a chance to really make a living doing it, a good living that for some involves fame and fortune, bam, it's a man."
She spotted a simple risotto, "Impressive. Where's the main course, card carrying man?"
"On the grill," he quickly moved to the back door. "Damn!"
She followed him out, the screen door banging behind her. The cold air chilled her immediately, and the temperature seemed to be dropping, but late October always teetered a few degrees from snow. She crossed her arms to retain some heat and watched Max pull the kettle lid off a charcoal grill where two massive salmon steaks sizzled and smoked. She caught the fragrance of ginger, maybe lime.
Max flipped the first one, a little scorched, but scorched was a serious improvement over the last grill experience she’d had with him. He turned the other one over, perfect, and leaned against the porch rail. "You're thinking about the last time I cooked for you."
"Oh, is that what you did?"
He laughed. "I was very smooth back then, very skilled."
"You almost burned down a house."
"The house was in no danger, just the porch and some of the siding. You’re the one who loved wine coolers." He tipped his head, an attempt to shift blame that she wasn’t going to fall for.
"Not on my chicken."
"Seemed like it would make a good marinade."
"Seemed like it would make a good fire starter."
"Gave me a chance to be a hero and rescue you from the blaze."
She could see him, tanned arms in some ripped up T-shirt, rushing the flaming grill. "You pushed it on the lawn to keep the railing from going up in flames. I was never in danger."
He seemed to laugh at himself. "I didn't think that chicken would ever go out."
It had, it had been on fire a long time. "Remember when the neighbor's dog rushed in and burned his tongue trying to eat it?"
"I'm lucky he didn't die of smoke inhalation. They did not go down easily."
She sighed. Weren’t young mistakes so great? Most of them. Most of them were only stumbles on the way to figuring things out. "Well, you learned to cook. Mostly you did. The salmon should have been taken off about five minutes ago."
"Oh," Max grabbed the tongs, and pulled the fish off, plated it, and motioned with a couple of tong snaps toward the door.
She sat back from the best dessert money could buy. Real fat ice cream. She’d forgotten, after years of frozen yogurt, how good it could be. "That was a wonderful dinner, thank you, Max. I'm not sleeping with you."
"You're welcome. I didn't ask."
She felt her eyebrows come together. What was his game? "You--"
"More coffee?"
He refilled her cup before she could answer, and she decided to ignore his ridiculous denial. "I just think that things are complicated."
"They are. Cream?"
"No. Thank you. You don't even know how complicated my life is right now. My daughter is here. In my room. I couldn't even stay here tonight."
"That's great."
"It's great that I can't stay over?"
"Again. I didn't ask you. And why wouldn't it be great that your daughter is visiting?"
"Well, it is. But... would you quit saying that you didn't ask?"
"But I didn't."
He’d had his teeth on her jammie tie the weekend before, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t invited her over, and there’d been a look or two. "Your eyes did."
"This sounds like the sort of thinking a date rapist employs. Am I in danger?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Is she here to stay for a while?"
"Who?" She tried to follow his side of the conversation, but it didn’t make any sense. "Missy? I don't know. She just broke up with her boyfriend, and she's not sure what she's doing." She held up her hand to stop him from commenting. "I know what you're thinking."
"You do?"
"You're thinking that she's just like me, that she picked a tool because I did, and when he dumped her, she came running because she doesn't know what to do now because I've always taken care of her, over taken care of her. Okay, it's true. You'd think a mother couldn't do too much for a child. But she could, she really could. You think maybe I screwed her up. Badly. But you don’t know her. She's smart and wonderful. She has a beautiful voice. And she's now kind of, well, a little bit pissy. I'm not sure when that happened, but she's a really great person. She always has been, and now she's just not who she could