Always, in December(58)
But Max barely paid attention to any of that, because at the sound of his name, Josie had finally turned that gaze on him, as if she knew she couldn’t avoid it any longer. And he’d given her every right to want to avoid it, hadn’t he? His throat tightened as her lips twisted to form a smile that seemed painted on.
She cocked her head in that way he remembered. “Hello, Max.”
Max cleared his throat, feeling like a complete and total idiot. “Hi.” Jesus, what the fuck was wrong with him? Hi? Hi?
Josie nodded, then pulled her gaze away from him again, that fixed smile of hers slightly faltering as she flicked a quick glance at Oliver, then around the room. Bradley looked from Max to Josie and back again, a mildly interested expression on his face. “Oh, so you two know each other, do you? England really is delightfully small, isn’t it?” He turned to Oliver, lowering his voice and leaning in, absentmindedly handing his empty champagne glass to a passing waiter. “Ollie, I’ll catch up with you in a bit, yes? I’ve just got to go and say hello.” Oliver nodded, his arm still around Josie, while Bradley waved a hand in the direction of two middle-aged men who had appeared on the second floor. As soon as Bradley left, Oliver turned to stare at Max in a way that stopped ever so short of a glare, and his arm tightened enough on Josie that it seemed to force her closer against his side. So, he had placed Max, then. At the same time, Tim stepped in to take Bradley’s place, maneuvering it so that he was next to Liam and immediately starting up a stream of instructions to him. Liam nodded along, grimacing at Chloe apologetically.
His sister didn’t notice, though. She and Erin were both watching Max, Josie, and Oliver, clearly trying to work out the connection. Erin frowned. “So, you two know each other then?” For some reason, Erin’s Scottish lilt seemed particularly pronounced right now, when usually he hardly even noticed it.
Josie’s bottom teeth came out to graze her lip in the way he’d seen her do when in London, when she was trying to think of what to say or trying to get out of a situation. She caught him looking and for a moment their gazes met. Her teeth retreated immediately, like she’d just figured out what she was doing. “Yes,” Josie said. “We met at Christmas, in London.”
Oliver didn’t seem to react to this, only skimmed his gaze over Chloe and Erin, like he was trying to work out their side of the puzzle. So, Josie must have come clean to him then, must have admitted that they weren’t, in fact, long lost friends. He wondered what, exactly, she’d told him, how she’d made it sound.
Chloe’s eyes widened a fraction and Max tried not to grit his teeth. She’d clearly cottoned on. He shot her a look, and in response she took a big gulp of her wine, then immediately fixed her gaze on Josie, eyes assessing her as they did a quick scan up and down her body.
Erin’s frown lingered. “At Christmas?”
Fuck. Max cleared his throat again. He’d make it sore soon if he didn’t stop. “Yeah.” He tried to smile at Erin like it was all no big deal. “When I missed my flight, do you remember I told you about that?”
Oliver, who only came up to the bottom of Josie’s chin, nodded vigorously at that, and gave a somewhat unconvincing grin. “Right, I remember you now.” Max tried not to narrow his eyes at the prick. Pretending he’d only just figured it out—it was a boring trick. “Didn’t you come to the Christmas party?” Josie gave Oliver’s back a little stroke, like she was soothing him. A movement that would probably have gone unnoticed, if Max hadn’t been staring so hard. Josie and Oliver’s eyes met for a second and when she gave him a small smile, he nodded back—some shared communication that no one else was privy to.
Oliver had gotten a job in New York, Max remembered. So was Josie here visiting? He felt Erin’s eyes on the side of his face and took a sip of his drink, looking very deliberately at it rather than at anyone in the circle.
Oliver turned his attention to Chloe and Erin, and Max thought that, when he spoke, his tone was overly jovial. “What about you two then?”
“I’m Max’s sister,” Chloe said easily. Josie’s gaze flashed to her, and when Chloe grinned, Josie smiled in that same tight way. He’d made them speak to each other, hadn’t he? Chloe had been all worried about Max going off the deep end, had been paranoid, thinking that being alone at Christmas would be triggering for him, so had been a little obsessive about pestering him to make sure he was OK. Did Josie remember speaking to her, he wondered? Not that he’d told her the ins and outs of it, had more just put her on the phone to make light of it all to Chloe, demonstrate the fact that he’d managed to find a pretty girl to hang out with while he was stranded.
“You both live here then?” Oliver flicked his gaze between Chloe and Max, seeming particularly interested in trying to connect the dots. Josie took a sip of her drink—white wine—but when he met her gaze over the rim of her glass, she looked away. Was she wondering that too? Wondering why he was here?
“Not really,” Max said. His voice came out a little husky and he wet his lips. “I wasn’t supposed to be, anyway—was just coming out here for Christmas initially.” He directed that last part at Josie. He wanted her to know that he hadn’t been lying to her—about that, at least. “But I got offered a short-term contract with Liam here at his architect firm, so I decided to stay on for a bit.” He gestured to Liam, who was only just returning to the conversation now that Tim was leaving. Liam glanced between them all as he tried to catch up.