Page 18 of A Line in the Sand
“For what?” Max said.
Molly snapped out of her nonsensical trance. When she looked back up at Max’s face, he was frowning again. Deep lines creased his forehead.
“For firing me, obviously. And for the deeply unflattering things you said about dogs and mermaids. That’s what we were getting at, right? Your apology?” She laughed.
Max, pointedly, did not. “I was waiting foryouto apologize tome.”
“Me?” Molly gaped at him. “What on earth do I have to apologize for?”
“Apparently I’m only allowed to order a single flavor of cupcake.” Max’s jaw visibly clenched. “Not that it matters since a Dalmatian with lobster claws stole it right out of my hand.”
Right. That.
“In my defense, I had nothing to do with Sprinkles stealing your cupcake. She’s just like that sometimes. Ask anyone.” Molly waved a hand toward the window. Bingo must have started, because their audience had dispersed.
Still, when she caught a glimpse of the Charlie’s Angels at a table overlooking the bay, each of the older women seemed to be absently stamping the table’s bare surface with their sponge-tipped daubers instead of their bingo sheets as they stole glances outside.
“I can’t ask anyone, seeing as you’ve turned the entire town against me in a matter of hours.” Max threw up his free hand. His other one was already occupied, snuggling a blissful Ursula against his chest.
So much for loyalty.
“Let me get this straight—youdidn’tcome here tonight to offer me my job back?” Molly asked.
Go ahead. Try to deny it.They both knew he had zero intention of playing bingo.
“On the contrary, that’s exactly why I came here.” The corner of Max’s mouth curved into a grin. Finally.
“I accept,” Molly said.
But at the exact same moment the words left her mouth, Max said, “I’ve since changed my mind.”
“Wait.What?” Molly’s face burned with humiliation.
“Clearly, working together would be a mistake.” Max’s tone was a little too cocky for Molly’s liking.
She couldn’t believe she’d been so willing to forgive and forget. The man was impossible. He’d fired her puppy, for goodness’ sake.
She snatched Ursula away from him.
“Abigmistake,” Molly blurted.
Max’s blue eyes hardened, glittering like beach glass. “Huge.”
Molly was aggressively annoyed and more than a little hurt, although she couldn’t imagine why. She’d rather blend Milky Way lattes at Turtle Books for the rest of her life than agree to work for Max Miller.
Not that he’d asked.
“For the record, I stand by my earlier statement. Mermaids are scientifically insignificant, and emotional support humans aren’t a thing,” he said, driving the final nail into the coffin of their nonexistent working relationship.
Molly felt her bottom lip begin to quiver. She bit down hard on it to get it to stop. She absolutelyrefusedto appear vulnerable in front of this horrible man. “And what exactly would you know about being human?”
Chapter 6
Max didn’t stick around for bingo, even though he knew he probably should have. What better way to prove his “humanity” to the good people of Turtle Beach?
He couldn’t, though. He just didn’t have it in him. Today had been aday, and tomorrow’s forecast wasn’t looking any better. Now that Molly wasn’t coming back, he was going to have to figure some things out. A lot of things. Too many to count, if today had been any indication. So instead of pretending he in any way belonged at a table with a bingo card in front of him and a mermaid cupcake in his hand, Max had bid goodbye to his Uncle Henry—who’d managed to guilt Max into promising to attend yoga in the morning—and then he’d left the senior center for the serenity of the back deck of Henry’s beach cottage.
Except it wasn’t Henry’s beach house anymore, it was Max’s. Like it or not, he was officially part of a town that had just collectively attempted to force his hand to rehire a mermaid and her dog.
