Page 1

Chapter 1

Max

Twenty Years Ago

I’mnotthetypeof guy who stares at other women while I’m on a date. That’s sleazy and frankly, downright rude.

The thing is, I can’t figure out what the heck is happening with the woman sitting at the corner table in the coffee shop where my date Holister suggested we meet. It’s not even that the woman is gorgeous—though she is—it’s simply the oddity of what’s taking place. Holister, the daughter of one of my mom’s friends, is in the bathroom so I now have free rein to watch the other woman and attempt to get to the bottom of the string of giant men that keep filtering into the coffee shop then heading over to her table. Each one only seems to stay for a few minutesbefore disappearing back out of the shop with a smile on their face. Oftentimes the woman will reach over and put a hand on their beefy forearms as she says something very earnest. Every time she does this, an adorable little crease appears on her forehead. Other times she’ll shake her head vigorously at them, her expression stern and no-nonsense. She hugged the guy who just left, and I felt an inexplicable twist in my stomach. Almost like jealousy. Which is clearly insane since I don’t even know this woman.

She turns back to the giant textbook in front of her, pausing every few seconds to highlight some of the text. She must be a student at the university then. This coffee shop is right on the edge of campus, so it makes sense that she’d come here to study.

Who are all the giant men, though? Potential suitors? She’s pretty enough that it wouldn’t surprise me.

The whole thing is strange, and way more interesting than my conversation with Holister, who, though nice enough, doesn’t seem to have much to say about anything other than her favorite activity: shopping. It should be noted that I only ever went on this date as a favor to my mom, who explained that Holister just moved back into town and was looking to meet some new people. Technically this isn’t even really a date so much as two strangers meeting for coffee, but since such an activity is so often a date it has a very date-like feel to it. Especially after I paid for her coffee.

Holister is heading back over to our table from the bathroom so I rip my gaze off the mysterious woman and give her a smile. Holister doesn’t sit down when she reaches our table. Instead she gives me an apologetic smile.

“Look it was, like, really nice of you to meet me,” she says, “and you seem like a really sweet guy.” Her eyes trail around my face. “And you are really hot,” she adds almost regretfully before setting her shoulders, “but I heard this woman talking about ahuge sale at the mall five minutes from here. Abercrombie and Fitch jeans are sixty percent off! I think you can understand that I have to go.”

“Um. Sure.” I nod, trying desperately to conceal my smile. This datish non-date ending early is best case scenario for me. “Of course you do.”

“Alright then. Bye!” Holister disappears in a cloud of perfume. On her way out she crosses paths with a guy holding a bouquet of flowers. Instinctively I know he too is headed for my mystery woman–err,themystery woman. She’s definitely not mine.

Nope.

This one isn’t quite as oversize as the others. He’s tall, yes, but also trimmer, and for whatever reason, I dislike him on sight.

Fine. The reason is the flowers. I don’t like what they suggest which is that this guy is either dating or wants to date the woman in the corner.

Really not wanting to be caught staring, but also wanting to stay and see what happens between them, I get out my phone and open the snake game attempting to get wrapped up in moving the snake around the screen without letting it run into itself. My concentration is immediately tested though, because this new guy is loud. So loud that everyone in the coffee shop hears him address the woman.

“Aww, c’mon, don’t shake your head at me already, babe. Let me make my case for why you should take me back.” I look up to see him thrusting the flowers toward her. “C’mon, hear me out, Jill.”

Jill. Her name settles over me. It sort of reminds me of the wife onHome Improvement, which means it really shouldn’t suit her…yet, somehow it does.Jill. I like it.

Under the guise of ordering another cup of coffee, I get up from my table and move closer, hoping to hear her reply.

“Tucker, I already told you, I just don’t have time for a relationship right now. I really need to focus on my studies. Plus I've got that PR internship starting next month. I can’t let anything get in the way of that. I need that experience to put on my resume when I start applying for jobs next year.”

A PR internship. Applying for jobs next year.So that must mean she’s a junior. 20 or 21-years old. I consider whether this is too young for my 25-years, then promptly tell myself it’s an asinine question since the woman just said she doesn’t have time for a relationship right now. Anyway, it’s not like I’m looking for a relationship myself. I’m crazy busy at the moment studying for my bar exam. I took Holister out as a favor, but I never planned on pursuing anything long-term with her.

“Yes, but I’m already giving you experience,” Tucker counters.

“Tucker, sending a bunch of your teammates in here to pretend they need help rebuilding their image doesn’t count as me getting experience,” Jill says, her exasperation evident.

“Who said I sent them?” Tucker demands.

“Didn’t you?” I can’t resist sneaking a peek behind me. Jill is staring him down with the intensity of a teacher determined to get a confession out of a student. He breaks immediately.

“So what if I did?” Tucker throws his hands up. “I was trying to help!”

“Yeah, well, if you want to help, interrupting me when I’m studying is the wrong way to go about it. And please tell Hunter that story about needing some positive press because he just got diagnosed with narcolepsy was ridiculous and incredibly unbelievable. I’m fairly certain someone with narcolepsy wouldn’t be allowed to play football. Can you imagine if he fell asleep in the middle of a game? You’d be sacked in seconds.”

Sacked? So Tucker is quarterback and those guys were all of his teammates. That explains the size thing.

“Aw, worried about my safety?” Tucker croons.

Jill lets out a heavy sigh, clearly done with this guy.