Page 10 of Second Chances with my Billionaire Bosses

“You’re new in town. I would’ve remembered seeing you before.”

I took out my card to pay but Arlo appeared and shook his head at me. I started to argue that I could pay since I’d pickedout everything and maybe they would’ve bought less, or cheaper, things. Before I could, though, Arlo wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his chest. My brain stuttered. Not my mouth, my words, or anything like that. My actual brain stuttered. It was like it shut down for a full second. His body was so hard against mine. And hot. He was so much warmer than I was. He was huge, too, his body surrounding mine like he could just hold me and shield me from anything and everything that could ever hurt me.

He smiled down at me and dropped his mouth to press a kiss to the top of my head.

“You looked like you needed a hug.”

My brain kicked back on and I peeled myself off of his chest. I could feel how red my cheeks were just as I could feel Abby’s gaze on me. She popped her bubble gum and I braced for her to say something mean.

Shep slid his arm around me as soon as Arlo moved and the look he sent my way was inappropriate for anywhere outside of a bedroom. He sank his teeth into his bottom lip and slowly released it while staring at my mouth. My brain forgot to send warning signs and instead it was doing cartwheels. My toes curled in my boots and it was like I was a teenager with a crush all over again. I would’ve given my boobs for a look like the one he was giving me back in the day.

“Let’s get home and get busy.” His voice was barely a growl and there was no mistaking his meaning. He spun me into Arlo’s arms and slapped my butt before turning to Abby. “Did you say something?”

CHAPTER 8

Maxie

Mortified. That’s what I was. Absolutely, horribly, mortified. That wasallI was, too. An entire line of people at the store had heard and watched Shep manhandle me. There’d been gasps, and not just mine. Mine had been a gasp of shock and horror. Nothing else. I tried to convince myself no part of me had liked his touch or the way he lowered his voice and looked at me like I was a warm chocolate chip cookie.

“You scrub that table any harder and the legs are going to buckle, Maxine.” Rhett was laughing at me.

I could feel his eyes on me, waiting and watching for a response to The Great Slap. I wasn’t going to give any of them a show, however. Nope. I was just going to clean their kitchen so they could use it and then I was going to go home and take a very cold bath.

Crack!

The table leg buckled and I would’ve gone down with it if Rhett hadn’t been close enough to grab me. He set me back on my feet and rested his hands on my shoulders.

“You need to relax, Maxine. What do you do to relax?”

I wanted to kick and scream. The stupid table felt like a breaking point. A normal person would’ve taken a break and maybe talked about their issues. I’d just broken their dinner table, though, and I wasn’t normal so I was in an instant panic about replacing it. They were going to hate me if I didn’t fix it, the voice in my head shouted until all reason was lost.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll fix it. And if I can’t fix it, I’ll buy you a new table. I didn’t mean to. I shouldn’t have scrubbed so hard.” I tried to pull away from him so I could get a better look at the mess I’d made but his fingers tightened. “Rhett, I’m sorry. I promise I’ll replace it.”

Suddenly I was in the air and spun around so he could put me down on the counter. He stepped between my legs and pressed his hands down on my thighs so I couldn’t move.

“It’s a fucking table that came with the house, Maxie. We don’t care about the table. You don’t need to replace it and you don’t need to apologize.”

He looked angry. His eyebrows were furrowed as he stared at me. I told myself he wasn’t angry at me but it was like my mother was an ever-evolving disease infecting my brain.

“Breathe, Maxine. Breathe. Look at me. It’s fine. It’s just a table.” Gentling his voice and face, he shifted his hands to cup my face. His thumbs stroked my cheeks as he continued to coach me through my anxiety. “That’s it, sweetheart. Keep breathing. You’re okay.”

When my eyes tried to move back to the table, Rhett shifted to fill my gaze. I took more ragged breaths until it wasn’t so difficult. The whole time, he stayed with me, stroking my cheeks. It grounded me, feeling his rough thumbs over and over. I calmed down faster than I normally would’ve. It didn’t take long for the shame to hit after I could breathe normally again.

“I’m sorry. I don’t normally—”

“Don’t lie to me, Maxine. If you’re about to say what I think you’re about to say, don’t. You just had a panic attack and the way you’re acting now, I know this is far from your first.” He was serious but his face was gentle as he slid his hands down to my neck, just holding me there. “What’s going on with you? Something’s wrong and we can all see it. Just talk to us.”

Danger. I pushed off the counter and slipped away from him.

“There’s a lot to do here. We should focus on work. I’m fine.”

I could feel him behind me, his frustration growing by the second. He gripped my waist and leaned in.

“We’re going to take care of you, Maxine. Whether you like it at first, or not. The way I see it, the sooner you stop fighting, the sooner we can help with whatever you’re going through.”

He walked away and I heard the front door slam but I didn’t budge. He said it like he meant it but that was crazy. They wanted to take care of me? They didn’t even know me. They were talking and acting like they hadn’t rejected me with the swiftness and harshness of a bullet, like they still had permission to touch me and boss me around. Ten years had passed but that didn’t seem to matter to them. I didn’t understand it in the slightest.

I heard someone coming towards the kitchen and dropped to my knees next to the broken table, needing something to focus on other than whichever one of them was coming to interfere. I saw Rhett’s boots and braced for more of a scolding.

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