Page 9 of Wicked William

“If you say so.”

“Max—”

He opens the lunch bag and pulls out a sandwich. “I remember a few months ago Dillon hired a hot, but inappropriately young, receptionist. Just to help her out.”

Yeah, and now she’s hugely pregnant with Dillon’s baby. I know where he’s going with this. But Dillon’s type has always been “the more troublesome the better.” We’re very different about women.

“It’s not like that.”

“What’s it like, then?” my brother scoffs.

“You’re one to talk. You gave Cherry a bookstore the night you met her.”

Max laughs. “So itislike that then?”

Fuck. He knew the minute he saw Cherry for the first time that he was going to marry her.Thisis the opposite ofthat.

“No!” I pull a sandwich out of the bag for myself. “Maisy is delusional, but I couldn’t put her out on the street.”

Max sits on the floor against the wall and waits for me to dig my own grave with words instead of a shovel.

“She thinks she’s psychic or something.” And a kitchen witch, but I don’t mention that part. Though this sandwich is fucking good. “She had a vision about me and insists she’s here to protect me or save me.”

“From what?”

“The details are hazy,” she says.

“That would make you the damsel in distress then.”

“Shut up.”

Later, we’re cleaning up for the day when Max suggests I should bring Maisy to the wedding this weekend.

“Like a date? No.”

“She’s new in town. Doesn’t know anyone. It’s the nice thing to do.”

“You are the very fucker who told me to never bring a date to a wedding. It makes women think you’re serious, you said. Weddings are not casual dates, you said. And they get all weepy and shit, you said.” There was also an edict about not picking up a woman from the airport because then they thought you were their boyfriend for sure. “Now that you’re the one at the altar, you want everyone to join your ranks. Misery loves company?”

He palms my shoulder. “I’ve never been happier. And neither has Dillon. Love ain’t so bad, bro.”

I don’t have an answer to that. I’m not looking for love. Especially not with a sassy whirlwind who thinks she’s a witch.

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