His Holiday Crush - Cari Z. Page 0,22

took that pretty well, honestly, but then—

“Since you’re here, are you gonna see the old man while you’re waiting on your car?” the mechanic asked, trying for casual but failing miserably. Of course he knew who Max was—the family name was distinctive, and being a busybody was pretty much everyone’s side hustle in this town.

Max had stiffened, his smile fixed in place like a wax figure. “No,” was all he said.

After we left, we jumped back in the Jeep, and I let it idle while the heater worked its magic. Max was still tense if the tick in his jaw was any indication, so instead of heading straight back to Hal’s, I asked, “I know you mentioned work this morning, but do you want to take a walk?”

He’d mentioned wanting to go to Adirondack Park, and now seemed as good a time as any for it. Besides, Hal had things under control at home, and I was kind of looking forward to having a little more one-on-one time with Max.

“Sure,” he said after a moment. I didn’t give him a chance to second-guess, just fired up the Jeep and drove for the trailhead.

Technically, Edgewood was already part of Adirondack Park. The park itself was a combination of state and private land, and there were lots of little villages and towns like ours inside of it. There was a pretty big balancing act between allowing private owners the freedom to do what they wanted with their land and preserving the landscape for wildlife and recreation, but most people agreed that what the tourists wanted, the tourists got, and that meant the conservationists had won out over the clear-cutters for now.

It also meant that getting into an uninhabited but well-walked part of the Park was pretty easy. The trailhead was just a ten-minute drive from the mechanic’s. We started hiking from there, up a steady incline that traced a path around the well-wooded hill ahead of us until it reached the very top, where the trees had been cleared to give hikers a better view.

“I like this trail,” he shared as we stepped side-by-side along the slightly icy path. “Hal and I used to ride our bikes here all the time when we were little. We liked to pretend we were explorers looking for wild animals. We never saw any bears or bobcats, though.” He half smiled. “Which is probably for the best.”

“I used to follow you sometimes.” I said it before my brain could take it back. Way to set yourself up looking pathetic, Dominic. The way Max was looking at me didn’t make me feel pathetic, though. There wasn’t a hint of pity in his face—only curiosity.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt. You were Hal’s friend, you know? Not mine. He was pretty good about sharing things, but I don’t think he’d have shared you back then.”

To his credit, Max didn’t immediately leap to defend my brother, who I knew full well had gone through a little-shit phase in middle school. “Maybe not,” he said at last. “I like getting the chance to get to know you now, though.” He sighed. “I feel like an idiot for not recognizing you when you picked me up, but I’m kind of glad I didn’t, too. It gave me a chance to meet you before the past started butting in.”

God, if that wasn’t an opening line, I didn’t know how to recognize one. I still didn’t leap, though. I was too nervous. Last night had been good, this morning had been better, but…what was this all about? What did Max want? To be better friends with his bestie’s brother, or something more?

“I kind of wish we could have met again somewhere else, though,” Max said before I could ask any of the questions buzzing around in my brain. “I know I’m ‘interesting’ to people, given everything that happened with my dad and the fact that I haven’t been here for so long, but honestly? I can handle an eighty-hour work week way better than I can handle questions about the past. Having to think about everything that happened before my mom and I left feels…overwhelming.”

Wow. I’d just gotten more honesty than I’d been hoping for. It took a moment for me to process it all, and Max’s smile started to slip away. “I know it’s kind of pathetic, but—”

“It’s not pathetic. Overwhelming sucks,” I said before I lost my nerve. “I had a hell of a time at