Last on the List (Wait With Me #5)(69)

My head jerks back at that shocking remark that just tumbled out of Max’s lips out of nowhere. It’s like he’s talking about the weather and not telling me that I not only made his kid happy but earned the approval of his ex. I don’t know why it feels important for Jess to like me exactly, but it does.

“Jessica said that?” I croak, my eyes stinging around the edges.

“Yes, she did.” Max hits me with a meaningful look. “And she’s right. I see it too.”

And the hits just keep on coming.

“You do?” My traitorous eyes glaze over with tears.

“Yes, Cassandra.” Max’s brow furrows as his eyes do that crazy darkening thing again. “You’re incredible with Everly. You’re incredible with everyone. You have this strange way of just allowing people to be themselves. It’s very…irritating.”

He winks playfully, and I garble out a laugh, grateful for the light jab at the end. This moment was getting too heavy, and I’m not about to start blubbering at Max’s fancy kitchen island.

I swallow down my emotions and embrace that sexy look in his eye with my own flirtatious response. “Sometimes less is more. Maybe you should embrace the slow livin’ lifestyle too?”

“There are some things I like to take my time with,” Max murmurs a sexy noise as his eyes drop to my lips. I inhale a deep breath because I’ve seen that look before. I make that look at him when he does what he’s doing right now and breaks one of the rules by wearing his tie loose around his neck. It’s ungodly sexy.

“She’s here!” Everly peals from somewhere upstairs, causing Max and me to rip apart like someone threw firecrackers between us. She clunks down the spiral staircase, her bag whacking the metal spindles every step she takes. She smiles brightly at her dad and me. “She’s here, you guys!”

“Go out and greet her,” I reply with a laugh.

She drops her bag with a loud thud and turns on her heel to run out the front door. I wave a hand over my face, my cheeks feeling like they’re on fire as I turn on my heel to face Max.

I hook a thumb toward the slider. “I’m going to go out and pack a bag of my own, and then I’ll get out of here,” I say, realizing that I’ve been lingering in Max’s kitchen for far longer than I normally do after he gets home at night.

“What are you talking about?” Max’s brow furrows as he walks around the island to stand in front of me.

“I’m going to leave,” I explain, staring up at him as he bows over me, exuding all his masculine energy that I want to make a blanket out of. “I don’t mind going to my sister’s. My brother-in-law totally misses me.”

“Cassandra,” Max snaps as he reaches up to cup my chin. His face is deathly serious when he adds one of the sexiest four-letter words I never thought of. “Stay.”

Tingles erupt over my entire body at the “I dare you to move” expression on his face. My voice is weak when I rasp, “But…our rules.”

“Fuck the rules,” he murmurs, his voice guttural as he brushes his thumb over my lower lip, causing my entire body to sway. “Stay the night.”

My chest inflates with anxiety, desire, nerves, and a million other emotions that I can’t put a name to because Max is looking at me like he’s seen me naked…because he has.

“Are you sure Everly won’t think it’s weird?” My eyes dart to the door as I hear voices outside.

“You can stay in her bed,” Max replies with a heated look in his eyes as he releases my chin. “After you stay in mine.”

The boyish wink he shoots me before casually walking outside to greet Claire at the door is literally panty-melting.

My panties…are gone.





“This feels weird,” Cassandra squeals from her spot on the sofa in my living room. She’s curled up under a blanket, her dark hair in a tiny bun, and she looks as good as ever in her loungewear as she does in her going out wear.

“Why weird?” I ask, walking over to refill her wineglass with more red. I set it down on the end table beside her, deliberately brushing my body along hers as I reach for my glass of whiskey.

“Because I’m in the Fletchpad,” she exclaims dramatically before taking a sip of her wine.

“Would you stop saying Fletchpad?” I laugh, flopping down next to her anxiously curled-up body. “It sounds like a fucking frat house. I prefer to block out my college years, thank you very much.”

Her cheeks flush as she stares hungrily at me. “If this was a frat house, I would totally let you do me on your loft.”

My brows lift with interest at that very pleasant mental image she’s just summoned. I drape my arm over the back of the sofa and tug on her ear. “You seem nervous.”

“I am,” she responds, her green eyes wide and wary. “Your daughter is right outside.”

She points toward the tiny house, and I look over my shoulder to see the reading lamp in the loft area glowing in the window. I got them settled for bed with a movie on Everly’s iPad an hour ago, and they both looked exhausted when I just checked on them. “I’m telling you…they’re seconds away from passing out.”

Cassandra shakes her head and takes a large drink of her wine. “But it feels like that’s Mom and Dad out there, and I’m in here making out with my boyfriend and could be caught at any moment.”