Chapter 2

This time I faced the lanky he-man, nodded, and gave him my smooth, professional smile. Now, comment on the weather? Penny’s Coffee Stop? Fuck it, ask him out?

“Hi there.” The stranger leaned toward me and stuck out a gigantic hand with long tapering fingers. “Max Greene. Little gal over there said you’re Fred. Right? You’re a hard man to track down.”

Oh my God. His voice washed over me like sin filled with sex. He might as well have come all over my three-piece suit. He was my Pied Piper. I’d follow him anywhere.

With a deep breath, I put my hand into the giant’s elegant paw, then nearly ruined it all by swooning. Again he surprised me. Even though my hand was engulfed in his, Max didn’t squeeze or start a power play. His was a nice, firm, comfortable handshake between men. He was meeting me as an equal.

“Well, the name’s Fredi, actually, but you can call me Fred, honey.” I was proud my voice stayed low and confident while my insides were Jell-o shots about to ignite.

“Good to meet you.” Max released my hand. His face was a little pink. Interest or embarrassment? “I’m wonderin’ somethin’.”

“Oh?” I tried to look confident, not simpering. As usual, faced with a man like Max, Little Fredi was ready to greet him, but I pushed my libido down. Get real. Little Fredi thought every good-looking man was ready to party with him.

“Got this huntin’ fishin’ cabin. Up in the foothills. Kind of beat up, rural, you might say.” Max stopped, peering at me as if it were my turn to talk. Now his face was bordering on red.

I couldn’t think of a thing to say. Was Max inviting me to the cabin? Oh my. If so, why? I just sat there staring at him and quirked an eyebrow.

“Um, oh?” I finally managed, still staring at Max, waiting.

“Yeah, well,” Max said as if it took drawling those two words to prime the pump and get him to speak again. “Wonderin’ if you’d come up to the cabin. See what you can do. Make it better.”

Ah, the light finally went on. Damn. Oh well. The dream of him picking me up and us spending the rest of the day between the sheets in his mountain hideaway drifted away. Max was a potential client. All right. Disappointing, but okay.

I switched into business mode with a sigh. I hadn’t gone to all the trouble of getting my degree and building a business only to jump all the hot men who hired me. Not yet, anyway.

I got out my netbook and clicked to my day planner. “I’d be happy to take a peek at it. What day’s good for you?”

Max looked uneasy and his pink cheeks turned red, as if he hadn’t planned for the eventuality that I’d actually agree.

“Uh, how ‘bout right now?”

Since I was free until late afternoon when one of the Stone Acres new bridezillas was getting back from San Francisco where she’d been shopping all morning, what to do?

“Could you excuse me?”

When he nodded, I got up and sashayed to the order station.

“Hey, Courtney, love. You know the luscious hunk over there?”

If he’d been a lion or tiger, I’d say Max was basking in the morning sunshine.

“Mr. Greene?” Courtney asked, bypassing the two other men intent over cell phones who were sitting nearer the windows. “Sure, everybody knows Mr. Greene. My brother works for him over at Greene’s Outdoors. Ty says he’s a great boss, the best. Why?”

“Thanks, my dear.”

Okay, he’d checked out. So what the hell? I could spend an hour or two with Max before putting on my ultra-gay designer persona for my late-afternoon appointment. The godawful spoiled, bitchy bride wanted me to incorporate whatever she found today in San Francisco into my multimillion-dollar house design. I’d said I’d see what I could do and then I’d tacked another twenty thou onto her bill. Her infatuated fiancé had agreed for some reason I still couldn’t fathom. Max at least would add a little spark to an otherwise dull day.

“Okay, I’m free until four,” I told him as I replaced my day planner and zipped up my bag.

“Yeah, um, yeah, okay,” Max agreed. “Cabin’s about forty minutes.”

We both got up, and I followed Max to the door.

I’d spied the much-too-handsome Max around town a time or two, but hadn’t known his name. If Courtney knew him, he must be someone prominent in the community. I hadn’t lived here long enough and hadn’t taken time from my busy schedule to explore the local business scene. If nothing else, this job would let me break into the local hierarchy. Yay, me

I stopped by my banana-yellow hybrid. “I’ll follow you. Which one’s yours?”

He stood by my car, looked down at it, then back at me with a slight smile upending his lips. The corners of his eyes crinkled, and his dimples peeked out from behind his mustache. His cuteness factor went off the charts. Little Fredi wanted to jump him right there on the sidewalk.