Along Came Mr. Right (16 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Max, what’s wrong?” Annalise asked as they sat in two wrought iron chairs at the front of Borracchini’s Bakery in South Seattle, tasting seven different types of frosting for their wedding cake.

What wasn’t wrong? He was sitting with a woman he didn’t love, thinking about the woman he did. Max frowned but remained silent while a mother and her two children walked past.

Judging his silence as more than it was, Annalise reached out and touched his arm. “Isn’t this great?”

“What are we doing here?” Max asked, staring down at the cake slices in front of him, wondering how he’d let things get this far away from him.

“We’re finding the perfect cake for our wedding.” Annalise crossed her arms in front of her and gave Max a harsh look. “Why are you being so difficult?”

He leaned toward her, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“A fake wedding needs a fake cake.”

She looked away, but not before he saw a flash of hurt in her blue eyes. It was all for show. He wouldn’t give in to her. Not this time. “This has all gone too far—”

“Get a grip, Max. We’ll order the cake, then cancel the order. We need to make this look real.”

“We have to put a stop to this. Today.”

Annalise shook her head. “I need you, Max. You’re supposed to be my best friend. You promised you’d help me.”

Max reined in his temper. “I have helped you.”

“It’s not enough.” She pushed the plate of delicate white cake away from her with a pout. “Daddy’s suspicious.”

Max swore colorfully but silently to himself. “Then perhaps it’s time to tell him the truth.”

“He’s not ready to hear it yet.” She directed her tear-filled gaze toward him. “I need just a little more time.”

Max blew out an exasperated breath. “Will he ever be ready? Maybe it’s time to simply present him with the problem and let things happen.”

Annalise smoothed her hand over her abdomen. “I’m the one who has everything to lose here.”

“And this problem is all yours, Annalise. I’m not really part of any of this,” Max said caustically. The look in her eyes held determination, not remorse, as he’d hoped.

“Yes, I’m at fault here, but it will be the baby who pays. Please, Max, give me more time. I can fix this whole mess, unless you’re prepared to pay me off immediately. I’m sure a million dollars will help me solve a lot of my problems.” Annalise spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact voice.

“And if I break things off anyway? What will you do?” He knew he shouldn’t have spoken the words, but too late.

Annalise’s eyes narrowed, and a sly smile curled her lips. “I’ll sue you for the rights to your app, the one I paid for, the one that’s technically mine until you either follow through with your commitment to me or deliver those funds.”

Max knew in that moment he’d lost the argument again. He didn’t have $1 million to buy his freedom yet. Tamping back his anger, he reached inside his coat and pulled out several sheets of paper. “All of these men are perfect matches for you. Do the first selfless thing you’ve ever done in your life by releasing me from a promise I no longer want to keep.”

“I can’t. I won’t,” she said, her voice low. Instead of looking at the papers, she turned back to the white cake with Bavarian frosting she’d pushed away earlier. “This is the cake and the frosting I want.”

He stood, not bothering to hide his disgust. “I don’t have the means to end our agreement just yet. But mark my words, that day will come soon; then I’ll have no reason to continue this charade of a wedding.”

Annalise’s face paled. “Until then, you will. And even after that, you’ll still take responsibility for my pregnancy, right?”

“Wrong. If you want a father for your child, I suggest you either contact the real father or pick one of these men to help you.”

“You don’t mean that.” Shadows haunted her eyes. “Apologize.”

Max wasn’t about to apologize now, or ever. He headed toward the door. “I’m through with this whole sordid mess.”

“You can’t leave me here,” she said, a desperate plea in her voice.

He paused halfway out the door and twisted back to face her. “We took your Rolls-Royce here, Annalise. I’m sure your driver would be happy to take you wherever you want to go. That is what you pay him for.” Saying no more, Max continued out the door.

“Max!”

He kept on going. It was time to stop pretending.

It took Max more than an hour to walk the distance between south Seattle and Belltown until he stood before Olivia’s condo. With each and every step a sense of exhilaration built inside him. He was finally walking away from someone who took away his peace and sanity and toward someone who felt like home.

Hoping to find Olivia, Max entered her building after getting past her vigilant doorman. He knocked on her door. When she opened, she looked more puzzled than pleased. “What are you doing here?”

“I was in the neighborhood.”

She stepped aside, allowing him in. At the sight of her, a burning wave of desire scorched him. What was it about her that made him unable to look at her without wanting to kiss her? To feel her warm body in his arms?

“I’m glad to see you,” she said, leading him toward the couch. “I was going to call you this evening. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

He sat beside her, pleased by the warmth of her greeting. “What’s that?”

“I need a date to the spring fling dance.”

He arched a brow. “Is this a weird way of you telling me you’d like to take the Matchmaker test again?”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “I’m trying to ask you to be my date.”

“To the spring fling?”

She nodded. “Brad asked Paige, and since you’ll be there, I thought maybe you’d like some company. And”—she hesitated—“I trust you. If you say you’re not engaged, I believe you. I know we still need to be careful until you can pay back Annalise, but maybe, if we’re careful, we can give old-fashioned dating a try?”

He let the words pour over him, filter through him. He knew Annalise wasn’t done with him. She would try her best to make things difficult between him and Olivia. If he thought the press was problematic before, he’d best prepare himself for an onslaught now. Annalise controlled the paparazzi. But even the photographers who might chase him couldn’t fault him for chaperoning a dance at the high school where he taught.

“I’d love to be your date to the dance.” Raising Olivia’s hand, Max placed a kiss on her fingers. He wanted to kiss her on the lips, but if she wanted old-fashioned dating, he could work with that.

“It’ll be a double date with Paige and her boyfriend, Brad. You were right. There was a boy involved.”

Max released her fingers. “And he’s not a thug, is he?”

“He’s a normal boy. In fact, he reminds me a lot of you.”

Max raised a brow. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.”

Saturday night, Olivia, Max, Paige, and Brad arrived at the high school gymnasium. As soon as they entered the event, Brad and Paige headed toward a group of teenagers lingering near the snack table.

A DJ took up the stage area, playing popular songs Olivia recognized from the radio, though the music was hard to hear over the buzz of conversation.

The big utilitarian space had been converted into a scene from the streets of Paris. “As Time Goes By” read the sign over the doorway. Beneath it a cobblestone pathway drawn on butcher paper led into the darkened space lit only by twinkle lights and old-fashioned street lamps made of papier-mâché. A twenty-foot-tall Eiffel Tower with a serious lean took up one corner of the room. A model of the Arc de Triomphe took up another corner, and balloon arches filled in the spaces in between. Luminescent stars hung overhead.

“Wow,” Olivia said, turning to Max. “The kids did a splendid job setting the mood for tonight. It feels like we might actually be in Paris.”

Max looked around the room, then brought his gaze back to hers. “I’m inspired to take you to Paris sometime very soon.”

“Just how much will you sell your matchmaker algorithm for?”

His gray eyes filled with humor. “Enough to take us to Paris.” Max took her hand, and Olivia felt a sense of indescribable well-being come over her. He led her to the snack table and accepted two glasses of punch from another teacher who was manning the bowl. He handed a glass to Olivia.

“What are our duties tonight as chaperones?” she asked.

He took a sip of his punch before answering. “We keep an eye on the kids, making sure they are all on their best behavior.”

Olivia sipped her punch as her gaze wandered casually over the crowd. A number of kids were clustered near the Eiffel Tower, waiting to get their pictures taken. A few were on the dance floor. Paige and her date lingered at the edge of a group of kids. Brad casually reached for Paige’s hand. The young girl startled, then smiled, folding her fingers in his.

Paige looked so much more at ease since she’d allowed Olivia to dye her hair back to its natural brownish-red color. Paige’s transformation had had an effect on Brad as well. The young man couldn’t seem to look anywhere but at her. She was a vision tonight in her short, cobalt-blue dress, with her hair pulled back out of her eyes in an artful arrangement of curls. Her three-inch-heel silver shoes had been a compromise from the six-inch stilettos Paige had wanted.

The new clothes had helped build a confidence Paige hadn’t exhibited before. She laughed and preened with the rest of her new friends, acting like a normal teenager should.

A multitude of voices and no longer discordant music swirled around Olivia as she looked up into Max’s eyes, into the unwavering, unshakable gray.

He took her punch glass and set it aside with his own before he held out his hand. “Olivia, will you dance with me?”

Olivia noticed the music had changed to a slow country song. She stared at him, breathless. Her skin seemed to tighten in anticipation; her heartbeat sped up. “I thought we were supposed to watch the kids, to keep them in line?”

“There’s no reason we can’t have a little fun along the way.”

She accepted his hand, aching for his touch. He pulled her into his arms. Her hands slid up the soft, silken fabric of his jacket to anchor behind his neck. He leaned down and kissed her—restrained; then slowly, reluctantly, they pulled their lips apart. Something light and wonderful whispered through her.

“Did you go to your high school dances?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I was the girl everyone avoided back then—too geeky, too aloof. My mom had come back for me by then, but it took me until college to become comfortable in my own skin.”

His grin lit up the room. “Then this is a first for both of us,” he said as he sent her into a dip.

She could feel the magic of the night wrap around her as Max led her around the dance floor, ignoring the startled looks of the teenagers all around them.

Tonight, she could forget all about his pretty fiancée and even how mismatched she and Max were, according to his own invention. Instead, she wanted to focus on the thousand little ways he made her feel as if the two of them existed only for each other.

They managed to fit in a couple of dances while they made sure the teenagers remained well behaved. After the prom had ended, Max and Olivia dropped Paige off first, giving Brad an opportunity to walk her to the door.

No doubt Olivia would hear all about the event from Paige’s point of view tomorrow when they picked her up for a special Sunday counseling session. As Paige had put it, “The counselor is holding a special session to help us all with end-of-quarter stress.” After dropping Brad off at his house, they headed back to Olivia’s condominium.

“I realized something tonight,” Olivia said to Max as he flicked on the light switch near the door.

“What’s that?”

She sighed quietly. “I used to think I missed so much of my childhood because of my mom’s problems. I used to bemoan the fact that I never went to a school dance, or that I never had a grandmother to kiss my cheek, or that I never had a dog. But I didn’t miss a thing. I see that now. I had then and I have now all that’s important—people I care about and people who care about me.”

“You did go to a dance,” Max reminded her as he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Maybe just not
when
you thought you would.” He stroked her hair back behind her ear. “You’re more than welcome to my grandmother. And I’d be happy to get you a dog, Olivia, anytime you want.”