Lia
Already mixed up from the visit and Max’s wild accusation, me demanding that I drive us back to Inverness probably wasn’t my smartest idea. Dead on the lunchtime rush, the city buzzed.
As carefully as I could, I wound my way through the streets. More than once, I’d stalled the gears and, in the middle of a busy junction, I did the same.
“Fuck.” I hit the clutch and tried again.
The engine choked.
From behind, someone laid on the horn.
Max twisted round in his seat. “Fuck off,” he yelled at the car behind. To me, he more gently added, “Easy up.”
I tried once more, but the car didn’t budge, first gear not catching. I repeated the action. The same horrible groaning noise came from deep within the guts of the car.
Heat swamped me. “What am I doing wrong?” I squeaked out.
“I don’t think it is ye, sweetheart.”
The green light changed to red. From the right, cars advanced on us.
“Shit, shit,” I chanted. “They’re going to crash into us.”
Max unclipped his seat belt and jumped out of the car.
“What are you doing?” I called after him, but he’d closed me in.
More people beeped their horns. Traffic built either side of the junction, unable to get around us.
I swung my focus from face to angry face, helpless. No matter what I did, the car would not shift. Plus, Max had just gone.
Then my door opened, and he was right there.
“Put it into neutral. Feet off the pedals. Steer us straight,” he ordered, then he braced himself against the doorframe.
I obeyed, my stomach tight.
From a dark-blue car, a man griped something, and Max glowered.
“Ye want to get through? Get over here and help me push, or shut the hell up,” he demanded.
To my surprise, the man left his vehicle and took the other side of my car from Max. With a coordinated word, they strained to push it across the junction.
From my position in the driver’s seat, it would have been all too easy to stare at Max. In just his T-shirt, his leather jacket tossed to the back seat, his muscles bulged, his white bandage tight to his skin. Earlier, I’d found myself watching him. He was bulkier than when I knew him last. Had tattoos where previously there had been plain skin. But noticing things like that wouldn’t help me at all. I focused on keeping the car headed in the right direction.
We picked up speed as the exit road ran down a short slope.
“Stop at the bus stop.” Max swung my door closed.
He and the other man pulled back and let me coast ahead. I halted where he told me and pulled the handbrake.
Before I’d taken a breath, Max was at the passenger side.
“It shouldn’t have broken down,” I said insensibly. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”
“Are ye okay?”
“Yes, but God, that was horrible.” I wrapped my arms around myself, then forced the feelings of helplessness away and climbed out.
Max had already grabbed his jacket, so I locked up the hire car and joined him on the roadside.
“We’re naw far from your home,” Max said. “Ye can call the rental company when we get back and they’ll pick it up.”
“I will. Oh, wait, I left my phone on the dashboard.”
Without thinking, I turned and stepped off the narrow pavement.
Straight into the path of a large white van.
In a split second, I was hauled back onto a hard chest. With his hand splayed across my breastbone, Max locked his arms around me.
My knees weakened. The van hurtled by.
It would’ve crushed me, and the driver hadn’t even slowed.
At my back, Max’s breathing came as hard as mine. For a long moment, he didn’t release me, and I stayed right where I was, shocked, and within his possessive touch.
The same scent of oil over clean man brushed my senses. A thrill followed the fear. It had been so long since anyone had held me.
Cold reality settled, and I stepped away, turning to face my adversary. “You just saved me.”
Max scowled in the direction the van had gone. He didn’t speak.
“That driver could’ve killed me.”
Slowly, he dragged his attention back to me. I had no clue what the look in his eyes meant, but my pulse skipped a beat.
Max swallowed and smothered the emotion. “Arsehole. I didn’t get the number plate.”
“Me neither. Yesterday, I ran you over. Today, you prevented the same in reverse.”
Max scrubbed his hands over his face then gestured at the car. “Fetch your phone so we can get going. I want ye safe in your home.”
I did, and we set off on foot, stunned from the near miss.
Back at the house, I let us in and found Evie with Lincoln in the living room.
“Felix called,” Linc said before looking up. “Whoa. Did something happen?”
I gulped and peeked at my daughter. “The car broke down. We’re fine. What did Felix want?”
“Who’s Felix?” Max shrugged off his jacket and toed out of his shoes.
“My father’s assistant.” I turned back to Linc, ignoring the flare of interest I had yet again at Max’s form.
“He wouldn’t tell me, but I suggest you call him straight away.”
“I’ll do it now.”
Linc jumped up. “Can I make anyone a drink? Max? Good to meet you. Let me get you a coffee.”
At my shoulder, Max paused, and awareness prickled over me.
“I’m good,” he replied. “Can I sit with Evie?”
My heart swelled. “Go for it.”
Jogging upstairs, I placed a call to Felix. He answered immediately.
“There’s been a development.”
I grabbed the doorframe of my bedroom and willed away panic. A development was code for a situation he couldn’t name to me. Previously, this had meant us upping sticks and moving countries without pause for breath.
“What do you mean, is Dad okay?”
“He is, but we’ll be relocating ahead of plan.”
This was a secure line, and my phone boosted to the maximum with security features, but no details would be leaked to me.
I closed my eyes. “We’ll leave today. Any special orders?”
Movement on the stairs had me peeking again as Felix rattled off instructions.
Max climbed the steps, Evie in his arms. His eyebrows jammed together, and he had to have heard my words.
I couldn’t get used to the sight of him holding my daughter. Our daughter. The resemblance between them was so strong, it took my breath away. He watched me, and I stumbled through wrapping up the call.
The second Felix was off the line, I activated my camera and took a picture of Max and Evie.
“What are ye doing?” Max asked.
“I took your photograph.”
“No, I mean are ye leaving here?”
Nerves hit me along with adrenaline. We’d been in this position before, but the urgency hadn’t come from Dad’s work that time, but from the feelings that had built between me and the redheaded local I’d had a fling with.
Yet the comparison was strong. Old, buried emotions rose.
“Yes, we need to go this afternoon.”
“I brought her up for a nappy change, but I was also going to ask ye to stay past the weekend. My parents are back on Sunday. I want them to meet Evie.” He hefted her in his arms.
“Ba,” she said and patted his face.
My heart sped, and I stared at her.
For the second time in a day, she’d made a real sound.
Max kept his gaze on me, the weight of his mood overwhelming my senses.
“Please, Lia. This is important. They’ll be dying to meet her.”
“We can’t. We’re moving on tonight, and there’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Really? Ye cannae say no and go on after? I’m naw asking ye to stay for me.” His voice dropped, and strain crept into his tone. “Been there, done that, got kicked in the head. This is for her. Just consider it so I can introduce her to my folks. Ye said yourself she didnae have a grandmother. She does now. And a grandfather who’ll instantly love her. Plus aunts and uncles, cousins. My sister has two lasses. Isla’s eight, and the bairn’s four months old. My extended family have loads of kids. A whole clan and kin she’s part of.”
“I wish we could,” I whispered. “But not now.”
“Why? Give me one good reason.”
“Not in front of her.” I moved in and took Evie from him, my throat thick and tears threatening. “Linc,” I called.
He appeared in an instant and climbed the stairs.
“Can you please change her? I need to see Max off. We’re leaving ASAP so we need to pack.”
With the practiced ease of any member of my father’s staff, Lincoln took Evie, carrying her into the bedroom. Max’s gaze tracked her.
“That was my goodbye, then.” He turned and stomped downstairs.
I followed, too much to consider. But the travel and the new home we’d have to set up paled to my confusion over Max.
“I didn’t expect this,” I said.
He stepped into his boots and grabbed his coat, glowering.
“For a start, I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to speak to you, let alone have you agree to meet Evie. Now I know you’re interested, we can talk.”
“Aye, because your track record for keeping in touch is A plus.”
Exasperation swept over me. “You’re the one who blocked me, remember? I tried to message you. You made it impossible. I sent a person to talk to you—”
“A fake person who never showed. I know. I get it. I’m a high priority on your list of people not to give a shite about. Whatever, Lia. Ye have my number now. When ye next feel the urge to ignore me, ye know where I am.”
He extracted his motorbike keys and stormed outside. Straddling the bike, presumably repaired from yesterday’s crash, he paused with his helmet in his hands. “Dinna keep her from her family.”
“What the hell do you think I was doing coming here?” I snapped. “Just because you’re having a temper tantrum over not getting your own way doesn’t change anything. You’re her father. I want her to know you.”
Finally, the anger in his gaze diminished. I hated how well I recognised the hurt revealed underneath. But more, confusion lay there, too.
I wasn’t sure he really believed she was his.
“Then this time don’t cut me out,” he said, then he started the engine and peeled away.
