Page 103 of Junkyard Dog

“Hey, man!” Max called over the music. “You just get here?”

His eyes darted around the room. “I was helping Thomas in the back. Everyone here?”

“Yeah, Chuck’s here.” Max grinned. “We’re over by the dance floor if you want to come join.”

Shaking his head, he locked his attention on the exit. “No thanks. Tell the crew I say hi.”

Max planted his feet and flagged Daniel over. “Two tequilas, please.” Shifting his focus back to Alex, he tilted his head back slightly and looked him over. “One drink and then you’re free to go hide out in your trailer for the rest of the night.” He smirked. “Unless you have a date.”

“I don’t have a date,” he muttered. “I’ve got stuff to do in the morning.”

With a shrug, Max passed a twenty to Daniel and handed Alex a shot of tequila. “Whether you join us or not, I’m telling Chuck I saw you. And if you leave without having a drink with us, I’ll tell her you were on your way out on a date. Cheers.”

He clenched his teeth as Max downed his shot. “Seriously?”

“Try me.”

Tugging his wallet from his back pocket, he threw a ten onto the bar. “One vodka Coke, please.” He turned to Max. “I’m not buying your blackmailing ass a drink.”

He followed Max through the Saturday crowd, fighting the urge to rub out the knots forming in his shoulders.

“Check out what I dragged over from the trenches,” Max announced, grabbing two chairs from an adjoining table and flipping off the patrons when they protested. “Sit.”

A chorus of hey-how-are-yous rose from the table, a few unrecognizable faces smiling politely as he gave everyone a quick nod, shaking his hair out of his eyes enough to see but not enough to unblock his view of the stunning brunette sitting beside him. Max immediately launched into a lengthy story about a wounded coyote he’d saved, showing off his bandaged arm to anyone who would look.

Five minutes into his embellished explanation, Charlotte finally chimed in. “Pull off the Band-Aids, you big suck. Show them how injured you really were.”

Max reached across Alex and swatted the straw from her drink, sending a small spray into the air. “You’re gonna be sorry you were mean to me when I’m foaming at the mouth and you have to put me down like a rabid dog.”

Her hand dropped to Alex’s leg, startling him. He risked a glance at her, his chest tightening when she squeezed his knee, her dark eyes narrowed at Max in a death glare until they widened and she snatched her hand away.

Max continued to rally sympathy for his cause as Charlotte kept her face angled away from Alex, her fingers tucked neatly under her thighs.

Taking a long sip of his drink, he leaned close to her ear, bracing himself for a hardened rejection. “Looks like I’m not the only guard dog on the premises.”

She tensed and stared straight ahead, her lips barely moving as she replied. “Yeah? Well, it’s notthathard a job, is it? Besides, that was an insulting species-ist statement he made.”

Encouraged by the fact she responded at all, he shuffled his chair a fraction closer. “You have better instincts than Bo. More finesse, too.”

She bit back a smile and leaned against her seat, nodding at Becky’s long-winded story and rolling her eyes at Max. “You think I should consider a career change?”

“I think you should consider a dance,” he offered, sitting back until she pushed out of her chair and walked wordlessly to the dance floor.

He scrambled after her, ignoring Max’s barking laugh while he closed in on his target. She turned to face him, brows lifting as he put his arms around her waist. “It’s not a slow dance.”

“Who cares?” he muttered, nudging her arms with his elbows. “We can be that couple everyone rolls their eyes about but secretly wants to be.” When her mouth opened to reply, he ducked down to whisper into her ear. “Just because we aren’t one, doesn’t mean we can’t make ’em hate us.”

Her arms rose to his neck as she relented. “Do you ever do something and just know it’s a huge mistake, but you do it anyway?”

“You mean like every time I see you?” he muttered, tightening his hold when she tensed again. “I’m not kidding. Every step of the way, I’ve known I was going to regret going deeper in.”

She relaxed slightly, her thumbs grazing the back of his neck. “So do you?”

“Regret it?” he asked, looking down at her. “I might in a few hours, but no. Not yet.”

She nodded, her gaze locked on the lights behind his shoulder.

He adjusted his hold on her. “How about you? Wishing you weren’t so damn good with animals yet?”

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