Connor lined up behind the professionally-dressed woman in frontof him, checking his emails quickly while he waited for Max to finish up withher and then fumbling to shove his phone back in his pocket when she saidgoodbye.
He looked up, grinning at Max automatically. His expression fellwhen he saw the serious look on Max’s face.
“Is everything okay?” Connor asked automatically. Max alwayslooked a little tired, but no more tired than Connorfelt, so he didn’tthink much of it.
Not until now, anyway.
“I’ll do it,” Max said.
Connor blinked at him. “Dowhat?”
His stomach swooped at all the possible answers, fromgo on adate with youto… all kinds of other exciting things. It was a weird way ofphrasing it, but he liked a man who was direct.
“Marry you,” Max said.
Connor stared.
Direct, he liked.
This was… a little more intense than direct. He would have likedto go on a date first.
I mean, a wedding would come with a weddingnight, so hewasn’t exactly sure he should say no...
“For the competition,” Max clarified.
Connor crashed back to reality hard enough to make him sway on thespot, just for a moment.
“Oh,” he said. “Oh. Right, that… makes more sense than thealternative.”
Max looked at him, clearly waiting for more of a response thanthat.
“Why?” Connor asked. They’d both joked about wanting theprize money--though Connor still really didn’t care about that--but that didn’tseem like enough incentive. Not for something as dramatic as getting married,anyway.
Max nodded to the side, as if that explained anything. Connorfollowed the nod, looking across to…
Oh.
He’d been dropping his change in the tip jar every day, but he’dnever actually noticed the picture above it, or theFor Zoelabel.
Or the picture of a girl who looked hauntingly like Max. The samebutton nose, same clear blue eyes…
His sister? Definitely too old to be his daughter.
“My sister is sick,” Max said. “She has juvenile arthritis. Sheneeds a hip replacement, which I know sounds ridiculous for a teenager, butit’s a real thing and it’s… bad. I sat up most of the night with her last nightbecause she couldn’t sleep through the pain, and it’s not the first time, andit won’t be the last. Unless I come up with the money for the surgery. And Imean… I’ve scraped together maybe fifteen thousand dollars in three and a halfyears. At this rate, it’s gonna take me another seven years. In seven yearsshe’ll be twenty, and she’ll have spent her entire teenage life stuck in thehouse except for doctor’s appointments.”
Connor swallowed, his heart hurting for Max. He could see howupset he was by that thought.
Every kid deserved to be akid. Zoe obviously wasn’tgetting that chance.
“I’d do anything to speed that up,” Max said. “And this optiondoesn’t involve robbing a bank, so… will you marry me, or not?”
Connor glanced at Max, then at the picture of Zoe, then back atMax again. The sincerity in his eyes hit Connor like a blow to the chest.
How could he say no? Wasn’t it at least worth ashot?
Besides, he could go back to his life if he won. He could get hiscareer back on its feet, pick up where he left off and call this nothing morethan a long vacation.
He wanted more than anything to pick himself up and dust himselfoff as though nothing had ever happened.
