Passion » Max Regnery

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"What is that God-awful smell?"

"Too much?" Max asked as Blake pinched her nose while walking into the barn office. 

"What is it?" 

He furrowed his brows as he lifted the square blue stained glass bottle out toward Blake. "Cologne," he replied. "Deb said this was always her favorite one."

"Can she even smell?" Blake placed the bottle back on his desk and looked up at him. "I'd rather sit by horse dung than smell that stuff." 

Offended by her comment, Max crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. What more could she say at this point? His so-called cologne reeked worse than a skunk. In fact, she was pretty much convinced a skunk's spray smelt better than what Max had seemed to bathe in. 

"Oh God," Max and Blake turned to see Red holding his nose as he entered the office. "What is that smell?"

"Max," Blake answered as Max scoffed and collapsed into his chair. "It's this." 

"That stinks." Red said while staring at the bottle and still holding his nose. "I'd rather sit by a pile of manure all day than smell this."

"See," Blake held out her hand toward Red and stared at Max with a look that read 'I'm not the only one'. In his chair, Max sighed heavily and pressed his hand to his forehead. 

"Alright," he said finally, defeated by his two stable hands, "I'll go home and shower." 

"Why were you trying to smell all..." she trailed and looked to Red for the right word. He shrugged his shoulders, unsure as well. 

"Deb and I were meeting up for dinner, to discuss, well you know," he said more to Blake than Red since he was still out of the loop on the divorce. "I wanted to look and smell nice." 

"You look nice," Blake had removed her hand from her nose since it was painful to breathe in through her mouth. She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her him to one side, leaning more on her right leg. "But you smell awful. If you're having dinner, I would suggest that shower... or rolling and horse poop works too."

"Well least you'd smell better," grinned Red before ducking out the way of a pen Max had thrown at them and then bolting out the office. 

Once Blake was certain he was gone and no one was within earshot, she turned back to Max, a frown on her face. Max instantly recognized this expression since they had had a long discussion about why he shouldn't delay his divorce from Deborah, especially since she was the one pressuring him to sign the papers, yet here he was, trying to get all gussied up for the woman who no longer wanted him. 

Perhaps, Blake thought as she settled down into the cold metal folding chair across from Max's desk. Perhaps she was developing feelings for Max and that was why she was truly feeling the way she did, sad. 

"I know what you're thinking," Max said to her while he leaned forward on his desk. "Blake, I don't want to give up hope that there is a way to salvage my marriage." 

She nodded her head, no words leaving her mouth despite really wanting to. But exactly, what would she say? She mentally shook her head, she'd say nothing. Was she even sure these were feelings for Max? Maybe she pitied him because his wife wanted nothing to do with him anymore, but he wanted everything to do with her. Or maybe, just maybe, she was really jealous of it all. 

Blake's husband had cheated on her and even said hurtful things to her. The only time he was ever kind was when she learned about his affairs and that was very rare. And the only reason he had fought the divorce was because of his own insecurity of being alone forever. 

"Well," she uncrossed her arms and stood up from the chair. "I think I'll head out for the night. Good luck, Max," Blake stopped at the door and turned around. "See you in the morning?"

"Don't you always?" 

"Depends," she smiled and leaned against the frame. "Sometimes you like to avoid me, hurts my feelings ya know?"

"I don't avoid you," he sat back in his chair, his expression unreadable. 

"Goodnight, Max."

An hour alone, in the car, with no radio on left Blake to explore her thoughts... and well her feelings. Feelings she was still entirely unsure about. Feelings about Max. She couldn't deny that she found Max attractive, and he did have a unique charm about him. So in a way, it was natural for her to find him interesting... right? But at the same time, despite her parents being co-owners of Pine Hollow, Max was still very much her boss. And having a crush on your boss, well that just didn't seem right, did it?

But it didn't matter any longer. Max was not interested in her, to begin with, he loved his wife. And as for any more thoughts on Max, Blake pushed them aside as she turned off her car and got out. She was home now, home to take a shower and wash off the awful stench she managed to get stuck on her thanks to Max.

Blake walked up to the front door, dogs barking sounded on the other side as she unlocked it. With her knee, she pushed open the large white door and entered inside. She didn't pay much attention to the heard of dogs as she turned around the close the door and discard her boots into the mud bucket. It wasn't until she noticed an unusual long haired, golden colored dog sniffing her that she realized something was off. 

Where did this retriever come from?

She could feel her lips pursing into a very thin line as he stared at the wall in front of her. She knew damn well where this new dog came from. This dog belonged to Alexander Danielle Vanderbelt, her twenty-one year old sister.

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Hi, me again... I don't know if you're aware(well those who have read the books and seen the show are), but I have kinda mixed both the show and book into this. I did grow up on both the shows and books but I remember the show more because I never bothered reading books when I was seven years old. Who had time for reading when there was a world out there for me to explore? So if you've only seen the show and you're wondering why some things are different, that is why.