The Gamble
Page 157

After Max had “breakfast” we had a shower and I got ready. Then we had brunch with Norm and Gladys and after, exchanged contact information and fond farewells. Then Max and I packed up the groceries, loaded the Jeep, checked out of the cabin and Max followed me as we went back to the rental car agency.
The rental car agency, I found out when Max explained as we were packing up, was the downfall of my heartbroken getaway considering, when Max got home, found my note and saw all my stuff gone, he wasn’t too happy and decided he was going to do something about it pretty much at once. Then again, he didn’t get home until well after lunch, it took him that long to cool down so I had a head start.
Deciding I had to get a taxi, Max called Arlene. Then Arlene called Bill, who was the person at Thrifty’s who sent the taxi, and told him to tell her who my taxi driver was. Then Arlene called Alan, my taxi driver. Alan told Arlene, who told Max that Alan took me to the rental car agency so Max called the agency. Since by then the rental car agency employees had changed shifts, Max made more calls and he found out that George knew the man who owned the rental car agency. George called him, that guy called his employee at home and his employee told him where I was staying, the crux of my downfall. He told George, George told Max, thus Max found me.
The joys of small town living.
When Max arrived at the cabin, he’d been pounding at the door because, as he put it, “Babe, seriously, you sleep like the dead,” and eventually thinking he wasn’t going to wake me with his pounding, he had to open the door with a credit card.
Yes, a credit card.
Those cabins were very pretty and they’d done a good job renovating but they definitely needed new locks. And, perhaps, better outdoor lighting.
After we packed up the Jeep, we turned in my rental. Then I climbed into the Cherokee and evidently fell fast asleep.
I had not been in favor of the turning in the rental car business. I thought it might be good for me to have a car so Max didn’t have to drive me around everywhere. Max thought, since he wasn’t working, there was pretty much no reason he couldn’t take me where I wanted to go and, incidentally, be with me while I was there. Therefore Max talked me into returning the car. Or, I should say, Max ordered me to do it and after we argued for ten minutes, I was too tired to keep arguing so I gave in.
Luckily, he did. It wouldn’t do for me to fall asleep at the wheel. Though, I was not going to share that with Max.
Max still had his arm around me and he shuffled me to the side then he slammed the door to the Jeep then he shuffled me back, stepped in until my back was at the Cherokee and Max was pressed up against my front.
I tipped my head back to look at him, still partly asleep.
“Lucky you turned in that car, babe, or it’d be another call to triple A to pull it out of the ditch, you fell asleep at the wheel.”
God, Max was so annoying.
“You know, I think you’re onto something,” I told him. “A good way to get rid of Nina Zombie is to be annoying. And, seeing as you’re that way a lot, it’s too bad you like Nina Zombie because in future her appearances will likely be very rare.”
He grinned. “You only think I’m annoying when I’m right.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Take, for instance, now.”
He burst out laughing but as he did this his hand hooked around the back of my neck, he pulled me up to my toes and his mouth came down on mine.
I’d never had someone kiss me while they laughed. It was an experience.
A good one.
I’d also never had anyone kiss me (or do other things to me for that matter) when I had a black eye and a bruised cheekbone not that I had them very often, just both the times my ex Brent hurt me. When I saw my face in the mirror that morning I found Max was right. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been but it was definitely worse than before. And not exactly attractive. Though that didn’t faze Max, not in the slightest.
After I’d melted into him, my forearms under his coat resting parallel along his spine, my hands flat on his muscled back, his lips released mine but he didn’t move away.
He dropped his forehead so it was resting on mine and I saw his eyes were serious when he said quietly, “When you were sick, saw your plane tickets, honey.”
“Yes?”
“You leave Saturday.”
I felt my body lock as I pulled in a soft breath to fight the sharp, twisting pain in my stomach.
He was right, so much had been going on I hadn’t even thought of that. Unless I was telling myself I had to leave, I hadn’t thought of actually leaving. In fact, in a weird way it felt strange thinking I had to leave. Not only did it feel like I’d been in Gnaw Bone a lifetime, England felt a million miles away.
And leaving meant leaving everything, everyone, the A-Frame, The Mark, The Dog, Mindy, Becca, Bitsy, Arlene, Cotton and, most of all, Max.
My flight left in, essentially, two days. And even though it felt like I’d been in Gnaw Bone a lifetime, I knew those two days would feel like two seconds.
And after that, what? The idea of a move and all that involved pressed down on me, especially since I had to do it without Max and I had no idea when I’d see him again.
What if, in my absence, he figured out I wasn’t so cute?
My arms tightened against his back and feeling the pressure of all this weighing down on me like an anvil, I whispered. “Max.”
“Any chance your work’ll give you another week?”
Another week? Could it be that easy?
My eyes drifted to the side and that twisting pain subsided.
Yes, it could be that easy.
Then my eyes drifted back, I smiled and pressed deeper into him when I said, “Yes. I’ve got loads of holiday. I’ll call my assistant, get her to shift some things around. Then I’ll call David, he’s a partner and my boss. He’ll be okay with it, he likes me.”
Max’s head went up slightly but his brows drew together sharply.
“He likes you?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
I was still smiling when I said, “A lot, seeing as I’m a good employee. His g*y partner also likes me. No, his partner Nigel actually adores me but not because I’m a good employee, because I make fantastic martinis or at least that’s what Nigel says. They like me so much, they’ve asked me to be godmother to their new Russian orphan baby.”
Max’s brows had unknit and his body was pressing me deeper into the truck when he smiled back and asked, “Did you say yes?”