tilted her head. “Don’t know yet. Depends …”
He met her gaze, seeing a question in there he didn’t quite know how to interpret. Then again, he was having a hard time reading her tonight, period. Or, rather, he was finding it impossible to read his new, unfamiliar reaction to her.
“On what?”
“On whether or not I can scare up some work. You wouldn’t happen to have a line on anything, would you?”
“What are you looking for?”
“Something I’m qualified for that doesn’t require I learn how to use a beer tap. No offense.”
He grinned. “None taken.” He ignored Chuck’s shout for him to get a move on. “Tonight’s my last night. I start at Pegasus Security tomorrow.”
“Pegasus? Is that Jason’s place?”
It seemed she’d been around long enough to hear what his brother had been up to. Small towns were like that. “No. That’s Lazarus.”
Her full lips twisted a bit, likely seeing more than he was comfortable with just then.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, Pegasus is actively looking for people with your job skills if you want to check them out.”
“Great. Thanks.”
He found himself staring at her yet again. What was up with him? He hadn’t been this quiet since Jason had tried to superglue his tongue to the roof of his mouth when he was five.
“I was wondering …” she said.
He forced himself to blink up into her eyes. He wondered if she’d caught him staring again at her chest. “Wondering, um, what?”
“Can you give me a ride home later?”
It took a moment for her question to register. The fact that he was trying hard as hell not to look back at her breasts wasn’t helping matters any, either. “Where?”
“My aunt’s.”
He dragged the back of his wrist across his brow. Was he sweating? “You’re staying at your aunt’s?”
She nodded. “She dropped me off, but if you’re going out to your grandmother’s, well, it’d be easier than asking one of the girls to run me all the way back out there.”
He hadn’t planned to go to Gram’s tonight—there was a small apartment above the bar he rented—but the idea of spending uninterrupted time with Max so he could figure out what the hell was going on between them was too tempting to pass up.
“Sure. It’ll probably be late, since I’m closing.”
“That’s fine. I can wait.” She smiled that smile again and his jeans tightened. He adjusted the suspenders, happy for the first time that night to be wearing the blasted, baggy Santa pants. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.”
“Talk to you later, then.”
“Yeah … later.”
His response came after she’d already turned to walk back to her table, the view of her backside just as enticing as the view of her front.
There was chuckling down the bar. He glanced over at Winston and Pete.
“Hey, Jax,” they called out. “You finally going to take care of that little problem?”
They both gave him a thumbs-up as he turned to walk down to the other end of the bar where there were other customers waiting to be served …
2
MAXINE ENJOYED CATCHING UP with her old girlfriends from high school. She might be as different as light and shadow from them, but she was pleasantly surprised they were connected in a comforting way. She’d spent so much time fraternizing with the guys in recent years—partly because she’d believed them easier to be around, mostly because as a female in the military, guys were what you tended to be around most—she’d forgotten how nice it was to have a drink with girlfriends.
Patience Saunders had been a varsity football cheerleader and an unlikely but fun friend. Her athletic ability had extended beyond short skirts and pom-poms so she and Max had participated in many of the same sports. Max wasn’t surprised she was now a Phys Ed teacher at the same grammar school they’d once attended … or that she was married with two kids under two.
Julie and Jae Jennings were identical twins but had gone out of their way to disguise that fact even when their mother had tried to dress them alike as kids. When Jae had stumbled across goth fashion, she’d latched on to it tightly, and even now favored black nail polish and hinted at body piercings beyond the one visible on her left nostril.
Still, as much as Max was enjoying catching up with them, her gaze endlessly trailed to the man behind the bar, noting how’d he changed … and how her feelings had stayed the same.
“God, Jax is still as hot as he was in high school, isn’t he?” Patience said with a sigh, propping her chin in her palm as she watched the man in question.
“Is he ever,” Julie echoed.
Jae gave an eye roll and downed her third shot of Jaeger. “You guys always were about as subtle as a bulldozer.”
“What?” Patience asked, batting her eyes in feigned innocence.
“You don’t think he knows y’all are staring at him like a pack of bitches in heat?”
Julie nearly choked on the red wine she was in the middle of swallowing.
“Didn’t you two used to have something?” Patience asked, turning to Max.
Max knew a moment of panic, just as she always did when someone made a similar inquiry, afraid her expression or body language had given something away. Then she realized her friends weren’t being specific and relaxed. “Who? Me and Jax?” She shook her head. “Nah. We were just good friends. We still are.”
Jae snorted. “Right. That’s why the place nearly bursts into flames every time you two look at each other. I had to take off my jacket so I wouldn’t burn up.”
“What’s he doing now?”
Max followed Julie’s gaze to where Jax was putting on a Santa Claus coat and coming out from behind the bar. The waitress in the skimpy uniform took great pleasure in helping fix his hat.
“Looks like Santa’s about to give someone what they want,” Jae said drily …
CHUCK MADE THE announcement that Santa was going to take requests and have pictures taken for a $5 donation to the veterans fund. Jackson put the red jacket back on, but left it open; hell, he’d boil alive if he closed it.
Of course, Genie made him regret the decision when she sidled up to him, playing role of “helper” a little too overtly for his liking. She slid her hands inside the coat and gave him a sexy snuggle before reaching up to straighten his cap. Her flirty moves earned hoots and hollers from the guys, but all he could do was look beyond her to where Max was watching the display with an amused smile on her beautiful face.
“Hey, I wanna sit on Santa’s helper’s lap,” Pete shouted.
“That’ll cost you a hundred,” Chuck told him.
They all laughed as Genie pulled up a chair next to the jukebox and pushed Jackson back to sit in it. Given her moves, he was half afraid she was going to strip off what little of her holiday outfit she wore, but instead she turned and along with the other two waitresses, went around the room collecting money from the patrons.
For the next half hour, Jackson was squashed by several of the heavier guys, slobbered on by the drunken wife of another and then sat staring at where Patience Saunders stood behind a smiling Max. He thought the night would never be over.
Then,