Page 31 of Be My Baby

“For the love of all that’s holy, what the actualfuck, Si?”

Max faced his brother, finally all covered up. He scraped a hand through his hair, the mortification he’d initially felt fast being replaced by anger.

Anger that Simon had come in, anger that he’d finally had Millie’s hand on him after all this time and it had been rudely interrupted, but most of all anger that he’d been stupid enough to pull something like that at work without locking the damned door.

“Hey, don’t blame me if you can’t be bothered to lock the door if you’re copping a feel,” Simon said, the grin on his face not the least repentant.

“What are you, a mind reader now?” Max grumbled.

“Nah, but there’s a guy out front who wants to talk to you. Something about a trailer?”

Max scrunched up his face and scrubbed at it, hard. “I forgot he was stopping in. It’s about the reefer.”

Simon’s eyes sparkled in the bright fluorescent lights of the office. “Look at it this way, Maximus—it could’ve been a lot worse.”

Max raised a brow at him. “How?”

Simon stepped back through the doorway, still facing him, his shit-eating grin causing Max’s own lips to tweak upward without his consent. Damn his brother to hell for making him want to laugh at getting caught.

“You could’ve had her bent over the desk with her knickers around her ankles. That would’ve beenfarmore embarrassing for you both than her hand down your dacks.”

*

Millie chewed herfingernail as she hurried around the bar and toward the main dining room and dance floor.

Her face blazed like a goddamn firecracker, she could feel it all the way to her scalp.

Home. She would go home and pretend that Simon hadn’t caught her with her hand wrapped around his brother’s…

“Oh, dear God. Kill me now,” she groaned.

Perhaps he hadn’t actuallyseenanything?

They’d been side-on to the doorway. She slapped her hand to her forehead. He’d seeneverything.

“Hey, Millie!”

She looked up at someone shouting her name over the noise of the room.

Emma waved at her from the large booth the Jamesons kept reserved for family only. She stopped walking. Emma beckoned her, a huge smile on her face.

Despite her intention to head straight home and hide and maybe never leave her house again, her feet had other ideas and pointed her in Emma’s direction.

She stopped and stood awkwardly at the end of the booth. Emma laughed and grabbed her arm. She dragged Millie down to sit beside her, scooting over and shoving Ryan with an elbow to the ribs to make room.

“I called your name several times, but you looked a million miles away. You okay?” Emma asked.

Millie nodded, then frowned. “Sort of.”

Darby, sitting across the table, let out a sharp bark of laughter. “It kinda looked likesort offrom here too. Anything we can do?”

Millie blinked in confusion. She shook her head at herself. She didn’t know why she was so surprised that they offered, or that they gave a damn, even though she recognised that guarded glint in Darby’s eyes. Rightfully so, if she wanted to be honest. By now the entire Jameson clan would know what was going on between her and Max. They were right to be cautious. To be wary. Heck, she’d be suspicious as all hell if it was her family and this had happened. But she’d forgotten what they were like, the type of people they were, and had been reminded at the BBQ.

Pleasantly reminded.

That despite their misgivings, they were still fundamentally good people, and would never be openly hostile without a very good reason. She glanced toward where her friends usually sat. They’d said they weren’t coming tonight, but sure enough, there they were at the usual table.

Without her.

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