“That’s the general idea.” Connor nodded, his tongue darting outto catch a few stray crumbs on his lips. “You’re like a puppy. I wanna give youtreats and rub your belly.”
“Kinky.” Max grinned to himself.
Connor chuckled. “You know what I mean.”
“I think I get the idea,” Max said. “And I appreciate this. All ofthis. Everything you’ve done for me, everything you’ve shown me.”
“It’s been a genuine pleasure.” Connor turned to look at him. “Idon’t get to share my weird little world very often. No one cares what I do, aslong as I do it. It’s been nice to have someone take an interest.”
Max nodded, turning that thought over in his mind. He hadn’treally been aware of doing it, but hehaddefinitely been interested inConnor’s world.
In Connor himself.
Even if he knew that Connor wanted more than a small town in themiddle of nowhere, and a boy who’d never left it and didn’t want to. Connor wasused to big things, and Max’s world was very small.
Which was a shame, but he’d never forget everything Connor haddone for him, and been for him.
His friend, and his first time.
That wouldalwaysmean something to Max, whatever happenedafter this.
“So… stop me if I’m prying, but… you were really upset over thatwoman on the TV, and I’m kinda wondering… what happened? How did you end uphere?”
Connor snorted, biting into his sandwich again. Max stayed silentwhile he chewed and swallowed, figuring that if Connor was going to open up tohim, he would, and if he wasn’t, there was no point in pushing.
“I quit as her wedding planner on her wedding day,” Connor saideventually. “Which was childish, because I did it over an insult instead ofdoing it over how impossible she was to work with. But then… well, I’d walkedout on the biggest break of my career, and all the gossip magazines ran thestory at the time, and it… put a dent in my career. Clients I’d had on longwaitlists cancelled on me. I went from having a booming, successful business tohaving… nothing, pretty much overnight.”
“Jesus,” Max said. “I had no idea.”
Connor waved his hand. “It’s in the past,” he said. “Mostly, I wasmad that I was the only person who was willing to say no to her. But anyway,I’d heard about this place a while back from a friend who came here one summer,and I thought, y’know, maybe I’d look it up. And the rent was cheap, and itseemed nice, so I moved out here to lick my wounds and sulk for a while. Plus,I needed time to figure out what to do next.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Max said once he’d finished thelast of his sandwich.
“I was, but now I’m not,” Connor responded, running a hand throughhis hair. “I like to think I ended up exactly where I needed to be. If all thathadn’t happened, I would never have met you.”
Max swallowed. Connor thought meeting him was worth all of that?
That was… intense.
Not at all what he’d expected to hear.
Connor probably meant that he thought he was supposed to help Zoe.That made more sense than the idea that he thought meeting Max was a fair tradefor all the crap he’d been through.
Yeah, that was obviously it.
Max had been stupid to think otherwise, even for a second. Even ifit had been wishful thinking.
“It’s still rough,” Max said. “You’re tougher than you look.”
“I’d need to be.” Connor smiled wryly. “I don’t look tough atall.”
Max laughed at that, his sadness at hearing what a hard timeConnor had been through lifting a little. He hated that Connor had been hurt,but selfishly, he was glad Connor had ended up here, too.
He wasn’t sure where he would have been now without him.
“So… I’ve told you my life story,” Connor said after a moment. “Ithink that makes it your turn. If you want.”
Max took a deep breath, grabbing one of the plain crackers fromthe board Connor had set out to nibble on between sandwiches. “I… are you sureyou wanna hear this? Because it’s kinda… intense.”
