The bland food turned to dirt in my mouth. So, Max had looked me up? And apparently found my background more than a little suspicious.
I choked down the bite."Actually, I was planning on finally retiring this year and moving to New York to pursue a graduate degree in Dance Pedagogy."
Max nodded sagely at the same time he told me, "No idea what that is."
"It's basically learning to teach kids dance. Manhattan University has a special two-year program that combines the regular dance curriculum with mindfulness practice. I'd been wanting to apply since before my grandma died...."
"What stopped you?"
I shrugged."At first, Iwas scared to pursue my dreams someplace where dancers didn’t learn all their choreography in high heels. But then my grandma died, and I thought, ‘Wow, life really is short,’ so I applied, and I got in, but then...”
I stopped there, trying to come up with something less dramatic than my life blew up.
"Cole got to you with this plan of his,"Max guessed before I could. “Yeah, he has a way of ignoring what you want if it doesn't improve his bottom line."
"In all fairness, he doesn't even know that I was thinking of moving to New York."I felt defensive of my fake fiancée for some reason."And, it kind ofsounds to me like you’re running all over the world, acting like an ass, blaming him for anything that goes wrong in your pampered life, while he holds down the fort here, making sure your yearlybrand ambassadorsalary gets paid.”
The laughter disappeared from Max’s eyes, and he went still—so still I could finally see some of his brother in him.
“You sound like Cole,”he finally said.
I shrugged.“Okay, if making your brother the enemy helps you feel better about wasting your life, go with that. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“So you think I should be like Cole?" Max took a swig of the beer he'd ordered with lunch. "Work all the time, never have any fun?”
“I think you and Cole are on two opposite ends of the scale." Another shrug. "He uses work to run away from his demons, and you use fun.”
Max glared at me.“What do you know about our demons?”
“Not everything,”I admitted.“But they’ve got to be some kind of powerful to have you two both running scared like this.”
Max jutted his chin forward.“You’ve said that? You’ve actually said that to my brother, and he’s still with you?”
I laughed.“No, not exactly. But I hope our relationship is helping him with his stuff. You know, like he’s helping me with mine.”
“You havestuff? I find that hard to believe.”
“Why? Everyone has something going on. Some of us are just better at hiding it. But you know, I was raised by my grandma, too, just like Cole.”
Somewhere beyond the street-facing patio fence, a car's tires screeched to a stop.
“Yes, poor Cole, who lost his mommy when he was a kid while I got to keep mine.”Max cut his eyes away from me, staring off into space with a bitter expression.“What he doesn’t get is that sometimes it’s better if they die.”
Recognizing a familiar bitterness in Max’s words, I reached across the table and took his hand.“I get that,”I said softly.“I was raised by my grandmother because my mom?—"
I cut off when Max's gaze suddenly shifted to something going on over my shoulder. He scrunched his forehead.“Wait a minute, is that Cole?”
I turned to look over my shoulder, too.
Just in time to see Cole leaping like a Duke of Hazzard over the patio’s low wrought-iron fence.
Everything happened fast after that. Cole got to our table in an instant, and the next thing I knew, he was yanking Max out of his chair by the front of his T-shirt.
“No, Cole, don’t!”I screamed.
But it was too late. Before I could stop him, Cole hauled back and punched his brother.
CHAPTER28
