Lovers at Heart(11)

She checked her watch. The deliveries weren’t supposed to come for another hour. “Patron, delivery, or sponsor?”

“Hold on.”

She heard a muffled conversation that she couldn’t make out.

“He says none of the above.”

Max stopped walking. Treat. “Um, is he really tall?” She held her breath. Please say no. No, please say yes. Oh God. Don’t say anything. Just let him go away.

“Freakishly.”

She closed her eyes as her heart raced, and every nerve in her body pulsed with the memory of his touch.

“Max?”

She touched the earpiece. “Yeah, I’m here. I’m busy. Send him away.” Then she remembered her purse. Damn it. She needed her purse. “Hey, does he have my purse?” she asked.

“No. Hands are empty.”

Confused, she headed for the office. “Send him away.” Where’s my damned purse? Why doesn’t he have it? What’s he doing if he’s not here to give me my purse? She clicked off the earpiece and read Kaylie’s text again.

How was hottie?

Didn’t end up seeing him, she texted back. Out of sight, out of mind. If she was going to make it through the foreseeable future, that’s what she’d have to strive for.



THE AFTERNOON DRAGGED by in slow motion, with each issue taking twice as long as the last. By dinnertime, Max was exhausted, hungry, and in worse mental shape than she could ever remember experiencing. Is this what liking and hating a man at the same time feels like?

She tried to eat her leftover salad, but even the sight of it turned her stomach. She guzzled more coffee and decided to duck into a theater for a few minutes. Maybe she could close her eyes and no one would notice. The minute her butt hit the only available seat in the theater, her earpiece buzzed. She hauled herself back out into the cool evening air.

“Yeah?”

“Max? Delivery for you.”

“I’m not expecting any deliveries. Who’s the vendor?” She walked to the fence at the edge of the property and stared into the rear lot. There were no delivery trucks.

“Forget it, Max. I’ll have someone run it up to the office.”

“Thanks.”

Chaz was texting when Max entered the office. She relaxed into the couch. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes. Chaz’s phone buzzed three times in quick succession.

“Text fight?” she asked.

Chaz sighed. “No.” He responded to the texts, and his phone continued to buzz several times in a row.

She lifted her head and opened her eyes. “Anything I can do?” she asked.

He finally put the phone down on his desk and looked at her. “Max, we’re so slow tonight. Why don’t you take off?”

She snapped to attention. “What?”

“You heard me. Just take off early. We’ve got this covered.”

Adrenaline drove her to the edge of his desk. “What’s going on? I’ve never left a festival early, and you know we’re anything but slow tonight.” Max rubbed her temples. “You know you can’t handle it without me, either. So what the hell is going on?”

“You’re exhausted,” he said.

“Yeah, so? I’m tired, so what? I can still do my job. Look, I’m sorry if I overstepped my boundaries by being so worn out. I take full responsibility, but there’s no reason to make me leave early.” Shit. I’d better pull it together.

When he didn’t respond, she said, “I love my job, Chaz. Have I done something wrong?”

“Relax. No. Even when you’re tired, you do twice the work of anyone else.”

Max felt unexpected tears pushing at her eyes. “Then what is it? Why do you need to get rid of me?”

There was a knock at the door, and Max moved to answer it. “Hi, Mark. What’s up?”

Mark was one of the temporary festival staffers. He carried an enormous white box into the office and set it on the table.

“Just got this delivery,” he said on his way back out the door.

“Were you expecting something?” Chaz asked.

She shook her head and lifted the lid. The smell itself was enough to send her stomach into a flurry of desire—and not the sexual kind. Chaz hovered over her shoulder.

“Sponsor?” he asked.

“Probably,” she said, then dipped her finger into the thick chocolate frosting and licked it off. She removed the card that was taped to the inside of the box and opened it. “Maybe it’s from Café Deluxe, that new bakery sponsor. Oh my God, that’s delicious.”

She arched a brow while she read the card aloud while grinning.

“Max, I hope this helps ease the pain I’ve caused you. Dive right in...” Max lowered the note, unable to control her slack jaw or the rush of her pulse. Treat. She snapped the card shut as a flush warmed her cheeks.

“O-kay, then. Someone did something wrong,” Chaz said. “It must have been an awfully bad thing to send you a cake big enough to feed an army.”

I said I wanted to bury my face in chocolate cake. Damn it. Why do you have to make this so hard? She closed the top of the box. “Why don’t you take it home to Kaylie and the kids?”

“Max.” Chaz shook his head. “I think that whoever sent this probably meant for you to have it. That’s not a cheap cake.”

“It’s okay. He can afford it. He eats cake like this for breakfast.” And women like me for dinner.





Chapter Ten


TREAT HADN’T EATEN all day. He wasn’t surprised when Max refused to see him, but he wasn’t going to give up on them that easily. If nothing else, if she wouldn’t let him into her life, then at least she could let him really talk with her about his feelings and allow him to try and explain himself more effectively.

He hoped the cake might sweeten her up just a little and bring that thick wall she’d erected between them down just long enough for her to listen, and to understand, even if only a little, to what he had to say. After talking with his father today, Treat was even more convinced that what he was feeling for Max was far bigger than like and was bordering on the one thing he’d tried to avoid his whole life.

When he wasn’t trying to figure out how to make her listen, he was telling himself that it was okay to get close to her. That if he fell for her, she wouldn’t die like his mother had. But even as he repeatedly tried to convince himself that the fear was unfounded, he never really quite believed it.

After all but the last two cars pulled out of the parking lot and the interior festival lights went dark, Treat waited in the cover of night for the back gates to open one last time.

His pulse raced when he saw her walking beneath the glow of the lighted gate beside Chaz. Her shoulders were rounded forward, as though they were too heavy for her sexy little frame to support. Treat had the urge to run and swoop her into his arms, for her head to rest against his chest while he held her, safe and warm. Chaz carried the enormous cake box that Treat had sent, and when Chaz went to his car without giving the cake back to Max, his gut clenched.

Treat went to Max’s driver's side door and knocked on the window, startling her into a scream.

Seconds later, Chaz was running for him. Treat held his hands up. “Chaz, it’s me, Treat. I didn’t mean to startle her.”

“Treat? What are you...”

He watched understanding dawn on Chaz, while embarrassment consumed Max and caused her to cover her face with her hands.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just wanted to talk to Max, and I didn’t want to interrupt her at work,” Treat explained.

Chaz looked at Max. “Max?”

“It’s fine,” she answered.

Chaz turned his back and leaned closer to Treat. “The cake? Impressive. Kaylie asked me to get Max to leave early for you. I tried, but you know Max.”

I hope to get to know her even better.

“Thank you. Sorry I had Kaylie try to get her outside for a bit,” Treat said, though he wasn’t really sorry.

Chaz nodded. “Pretty damned romantic. You realize you’re setting the bar pretty high for us normal guys, right?”

Treat smiled. He watched Chaz drive away, and a minute later, Max got out of her car. “You scared the crap out of me,” she said.

“I know. I wasn’t thinking.”

She crossed her arms, and he couldn’t help but smile at the way she was so obviously steeling herself against him. Chinking that wall into place.

“Do you have my purse?” Her clipped words and crossed arms contrasted sharply against the hurt in her eyes.

“I do,” he said.

When he didn’t move, she said, “Well? Can I have it?”

“Oh, yeah, of course.” How could he have forgotten? He retrieved the purse, and as she climbed back into her car, Treat gently touched her arm. “Max, all I want to do is talk. Nothing else. Please. I think I owe you that much.”

“You owe me that much? Isn’t that a little arrogant?” she asked.

“I thought it was better than saying you owed me anything at all, which you don’t.” He saw her resolve soften. “Please? Just take a walk with me? I’ll keep my hands to myself. I won’t let us get caught up in any hanky-panky.”

She stepped from the car with a reluctant sigh. “Hanky-panky? I haven’t heard that since I was twelve.”