Page 37 of Cody

“The guy who operates the skidder went home sick, and the only other guy who knows how to run it is on vacation.”

I shook my head with disgust, because it seemed King was having a lot of issues with his crew lately. “Do you know how to operate the skidder?”

Max shook his head.

“Neither do I.”

Max laughed. “Yeah, but King has faith that we can figure it out. Doesn’t matter anyway. I told him we won’t be done here ‘til five anyway.” He turned his attention to Alina. “Do you want to grab dinner tonight?”

What the fuck?I glared at Max, but he ignored me. I guessed that my earlier look hadn’t made my intentions about Alina clear enough after all. I was going to have to set him straight after she left. It wasn’t lost on me that I didn’t know exactly what that would involve. Telling Max that she was off limits would leave it open to interpretation, and possibly a misunderstanding. I’d never shown possessiveness toward any other woman before now.

“I’m sorry, Max, I already have plans.” Alina smiled at me.

Max noticed her look and assumed correctly that her plans were with me. “Cody beat me to it, huh? Okay. Maybe tomorrow?”

Was he being purposely obtuse? I was going to hit him. I clenched my jaw and scowled directly at him, but once again he ignored me. However, I didn’t miss the slight twitch on his mouth that told my gut that he was messing with me.

A soft laugh trailed behind Alina as she walked back toward her car and tossed over her shoulder, “I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ve got to get back to the store.”

Not until her car was backing out of the driveway did Max look in my direction. He could no longer hold on to his amusement, and he let out a short laugh that I chose to ignore.

“Tell me, after all these years of knowing me, that you didn’t read the look I gave you earlier,” I snapped.

“Oh, I read it, Brother. But when have you ever cared about one of us dating the same woman you were dating?”

He had a point there.

He paused, and I didn’t like the knowing look that came into his eyes. The bastard knew, and he wanted to hear the words from my mouth. “Unless...are you saying you want Alina to yourself?”

I pressed my lips, spun around, and returned to the tree I was working on.

There was no way in hell I was going to answer that.

Chapter 18

Alina

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