Page 439 of Dark Love

“No…” I look down at the plate. “But I did soak the nuts for a very long time.”

“Were you hoping to get me drunk?”

“Kind of.”

He laughs. “This must be really bad.”

“Kind of. Maybe you should take two.”

Max takes it from my hands and sets it down again. “Talk to me. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“Please eat one first.”

“You don’t need to be afraid.” But he takes a bite of the cookie, and his eyes roll back in his head.

Excellent. Hopefully now he’ll be too distracted to actually remember what I’m saying.

When he finally opens his eyes, Max asks, “Are you sure you don’t want to marry me?”

A small smile spreads across my face. “Positive.”

“Too bad. I’d give you a huge ring for these alone.” He takes another bite. “Perfection. They’re pure perfection. I wonder if I’ll be able to hide them from everyone else or if Hope has blabbed to the world.”

“Is that really a question?”

He laughs. “So, what’s your question?”

“It’s more of a problem I got myself into, and I don’t know how to fix it. Men don’t like to be cornered, do they?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Vex is going to be so irritated with me.

“Before you start getting all worried. Tell me what you did.”

“So a couple of days ago, I wasn’t feeling well, and I called in sick to work.”

“Are you feeling better? I can go get my mom.”

NO! “Thanks, but I’m fine now.” Well, mostly. The cramps are still there, but not intolerable anymore. “I’d made plans with a friend for after work and messaged him to cancel.”

“That all seems reasonable.” He crosses his legs and sets his ankle on his knee after reaching for another cookie.

Good. The plan is working. But Vex doesn’t do reasonable. “He kept pushing to bring a doctor over, even though I didn’t need one.” Wait, I need to change the thread of this conversation, or Max is going to ask what was wrong with me. “He finally decided to come over and—” Bring me the best period snacks ever isn’t the way to go. “—check on me. Which was incredibly sweet and thoughtful.”

“That does sound thoughtful.” Max has a strange smile on his face.

It must be the bourbon. “He decided to stay and watch a few movies with me.” The fact that we were on my bed isn’t necessary for Max to know, but the best part was cuddling with Vex and falling asleep in his arms.

“What did you watch?”

I don’t know if that is an important detail. “Pride and Prejudice and then some action movies. There were a lot of things blowing up.”

Max’s smile gets even wider. “Not your normal movie type to watch.”

“Not at all.” But it was surprisingly enjoyable with Vex. “Then it all got weird.”

“How so? Did he make unwanted advances?”

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