Kiss me."

"There's a bed upstairs."

"Yes, there is."

The iPod speakers came on in the kitchen—Lizzo's "About Damn Time"—and Poppy came out into the shop, laughing. "Sorry, I just want to see this for myself."

"Go away," I said, and she grinned at me and gave me a thumbs up and went back in the kitchen as Lizzo sang about not being the girl she used to be, and I grinned, too, when she got to my favorite line: "Bitch, I might be better."

"We should be someplace with a door that locks," Max said, holding me close.

"I—"

The door opened behind me, and Coral came in, saying, "I brought German—oh, good." She beamed at Max. "Such a nice couple."

"Who would like to be alone, " Max said.

Coral lifted the plate she was carrying. "I brought German chocolate brownies for the kids. Poppy said they were working on something secret?—"

"Kitchen," Max said, and Coral went by me, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"You know," I said, "German chocolate brownies sound really good."

He looked down at me. "Better than this?"

"No," I said and went up on my toes to kiss him, but then the door behind me opened again.

"I brought snacks—oh," Lian said. "Uh, snacks for the kids." She looked from me to Max and back again. "Mei said they were working on something secret here."

" Kitchen ," Max said, and Lian blinked at him.

"Right," she said, "I'll just go there," and she went past me, widening her eyes behind Max's back and giving me a thumbs up.

"Maybe if we weren't doing this in front of a glass door in a shop that's open," Max said, letting go of me.

I kissed him again, a brief one this time. "I know a place."

"I do, too," Max said and pulled me toward the stairs.

Bitch, I was definitely better.