“Take the van. You’ve got Malcolm, Brandon, Jeremy and Owen.”
He nodded his approval. “Good choices for her maiden voyage.”
“Yeah. They’re not all the way there yet, but of the current crop they’ve come the farthest.”
Twenty minutes later, Max pulled the van into the lot behind The Brothers Inn. He turned off the ignition and twisted around to look at his passengers. “This is the first time we’ve been given an opportunity to use the inn’s resources,” he said, giving the teens his best listen-up look. “Keep that in mind, because if you screw the pooch, there won’t be a second time.”
They gave him solemn nods, then poured out of the van with let-out-of-school whoops and raced for the beach. Max snorted, but couldn’t help but grin as he picked up his pace behind them.
The Olympics were out in their full glory, rising layer upon green layer of mountains out of the canal until their tallest rugged peaks, etched white with the last remaining snow, scraped the cerulean sky. A lone lenticular cloud floated its cap above the double peaks of The Brothers.
They found Harper on the dock, stooped next to a sleek little runabout. Checking her out, he blinked. Well, hell, no bathing suit.
Okay, thinking about it from a purely practical standpoint, he had to agree that Harper in that sexy black-and-white suit he’d seen her wear The Day of the Hot Tub, as he’d privately dubbed it, probably wasn’t the best scenario around a bunch of teenage boys who had sex on the brain 24/7. The turquoise-and-black neoprene wet suit she had on was sexy enough, and
that
covered her from her neck to just above her elbows and knees. It also hugged her body like spray paint and showcased her toned arms and legs. And, Sweet Mother Mary, that high, round ass.
He blew out a breath, shook out his hands, then got his head back in the game. “Hey,” he said, walking up to her. “Isn’t that Austin’s boat?”
“Well, hello, there. I was surprised when Mary-Margaret said you were coming And, yes. Austin donated it to the cause...with a stern caveat that only you drive it.” She grinned up at him. “I don’t know whether to be offended or not.”
“Have you ever driven a boat?”
“A couple of times, although I will admit to being more at home in kayaks and the like.”
“There you go.”
“I could so drive it!” Owen, the smallest of the four boys, stepped between them, his narrow chest puffed out.
“No, Sport,” Max said easily. “You can’t. If the owner stipulates only me in order for us to use the boat, then only me it’s going to be.”
“Besides.” Harper smiled at the teen. “You get to do something way cooler. You get to ride the Gladiator Rage.”
“What’s that?” Owen demanded, but his gaze had already followed the sweep of her hand and he stilled. “Oh, man!”
The rest of the boys looked where he was staring, and suddenly there was a stampede to the huge blue, gold and black towable U-tube that stretched across the end of the dock. They whooped and clustered around it, checking it out.
“Holy shit.” Jeremy, who tied Malcolm as the largest of the teens, nodded at the four red sets of handles across the top of it. “This thing’ll take all of us at once? That’s
monster
epic!”
“I call the outside,” Malcolm said. “That’s the position that makes you bounce the highest.”
“I call the other one,” claimed Brandon.
“Aw, man!” Jeremy groused.
Max noticed that Owen didn’t say anything.
So, apparently, did Harper. “You all
do
know how to swim, right?” she asked.
Jeremy, Brandon and Malcolm all agreed they did with varying degrees of scorn. Owen looked at the dock.
Max slid his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders. “Buddy?”
Owen looked up at him. “I can swim a little,” he said. “But I’m not whatcha might call a strong swimmer.”
“Everyone’s going to wear a life vest,” Harper assured him. “That keeps you buoyant even if you do go in the water.”
“Hey, I’m a great swimmer,” Brandon protested. “I was on swim team for four years. I don’t need no stinkin’ life vest.”
“And yet you get to wear one, anyhow,” Harper said with an easy smile. “The inn has rules, and this one goes, no vest, no ride.” She turned back to Owen. “So, as I said, you’ll have a vest to keep you safe. But is this something you want to do? Because, if it makes you uncomfortable, you can always ride in the boat with us.”
“It’s not quite as bouncy in the middle,” Malcolm said. “And whoever’s next to you can try to lean in on the jumps to keep you in place.” The other boys nodded their agreement, whether out of solidarity or a fear that Owen’s reluctance might somehow tank their afternoon, Max couldn’t say.
But Owen nodded. “That’d prob’ly work.”
“Then, put these on,” Harper said, handing out the life vests. Once the boys each had one, she tossed a larger model to Max, then pulled on her own. She looked at the three bigger boys. “Start out with Malcolm and Brandon on either end, then take turns switching off with Jeremy, so everyone who wants a shot at that position gets one. Can you live with those terms?”
“You bet!”
“Yes!”
“Hell, yeah!”
“All right then.” She grinned at them. “Let’s have some fun.”
Max handed her into the boat, then found himself rubbing his hand against his board shorts in an attempt to eradicate the feel of her smooth skin from his fingertips. He turned back to supervise the teens as they put the tube in the water. Even as he got the kids situated on the tube, he eyed her covertly, using an inspection of the tow rope she was feeding out as his excuse.
“Let me know when the rope is taut,” he said to her as he slowly maneuvered the boat away from the dock a moment later, then added, “That was smooth.”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “What was?”
“The way you handled Brandon not wanting to wear a vest.”
“Hey, rules are rules.” She grinned at him. “Until you mean to break them, anyway.” She turned back to gauge the rope. “It’s tight.”
Max half lifted out of the driver’s seat. “You guys ready?” he called.
The boys yelled an affirmative. And he thrust the throttle forward, surging away from the dock.
They spent the next hour speeding up and down the canal, towing the Gladiator behind them. When it whipped out over the wake, the bounce lifted the teens, who were connected only by their grips on the red handles, up off the tube before dropping them back down again to bounce at whatever angle the Gladiator left them.
It turned out there was no way to lean in on Owen and keep him from raising off the tube. In fact, as the lightest of the boys, he bounced the highest. But by the end of the first run it was clear he was loving it, even going so far as to insist on taking a turn on the outside.
Max found himself smiling almost nonstop. Seagulls swooped and cried overhead, the sun beat down on his shoulders and the sound of unbridled laughter from boys who didn’t always have a lot to laugh about filled the air.
Then there was Harper. Acting as their spotter, she mostly kept her eyes on the boys to ensure that if anyone lost their grip and bounced off the tube they could promptly circle around to pick him up. That meant when he glanced around his view was of her long back, longer legs and that wanna-fill-my-hands-with-it ass.
There
was a sight he had no complaints with.
To his surprise, however, even better than the visual feast of Harper’s body were the moments when one of the boys laughed with pure joy and the two of them glanced over their shoulders at each other to grin in mutual appreciation.
The smartest thing he’d done today was go to the Village. Because a day on the water, a hot woman who shared his pleasure in providing a fun day in the sun to boys who didn’t get an abundance of them?
Well, that beat the hell out of skulking around his house, trying not to brood about an accident whose outcome he’d had no way of changing.
CHAPTER EIGHT
M
AX
JINGLED
THE
change in his pocket as he waited in line at the Stop and Go outside of town. Friday night was finally here, he had just gassed up his rig, and if Conner, the cashier, and Woody Boyd, who was paying for his half rack of Heineken, ever quit their damn jawing, he’d be on his way to Silverdale for that night on the town he’d been thinking about for dog years.
Even better, if things went the way he hoped—and Chatty and Chattier put a cork in it—by the end of the night he might well have reason to use the box of condoms he was waiting to purchase.
It had been too damn long since the last time
that
occasion had presented itself.
Shifting sideways to let Woody by a moment later, he finally stepped up to take his place at the register. Vaguely, he heard the tinny sound of the little bell over the door. He paid it only scant attention until he heard, “Hey, look, there’s Uncle Max!”
Then he turned to see Austin barreling through the door with Jake ambling in his wake. He watched his nephew head his way, the kid’s mouth stretched in a big, toothy grin—then turned back long enough to slide a twenty across the counter to Conner Priest.
He’d given the clerk a warning just last week after pulling him over for doing fifty on Orilla Road. Anyone who’d lived here longer than a month knew it was posted at thirty-five—and Conner was a Razor Bay native. Still, the kid hadn’t begged special consideration. He had, in fact, given Max zero attitude—handing over his license with a respectful maturity Max saw in damn few adults in the same situation. Fifteen over the limit generally guaranteed the offender a ticket, but Max had cut the young man some slack.
It was just too rare that he didn’t have to listen to a load of bullshit at traffic stops.
Austin muscled his way past the postmistress in line behind Max. “Sorry, Ms. Verkins,” he said. “I’m not trying to cut—I just wanna say hi to my uncle.”
Conner repaid Max now by quietly sliding the condoms into a paper bag before counting out his change. Max gave him an appreciative nod before turning to his nephew. “Hey, buddy. What are you guys up to?” He steered the boy out of the line.
“I’m spending the night at Nolan’s, and Dad brought me here to get some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to take. They don’t carry ’em at the General Store.”
Max shook his head. “That’s criminal.”
“Tell me about it. You oughtta go arrest ’em.”
“Max isn’t wearing his Deputy Dawg suit,” Jake said, “so that probably won’t happen tonight. And it’s Friday, bud—everyone and their brother’s getting their weekend supplies. You better make sure they haven’t sold out of the Flamin’ Hots here.”
“Better not have!” Austin hustled toward the chip aisle.
Jake turned to Max. “Got yourself a cool hat—” he gave Max’s Brixton classic fedora a nod of approval “—and a big box of Trojan Supras. Hot date?”
“Jesus, you must have eyes like a raptor. How the hell could you tell what brand I bought from the door?”
“Recognize the box.” Jake grinned at him. “Who you going out with?”
“No one, yet. But I’m heading over to The Voodoo Lounge, hoping to change my luck.” A quick visual of Harper slammed through him, but he firmly shut it down before it could etch itself into his brain like acid. One fun day out on the water with her hardly stepped him up into her league.
Jake looked at him in surprise. “You like to dance?”
“Sure. Don’t you?”
“I like slow dancing. I’m not too crazy about the fast shit, though.”
“Yeah.” Max nodded. “It’s guys like you who leave the field wide open for me. Ladies just love them a man who likes to dance.” He gave his brother a cocky smile. “Not that you’d be any competition even if you could dance.”
“Hey, I can dance!” His response sounded like the knee-jerk defensiveness of their enemy days. But then Jake shot Max a crooked smile. “Okay, not well, but I can dance.”
“Dad!” Austin ran up, a bag of his favored chips in his hand and a look on his face as if the world were ending. “I told Nolan I’d bring my new video game and I forgot it at home!”
“Not a problem,” Jake said easily. “It’s not like we have to go miles out of our way to swing by the house.” Reaching out, he hooked his elbow around his son’s neck, hauled him in and gave him a noogy. “Let’s get in line and pay for your grub.”
Max suffered a fierce stab of wanting what Jake had with his son. He cleared the lump of envy from his throat. “I’ll see you two later,” he said. “Have fun at Nolan’s, kid.”
Austin grinned. “I’m gonna.”
“You have a good time, yourself,” Jake said. He tipped his chin at the bag in Max’s hand. “Happy hunting.”
The teen looked Max over. “You’re going hunting? In your good clothes?” He shook his head. “Man. If it was me doing that, Jenny’d have something to say about it.”
Max laughed. “Your dad was being funny. I’m going to a club in Silverdale to dance.”
“And no one’s making ya?”
“Nope. I like to dance.”
“Huh. I thought guys only pretended they did.” He hitched a narrow shoulder. “But happy hunting.”
Max felt his mouth tug up in an off-kilter smile. “Thanks, kid. And a little tip? Girls love guys who like to dance.”
With a wave as Jake and Austin crossed to the now-nearly-free-of-customers counter to pay for Austin’s snack, he headed out to his SUV. Twenty minutes later he was pulling into The Voodoo Lounge parking lot.
Pushing through the big teak door, he felt his energy jack up as he was hit by the wall of voices talking and laughing over and under the blast of DJ music. The throng on the crowded dance floor moved almost as one in time to a Rihanna song, but he ignored them to check out the tables he wound between on his way to the bar in the back, homing in on the ones that were filled with women he hoped were looking for a good time.
He grinned inside. Because, helpful guy that he was, he was willing to help them with that. He lived to serve, after all.
Once he’d made his way through the three-deep crowd at the bar, he ordered a beer on tap, then found a space away from the bartender where the ranks thinned enough for him to lean back against the black ironwood bar as he sipped his brew and broadened his search beyond the tables he’d passed.
He loved this place. The DJ was good, the beer was decent and the women invariably outnumbered the men two to one. He had his eye on a tall brunette when a petite blonde stopped in front of him.
“Hey, there!” She raised her voice to be heard, and still he had to bend down to catch everything. “Want to dance?”
“Sure.” He looked at the beer in his hand.
“You can leave that at my table, if you want.”
He nodded his agreement and followed her to a table nearer the dance floor. She turned to him.
“These are my friends,” she yelled without introducing anyone. “Your beer’s safe with them.”
He set it on the table, then followed the swing of his new partner’s hips, which moved to the beat a little more emphatically with every step that brought them closer to the dance floor.
Reaching it, they carved out a couple square feet for themselves and began to dance. She was good, which he appreciated, and he was just truly getting into it when the song came to an end.
The blonde laughed and stepped aside to let by some of the dancers deserting the floor. More continued to mill around, waiting for the next song to begin, and she leaned into him. “Bad timing. I’m Kim, by the way.”
“Max.”
“Nice to meet you, Max. Care to try another dance?”
“Sure. You’re good, you know.”
Her face lit up. “Why, thank you! So are you.”
The next forty-five minutes flew by. He danced with Kim and talked with her and her friends when they weren’t dancing. She was pretty, she had a good job as the office manager of a multi-physician clinic, she was nice—and she’d made it clear she was into him. Pretty much perfect, in other words.
So he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t more interested in her than he was.
Maybe it was because she was petite. He generally went for taller girls, having discovered the hard way that he’d end the night with a backache from having to perpetually hunch. Or maybe it was—
“There you are, Max!”
He knew that voice, and he whipped his head around to search the area where it had come from. He watched incredulously as Jenny made her way toward him through the crowded, insufficiently spaced tables. Looking beyond her, he saw not only Jake, but Tasha and Harper as well, following in her wake.
What the hell? He rose to his feet, aware of all of them, but his gaze locked on Harper. Her lips were creamy red, she’d done something to her eyes that made them all smoky, and she was shrink-wrapped from collarbone to midthigh in a flaming-red dress.
All the women were dressed in hot clubwear, he noticed when he dragged his gaze away, and Jenny strode right up to him on what looked like five-inch heels and gave him one of her ubiquitous hugs. When she cut him loose and twisted to see if her friends were coming, he turned to his half brother. “What the fuck, man?” he demanded beneath the new song starting up.
“I’m sorry, bro. This wasn’t my idea, I swear.” Jake took a step closer to Max but away from his fiancée. “Austin spilled the beans when we stopped at the house to pick up his video game. And before I could pull Jenny aside to tell her you were on the hunt for more than an opportunity to boogie, she’d decided she just had to go dancing, too, and was on the horn to Tash and Harper.”
Jenny muscled Jake aside to grin up at Max. “You have to dance with me!” she yelled over the music. “Austin tells me you actually
like
dancing. In my experience, a guy who doesn’t merely tolerate it is a rare, rare animal. It’s not every day a girl gets a shot at one.”
“Uh...” He looked helplessly between her and Kim, and Jenny followed his gaze.
“Hi!” She leaned around him to offer Kim her hand. “I’m Jenny, Max’s brother’s fiancée. You don’t mind if I borrow him for a dance, do you?”
“I...guess not.” But she didn’t look thrilled about it.
Jenny either didn’t see it or didn’t care. “Great!” She wrapped her hand around his wrist and tugged. With a helpless shrug at Kim, he followed in her wake. Speaking of little women, Jenny almost made Kim look statuesque.
But as first his brother, then he had learned, she had a will that was gigantic.
He was feeling ambushed and a little pissed off, but he let the negative feelings go as soon as they hit the dance floor. He really didn’t get why more guys didn’t like to dance. It just felt so good to move to the music, and women really did dig the hell out of it. Shooting Jenny a grin, he yanked her into him and executed a dirty dancing move.
Oh.
My
.
God,
she mouthed, sliding free one of the hands she’d grasped his shoulders with when he’d dipped her back over his arm. She used it to pat a rapid heartbeat against the satin covering her left breast.
Then she performed a grinding sort of dirty dance move of her own.
He laughed and threw himself into the remainder of the dance.
“Omigawd, Omigawd,” she said, bouncing on her tall heels when the song ended. “You. Are. So. Good! How could I have not known that?” She shot him a rueful smile. “I don’t suppose you’d give me one more before we head back? Seeing as how this wasn’t a whole song and all?”
“Uh, you sort of dragged me away from a decent prospect of getting lucky tonight.”
She reached up and patted his cheek. “Ah, Max. You consistently underrate yourself, you know that? You’re gainfully employed, you’re good-looking, you’re
built
—
and
you dance. Don’t you know you could pretty much snap your fingers at any woman here and get her to go home with you?”
Heat crawled up his face. “No, I couldn’t.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you really could.” Standing on her tiptoes, she gave him another hug. “But I’ll let you get back to your decent prospect. I expect one more dance tonight, though. And you definitely have to share the thrill and dance at least once with Tash and Harper.”
He grunted noncommittally and escorted her to Jake, who was still standing by Kim’s table.
“Harper staked us out a place over there,” he said, indicating a spot five tables away.
“Neat trick,” Max said. “How’d she manage that after ten on a Friday night?”
“Apparently she heard some women in the ladies’ talking about taking off to go hit the One Ten in Poulsbo.” He grinned. “She accompanied them back to their table so she’d get first claim on it.”
“Enterprising,” Max said drily.
“
Really
enterprising,” Jenny agreed. “I swear, that girl can do any damn thing she puts her mind to.”
Didn’t he know it. He’d been watching her for a week since they’d taken the Cedar Village boys out tubing.
She’d been great with the boys that day—and had shown up at Cedar Village three times since then, somehow volunteering at the same time he was. Not that he thought for a minute she had arranged it that way. For this week, at least, their down times had simply meshed. Bottom line was: he’d been there and she had been there.
Not watching her hadn’t been an option.
He rolled his shoulders impatiently. So he was attracted to her—big deal. It wasn’t exactly breaking news, and he was a big boy. He knew how to compartmentalize unwanted feelings, knew how to shove them down and forget them while he took care of the stuff in real need of his attention.
Besides, his attraction to her aside, she was damn good with the kids, beautifully low-key and easy with them. It was a gift not everyone possessed. No matter how much an adult might like children—or thought they should anyhow—not all of them were comfortable with the species. That was especially true when you threw teenage boys who’d clearly had their share of trouble into the mix.
“Max?”
Something touched his arm, and he looked down to see Kim’s hand on his forearm. Dragging his attention back to the here and now, he smiled down at her. “Hey there. I’m sorry for the interruption. My brother’s fiancée is a force of nature. You want to dance?”