Page 15 of Second Chances with my Billionaire Bosses

I got it. I understood where Tate was coming from. His desire to protect his little sister and his inability to read the tightness in her spine meant that he didn’t realize he was hurting her. I didn’t like the idea of her giving her hard work away for free, either, but calling her out for it in front of a group of people wasn’t the way to go.

Maxie, in a display of epic self-control, smiled up at Tate and held out a plate of chicken.

“You’re right. Here’s lunch. I already have potato salad and rolls on the table.”

I shared a look with Rhett but before I could think of something to say without showing all our cards, a commotion at the front of the house drew our attention. I looked back and saw six dirty ranch hands coming closer with hunger in their gazes. I straightened, ready to fuck them up over the way they were looking at Maxie but then I realized they weren’t looking at her, but the food. I watched in stunned silence as they didn’t acknowledge her at all. They lined up to grab food and thensettled on the table to eat. No one said thank you. No one even said hello.

Mills, Tate, and West were just as bad. With the distraction of the ranch hands, they didn’t say anything else to Maxie and she just faded into the background to all of them.

I cracked my neck from side to side and blew out a sharp breath. They treated her like she wasn’t there at all and for some reason, that was worse than if they’d teasingly flirted with her.

CHAPTER 11

Maxie

I stood at the kitchen sink, doing my best to disappear into the cabinets. Normally no one talked to me during mealtimes. They got their food, ate it, and left. I’d already been so tightly strung from whatever Shep had been doing just before everyone came in that when Tate had given his impromptu business lecture I’d been tempted to run away. Worse still was that my new bosses hadn’t left. They were staying for lunch and I could feel their eyes on me. They weren’t letting me disappear.

“Are you going to sit down and eat, Maxine?” Arlo’s voice called out over everyone else’s conversations, his tone hard.

My face was on fire when I glanced back at him and shook my head.

“I already ate.”

He stood up from the table and picked up an extra plate. Filling it, he didn’t seem to care that the table had gone silent. Walking over to me, he put the plate in my clammy hands and then grabbed my shoulders. Steering me over to the table, he pushed me down in a chair between Shep and Rhett. “

Liar.”

My palms burned as I dug my nails in deep. Mortification stained my entire body deep red and I couldn’t imagine taking a single bite of the food without choking on it. My mouth was a desert and my tongue was a lump of meat cooking in the sun.

West broke the silent spell that had fallen over the table.

“Well, shit, Maxie. What were you waiting on?”

I glanced up and saw that they were all staring at me. My stomach twisted and I thought I might throw up but Rhett put his hand over mine under the table and laughed easily.

“Having to watch a tableful of men scarf down their lunch isn’t exactly appetizing, huh? I get it. The first time I watched Tate eat I thought someone was pranking me.” Rhett shuddered. “It waslike watching a giant squirrel with anxiety. The way he just kept shoving shit in his mouth… I still get nightmares about it.”

And that quickly, the conversation turned away from me and the awkwardness vanished for everyone else. Not for me, though. I was still crawling on the inside but at least no one was watching me.

Rhett leaned closer to me and spoke in a low voice that no one else heard.

“Trade you my roll for your chicken leg?”

I jerked my head in his direction, unsure if I’d heard him right. Was he asking me to trade food like we were sitting around a school lunchroom? Sure enough, he was holding out his roll under the table with a serious look on his face. Something about it broke through the tightness in my chest and I laughed. It was probably closer to a giggle but I wasn’t sure I was comfortable admitting he’d made me giggle.

His eyes lit up as he watched me.

“Come on, Maxine. I’ll give you my roll and take over a ranch chore you hate.”

I bit my lip and looked at the platter on the table still halfway full of chicken. I couldn’t help the smile that slid over my face. It felt like slipping on a new version of my favorite shirt, the size and material were the exact same but it didn’t sit with the same familiarity. How often had I genuinely smiled in the last few years? Not often if my smile felt foreign on my lips.

“Are you going to leave me hanging, sweetheart?”

I glanced around the table and saw that no one was paying any attention to us. Quietly slipping my chicken leg off the plate, I held it out to him under the table and gasped when he yanked both his roll and my chicken away.

“Sucker.” He took a big bite out of the chicken and grinned at me.

It was so stupid and silly but I was struggling so hard to not laugh that I snorted. My eyes went huge and I could feel a rare attack of laughter coming on but I choked it down when I felt everyone staring at me. I kept my face down and cleared my throat.

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