Chapter 6 - Max

Everything was going great, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. The time I was spending with Brooke was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Her charm wasn’t fading with repeated exposure, and that searing kiss we shared wouldn’t leave my mind. Never before had a simple—well, not so simple—kiss torn me up like the memory of her lips on mine. I wanted to recreate that moment, add to it, and keep it going.

If only I could find time alone with her, since we’d been surrounded by my family the entire day, especially the prying eyes of Katie and Jenna, who thought I was the world’s biggest Casanova. If they got an inkling of my genuine interest in their friend, they’d close ranks and possibly fill her head with a bunch of nonsense about my past.

Sure, I’d had my share of relationships, if they could even be called relationships, but what I felt so far about Brooke was different. It stunned me, took all my focus. The thought of her being nothing more than a one-night stand or even a week-long fling was unsavory. Brooke ticked every box and then some. Maybe Lev and Aleks had it right. Maybe settling down wasn’t for suckers, after all.

If I could get Brooke to agree to slip out with me before the rest of my family gathered in the home theater, then we could have some real fun. I just needed to find a way to get her alone for a second before dinner, without the hawk-like eyes of my sisters-in-law on us.

But Brooke never came down with the others and never showed up late to dinner, either. No one seemed overly concerned, so I was clearly out of the loop. I finally asked if she was okay, as casually as possible, as if I were just noticing one of us was missing.

Jenna nodded, setting down her fork and looking at me warmly. Good, she didn’t suspect anything other than friendly concern.

“She found out an old friend is in town, and they’re meeting up for pizza or something.”

She offered up no more information, and I couldn’t ask without setting off the spotlight on my burgeoning feelings for Brooke.

Why did the delicious barbecue chicken on my plate suddenly look unappetizing? The ice-cold beer went down like sour milk, and I fought to hide my scowl. This feeling wasn’t new, because I’d felt the same when I saw Luca’s hands all over Brooke the night before. But I didn’t like it, it wasn’t how I operated, and it was pissing me off.

I was fucking jealous of some unknown person, who might have been an old girlfriend from high school for all I knew. But it might have been her first love, and I wanted to smash that invisible man’s face in. I barely held it together during dinner, sure she’d be back for the movie.

When Aleks called us into his home theater, she wasn’t back yet, and no one seemed to think it was odd or offer a thought of waiting a little longer for her. Why didn’t her supposed best friend call and ask if she would miss this premiere Aleks had gotten his hands on, before it was even released to the public? Was she having so much fun with this mystery friend of hers that she would give that up?

Anger started to settle in, and I fought to keep it at bay. Thinking about all the fun I’d had with her in the pool that afternoon didn’t help in the way I thought it would; it just had me yearning for her more. It was actually fun, not just putting on a show for the people who gathered around me at the diner, but something I had forgotten how to have. Oh, I thought I was having a great time at family gatherings or surrounded by those sycophants in Hollywood.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when I raced around the boardwalk in Santa Monica, laughing my fool head off and trying to win a teddy bear, that I realized I’d been missing out. And that kiss… it was going to be a long ass time and an icy cold day in hell before any other woman could erase the feelings Brooke brought out in me with that kiss.

The idea of any other woman was as appetizing as moldy bread, and it hit me that leaving Aleks’s house to find a replacement wasn’t going to work. There was no replacement for Brooke, no excising her from my life.

Fuck. And she was with someone else. I was getting worked up again, dragging my feet as we all traipsed upstairs to watch the movie. As if I could sit still when I really wanted to scorch the earth until I found Brooke and gave her hell for running out on me.

No, I had to chill out. After all, she didn’t know she was mine yet, and I had no right to feel this way. As much as I wanted to spend the night there and pace the front hall until she came back and yank her into my arms to make her forget whoever she’d been with, I had to chill the hell out.

“Hey, Jenna,” I said on the landing, stopping her before she headed down the hall to the theater. “I’m going to skip out on this, I’ve got a wicked headache from all the sun.”

“Oh no,” she said, getting a look of motherly concern on her face. “I’ll tell the others.”

“Thanks. And can you give me Brooke’s number?” Before she could clam up with suspicion, I hurried to explain I had some pictures from the day before I promised to send her. “Or I could just send them to you or Lev,” I said with a shrug. “And you could pass them on to her.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, hang on a sec.” She dug her phone out of the pocket of her long, flowy sundress and tapped on it a few times.

My phone pinged in my own pocket and I hid the self-satisfied smile of getting what I wanted. I kissed her cheek and feigned a look of pain as I traipsed back down the stairs, only jogging triumphantly out the front door when she was out of my sight.

Just having that small link to Brooke calmed me down. Not that I was going to message her, since there would be plenty of time tomorrow to be with her again. I was calm, cool, and collected and no longer raging at invisible strangers.

Strangers who might have been someone special to my woman, taking her hand, making her laugh. Nope, not going to freak out. I had all the confidence in the world I could turn her head back to me, if it had even been turned away for a few minutes by some other guy.

I took a brisk shower and got into bed, completely sure of myself. So, why was I tossing and turning like the weight of the world was resting on my chest? It wasn’t too late. Why not actually send her the pics I had taken?

I scrolled through and found one of us with the Ferris wheel in the background, with blue sky and ocean surrounding us. Her smile and bright eyes in the photo almost had me gasping at how pretty she was.

Thinking of you, hope you’re having a great night.

I didn’t hope that at all, but I sent the message with the picture anyway and forced myself to get some sleep.