Page 10 of Be My Baby

“I-I’m sorry Millie. That should never have…”

She flipped her hand at him and shook her head. “It meant nothing. It’s okay. We’ve had a few drinks, we’re both emotional. I would never want to do that for real. Not with you.”

He nodded. “Yeah, totally.”

She laughed awkwardly and brushed it off, and he made an excuse to leave, not looking at her.

But, now? The more she was around him, and that was a fair bit, the more she felt her attraction to him wind around her, ensnaring her heart, mind, and soul.

Max nodded awkwardly and rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth. “All good. You know what you want for dinner?”

Millie sat on the chair primly, trying to compose herself.

Hell. If Simon hadn’t interrupted she might had done somethingreallydumb, like kiss him.

On the mouth.

“No idea. I’m supposed to meet Mandy here at six.” She glanced at her watch. “She’s got five minutes.”

Max laughed and walked back around the other side of the bar and picked up a tea towel. “Sometimes, Millie, I’m glad I’m not one of your girlfriends.” He threw her a wink and walked toward the new customer who had just come in.

She threw him a beatific smile and slid off the stool. She winked back at him and tossed her parting words over her shoulder as she turned to go sit at her usual table, “I’m gladallof the time that you aren’t.”

Chapter Six

Max turned atthe sound of the lock tumbling in the door behind him, his stomach roiling and churning as the door opened. He stood with his hands shoved deep in the back pockets of his jeans. Birds chirped away happily in the garden behind him as he tried to smile at the vision frowning at him in confusion from her doorway. He’d seen her only two nights ago, and he rarely came to her house like this. Too much temptation and too little distraction from said temptation.

“If we do this, we need some ground rules.”

Millie blinked as if unsure what he was talking about. Realisation flooded her face, and she grabbed his arm and dragged him through the door into her living room.

A large mantel clock chimed delicately over the gas-log fireplace.

Nine AM, Sunday morning. Millie looked to have crawled straight out of bed. He shoved that thought far out of his head. It would be far too easy to imagine how she looked in bed, how she would feel, wrapped all warm and soft around him.

“You’re actually considering it? For real?”

His stomach somersaulted at the hope in her voice. His gaze snagged on a photo of Millie and Lucy that sat near the clock. One taken a year or so before Lucy had died.

He smiled at the happiness on Lucy’s face, then grimaced as the guilt hit. He looked at Millie.

“I need to know what you expect from me. Besides the obvious,” he added as heat rose in her cheeks.

Damn. She’s so beautiful.

Soft blonde waves reached to the tops of her shoulders, longer than it had been in years; the honey and cream colours mixing and mingling with a darker, more caramel shade, lending her pale skin warmth. Deep green eyes stared at him, her lush, wide mouth open in surprise. He fought the attraction and shoved it far beneath the usual calm exterior he showed the world. Those soulful eyes of hers got him deep in the gut every, damned, time.

Millie dragged him to the sofa and shoved him down to sit. She raised her hands and half turned to hurry toward the kitchen, then stopped, looking a strange mixture of flustered and excited.

“Wait here. I’ll grab us a coffee.”

She disappeared before he could say anything. She returned soon after and Max raised a brow at the glasses in her hands, the bottle of orange juice held tight in the crook of her elbow.

“That’s strange-looking coffee.” His attempt to lighten the weird mood in the room worked.

Sort of.

Millie sent him an odd half smile and started pouring the drinks. “I didn’t want to wait for the kettle to boil.”

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