CHAPTER FIVE
Max had been surprised many times in his life. But the most recent event was when the woman that hated his guts put her arm around him and pretended to be his adoring girlfriend for the benefit of his evil soon-to-be ex-wife. He hadn’t expected that at all.
He was, however, so grateful he could kiss her feet.
Back in his hotel room, he poured them both a generous whiskey, an excellent brand that the hotel manager had brought up personally along with a basket of chocolates. Sipping it slowly, Max savored the burn in his belly while he also enjoyed the quiet. That was one of the nice traits of Carrie. She wasn’t one of those women who felt the need to fill every silence with meaningless babble. She was comfortable with not saying a word. In the end, it was him that finally spoke.
“Why did you do that?”
She didn’t answer, instead asking him a question of her own.
“Are you angry that I did?”
“No. I’m glad actually, but I’m surprised. We haven’t exactly been friends.”
A smile played on her pink lips. “Let’s just say you’re lucky these windows don’t actually open.”
The thought of a little thing like her tossing him out on his arse was amusing. “I’m not sure you could get me out the window. I’m a few pounds heavier than you.”
“Maybe I was planning to drive you so crazy you’d jump out voluntarily.”
“Even Alana hasn’t managed that. So I’ll ask again. Why did you do it?”
She stared at the amber liquid in the highball glass. “Because I know she hurt you and I hate to think of her doing it again. I wasn’t too sure if you’d play along. I was waiting for you to ask me what the hell I was doing.”
Tentatively, he sat next to Carrie on the couch. So many things in their short relationship had gone awry and it was mostly his fault. His issues kept him from connecting to people and she was paying the price.
“I’m grateful,” he confessed. “I didn’t expect you to try and help me, but I’m glad you did. Although now that I’ve announced you as my girlfriend it makes it hard for you to pretend otherwise, never seeing me again.”
“I thought about that but I still couldn’t let her hurt you again.”
A big, soft heart. He should have known. Carrie’s ex-fiance was a damn idiot. This care and tenderness could have been all his but he’d treated her shabbily. With any luck, karma had taken note.
“It’s not that I’m really hurting anymore. She doesn’t have the power to hurt me now. She’s killed any love I may have had for her with her actions. It’s that I’m completely humiliated. I was such an idiot when it came to her. I wanted to believe everything she said and why? Because I wanted my marriage to succeed even when the signs were there from day one that it was doomed. Sometimes I wonder if I loved her at all. Maybe I loved the idea of being a husband and having a family. Does that sound awful to you?”
Carrie took a sip of her whiskey before answering. “I think that’s probably more common than you think. In love with love. You wanted to be in love, you wanted to be married, so you found an attractive, desirable woman and put a ring on her finger. But happily ever after has to be earned. Look at Nate and Paige.”
They’d been through hell to get where there were now. Little had come to them easily except love and passion. But making room for each other, making compromises, that had been a hard road.
“Bloody Christ, is that what I did? Just picked a woman and married her. No wonder I’m divorced. Or soon to be, anyway.”
“I’ve seen men do that, even my brother before he married Jeannie. Men want a woman that other men want but can’t get, right? You chose a female that men found desirable but hey, she chose you too. But there’s more to marriage than other males wanting your wife.”
Max nodded. “Hmmm…like what?”
She gaped at him in surprise. “You don’t know? You’re forty and you don’t know what’s important to you in a lifetime mate? You haven’t given it any thought whatsoever? And don’t say great sex. You won’t care about that when you’re ninety.”
“I care about it now,” he retorted. “I’m tired of women saying sex isn’t important. Sex is important. And I’m thirty-nine, not forty.”
“Excuse the hell out of me. Thirty-nine,” Carrie shot back. “And I’m not saying it isn’t important but it can’t be the only criteria for selecting a woman, Max. You should make a list of the traits you desire in a wife and mother. Be sure to list sex because as you say that is important. But I can’t believe, especially now that you’ve been married, that you think that’s all it takes to make it work.”
Holy Christ, she was taking this organization stuff too far. “You want me to make a list? Should I prioritize it as well? Color code it? Laminate it?”
Huffing out a breath, she rolled her eyes. “Stop making fun of me. I simply think it would be helpful for you if you had some idea as to what you’re truly looking for in a woman. There’s a school of thought that talks about writing things down as a way to manifest them in reality. Just don’t limit yourself to that list if you meet someone in real life that doesn’t meet every single criteria.”
Max frowned and drained his glass. “Have you done this?”
“I’ve done this exercise a few times in my life. Even if you don’t use the list, it’s an interesting exercise. What do you truly value in a mate? What are deal breakers? What could you live with?”
“What are your deal breakers?”
He didn’t know why he wanted to know. But he did.
“Physical violence, of course. Verbal assault.”
“Those are a given.”
She nodded. “They are. Addictions are out too. Gambling, alcohol, drugs. He should be gainfully employed. He doesn’t have to be rich but he should be hard working, but I don’t want a workaholic either. He should know how to balance work and life.”
“A regular paragon,” Max drawled.
She elbowed him in the ribs. “You asked.”
“You’re right. Anything else?”
Tapping her chin, she chewed on her lips. “Hmmm…smoking. I’m not fond of cigarette smoke.”
He was a reformed smoker. He only did it for roles now. Or when he was incredibly stressed.
“I quit a few years ago.”
“That’s good. You’ll live longer. Now what do we do?”
He refilled their glasses. “We iron out a deal. One we can both live with. Will you do that for me, Carrie? Will you help me? I can help you too. We can do this if we stick together.”
Several emotions flickered across her expressive features. She didn’t like him much and that was his fault. He wasn’t the warmest of men when meeting new people and she was a prickly one. But she was also smart and she had to be able to see he could help her too. With no false modestly, he knew that being his girlfriend would ensure no one felt sorry for her now that her ex had broken the engagement. In fact, Max made a mental note to have his PR people put out the story that she broke it off.
For him, of course.
“The chances are high that we’ll end up at each other’s throats but I can hardly say no now that we’ve told Alana that I’m your girlfriend. So against my common sense, I will.” She lifted her glass. “Here’s to fake love and devotion.”
The best kind. The only kind he’d ever known.