“It was a front fastener!” Max argued with arms wide at his sides. “How the hell was I supposed to know?”
Uncle Vince snorted. “Connor and I must have stood there for a good minute listening to him curse the godforsaken thing before the girl spotted us.” He and Josh laughed harder. “She upped and darted, flushing crimson and calling Max names even I’d never heard of.”
“How old were you that you hadn’t been introduced to front fastener bras?” Josh asked through his chuckles.
“Twenty-five,” his uncle joked before Max could reply with the actual answer of sixteen.
Max found himself laughing at the memory while he poured himself a Dr Pepper. His father had been more concerned that there was an ass print on the hood of his prize Mustang than about his son trying to get laid with some girl. That same girl, Sarah Miller, had never even looked at him again after that. Not that Max had blamed her. In fact, if he remembered correctly, he was pretty sure Carter fucked her at a party not long afterward.
“Oh, to be young again,” Uncle Vince mused. He nudged Max’s shoulder and winked.
“Leave the boy alone, Vincent.”
Max sighed in relief at the sound of Aunt Fern’s voice. “They’re bullying me again, Aunt Fern,” he grumbled. “Tell them.”
“Bullying.” Uncle Vince mocked with a snort. He pointed at Max with his beer bottle. “Don’t use my hammock for your nefarious plans and I won’t!”
“Nefarious?” Max laughed. “Aunt Fern, I think Uncle Vince has been watching late-night TV again.”
His aunt pointed a stern finger at her husband and son-in-law. “You two be nice,” she scolded. “Leave Max alone.”
“Yeah,” Max agreed with a sharp dip of his chin, placing one hand on his aunt’s shoulder in unity while using the other to lift his drink to his mouth. “Leave me alone.”
Aunt Fern smiled wide. “He’s in love, it’s sweet.”
The Dr Pepper Max was drinking projected from his mouth in a disbelieving spray across the bar, narrowly missing the laughing people sitting next to it.
“What?” he spluttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Aunt Fern! Grace and I, we’re not— It’s not what you think, we’re . . .”
Her hand patting his cheek stopped his ramblings. “So cute.”
Josh’s laughter raised in volume. “Dude, this is awesome.”
Max shot him a look that said that this was unequivocally not awesome.
“What’s all the racket?” Ruby came bounding into the room, wineglass in hand, followed by Buck, his girlfriends, and Deputy AssCrack.
“Your father and husband are assholes,” Max murmured, still wiping his face.
Ruby sniggered. “That’s not news.”
“What’s not news?”
Max looked up when he heard Grace’s soft voice from the doorway and for one split second he forgot that he wanted to throttle Josh for gossiping and his uncle for telling embarrassing stories. She stood there, fidgeting yet lovely. Her hair was down, black and thick with a couple of short baby curls crafted perfectly to her temples. The red and white floral dress she wore skimmed her thighs and dipped between her boobs, hugging her figure in ways that were tastefully sexy. She approached him slowly, the glint in her eye suggesting that, just like him, their heavy petting session was still the only thing she could think about.
A shiver of pride ran through him. Yeah, he thought to himself, he was the man who she was fooling around with. He was the man who she trusted to make her come and feel good. He was the man she wanted to touch her and teach her how to be intimate again.
Shit, if he’d had feathers he’d have preened like a motherfucker.
“You look great,” he said when she reached him.
She brushed a hand down the dress and gave a modest shrug. “Thanks.” She turned to him, her face pinching. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something.” She glanced around and spoke when she seemed satisfied that no one but Max was listening. “Are you going to be okay going out tonight?”
Max’s frown creased. “Sure.” He lifted his shoulders. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
She cleared her throat. “It’s just, I was thinking. I know you hang out at Whiskey’s a lot, but that’s different. I mean, will you be all right going to a club?” Her big green eyes were worried. “You know, there’ll be more . . . temptation. Are you okay with that? I’d be happy to stay here with you if not. We could watch a movie or something.”