“If you’re sure. Otherwise, call me and I’ll handle it. I’m having dinner down here anyway.”
He was tense under her hands once she’d gotten him lathered up.
“Hot date?” Vic asked.
She shrugged. “I hope so. It’s the third date. That’s a big one.”
Vic laughed.
“Why are you laughing? What is a big one?” Alexsei demanded.
“Dude, stop moving. Relax for heaven’s sake.” She held the razor’s edge away from his skin until he settled again.
“It’s a sex thing,” Vic told him.
“Not really.” She sniffed. Annoyed, though she knew he hadn’t meant it to be offensive. She hated the idea that women held on to their pink parts to get something from men. Like she needed to wait until three dates? If she wanted to fuck, she’d fuck. And it didn’t matter if it was the first date or the fifteenth. It was about her connection and trust level with that other person.
She went on, “To be more specific, it’s a schedule of consideration. By the third date I’m thinking about whether a guy is double-digit date material.”
Though he held very still as she worked on his throat, he still growled. “And if he is? What then?”
“That’s just another level of commitment. Like is he a dude I date while dating other people too? Is he a long-term guy I date and have sex with but I can’t really see myself married or serious? Or, will he be that person I finally see forever with?”
“Women have a very serious checklist,” Vic said.
“I’m old enough to know what I want and not be ashamed of it,” she said. “But relationships only work if both parties are on the same page after a certain point.”
* * *
ALEXSEI HOPED SHE wasn’t done yet because there’s no way he could have stood without the entire shop knowing she turned him on.
Her fingers massaging oil and then shaving cream into his skin, the way she bent close as she scraped the straight razor over his beard. He could smell her skin. And her hair. Currently fire-engine red, it also smelled like apples.
He’d been staring at her pulse point just below her ear. Her heart beat so fast he could see her skin jump. And that’s when it hit him that it was time to stop messing around and ask her out.
More accurately, he’d been craving her more and more each day until the point where it was impossible for him to ignore. He’d woken up that morning in a bed in a house that didn’t belong to him. House-sitting had kept a roof over his head since he’d moved out of the place he and Rada had shared. And he’d been able to save up a decent amount for a down payment on a place of his own. Once he decided to look, at any rate.
But he’d woken up thinking of her. After he’d gone to bed thinking of her, wondering where she’d been and what she’d been up to. He’d lain there, sleep slowly leaving him, but the sense of needing her hadn’t.
Plain and simple, he’d come to a place where if he didn’t pursue her, he’d be lying to them both.
Then she’d brought up that date she had later. A year ago he’d have had a pang of jealousy. Wondering what if he’d ever given in to his attraction to the strange woman who worked in his shop.
A year ago he’d still been trying to make his relationship with Rada work though they’d both given up by that point and were just going through the motions.
Now that he’d settled in to life after that engagement had finally been broken in public—they’d broken up privately three months before that—there was a lot more than a pang.
He hated the idea of Maybe being with anyone else. Hated the thought of this date she was going to being the one she decided to give this other man a chance to be with her.
Hated, too, that if she ended up with someone right then, it would have been his own damned fault for not just making his move months before.
But he’d been antsy. Needed to roam a little. To turn over in his head whether or not he wanted to be serious with anyone at all, despite his craving for Maybe.
And for a while, he’d led with his dick and had enjoyed himself that way.
But he always turned his attention back to her. Over and over and finally he’d realized he was done fucking around and needed to pay attention to his feelings about her to see if they were worth investigating further.
Not his type, or what he’d always thought was his type until he’d met her. Perhaps it was more a measure of that, the fact that no one was like her. Maybe never shut up. At first he’d been stunned by it, but over time, he tended to have better days when she was working than when she was off. Whiskey Sharp was too quiet without his little bird flitting around, chirping and chattering.
She was the heart of the shop. Like an annoying little sister who managed to keep them all in line.
Except for him. He had absolutely no brotherly feelings about her whatsoever.
First things first, he had to deal with this visit from his mother and the resulting fallout among his family. Then he’d turn his energy and focus to seeing if he could nudge Maybe into a date or two. See if he could get himself into double-digit territory.
His mother was arriving from New York in just a few hours. She’d been in New Jersey with her new husband, who’d gone back to Moscow.
Alexsei wasn’t a fool. He knew she was only coming because his aunt had guilted her into it. His younger brother had recently bought a house with his partner. They hadn’t told her about the purchase yet and had asked Alexsei if he’d be there when they did.
He would always be at his brother’s side. Especially to protect him from whatever mayhem his mother brought into their lives.
The following night they had a big dinner planned at Irena’s house, where this would all take place. He only hoped his mother reacted well. For his brother’s sake.
And deep down inside, maybe he wanted his mother to see how far her children had come, how much they’d grown, and be proud.
Maybe finished up and her work, as always, was exemplary. It gave him a bit more confidence about the next few days. A small control, but one that was all about something he could do.
The heaviness of what he might be facing that night and over the next few days had killed his hard-on, but it twitched back to life when she slid the palm of her hand down the center of his chest, straightening his tie and adjusting his vest just exactly the way he preferred.
“I don’t know a single mother who could look at this man and not be proud. You’re so handsome.” She grinned and then turned to clean up her station.
He risked one long look from the heels of her boots, up long, denim-clad legs, across her shoulders where the tip of her ponytail hung.
When his mother left, he’d need to circle back to this developing thing between him and Maybe. The time had come to finally make that move or risk losing his chance forever.
CHAPTER THREE
BEFORE SHE WENT HOME, she needed to return the call she’d been dreading. So she sat in her car and, noting that it wasn’t quite nine yet, called her parents back.
“Hi, Dad. Returning your call from earlier. What’s going on?” Maybe tried to keep her tone light. Wanting to keep the mood positive instead of the negative it generally ran to after a few moments with them.
For a year or so after the kidnapping, they had a reasonably civil relationship but it’d begun to deteriorate fairly soon after that. She just wanted it to get back to bland civility, damn it.
“Thanksgiving is coming,” he clipped out.
“Yeah, in just three or so weeks.”
“Three weeks exactly.” Naturally he had to correct her. “Your mother would like Rachel, and you, at the table for such an important family holiday.”
The “and you” part brought a sigh to her chest, but she let it go. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know they had all this difficulty between them. Also family holid
ay? Puhleeze. She’d never even been invited to a holiday with her parents since the age of sixteen. Not until she and Rachel had moved to Seattle and bought their house did they find it within them to include her for anything at all, much less holidays.
“I’ll talk to Rachel about it and get back to you.” Rachel had enough experience with other people making her choices for a lifetime so Maybe wasn’t going to agree without talking to her first.
She went out of her way to give her sister the reins of her life. So that Rachel made her own decisions. That sort of independence was a necessary step to the life she had to build for herself since she got out of the hospital.
“She does what you tell her to. Tell her to come to her parents’ house at Thanksgiving.”
This time she didn’t hide her sigh. Sometimes, though they adored Rachel, they really didn’t seem to know her at all. They acted as if she was fragile, but to Maybe it felt more like they wanted it to look that way, but really, they were desperate to take over. To explain away the things Rachel had done as something someone else influenced her over. So they could swoop in and control her every move.
They still treated her as if her medical situation was precarious. Constantly bringing it up. Going out of their way to baby her.
Instead of making Rachel feel safe, it made her feel constricted and weak. Helpless to guide her own fate.
Rachel needed to be her own life’s captain and they didn’t see it as anything but some phase Maybe brought on for her own manipulative reasons.
And they didn’t know Maybe at all, damn it.
Bitterness surged, even as she tried to pretend it didn’t matter they believed she’d be capable of anything to cause deliberate harm to Rachel.
“She’s a grown woman who makes her own choices. I’ll let her know she’s invited.”
“Just get your life out of the bar for five minutes and put someone else first for once in your life,” he said.
The tone he used in private with her, a hard, mean voice full of disdain was so totally different than how he spoke to Rachel. It still startled Maybe after a lifetime of hearing it.
It sent her back to a time when she didn’t have any choices. When she’d been far more helpless than she was now.
It was that knowledge, despite the pain of his treatment, that gave her the nonchalance to bat away his nasty swipe. “You have a fantastic night,” she said right before ending the call.
Boy oh boy, what a night it’d been. Horrible date with horrible, slightly paranoid dude and then a slap fight with her dad. All before 10:00 p.m.
Maybe started the car and headed home.
* * *
“VIC TOTALLY HAS a thing for you,” Maybe told her sister as she walked into the kitchen. She’d tell her about the phone call once she’d stuffed some food into her face.
“I don’t know why you’re not too busy to be up in my lady business.” Her sister’s dry response made Maybe smile.
“Because he’s so cute, Rach. And he has great hands and he smells good. Today he smelled like cinnamon rolls. Imagine that. He’s like a lifetime source of carbs. Take one for the team. Jeez.”
Years of iron-fisted lessons meant she hung her coat up in the hall closet and placed her bag on a nearby hook before cruising back into the kitchen to see what was in the fridge.
“Selfish is my middle name,” Rachel said as she set her sketchbook aside. “Since you’re digging around in there, I’m guessing the date wasn’t good?”
Maybe sighed. “He looked at his phone at least a third of the time. So I asked him if everything was all right and then he got all pissy about my asking. Said I was accusing. Which uh, no I was thinking an emergency or whatever. But once he’d said all that I was guessing he was up to something shady or had a huge anger management issue, so I was like, okay then, and got out of there before the food even got to the table.”
“Dreadful. There’s pizza. I brought it home from the shop.”
Since she was busily eating a slice of that pizza, Maybe just grunted her thanks as she put another piece on a plate and put the box back in the fridge.
“Alexsei’s mother is in town. I’m not going to lie, I’m beyond curious about her.”
Rachel snorted. “The way Irena talks about her sometimes. Ouch.” She shook her head slowly. “Or, to be more specific, it’s the things she doesn’t say.”
“She’ll tell us more when she’s ready. Or we’ll see it ourselves. I forgot to ask if she was staying with the Orlovs or not.” If so, she’d be right next door so they could get a gander. “Alexsei was bunched up today. More than usual. He barely even complained when I cut his hair.”
“They have family all over the place here. I’m sure she’ll be fine. Why are you so fascinated with this?” Her sister sent a look that said she knew Maybe’s game.
“Are you new here? It’s not like we just met yesterday.” Maybe rolled her eyes. “I’m totally nosy.”
“And you have a hard-on for your boss.”
“Well, I mean, I guess that’s true too. If you want to be so vulgar about it.”
“Vulgar is my middle name.”
“I thought selfish was your middle name?” she teased Rachel.
“Depends on my mood and the day of the week. Duh.”
“I love your goofy ass, you know that, right?” Laughing, Maybe cracked open a beer.
“When are you going to let him see your boobs already? I feel like you two have been giving one another googly eyes for years now.”
“It’s not happening while his mother is visiting from Russia, for goodness’ sake. When she leaves, then I’ll maybe investigate a little further. Probably. I mean, it’s dumb. He’s my boss. I really need to talk myself out of this. Tell me what a terrible idea this is.”
“No. I’m going to tell you what a good idea it is instead. He’s not your boss. Not really. You work in his barbershop. But you earn your own living with your clients and make him a lot of cash. You’re a total asset to his business but neither of you needs to pretend to feel anything out of fear of reprisals. And before you bring up the fiancée, she’s gone and he’s had his rebound time. Get some of that.”
Maybe groaned. “That heifer isn’t gone. She’s like herpes, Rach. She keeps coming back. Alexsei and Vic were talking about her earlier. She claims she needs him to go with her to get a replacement phone.”
Rachel curled her lip. “She can’t have him back.”
“When they were talking about her, they broke into Russian. Alexsei was super annoyed. But they were talking way too fast for me to get more than an outline.”
“For your purposes, she’s gone. She’s not going to marry him anymore. If she ever was. I still can’t see them as a couple and they were actually a couple. But now they aren’t together and won’t be again. That dumbo will be around for years because she’s besties with his cousin, but as long as they’re not involved, so what? Anyway she’s not you. And he seems to dig that fact. You need to get in there and cockblock any bull on her part.”
If only things were as simple as Rachel thought they were. She wanted to retort that Rachel should take her own advice and finally realize she could do more than bang a dude and kick him to the curb ten minutes after she came.
But she never would say that because you didn’t make fun of someone’s weaknesses. You built them up. And punched them if they stole your eyeliner, yet again.
“I got a call from Mom and Dad.”
Rachel groaned. “What do they want?”
“Thanksgiving’s coming up and they want us there.” No use mentioning the real reason to have Maybe invited was because she was their way to their oldest daughter.
Maybe always made sure to be around to stand between them before they could hurt her sister. But the truth was, she’d had a vastly different relationship with their parents. One Maybe though
t her sister deserved to still enjoy. Especially if it gave her more emotional support.
“Huh.” Rachel sighed heavily.
“We’ll do whatever you want. I’ll handle them either way.”
“Why do you keep taking them on for me? You don’t have to. I’m a big girl.” Rachel was indeed a big girl, but she’d been the protector for most of Maybe’s life, so it was her turn to do the protecting.
Maybe just wished their parents saw that and appreciated it instead of reacting to it as if it was a personal attack. Wanted, so very much, not to care how they saw her, but really she wanted them to be proud of her. To see what she did in a positive light instead of always so damned negative.
She was stable. Someone Rachel could count on.
“It was just a phone call about Thanksgiving. People deal with that mundane family stuff every day. No one’s family is perfect.” If she said it often enough she might believe it.
And most important, Rachel needed Maybe to be the buffer. She wouldn’t always, which was why she didn’t say the words aloud.
“Robbie traded Thanksgiving for Christmas so they aren’t doing a big dinner at their house. But you know we can head over there and hang out. Just to be away from here. We can eat turkey here at home too. Or go there. Whatever. As long as turkey is involved I’m pretty much good to go.”
Robbie, their aunt and the woman who was far more a mother to Maybe than her biological one, was a cop, like their father had been. Like a whole truckload of Dolans had been or currently were. Cops worked over holidays, and now that Maybe was grown and didn’t live in Eastern Washington near them, Robbie traded her holidays to be around for more time in the summer for Maybe’s annual visit and Christmas or Thanksgiving when she and Rachel would come over to celebrate.
“Next year you can handle turkey dinner with them on your own. But for the next little while it’s easier for me to thwart them. Thwarting is in my constitution, remember?” And they already disliked her. They wouldn’t try to manipulate her the same way they did Rachel.