Page 4 of Second Chances with my Billionaire Bosses

“We’ve stayed in worse.”

“Not in a very long time.” I downed the rest of the whiskey in my glass and sighed. “Today wasn’t what we expected.”

Shep let out a bitter laugh.

“Nope. Why they didn’t tell her we were buying the ranch is beyond me. She had no fucking clue we were coming. A strong wind could’ve knocked her over when she saw us standing there.”

“There are a lot of things our old friends have done and are doing that I don’t understand. Why the fuck was she cleaning up all by herself?” Scowling, Arlo sat forward and refilled our glasses. Then he sat back and stared at the wall behind me. “I’ve never lied to either of you and I’m not going to start now. I didn’t know what to expect with seeing Maxie again but I fucking want her.”

Shep didn’t even blink. He just smiled and tipped his glass at Arlo. “Yeah.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “We came here to start a family. We had no business touching her ten years ago but she’s a grown woman now and I think we all had the same reaction to seeing her today.”

“If she’d shown a hint of interest, I would’ve gotten on my knees and begged her to come home with us tonight.” Shep smirked. “Too bad our sweet Maxine is angry with us.”

Growing serious, I drained my glass again.

“I don’t think any of us would say that what happened was our proudest moment. I never knew it hurt her as much as it clearly did, though. She was eighteen. I thought she had a silly crush and would forget us and her hurt feelings in no time.”

“I still feel ashamed when I think of that night. We were drunk and hurting and there she was with a basket of freshly baked cookies. She was our ownLittle Red Riding Hoodand we acted out the role of big, bad wolves perfectly. She should’ve taken one look at us in our sorry state and run but she stayed to take care of us and we couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves.” Arlo stood up and paced behind the couch. “That fucking kiss… I still wake up sweating over the memory of it.”

I existed in a twisted sense of shame and hunger when it came to Maxie. Or, I had before seeing her earlier that day. Seeing her as a woman, seeing how she’d changed and grown, I no longer felt shame. I just wanted her. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt desperate, or even excited, for a woman. Yet, one look at Maxie and I’d nearly busted the zipper of my jeans.

I looked at my best friends, the men I wanted to share a woman with, and grinned. “All the other shit aside for a moment, I think we found what we’ve been looking for today. Maxie is it. Right?”

Shep’s grin matched my own. “

Yeah. For sure.”

“I don’t have any doubt that she’s the one we need. I just don’t know how we’re going to convince her to give us a chance. In all the times we visited the Hellstone ranch back in the day, I never once saw Maxie snap at someone. Everyone always talked about how docile and sweet she was. I never even saw her frownat anyone before today. Unless she underwent a personality transplant in the last decade, I think we’re facing an uphill battle with her.” Arlo shrugged. “Not that I mind. I like a little fire.”

“She has fire, alright.” I thought of the kiss we’d shared and blew out a deep breath. “She’s even prettier now. I didn’t think that was possible.”

Shep twisted his neck from side to side, cracking it.

“Did either of you think it would happen this fast? That we’d just show up on day one and find the woman we want to share forever?”

“No.” I let a slow smile twist my mouth. “But only because I didn’t know if Maxie was married already. Whatever spell she had us under ten years ago is still there. I was already thinking of how I was going to take her husband out if she had one.”

“God, we’re assholes.” Arlo sat back on the couch and made a face when a plume of dust rose around him. “This place is disgusting.”

“We’ll start working on it tomorrow.” I looked around. “This place might take more work than Maxie needs to warm up to us.”

Shep shook his head. “I don’t think so. I have a feeling that sweet little Maxine is going to give us a run for our money.”

“Too bad for her we’re a determined bunch of assholes. She wanted us back then; she’ll want us again. We just need to remind her of how great we are.” Arlo scowled when we laughed. “I’m serious. We’re great. At least, I’m great.”

“You’re drunk.” I leaned over to miss the pillow he threw at me but it hit me anyway. More dust exploded around my head and made me cough. “You know, if anyone could hear this conversation, we’d come off as absolute psychos.”

“Yeah.” Shep didn’t seem to mind too much.

“Why? Because we know what we want and plan to get it? Why would I go into our relationship any differently than I’ve gone into the rest of our lives when we’ve been so successful?” Seeingthat I was about to insult him, Arlo rushed on. “Say what you want but it’s true. We’ve gotten where we are in life by going after the things we want. We didn’t do that a decade ago with Maxie because of her age and look at the last ten years of our love lives. Stunted, sad, and just overall depressing.”

I scoffed. “Ouch.”

“You disagree? Have you had a happy, healthy relationship we don’t know about?”

“No. And you know that.” I refilled my own glass and drained it. “I’m on board. I want her. Seeing her just confirmed what I already knew. She’s supposed to be ours.”

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