Unacceptable Behavior by Morganna Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

over lunch.”
    Max felt her heart drop into her shoes. He was going to break up with her! She spent the rest of the drive staring morosely out the window. Stupid jerk! He should never have made her fall in love with him. She should have stuck with Ted from the mailroom, someone she could manage.
    Rafe pulled into a parking spot at Cracker Barrel; Max just turned to him with a glare. “I don’t feel like eating.”
    “Tough,” he said succinctly as he got out of the car. She watched him walk around to her side and open the door. Max just looked at him.
    “I’d rather not.”
    “Come along, Maxine, we have things to discuss,” Rafe said firmly, taking her arm to pull her from the truck and then after him into the restaurant.
    “Quit pulling, I’m coming! Under duress but I’m coming,” Max muttered sourly.
    Rafe leaned down to whisper in her ear, “You’re in enough trouble, young lady, don’t make it worse.”
    She blinked; in trouble? What did she do now? Part of her was relieved, maybe he didn’t want to break up, but the other part was indignant he felt he had the right to take her to task over anything.
    It wasn’t crowded yet so they were seated quickly. Max frowned again when Rafe immediately handed the menus back to the server. “We’ll both just have the chicken salad sandwich with chips and a glass of sweet tea.”
    “What if I didn’t want chicken salad?” Max asked in outrage.
    “You always order chicken salad when we get food here. Stop looking for an argument,” he said firmly.
    Part of her was flattered he remembered her preference, but Max wasn’t ready to climb down off her high horse yet. “Maybe I didn’t want chicken salad today.”
    “Enough, Maxine,” he said flatly. “I had an interesting conversation with the mechanic working on your car today.”
    Max brightened. “Is it ready?”
    “Yes, but that’s not why he called. He wanted to know if you wanted your glasses.” Rafe’s voice rose a bit as he pulled her orange glasses case with a Yorkie puppy on it from his pocket and plunked it down on the table between them.
    She winced and gave a nervous laugh. “You don’t say?”
    “Maxine.”
    “It’s not that big of a deal,” Max said with a frown.
    “You can’t mess with your eyes, Maxine. If you need glasses, you should be wearing them. I can’t remember ever seeing you in a pair of glasses so you obviously aren’t taking care of your eyes.”
    Max deflated the beginnings of a pout forming on her face. “I don’t really need them that bad.”
    “They’re bifocals!” Rafe said loudly.
    Max and the waitress who was bringing their food both jumped.
    “Really, Rafe, is it necessary to yell? Besides, they’re ugly!” she snapped back at him in exasperation.
    Rafe took a deep breath before turning to the waitress. “Could you bag that up to go, please?”
    Max felt her bottom cheeks clench; perhaps contrite would have been a better approach. “Rafe, I know I should have…”
    “Too late.”
    “But…”
    “Save it,” he said with a glare.
    “I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she said with a disdainful sniff.
    “Fine. I’ll meet you at the cash register. It’ll give me time to browse.”
    Max rolled her eyes as she walked through the country store in the lobby on her way to the restroom. The man had all but told the entire dining room he was going to bust her butt and now he was browsing? The whole situation was preposterous!
    It wasn’t like she was used to answering to anyone. She’d ignored her need for glasses long before they were dating. Long before he’d ever spanked her. It wasn’t fair for him to bring up past failings. While Max recognized this particular past failing was also a current one, it wasn’t as if she’d been able to take care of it. After all, her car was in the shop and the glasses had been in the car.
    Deciding this was the approach to take, Max headed out to meet Rafe at the register, and promptly froze when she saw