Concealed Carry (3 page)

Her heart
pounded. Could she really do this? "Right, let me get it." She'd already forgotten just how she was going to get him to undress. Lisa grabbed the bag and held it up. "I think this would be easier in another room." She pulled the can of whipped cream out of the bag and held it up.

"Surrrrrprise!!!"
A woman burst into the room and flung her coat open to show them her naked body. "Time for fun!"

The blonde closed her coat and looked to them with a smile in place.
It was hard to tell who she was speaking to since she wore dark sunglasses. "Oh! I didn’t know this was going to be a threesome thing."

"What?" Both she and Max replied
at the same time. Lisa shoved the can of cream at Max. He held it up and frowned.

"Ooooh
! I love playing with whipped cream." The naked blonde told them as she walked over to Max and grabbed it from him. "You're a naughty boy."

"That's my queue.
Thank you for dinner." Lisa completed a perfect grab and run, with her purse. She was out the door with Max at her heels.

"Sorry about that, I'm not sure who she is.
We never did get to talk about your payment."

"
Right.... well send me a text." Lisa replied while settling into her green Pinto. "Or better yet, call my office. You have the number."

Several miles later, she was
finally able to breathe. What had just happened? He not only planned to have sex with her as payment, but he also invited another woman along?
Good grief
.

"What a pervert!" Lisa
slapped the steering wheel.

Too
bad he was such a great kisser.

Max slammed the door behind him and searched out the naked woman. She sat on the counter sipping a beer and smiled broadly when he neared. "Who the hell are you? Why are you naked in my house?"

"I'm
Candy, don't you remember?" She peeled off her sunglasses and narrowed her eyes at him. "Hey you're not Dean. Y'all could be brothers. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Dean?
Dean invited you here?" He was going to kill his brother.

"Yeah, we met last night at that
Sullivan's pub." She looked past him. "Where is your brother anyway?"

"You crashed my date.
She thinks I'm a womanizer and all you can say is "Where is your brother?" Max gritted out.

Candy
shrugged. "Oh yeah. Sorry about that."

Chapter Four

No matter how much he tried to keep his nose out of trouble, it found him. Dean sat across the kitchen table from Max and waited for him to swallow the grilled steak.

"
Hope you're not too mad at me Bro. I'm sorry about Candy. I told her I was staying here with you and couldn't get with her until after next week."

Max took a swig from his beer.
"Yeah, well it's kinda hard to stay mad at you after all this." He spread his arms wide. "You didn't have to clean the whole house and fix dinner. I'm glad you did though because this steak is awesome. The potatoes are almost as good as Mom's. The house looks like Merry Maids attacked with a vengeance."

Dean knew Max's weak spot for grilled steak
and cleanliness. "Oh. About Mom. I saw her today. She was on a date."

"Really?
Mom?"

"Yep
… with Dad."

"Ah shit. If they get married again, I'm not going to
their wedding. The last time they got married, we had to wear wide orange ties." Max scrunched his face. "What was with that?"

Dean shrugged. "
Something about orange being her new favorite color."

Max frowned.
"Dad should know better. It never works out between them."

"
Yeah, it probably started since they've been seeing each other so much at the hospital. You know, in Tina's room." Dean reached for more mashed potatoes.

"
I wonder. She's only been there a week."

"I have a message from Mom.
She plans to stay here to take care of you while you recover from surgery. Tina already told her she didn't need her since Tom is a paramedic," Dean said referring to Tina's husband.

"I'm going to have to come up with a way to tell her
I don’t need her to do that. Do you remember what happened last time she stayed here?" They both looked to a sponge painted wall behind Dean. It was a tragic combination of orange and purple.

"
I can stay while you recover from the transplant." Dean attempted not to smile. He knew Max would rather have their mother stay there instead of him.

His brother frowned and Dean tried to keep from
laughing. Poor guy, his choices were a crazy painter or random naked women.

"Nah, I got it covered.
I was about to ask someone, but your friend crashed our dinner."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh" Max mimicked him. "So when are you moving out?"

Dean deflected the
subject. Alex hadn't returned his phone calls and he had no place to go. "So you must really like this girl since you're so pissed about the date crasher. Is that who you want to wash your butt when you're all laid up?"

"It wasn't a date," Max replied avoiding looking at him. "She owes me for damaging my work site.
And I'll be able to wash my own ass, thank you very much."

Intrigued when
Max flushed, Dean studied his brother. The normally distant guy, who'd only been in two serious relationships that he knew of, was not one to fall so soon. "So who is this woman you plan to ask to take care of you?"

"
Someone who caused at least a thousand dollars’ worth of damage, so..." Max shrugged and got up. He returned with a fresh beer and sat down. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

Damn
. "I should stay here and take care of you in case you know… men things happen."

"Men things?"

"Yeah like you need to watch porn to distract yourself from the pain or something like that."

Max's eyes
gave him a droll look. "Porn does not help pain. I won't want to think about anything remotely sexual while recovering. I could tear a stitch or something."

Were the kidneys near the groin?
Dean leaned back and went over what he could remember about anatomy. "I don't think the kidneys are anywhere near your family jewels dude."

He ignored the
arched brow from Max and began to eat again. It was time to fess up and ask his brother for help.
Again
.

This was it
. He had to get his shit together. He'd make something out of his life and prove to his family he wasn't a sorry excuse for a man. "Max, I haven't been able to get ahold of Alex. She must be mad at me. I kinda bolted after we sort of made out. It was cowardly of me. But I didn't want to face her the next day."

His brother frowned and shook his head.
"You're an idiot. Now you’ve lost the best thing in your life."

"I know. I know.
I'm hoping to beg for her forgiveness and go back to being friends. I can't lose her." His chest ached and he wondered if he'd put too much hot sauce on his steak. "I think she's on assignment. She'd said something about going to New Mexico on a photo shoot for a few weeks."

"A few weeks?" Max bore a hole into him, the stare so intense
he was glad when his brother spoke again. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me."

"Look you sold my
bike. I have to get to work. We'll be working together so this makes it easier. Just give me a couple weeks. I've got enough to get a place or a ride, but not both. Once you pay me I can get both. Mom's friend Judy manages some apartments. She'll hook me up. She's always saying how I remind her of her son. I figure the dude must be pretty cool."

"Two weeks, then you're out.
And no, you are not taking care of me."

"When's the surgery?"

"In two weeks."

"You scared?"

"Yep."

Early on Monday morning, Max and Dean arrived at Wells Enterprises. The crew was already there and Dean felt everyone's stares. He'd worked with them before and of course he usually bailed after a couple days. It was hard to work after partying the entire night. He'd been on a collision course with a bad ending. His family was the only thing that kept him from a hitting the brick wall he seemed to be bent on crashing into over and again.

A sense of well being filled him
, it was the start of a new beginning.

The company was not open yet and they began to work.
Soon they reached a rhythm. The crew began to relax when Dean pulled more than his fair share through lunch break.

*****

Max couldn't believe how hard Dean worked. His brother took over the tilling on the side lot and insisted on finishing the entire area himself. He and two men began to tear down the area that Lisa had destroyed and began replanting the tree before laying sod again. Max went to his work truck to replace a shovel and looked toward the parking lot. The green pinto was not there, he wondered if perhaps Lisa was out today. He planned to stop by that afternoon, but it seemed he'd have to wait for another day.

The woman had brought a can of whipped cream for dessert.
What had she planned to do with it? Right before Candy appeared she'd said something to the affect that they had to eat it in a different room. Although he'd only been around her a couple of times, she didn't seem like the type for casual hookups and definitely not kinky sex. He must have misunderstood her. Maybe there was a whipped cream dessert he wasn't aware of.

The kiss had been enough of a dessert.
She was an amorous kisser. Those lips tasted every bit as sweet as he'd imagined. And those curves...

"Max!" One of his men called out and waved his arms.
"Time to start clean up."

He'd not noticed the day was
already over.

It was a pleasant day
, not too hot, but he still needed to go home and take a shower before heading to the hospital. He hated that place, he refused to ponder on the fact that he'd be admitted there in a few days himself. He looked at Dean and noticed that he was loading the tiller onto another truck. The guy was drenched in sweat and smiling widely.

Chapter Five

"Why does that never happen to me?"
His mouth open, Bernie sat opposite her at the cafeteria at their office building on Tuesday morning. "I can't believe our little yummy man planned a ménage á trois"

Lisa spit out her soda.
"Shhhh, don't talk so loud. I can't believe it either. I mean the girl was a total skank too! She was a bleached blonde, with huge fake boobs."

"You saw her boobs?"

"I saw all of her."

"
Amazing."

Lisa huffed.
"Let's talk about something else. I need to come up with some money. I need a part-time job so I can pay Maxwell Collins back."

As
Aoni walked by, they watched her to see who the poor victim would be that she would sit with. It turned out to be Angel, who choked on his tuna sandwich and had to wash it down with an entire bottle of water.

"Poor Angel," Bernie said, not looking sorry.
"Better him than us."

"She would never sit with us.
She’s still mad at me about the Workmans’ comp thing."

Several of the Collin's Landscaping
crewmembers walked in and she gulped. "Oh crap, I hope he doesn't come in here. I'm not mentally prepared to see him." Lisa crammed her leftovers into her lunch tote. "Come on." She grabbed Bernie's shirt forcing him to his feet and then shuffled behind him toward the door using him as a human shield. "Keep moving." She guided him to the ladies room and ducked through the door when more crewmembers came down the hall.

Lisa stared at her reflection in the
bathroom mirror. Her dark waves remained in a somewhat cohesive style. Somehow even with the humidity of the day, her hair had not frizzed. Her mascara was also intact. Now she was in business. After a fist-pump, she looked around with her hand in the air, except she didn't have anyone to 'high-five' over the accomplishment. Bernie wouldn't understand the importance of making it to lunch with both her hair and make-up in place. "Oh well," she said out loud and smoothed her hand down the front of her skirt. The bright orange A-line skirt was new. She wore a blouse that had splotches of orange and purple, which was very bold for her. But she'd been in a mood for color when she'd been shopping that past weekend. The only thing that killed her outfit was her steeled-toe boots that she and Angel were required to wear when spending time at the warehouse. She'd managed to find matching purple socks that peeked over the tops.

Just as she walked out of the ladies' room she heard Max's deep rumble
. She gulped and attempted to run to her office, but she tripped over a bag left right in front of the door. Arms caught her before she face planted. "Thanks," she told him avoiding eye contact. "I just tripped over my bag." That damn Bernie had left her lunch tote in the doorway.

"Ah yeah, you almost took a hard dive."

It wasn't Max. She jerked up to see a taller, lighter Max look-alike. "I almost knocked you down. Sorry."

"No problem," the guy shrugged.
"See ya, gotta catch up with my brother."

"You're Max's brother?"

He stuck his hand out. "Yep, I'm Dean Collins."

They shook hands and after a flirty wink, the very cute Dean walked off.
"Holy Moly." She whispered. "I wonder what their parents look like."

"Miss
Pasqualone?" Mr. Wells stood behind her. "Are you wearing an ear piece?"

She would never
admit that she was breaking company policy or talking to herself, so she managed a noncommittal expression. "I am sorry sir. I only wore it today during lunch, because I was waiting to hear about that order that's on back-order, from the...order place." When he frowned and remained silent and she took it as a queue to leave. Lisa hurried down the hallway only to double back, pick up her lunch tote and walk away again.

Angel looked up as she walked into their office
. He motioned her over to his desk. "We just got an email from the San Diego office. They want one of us to go there for training on the new inventory software."

Lisa eyed the computer screen.
"I think we should both go. It would be easier and quicker, that way one of us doesn't have to teach the other and waste time." She looked out the window and spotted Max, wiping the sweat off his face with his t-shirt. Her mouth fell open.

The man
needed to carry a towel and stop showing off his damn male model stomach.

"Earth to Lisa," Angel said, his eyes following her line of sight.
"Are you shecking out the landscaper?"

"What?
No, not me. I was thinking of how to approach Mr. Wells and get him to think that it's his idea for both of us to go. We should go find him." She yanked Angel's arm.

That afternoon, she went to find Bernie and tell him the news. She was going to San Diego for a week. Bernie held his hands up as if to defend himself when she walked into his office. "I’m sorry I abandoned you at lunch, but I couldn't just stand outside the woman's bathroom like some perv or something."

"I tripped over my
lunch bag and almost face-planted right in front of Max's brother."

Immediately her friend whipped around her and closed the door to his office.
"Mister Yummy has a brother?"

"Yep," Lisa replied, "and he's yummy too.
But that's not what I came to tell you. Guess what? I'm going to San Diego for a week. If I don't eat the entire week, or pack a lunch or something; I can pocket my daily food allowance and at least pay Max some of how ever much I owe him." She gave her friend a triumphant smile.

Bernie exhaled and frowned.
"You haven't talked to him yet? You need to. How else will you know how much you owe him?"

What a party pooper
, Lisa sunk into a chair. "I don't want to face him, it's strange you know… to talk to someone you’ve kissed right before a naked woman interrupts."

"What?" Bernie screamed, "You never told me anything about
a kiss. You kissed him?"

"I gotta go." Lisa
stepped back toward the door. "How about you buy me a beer after work and we'll talk about it."

"Why do I have to pay?"

"Because I have to save all my money to pay for the stupid Japanese blooming bushes I killed."

"Oh yeah."

She managed to find her way back to the office just in time to catch Angel leaving for the day and he high-fived her on the way out the door. "Way to go, San Diego here we come." He did a Hispanic sexy version of the Carlton and left. Glad the day was over, Lisa went to her desk to collect her purse.

"Hello Lisa."
Oh no.

When she turned Max stared at her blouse with a bemused look.
"That blouse matches my dining room wall."

"Oh you like it?"

"I hate that wall. My mom painted it right after she and my dad got their second divorce."

"So you hate my blouse too?"
She rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter to me if you don't like it. I got two compliments today on it."

He didn't look convinced, but had the decency
maintain an emotionless expression. "I'm sorry. You look very nice."

"Too late Buster," Lisa said pushing past him.
"I'm out for the day."

He reached out and placed his hand
on her forearm stopping her. "I need to discuss repayment."

Well it wasn't like she could avoid him. Mr. Wells had informed her while she was in his office that the landscaping job was going to take another week.
Mrs. Wells now insisted they needed a water feature on the side entrance with a gazebo so the employees could relax and refresh. A free day off would be a lot more refreshing than a damn water feature in Lisa's opinion.

"Yes well, it seems we have different ideas of what type of repayment
is required." Lisa huffed, but sat down.

It was hard to concentrate when he lifted his hand and raked his fingers through his tussled da
rk brown hair. The move showed off his well-formed biceps.

"Would you stop doing that and sit down." Lisa told him motioning to a chair opposite her.

"Doing what?" He sat.

She ignored his question.
"How much damage did I do? Give me an amount. I can write you a post-dated check."

"
Take care of me for a week."

She knew her eyes bulged.
"You want me to spend a week with you and the naked blonde girl?"

"What?" He frowned. "
No. She’s not going to be there. At least I hope not." He held up his hands as if it was out of his control.

"Where do you plan for me to stay for
that week?" She asked out of morbid curiosity. Hell, if he said Jamaica, she might just take him up on his offer.

"My house.
I'll be in bed the whole time, so it's not like we can go far."

Of course her stupid brain immediately conjured a picture of him,
naked, tanned and muscular lying in a rumpled bed. She followed it up by imaging him inviting her to join him. Lisa cleared her throat. "You are going to stay in bed for an entire week?"

"Well it depends, hopefully not the entire time. I mean,
I have to use the bathroom and stuff, but other than that, yep I pretty much will probably have to stay in bed."

"Wait what are we talking about?"

He lifted his hand and placed his palm against his forehead. "Oh yeah, sorry I should explain. I am asking if you can care for me while I recover from an operation. I'm donating a kidney to my sister Thursday after next."

"And that's worth the same as the damage
I did?" Lisa asked, not sure what to think.

"Probably more, I mean the damage is only
about a grand."

Oh shit.
"I'll do it."

"Perfect."

"Wait." Lisa narrowed her eyes. "Why isn't naked girl doing this?"

"I don't really know her."

Player.

He smiled and she wondered if she'd just
peed her pants. The man was a walking wet dream. "Thanks. By the way, what were you planning to do with the whipped cream?"

"Oh
… I was going to put it on the pumpkin pie I brought. I accidently left it in the car. I found it yesterday, it was gross."

"Ah."
He didn't look convinced.