Page 11 of Yours, Forever

"Better not to dwell." Max gave me a wide smile. "We can fix that, if you'll remain my wife."

We gazed at each other, a strange levity around the serious topic. He'd been right; being married benefited us both. Talk about a happy marriage.

It took some time for the connection to break.

Ale interrupted us. "Are you going to do it?"

"Do it," Daniel said.

I gave Max a tiny smile. "I can always change my mind and divorce you in two weeks."

But Max kept his eyes on me, steady, confident.

"Don't call me honey," I said.

"Don't worry, darling. I'll be a delightful husband. You'll see."

I squinted at his use of the endearment, but ignored it for once. Earlier, Max had tried to shake Ale's and Daniel's hands, and I stopped it. I thought it said something that I was the one to offer Max my hand, this time.

His palm was wide and warm against mine as we shook on it.

"I'll tell my lawyers they can come visit us and bring all the final paperwork. For now... where's home?" he asked.

Chapter 5

Eva

Even though I'd agreedto continue the farce, nerves weighed down my stomach. Just like if I had signed for a huge loan at a high interest rate, I second guessed my decision. Too many unknowns.

No wonder I had drunk to make the night easier in Vegas. Still, I believed him enough, and the potential return on investment was too good to pass up, even if it made my heart quicken with nerves. Ironic, that I often wondered who the next person to leave me would be… and I had managed to get into an arrangement where being left was a guarantee.

It was fine. All I had to do was remember that, this time, I wanted it to happen.

Max insisted on driving me home in a car that probably cost more than my house, from the looks of it. Daniel's description earlier fit it well. It was black, sleek, and it looked like it could go from zero to five hundred in six seconds.

The inside of Max's vehicle looked just as expensive as the outside. Leather seats and two-tone surfaces, plus enough touch screens to make it seem like a small rocket. The back seats were a joke, almost non-existent.

Max drove us away from my coffee shop, the engine a soft rumble from the back. Only three minutes later, I gave Max the last direction to my home. "My house is the one with the unoccupied wooden carport. You can park there."

"All right."

We got out of the car, and he retrieved a suitcase from the small front trunk. Upon closing the lid, he rounded the vehicle at the back, and took a long look at my street.

No cars passed by. The old trees moved gently in the breeze. Neighboring homes stood quiet, a few lights on to let us know their occupants followed their typical nightly routines.

"It's quiet here," Max said. "Is it always like this?"

"Yeah. Do you live in a big city?"

He turned again, this time to inspect the front of my house. "I move around, but yes. Big cities most of the time. I sometimes go with my friends to a lake house one of them owns, and it's quiet. But I'm more used to sirens and traffic jams than this."

I gave him time to study the curb appeal of my small, simple house. A tiny garden decorated each side of the main door, with shrubs and some perennial flower bushes next to the compact stone porch. A narrow path joined it with the sidewalk, and the rest was simple grass. Two twin, big dark windows hugged the main door, smack in the middle of the wall.

"Pretty." He smiled my way and, without ceremony, pulled from his suitcase toward me.

I led us to the kitchen door by the carport and opened it for us. "This is going to be hard for you, isn't it? You seem like a guy whose existence is larger than life."

I invited him in and tucked myself in the kitchen, giving him more room at the entrance. His eyes darted about the place, first behind me, at the L-shaped kitchen, and the peninsula opening to the living space that dominated the room. Behind the stools flanking the peninsula, a smallish six-place dining table and, behind it, the living room. The front door separated both spaces. Decoration was rather simple, with a few plants and a couple of prints. Nothing too fancy.