Page 53 of Her Righteous Protector

“She and I have never been on a date. We need some grown-up time together to talk about grown-up things.”

“Okay,” Kane said slowly. “I’ll bite. How are you going to get her to see that you wanting her to move to Virginia with you isn’t just to take care of Zephyr.”

Max blew out a frustrated breath. “That’s the fucking problem. Until we have some time together and see that if we really have something, I’m not going to suggest that Hannah uproot her life and follow me to Virginia.”

“So instead, you’re just going to basically rip her kid out of her arms?” Kane asked conversationally.

Max thought his head was going to explode. “No, goddammit, no!”

“So, you admit that you’re getting together with her so you can keep the three of you together?”

Max squeezed his phone so hard it was a wonder it didn’t shatter into pieces.

“Max,” Kane said softly. “I’m just trying to point out how Hannah is viewing all of this.”

“So tell me how to solve this.”

“You told me what you said to her the other night, and you were a fucking pussy.”

“Huh?”

“You either love her or you don’t. What the hell is this, ‘I’ll choose to fall in love with you’ bullshit? A.J. would have had my balls in a vice if I’d said something so pathetically stupid to her.”

Max winced. Hearing Kane spit his words back at him, he had to agree. Had his background really fucked him up so badly that he was that scared of being hurt? Of taking a chance?

“I’ve got to go,” Max said.

“Yeah you do,” Kane agreed.

* * *

Hannah had been bracing for Max since yesterday’s blow-up. Today she’d taken Zephyr to pre-school so that they could have some adult together-time to talk and she’d taken the long way home, hoping she could get her head on straight before she saw him.

Max opened the front door as soon as she pulled into the driveway.

He looked so damned good. He was wearing the light blue Henley shirt that emphasized all of his muscles. Did he have to be wearing that when she needed to stay strong? She pulled her phone out of the charger and remembered he was going to want to talk about Meghan’s damned parents and she winced.

She turned off the car and reached for her purse and phone. Max opened the driver’s side door for her. “I was worried about you,” he said huskily.

“No need,” she assured him, without looking at his face.

He pulled her purse out of her hands and shut the car door behind her as he walked with her up the porch steps and ushered her inside. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

“No, it’s too early for lunch.”

Max nodded in agreement. “We need to talk.”

Finally, Hannah did look up at him. “God, Max, I’m sorry for being so stupid. I should have warned you about Bob and Peggy so long ago.” She desperately wanted to beg him not to be mad at her, but that was stupid. He either would be or wouldn’t be. But please, could he not be?

“Hannah, we’re past that.”

She frowned. “That easy? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I promise you, they are not going to do anything to harm Zephyr or his life. We’re not going to allow it.”

“You and Elias?”

“You and me,” Max corrected with a slow smile. “Okay, I might have some of my buddies from my team help too. But, we’re not going to put up with a damn thing from those scum-sucking bottom feeders.”