Max Read Online Free PDF Page A

it seemed to work for the
most part.
    Her head turned, her gaze wary, as if she
was surprised by the fact I had spoken. It did nothing but make me feel like
shit. Regardless of us knowing each other in our younger days, it still didn’t
take away from the fact she had been as good as dumped here. If I felt uneasy
about my part in all this, surely she was not tap dancing about it either; her
expression in the bar said as much. Maybe for the next week we could form some
kind of alliance: don’t cause me any trouble with my job and I would cut her
some slack … just a little; I didn’t have a death wish.
    “A drink?” she repeated as if
double-checking.
    “Yeah, I can show you my mad skills,” I
said, trying to lighten the mood as I made the first step in moving back toward
the Onslow. She followed, curving her brow with interest.
    “Mad skills?”
    I smirked, forcing myself to bite my tongue
at the obvious smart-arse retaliation of there being an echo surrounding us,
but I thought better of it.
    “Yeah, you know that movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise?”
    Melanie’s head canted, as if to say ‘Ha-ha’.
    “What?” I breathed out, trying to contain
my smirk. “It’s true.”
    “Now this I have to see,” Mel countered,
taking the steps by my side, one by one.
    “Ah, bugger,” I said grimacing. “I’m off
duty now.”
    “You make it sound like you’re a police
officer,” she said, laughing softly, genuine. It was a nice surprise to hear it
as I pushed the door to the hotel open for her.
    “Well, not too far from it actually. What’s
the saying? To protect and to serve,” I said, sweeping my hand in front of me
with an ‘after you’ gesture.
    Aside from my life being turned upside down
within a few hours, I was relieved to find some things would never change, like
the heated standoff unravelling right before us. In the blue corner stood Chris
Henderson, co-owner and chief barman, broody, bossy, hard worker. In the red
corner stood Amy Henderson, younger cousin. Her father was the former publican,
and she was girlfriend to Chris’s business partner, Sean Murphy. I know we all
resided in a small town, but sometimes it was too bloody small.
    “So that’s your final answer?” Amy sneered.
    “Yep!” Chris said, lazily poking the ice
bucket with his spoon.
    Amy scoffed, “You’re a real piece of work,
you know that?”
    Chris sighed, as if completely bored by the
conversation, which only served to infuriate Amy more. It was like watching a
stick of dynamite hover near an open flame. In what wouldn’t be the first time,
I liked to infiltrate the scene, almost like the bucket of water. I learnt very
fast not to ask, “What’s wrong?” or “What are we talking about?” It just was
not worth it. So instead I played the ignorant card.
    “Hey, Amy, have you met Melanie? She’s
going to be staying here for a bit.”
    Amy blinked out of her murderous glare and
almost did a double take toward us, her brows lifting in surprise as if seeing
us for the first time. Once her eyes flicked between us, a small, genuine smile
spread across her face.
    Bingo!
    “Hi, I’m Amy.” She beamed, sticking out her
hand so fast it made Mel flinch before she tentatively took her hand to shake.
Mel’s slight uncertain glance my way was not lost on me, I knew what she was
thinking. Was this really the same girl who looked like she was about to stab
the barman with an ice pick?
    Yep! Welcome to Onslow.
    “So how do the two of you know each other?”
Amy’s eyes sparkled with speculation, as they danced between us with a certain
romanticised meaning. I worked to hit that on the head quick smart as I
laughed, shaking my head.
    “It’s not like that. Mel’s a friend of the
family.”
    “Oh.” Amy looked somewhat disappointed.
    I went to share in the humour with Mel, but
my smile quickly faded when I took in the deep set of her brow, looking much
like she had when she found out she was staying here. Bloody hell, this