Page 55 of One Night With The Nanny

A note from Gavin informing Reid that Dash had surprised him with dinner and tickets to the symphony was the answer to his prayers. They wouldn’t be home until late so Reid put on his stretchiest joggers and a t-shirt he could get grease stains on and got comfortable on the sofa with his laptop.

The message had come at 2:51 p.m. but Reid hadn’t answered yet. He stared at it as he ate, hoping Max had come up with different plans for dinner and feeling like an asshole because Reid suspected he was still waiting.

“Be a fucking adult!”

“Adults lie,” Reid said, putting his phone on the coffee table, face down.

He opened his laptop, turned on Dr. No, popped open a Pepsi, and was just about to stuff half a slice into his mouth when his phone vibrated.

“Don’t look at it,” he said and his gaze darted to the clock on the mantle. “Don’t even think about your phone for five minutes. You’ll forget about the message before the time’s up,” he challenged himself.

Reid took a bite from his pizza and chewed, his eyes locked on the movie, not thinking about his phone or the message from Max that was probably waiting.

It might not even be a message from Max, he told himself. The pharmacy or the dry cleaner could have been messaging him. Or Riley could be texting to thank Reid for stopping by and hanging out with Luna.

There were all kinds of reasons someone might text Reid and he knew a lot of people. He tried to calculate the odds of it being from someone else, based on the number of people he knew and Reid decided it was silly to assume that it was even Max.

If anything, it was probably Fin because they hadn’t checked in with each other yet. They usually texted so Reid knew Fin had found a decent dinner and when he planned to be in for the night. It was a habit they had picked up when Reid was at college and Fin was on his own in the evenings and they had never grown out of it.

“Why hasn’t he checked in yet?” Reid wondered as he reached for his phone and glanced at the mantle. He hadn’t lasted two minutes and swore when he flipped it over and saw the message from Max. “Might as well,” he decided and opened it.

“Damn it, Max.”

Reid couldn’t stand the thought of Max waiting up in case he called when that definitely wasn’t happening. A hard shudder passed through Reid as he imagined the awkwardness of the greeting and the fumbling until a cohesive conversational pattern was found. He hated talking on the phone. But he didn’t want Max waiting in vain.

His conscience was clear and Reid felt like he’d done the right thing until Max responded fifteen minutes later.

The phone went on the charger in the bedroom and Reid stayed on the couch with his pizza and 007 for the rest of the evening. He was asleep when Gavin came in and bundled Reid into his room and into bed.

20

Max wasn’t worried when Reid hadn’t responded to his last text or any of the previous day’s emails by the time he’d arrived at the office on Friday morning. He told himself that Reid was just being his usual stubborn self while pondering his terms and Max reminded himself that Reid also had a business to run and numerous siblings, friends, nieces, and nephews to keep track of.

He was doing his best to not be paranoid or take it personally when Reid hadn’t responded to anything by lunchtime.

There needed to be a guide for older men who were dating in the modern digital age because Max had no idea what to make of this:

He showed Banks and the younger man drew back and crossed himself.

“What?” Max asked, but Banks hurried from the room.

“So help me, God: I will quit if you start crying and drunk texting him.”

“Why would I—?” Max started to ask but Banks had bolted. “I’ll give Reid a few hours and see if he gets back to me with something less cryptic. Maybe he didn’t mean to send it.”

Max went to lunch and took a call from Leo, then decided to see if Reid was in a more responsive mood.

He knew it wasn’t good when Reid replied immediately.

“Plans?” Max’s brain went straight to the Baccarat and he saw Reid naked, his lips red and swollen as drops of cum flicked onto his chin and his outstretched tongue. “Send for a limo,” Max called, feeling queasy as he stood.

Max was profoundly relieved when he came home and found Mia in the kitchen. “I’m going to Sophia’s so you don’t have to worry about me this weekend. Just raiding the pantry for snacks until she gets here.”

“About this weekend… I think I might have a problem,” he told her as he opened his last message from Reid and passed her his phone.

She scrolled and her face slowly twisted into a horrified grimace. “Oh, no! Not the thumbs up!” she whispered.

“What does it mean?” Max asked as he snatched the phone back.

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