The vacant look in his eye began to float away, hope filtering its way in. “If it’s gonna bother you, I get it and I won’t bring it up again. But I’d like to do this for her.”
I understood why it meant so much to Max, why he was always going out of his way to help Sam. The thing that had annoyed me was really his way of trying to make up what he deemed to be his failure towards her.
Even after hearing all of that, I still didn’t trust Samantha. But, I trustedhim.And he needed this. “If you want to hire her, go for it, babe.”
A small smile spread across his lips. “I appreciate this.” He squeezed me again before letting me go.
“Yeah, well, just make sure she keeps that red lipstick off of you and everything will be fine,” I joked, trying to get some levity back in the conversation.
Max laughed. “No worries there. Now get ready for some exercise.”
Kari
The turn-off for Pinnacle Peak flew by an hour later and I gave Max a look. “Um, you missed your exit.”
“Nah,” was all he said, humming along to Tim McGraw on theradio. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel and seemed lost in his own thoughts, effectively ignoring me for the most part.
“Yeah,” I countered, switching off the radio. “The exit was back there.”
“The exit I’m looking for is about 3 miles ahead, give or take.” He bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling, but his dimple still shone in his cheek.
“You’re seriously going to hold me to this?”
“A deal’s a deal, sweetheart,” he grinned. “I got you locked in and there’s no way you’re getting out of it.”
“You said we were going hiking!”
“I never said that,” he laughed. “IsaidI needed exercise and loading your shit in the back of my truck is going to cause me to break a sweat.”
“You’re a tricky bastard,” I pretended to pout. I couldn’t let him see the bubble of excitement rising in my core. Living with him would make things so much easier and it was what I really wanted. My opposition to it had been to protect him and my heart. He clearly was pushing for this.
We drove the rest of the way in a comfortable silence. Max’s happiness at his victory over me creating an undercurrent of warmth in the truck. The sun, which hadn’t been out in a couple of days, was shining brightly.
Max pulled the truck into my driveway and we went to the door, unlocked it, and walked inside. He disabled the alarm while I looked around, the enormity of the situation slamming into me.
What am I going to do with all this stuff? We can’t fit it all in his truck. What am I going to do with this house? What about the mortgage? Do I call Dad and list it?
Oh, hell, I can’t do that! I need to...
“Stop,” he whispered in my ear.
“Stop what?”
“Don’t overthink this. I know you’re rolling a thousand thingsthrough your pretty little mind right now. We’ll figure it out. Just take it a day at a time, okay?”
I relaxed, relieved. “Okay. So we are clear that this isn’t permanent?”
He laughed loudly, turning to walk up the stairs. “Don’t kid yourself, sweetheart. This is as permanent as it gets.” He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared into my bedroom. I followed, each step adding to the dread I felt.
“I’m overwhelmed,” I muttered, looking at all of the things I owned. “What do I take? How did I accumulate all this stuff?”
“Just take enough stuff to get ya through the week. We’ll get a U-Haul or something for the rest of the stuff.”
He was making this too easy. “What if I want to take my bed? What do we do with yours?” I asked, challenging him.
“I’m not attached to my bed. For all I care, you can sell everything I own and move your shit in, as long as it means you are moving in with it.”
I turned to face the wall so he wouldn’t see the huge grin on my face. I cleared my throat. “I have some big boxes left in the garage that Jada didn’t use. I’ll go get them. Can you gather my shoes out of the closet?” I asked.
