“Yeah,” Max laughed. “Those two are as inseparable now as they’ve always been.”
“Samantha? Is she the one that came to our wedding with Brielle?” Isa sat down her fork and patted her lips with a napkin. “That girl rubs me wrong. I know, I shouldn’t rush to judge and I was really busy when they were there, so I didn’t really get to know her. But there’s something about her that strikes me wrong. I just don’t know what it is.”
“Ah, Isa, she’s harmless,” Pierce laughed. “Settle down.”
She flashed him a look. “I’m not unsettled. I’m just saying. Do you know her, Kari?”
I nodded, thinking back to Brielle’s blonde, leggy friend. “I do, but not well. I just see her at Max’s family events and things sometimes. Brielle’s brought her to Max’s a couple of times when I’ve been there. She’s alright. Kind of annoying,” I said, looking at Max out of the corner of my eye. Jos reached over his shoulder and grabbed his hat off the back of the chair and tossed it into the middle of his plate.
“Ah, Jos,” Max pouted, sticking out his bottom lip. She grabbed ahold of it and squealed.
“I warned you,” Isa laughed. “I know trouble when I see it.”
The doorbell rang and Pierce excused himself to go answer it. Isa got up, too, to grab more napkins from the kitchen.
I sat quietly and watched Max play with Joselyn. He was such a natural, tossing her in the air, blowing raspberries on her cheek, making her shake with laughter. She was clearly smitten with him . . . and him with her.
“Look who’s here,” Pierce said a few moments later, leading Bri into the room. I looked up to see her making a beeline for Isa and her friend standing still behind her. Sam’s eyes were trained on Max.
She was wearing tight brown pants, making her legs look like they went on forever, and a cream-colored knit shirt. Her long blonde curls were perfectly cast across her shoulders, her blue heels making her eyes pop. I never would’ve thought that outfit would work, but it looked seamless on her.
She cast a small smile at Max, watching him as he turned to face her.
“Hey, Sam,” he said, bouncing Jos up and down on one knee. “How are ya?”
“Good, Maxie. How are you?” Her gaze stayed on him, acting like the rest of us didn’t exist.
“Good. Busy with work.”
Her grin grew wider. “Well, work is what you do. I’m not surprised there.”
The familiarity between the two irritated; it always did. I understood she was a family friend, but it annoyed me to no avail that she seemed to pop up everywhere. And the way she looked at Max and the ease in which he looked back at her, like she was special to him in some way, drove me insane.
I looked at Pierce and he was watching me with a smirk. He tossed me a wink, a dimple just like Max’s sinking into his cheek. “Isa, let’s eat!” he said loudly, standing up. He pulled a chair out across the table from Max. “Sam, why don’t you sit over here?”
He looked at me and grinned. I returned the smile, feeling like I finally had a friend in the Quinn family.
Once everyone had settled down at the table, Pierce cleared his throat. “So, Kari. Max tells me you’re a nurse. Beauty and brains, huh?”
“You’re a nurse? That’s fantastic,” Isa exclaimed. “Now I know who to call with questions instead of using those websites. They’ll make you think you’re dying of some super rare disease. Every. Time.”
“They really will,” I agreed.
Max turned to me, melting me in my chair with his sexy smile. “Nah, Pierce. She’s more than beauty and brains. Kari is the whole package.”
KARI
I pulled Max’s favorite red lingerie set out of my drawer. We made a quick stop at my house after leaving Pierce’s.
Dinner had been nice. Pierce was easy to like, a slightly more mischievous version of his cousin. Isa was kind and generous and funny, telling me stories about her family back in Texas. After dinner, she had put Joselyn to bed and Brielle and Sam had left. We sat around and drank wine. She promised to teach me how to play Euchre, a Quinn family favorite card game that I didn’t know.
“That little shit got sauce all over my shirt,” Max said, brushing himself off as he walked out of my bathroom. “Think this will come out?”
He was grinning and I knew he didn’t care one way or the other. That was one of the best things about Max—he didn’t sweat the small stuff.
“Probably. That’s one of the perils of babyhood, I think. They ruin everything. Hope Jada’s ready for that,” I laughed, closing the drawer with my hip.
“Jada will be fine. Babies don’t ruin everything. As a matter of fact, I think they make everything even better.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation. “Yeah, maybe.”
Max stuck his hands in his pockets and watched me. His gaze was heavy and I was unable to move. Time stood still as I waited for the next words to come out of his mouth. Somehow, I knew what he was going to say and if I could have stopped it, I would have.