Saving This (The McCallans #5) (6 page)

Chapter Seven

Olivia Beach.
Was this a fucking joke?

Max stepped out of the Mercedes that had picked him up at a municipal airport. He hadn’t been up for driving all the way up the coast, so a private flight suited him just fine. The driver was a personal friend of the producer that owned the house, so Max appreciated the promise of discretion. He was up here for privacy and nothing else.

He looked at the house in front of him. It was in a quaint little neighborhood—an area in Lincoln City, Oregon named Olivia Beach, of all things.

Teague sure had a sick sense of humor.

Sighing, he grabbed his two bags and hauled them up to the house. He used the key his brother gave him and entered, squeezing through the narrow doorway with his stuff. He dropped his bags in the front entry and looked around. It certainly was a small space, but then again, he was used to living in a mansion that was way too pretentious in the first place.

Passing the front room for the dining room/kitchen area, he pulled open the curtains on the sliding glass door, and then unlocked it to step outside onto the deck. He took in the sight in front of him and paused. The house was right above a narrow coastline, and from the deck was a long flight of steps that traveled to the sand. Max made his way to the railing and leaned against it, glancing right and left across the small beach.

It was nothing like the beaches in Malibu, and for that he was extremely grateful. He never knew Quentin owned this house up in Oregon. He knew of two other houses the guy owned, but this one surprised him. Apparently the billionaire producer liked a small town getaway now and then. But Max would make the best of his time here, finish his screenplay and send it to the right people, take in some fresh air, and then head back to L.A. next week.

Piece of cake, and double bonus…he’d be appeasing his brother at the same time. He hoped it was a step in the right direction.

Teague had warned him about the weather up here. Today was clear and sunny with a breeze. It was probably warm for the beginning of October, even though any Californian who loved the sun would think mid-sixties felt too cool. But Max liked it. It felt…a bit liberating for some reason. Sun and cool air. It was so relaxing he pulled the outdoor furniture out from the garage and set it up on the deck. He tried to close his eyes and doze off, but although he enjoyed the solitude and just the sound of the waves, he felt restless.

It also felt somewhat lonely—due to the fact that he was out of his comfort zone—and he knew his mind needed to be occupied.

He hauled himself inside, found the main bedroom and unpacked his stuff. Then he set up a working space at the desk in the spare room. Assuming it had been the room Jay stayed in when the guys lived here, Max wondered how his grown ass put up with such a claustrophobic area. That was a fucking twin bed in the corner…  Had he even
fit
on it??

Max returned to the master bedroom and opened the windows. The room faced the ocean
and
it was also a bit larger than the other one. After some consideration, he ended up dragging the desk from the secondary room down the hallway. He’d move it all back before he left, but for now, there was no way he could work inside a tiny, closed-in box of an office.

After adjusting a few things, everything fit just right. He flipped open his laptop and went to work, having the perfect view of the ocean from where he sat.

***

A man could only go without food for so long. After unsuccessfully deciding on a place through his phone, Max called for pizza instead. He really didn’t want to go out in public anyway. If he could get away with it, he’d stay inside the house for as long as possible, calling for takeout with a fake name and paying with cash. Eventually he’d need to venture to the grocery store, but he’d save that for another day.

Camryn’s mom lived a couple of blocks over, and since Max had promised his brother he’d stop over there to check on her, he figured he could ask her for food recommendations in the area. It was extremely out of his comfort zone to approach a stranger this way, but he felt it was all or nothing at this point in his life. If he really wanted to make some progress with his brother, he was willing to cloak himself with false security for the time being.

After downing a few slices of pizza an hour later, he shoved the rest in the fridge and pulled up Teague’s directions on his phone. It only took a few minutes to walk over, and while he did, he took the time to look around the neighborhood. It really was a unique little area. It seemed quiet and well taken care of. He passed a community playground before turning on the next street, and he could immediately see his destination from several houses down.

It was probably the largest house in the neighborhood.

Max took the massive flight of stairs up to the front door and knocked. While he stood there for more than a minute, knocking a second time, he glanced up and down the street from this position higher up on the hillside.

Yeah, indeed it was a quaint area. But he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. It seemed too quiet, like it only had the appearance of innocence but there were eyes and ears
everywhere
.

Okay, so it was obvious he was extremely paranoid.

At last the door opened and he turned to greet Camryn’s mom pleasantly. He had no idea if she was expecting him or not or how she would even react to who he was.

But he wasn’t expecting the fresh-faced blonde who stood in front of him, her dark brown eyes studying him for a few seconds in confusion. He glanced from her dimpled chin to her sweatshirt, denim cutoffs and flip-flops, and then back up to her eyes.

“Can I help you?” she finally asked.

Okay, Camryn didn’t have another sister he wasn’t aware of, did she? He didn’t know of anyone else living here, Teague never mentioned it.

Guessing she was in her late teens, he asked, “Uh, is your mom home?”

She was obviously surprised, and then she practically snorted. “My
mom
?”

The fuck? All right, so that was the wrong assumption. “Ehh, is Ms., um, uh…”

Shit. He couldn’t even remember the name of Camryn’s mom.

“Are you looking for Serena?” the spunky little blonde asked.

Okay, she wasn’t
little
, but she was athletic-looking, maybe five-foot-six, and her medium-length hair was cute in that messy beach-blown way. But his six-one frame made her a lot smaller than
he
was.

“Yes, I’m sorry. I forgot her name,” Max admitted. “I just stopped by to check on her for someone. Is she home?”

She eyed him for a few seconds, a tiny smirk playing on her lips. She was definitely a sassy looking thing and that put him on guard even more than usual.

“You’re Teague’s half-brother.” She didn’t ask, she stated it, and hearing those words completely took him by surprise. It hadn’t
seemed
like she’d recognized him right away—maybe his hat and sunglasses didn’t do much to fool her—but the fact that she referred to him as “Teague’s half-brother” was rare.

“Yes. I’m Max.” He waited for the onslaught of reactions that could presumably follow.

But she only nodded while folding her arms across her chest, and then cocked her chin at him. It was quite amusing, and before he had time to laugh at her haughty behavior, she dryly answered, “Yeah, I know who you are.”

They eyed each other for a moment. She kind of looked familiar but he didn’t know where he’d seen her. But then again, a beautiful blonde wasn’t hard to find in California. Maybe she just looked like a mix of several females he knew.

At last this girl dropped her arms to her sides and stepped back from the doorway to let him by. “Come on in, I guess. Serena isn’t here this week. She’s in Bora Bora.”

God, where
he
needed to be right now.

“I’m just here because she’s been renting the house out while she’s traveling. Camryn hooked me up for a bit.”

“What the hell for?” he asked without thinking. “I mean…why here?”

She actually laughed, which surprised him since she’d been wary and cautious thus far. “Right? Well obviously you’re up here for some reason. If it’s not to get away from L.A., then I’m not sure I could guess why.”

She had a point.

Max took his hat off and ran his hand over his head with a sigh. He didn’t want to talk about any of that. He removed his sunglasses and replied, “Yeah, well, I’m here to work and that’s about it. And I’m sorry but…who are you? How do you know my brother?”

She dropped onto a brown leather couch and motioned for him to do the same on the opposite loveseat. When he sat, she answered, “My name is Anna. I actually know Tyse the most, but I’m friends with Sarah, Camryn and Melanie too.”

At the mention of Sarah’s name, he thought of Olivia and instant panic hit his chest. Was Anna friends with her too? And if so, he really did not need to be here right now. Meeting friends of Olivia would be the opposite of moving forward in his life.

He stood just as quickly as he’d sat, still routinely maintaining his suave composure. “That’s cool but…I need to get back to work, so…”

She eyed him funny but stood as well. “Hmm. Well give me a holler if you need anything.”

He nodded but failed to reply anything other than a mumbled, “Thanks,” and then he helped himself out the front door.

As he made his way down the lengthy flight of steps, he gave Teague a call—something he rarely did since he’d always resorted to texts.

It was no wonder Teague was surprised when he answered, “What’s wrong?”

“You sound like a worried mommy,” Max at least joked, even though he was feeling very uneasy after his run-in with Anna-whoever-she-was.

“Well you never call. What’s going on?”

“Who’s the chick in the house? Camryn’s mom isn’t even here, she’s on vacation renting this place out to someone named Anna—whom you guys apparently know.”

Teague paused for a second. “Oh, shit. I didn’t know that. I kept your whereabouts quiet; not even Camryn knew.”

Max sighed to himself. Now some girl knew who he was and that he was up in Oregon. There was no telling what kind of story was going to come from it. This was turning out to be a huge mistake.

“Anna is cool, man,” Teague told him after Max’s silence revealed enough. “You know who she is, right? She gets the whole privacy thing.”

“No, I do
not
know who she is,” he answered impatiently as he walked along the street.

He passed the playground as two little kids glanced at him and then they went back to climbing the slide. Then he saw who he assumed to be their mom and quickly turned away before she could recognize him. He’d been so caught up in escaping the blonde that he’d failed to flip up his hood over his hat and slip his sunglasses back on.

He quickened his pace and veered for another direction, cutting between two houses for the next street, just in case he needed to lose someone. “Why, who is she?” he asked, jogging the last fifty yards to Quentin’s. He needed to get the hell inside before anything worse happened. The last thing he needed was for the press to find out where he was.

“Anna Evans? The pro surfer?”

Now her name and face came together. “Ah, okay. I thought she looked familiar.”

“Oh hey, she just texted me.” After a brief pause, he laughed and added, “She says you seem like an asshole.”

Max scoffed, resenting the quick judgment. But he really had been a bit short with her. He just didn’t know how to interact with strangers sometimes, especially when that “oh my God, I know who you are” moment hits. He automatically dialed himself into a suave and relaxed character. Anna hadn’t seemed too concerned with who he was, but that could have been a front. He never liked to let down his guard. In his experience,
everyone
had ulterior motives.

“Yeah, I, um, wasn’t sure who she was. I wasn’t expecting someone else to be there.”

“Understandable, but she’s cool, okay? You don’t have to worry about her.”

“She mentioned Sarah. Does that mean she knows Olivia too?”

Teague paused. “I don’t think so. She knows Sarah because she rehabbed with Tyse last year after she blew her knee out surfing. She became friends with them.”

“Then how do
you
know her?”

“She became friends with Cam and Mel, too. Eventually we started talking surf shit all the time, and sometimes we all go out on the waves together. I’m actually trying to talk her into stunt surfing part time.”

“And she won’t?” That actually made Max kind of happy. He didn’t want to know more people in the industry, even though Teague’s line of work was a bit different.

“She’s got her reasons,” Teague answered.

Fine. Something he wasn’t supposed to know, apparently.

He let himself back into Quentin’s house and said, “Okay, I’ll let you go. Just wanted to know how she knew you.”

“If you’re worried about your privacy up there, you don’t have to worry about her. She’s probably up there for the same reason.”