Page 238 of The Maxwell Brothers
I barely held back laughter. This was a general strategy in the Maxwell family. When we weren’t sure about something, we went out for food.
Turning to me, he added, “Do you want to join us?"
Taking my phone from my pocket, I checked my calendar, noting that I didn’t have any appointments. "Sure. Why not?"
I had court tomorrow for the divorce case, but I had time to finish prepping for it even with a prolonged lunch break.
We all rose to leave.
“By the way, I got an email from Sam. He said he’s flying home for a week while Kimberly is here too,” Luke said. “I must say, I like knowing our brother is a little closer now.”
During his previous placement, he’d been in Central Africa. He came home for a couple weeks last year after Tyler was injured during a fight with Reese’s ex. He stayed for a while, as all of us were hovering around Tyler, trying to cheer him up. Iliked that Sam was in Honduras now. He could fly back home much more often.
"Declan, why do you look like you didn't sleep last night?" Luke asked as we headed out the door.
"Because I didn't."
"Still at war with your tenant?"
"Yes."
"What? What war?" Reese asked. "What did I miss?"
"You remember that I have someone living in the guest house on the property, right? She's driving me insane."
"Yeah. She comes home late into the night and dances to loud music.In. Her. Own. Home. Can you imagine something more disturbing?" Luke asked, rolling his eyes.
"Itisdisturbing if I can hear it," I countered.
"You have bat ears. I remember when we were kids. You could hear ustalkingthrough walls and across rooms. No clue how you did it.”
“It was a necessary means of survival.Yoursurvival. If I hadn’t caught on about some of the shit you wanted to pull, you’d have gotten into even more trouble than you did.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Luke said. “But anyway, if you can't sleep, you have to do something about your tenant."
“I know.”
The problem was that every time I closed my eyes last night, I saw an image of Liz, sweaty and flushed in workout clothes.
The next time I banged on her door, I was more likely to kiss her than scold her.
CHAPTER 3
LIZ
"Elizabeth,this is unacceptable. You can't take breaks," my boss, Richard, said, busting in on me while I was at the kitchen sink. He was the owner of his own catering company, Richard’s Catering. We were currently at a client’s, serving the food we’d prepared earlier in the morning. I’d burned my left forearm setting up a chafing dish and was trying to stifle the pain under a stream of cold water.
"I know, but I burned myself. I need to cool it down so it stops stinging."
"I need you out there. Now."
"I’ll be right out, don't worry," I said, biting my tongue.Asshole.My arm was burning like hell, and I needed a couple more minutes; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to work at all.
Richard pursed his lips, making an ugly face. He was unforgiving.
"Listen to me. Accidents happen on the job. I need you to be able to deal with themwhileworking. Put butter on it or something. Just get out there."
"I'll be right out," I repeated, forcing a smile to his retreating back.
