To Die For - Davidson King Page 0,32
for my mother and myself, the kindness of strangers wasn’t common.
“So, what’s your name? Max never brings anyone over, so this is a special treat.”
“Ma—”
“You hush, I’m talking to your handsome friend here.” She beamed, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, Max, hush. She said I was handsome.” I winked at him, which brought a blush to his cheeks I found I liked. “My name is Lane Ashley.”
“He’s the one everyone calls Sparkles, Ma.” So Max talked about me to his mother?
“Oh!” She clapped her hands. “Yes. I should’ve known with that bright-pink hair!”
I patted my damp hair and chuckled. “Well, it’s not looking so great right now, but yes. I’ve had pink hair for a long time.”
She tilted her head and assessed me with her smiling eyes. “It suits you.”
Just then, there was a flash of lightning, and the power went out.
“Shit,” I heard Max say.
“Language!” I laughed when his mother admonished him.
“Sorry, Ma. You two stay here, I’ll go get the flashlights.” I looked out the window that was directly behind Max’s mother. The rain was coming down hard, and the lightning wasn’t letting up either.
“This house is old; the wind blows too strongly, and the power goes out,” she said.
“You know, I never got your name,” I said to her as I sipped my coffee in the dark.
“You call me Ma.”
I was going to tell her I couldn’t do that, when Max returned. “Okay, here we are. I even got some candles.” He handed us each a flashlight, placed the candles on the table, and after he lit them, he sat in his chair. “Now we can finish our cake.”
We sat there for a while, eating and talking about Max’s work, my dancing, and my dog.
“I think it’s safer you spend the evening, Lane,” Max’s mother said. “The roads are going to be flooded, and it won’t be good to drive.”
I hadn’t even thought about flooding. “My dog is with my friend; I can’t just leave him there.”
“Just call ’em,” Max said. “Ma’s right, it’s not safe to drive in this.”
I should’ve argued with them both, but for some reason I didn’t want to. I liked it in this house. This home was everything I’d wished I had as a child. Max and his ma watched me expectedly.
“Okay, I just have to call my friend Alexandra. She has Tank.”
His mom smiled. “You go right ahead.”
I got up and went into the living room with the flashlight. Alexandra was fine with Tank staying with her and had plenty of food and such. How could you not want to stay with that fluffball of cuteness? I was about to enter the dining room but stopped when I heard Max’s mother’s voice.
“But what happened to his cheek?”
“Nothing, Ma, let it go. He’s fine. Tough.”
She chuckled. “You have to be tough to deal with you.”
“Nice, Ma, I feel the love. But no, we’re just friends.”
“But you’d like more.” It wasn’t directed to Max as a question; she was stating a fact and I wanted too much to hear his response.
“I asked him out to dinner. He said yes. We can see how it goes.”
Eavesdropping was rude, and while I wanted to hear everything, I didn’t want to be disrespectful, so I reentered the dining room.
“We’re all set. Alexandra will take care of Tank for me. Thank you so much for your hospitality,” I said to Max and his mom.
“Oh, hush. It’s our pleasure. I’m exhausted, and I’m sure you both are as well.”
I nodded. “Yes, for sure. Do you have a guest room or couch or something?”
Max’s mother laughed again. “We have none of that. All the bedrooms are occupied, and the couch in the living room is lumpier than my mother-in-law’s mashed potatoes were. You and Max can share his room.”
Oh, my God. Sleep in Max’s room…in his bed. With that ass of his?
Chapter Nineteen
Max
“I can take the couch or floor or something,” I said as soon as we were upstairs in my room.
Sparkles’s brows rose. “By something I hope you mean your bed. I am not taking your bed from you.”
“Do you know what my ma and sisters would do to me if they came up here and saw you on the couch or floor?” I was lucky my sisters weren’t here already, but I also knew they would be before morning.
“And they have a habit of walking into your room?” Sparkles chuckled as if he thought I was being paranoid. The poor unfortunate man.
“Yes, they have zero respect