“Fine. Tyler’s my boss.”
“And?”
“And…we’ve…made out.”
Disgust wrinkled his face. “Didn’t need to know that part.”
“He’s weird and I think slightly crazy. He thinks I’m…tall and that’s about the only concrete thing I can get out of him. He just got out of a long term relationship so I’m not sure what’s going on, but whatever it is, it’s nothing serious. Now you.”
Max exhaled slowly. “So you know what happened with Danny, right? And I may have told her a small white lie.” He paused, nervous to reveal his secret. “I stretched the truth a bit and now…and now we’re kinda…dating.”
Her eyes were so wide it looked like they were going to pop out of her head. “What? Max, this is…not good. Is that why you don’t let mom talk to her? This is seriously a bad idea.”
“I know that. I didn’t even want to do it, but then Charlie—”
“Charlie?” she shouted. “You took dating advice from Charlie? The same guy who jerks off to CGI characters?”
He handed her a cup of coffee and they sat down at the wooden table. “It was stupid, Jo-jo, and now I’m stuck in this lie and I can’t get out of it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I didn’t think…it would get so out of hand.”
“Oh, my God.” She covered her mouth with her hand when she saw something he hadn’t realized he had put on show. “Oh, my God. You slept with her. What’re you? Insane? What were you thinking, Max?”
“I wasn’t thinking. It’s just…how…how could I say no to the idea? It’s what I’ve always wanted. I’ll tell her the truth, Jo-jo. I will, just not now.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Her concern was evident in the weighted breath she let out. “Now enough about me and enough about you. How’s Kevin?”
Max shrugged. “He’s…Kevin.”
“You need to talk to him.”
He turned his cup idly on the table as he threw one arm over the backrest of the wooden chair. “I was just in there. All he did was play video games. He doesn’t want to talk, Jo-jo.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re telling me that you’ve been here since yesterday and all you did was play video games? Geez, Max! Get back in there and do…I don’t know…just do something.”
“What do you want me to do? You know how he gets. He wants to be alone.”
“Well, Bink shouldn’t be alone right now. He’ll do something stupid.”
“Then you go talk to him.”
“Me?” She stopped sipping her coffee and glared at him. “Max, we both know that I am worst person to be around in a time of crisis. You remember what I said after Penny the Parrot died. Shane cried for two days. I didn’t even send you a message on your birthday because of what happened to Danny. I always end up saying the wrong thing. I think it’s better if you go.”
“No, you.”
“No! You!”
“Let’s settle this the democratic way,” he said, leaning forward. “Rock, paper, scissors.”
She rolled her eyes but leaned forward anyway. “One…two…three.”
She threw out a flat hand but Max threw out a fist with his index finger pointed out.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It’s a stick of dynamite and…”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“…it can blow up rock, paper or scissors…”
“You’re being ridiculous!”
“…so I guess that means I win…”
“Just when I thought you couldn’t be a bigger moron.”
“…and you’re going in there.”
Her face dropped with dread. “Max, please.”
“Jordan, it’s up to you now. Who knows what will happen if I go back in there? We could get all emotional and then our dicks will fall off and then we’ll start listening to boy bands and you don’t want that for your brothers, right?”
“I can’t believe you would use my own words against me.”
“You should always watch what you say to me. It may come back to bite you when you least expect it.”
She groaned her irritation. “I hate you!” She finished her coffee and stood up. “Fine, I’ll go talk to Bink but you’re on Tyler duty. Just make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”
Max watched her leave the kitchen and stood up, feeling very proud of himself. That dynamite trick worked every time.
He walked back to living room and stood at the entrance, watching the tall, brown-haired man his sister was apparently obsessing over. He was, in fact, very weird. Still arguing with Makayla but for something different now.
“I don’t know how you watch this,” Tyler said, pointing to the talking ducks and mice on the screen. “I, for one, have spotted several loopholes already.”
“What’s a loophole?” his niece asked innocently.
“Like how does that thing know exactly which tools to have every episode?”
“Because he knows,” Makayla responded simply.
Yep, Tyler was strange, alright. But that probably meant he was perfect for Jordan. Max groaned inwardly as he walked to the sofa. This was going to be painful.
“Hi,” he greeted, extending his hand. “Max.”
“Tyler.”
They shook hands and Max sat beside him.
“You’re pretty passionate about cartoons,” Max said.
“I dare you to find any sort of logic in it.”
It took less than ten seconds before his nieces swarmed around him. First kisses, then excited giggles, then the make-up and glitter came out.
Max sighed his submission as his three nieces started with their make-over. Protesting was useless so he just sat there as they attacked him with all shades of pink. Makayla (3) on hair, Mackenzie (5) on eye-shadow, and Madison (7) on lipstick.
“Where’s Danny, Uncle Max?” Madison asked, smearing the pasty cream outside the lines of his mouth.
The question made him realize how much he missed her. “She’s back in LA. Promise I’ll bring her next time.”
He waited for the girls to finish before he looked over at Tyler. “You want a beer? Make all of this a little more…manly?”
“Sure. Pink is definitely your color, by the way.”
Max laughed. “Don’t think you’re safe,” he warned, leaving the living room.
When he returned, Tyler’s hair was also untidily tied with pink ribbons and glitter eye-shadow coated his eyes. His nieces were scattered around now, building puzzles on the floor, while his nephews crashed cars into each other near the fireplace.
Max handed him a cold beer. “Told you.”
He sat down beside Tyler again, taking in his expensive suit. Max already knew he was filthy rich. Jordan was the group financial manager at Diamond Properties, the largest property company on the west coast, and Tyler was the majority stockholder. However, wealth did not automatically make him good enough. “So what exactly are your intentions with my sister?”
“Nothing,” he replied instantly. “We don’t have that boss-accountant sort of relationship.”
Max was going to continue probing, but his older brothers entered the living room and interrupted the conversation. Dominic said nothing about the pink ribbons and eye-shadow because he recognized the work of his daughters.
“Nice hair-do,” Shane said, shaking Tyler’s hand.
They exchanged greetings and introduced themselves before his brothers sat down on the opposite sofa.
“Kevin still in his room?” Shane asked.
“Yep.” Max replied. “Don’t think he’s gonna come out anytime soon. Jo-jo’s with him, though.”
“Good,” Dominic sat back and threw his arm over the backrest. “He shouldn’t be alone right now. I just hope she doesn’t say something stupid like she always does or she might get another nail in her log, but rather her than us, right?” Dominic turned his attention to Tyler. “So are you Jordan’s boyfriend?”
“I was just asking him the same thing, Dom,” Max said.
Tyler appeared nervous. It was understandable. Three over-protective brothers would make any man shake in his shoes. His brothers were just as curious to find out why Jordan would bring him along. She had never brought a guy home before.
“We’re not…together,” Tyler responded after some time.
Dominic stood up, took the beer from Max’s hand, and sat down again. “It’s better you keep it that way, but just in case you change your mind, don’t say we didn’t give you a fair warning. If you hurt our sister, we’ll cut your balls off!”
Tyler’s brown eyes widened at the threat.
“Dad has some shears in the shed we could use,” Shane chimed in to drive it home.
“You got that, Tyler?” Max said. “That’s the message we’re gonna leave you with. Balls and shears.”
* * *
Max stepped out of the shower the next morning and pulled on a black suit pants. He didn’t bother with the shirt just yet because the bathroom was unbearably hot for him to consider wearing any more clothes.