a hand on my hip. “You know I’m talking about Greta.”
“I walked her to her car and then I came back,” he said as he stopped at a table and began collecting empty mugs.
“You were gone much longer than it would have taken to walk behind Watson’s and come back.”
He shot me an exasperated look. “Don’t you think you’ve inserted yourself into this situation enough?”
I lifted a brow. “So you didn’t want to walk her to her car?”
A lazy grin spread across his face. “Now, I never said that.”
“Are you gonna see her again?”
“Only time will tell,” he said, then turned serious. “She told me you’ve been askin’ a lot of questions about Lula.”
“And I already told you that I don’t think she left voluntarily this time. I’m trying to figure out what happened to her.”
“You’re wastin’ your time, Carly.” He didn’t look happy to be admitting it.
“Maybe,” I said, “but it’s my time to waste.”
“Well, don’t be lettin’ Ruth know you’re lookin’, and definitely don’t be late again because of your sleuthin’. The last thing you want is to face her legendary wrath.” He pointed a finger at me. “And yeah, I know you were late because you were talkin’ to Greta over at the café.”
I decided to throw caution to the wind. “Actually, I was late because I dropped by the Alpine Inn.”
“Were you lookin’ for Jerry?”
Crap. That reminded me that I hadn’t given Jerry his new coat. “No,” I said, slowly. “I saw your father’s associate leave one of the rooms.”
“My father’s associate?” He looked genuinely confused.
“The one he met here the other day. Neil Carpenter.”
He set the glass in his hand on the table and turned to face me, his face devoid of expression. “Why are you snoopin’ on my father’s business associate?”
Ah, crap. Good question. “It just looked odd, is all. He’s an upstanding businessman in a fancy suit. The last place I expected to see him was emerging from a room in the Alpine Inn.”
His eyes flashed with fury. “How does that concern you, Carly?”
His reaction caught me off guard. Although I’d seen Max angry, it had always been a righteous sort of anger—against men who disrespected Ruth and me and other women at the bar. He’d certainly never been this pissed at me.
“It just seemed odd,” I said defensively.
“It’s none of your damned business! Just like me and Greta are none of your business! And where Lula went is none of your business! You live here for a few weeks and suddenly you think you need to be stickin’ your nose in things that have nothin’ to do with you?” He shook his head and pointed a finger at me again. “Leave it all the fuck alone!”
I took a step back in total shock. Max couldn’t have hurt me worse if he’d slapped me.
His face hardened. “Go home.”
I gestured to the dirty tables around us. “But we’re not done cleaning up.”
“Go. Home.”
He didn’t have to tell me a third time. I spun around and practically sprinted to the back and got the hell out of there.
I wondered if I’d have a job tomorrow.
Chapter Fourteen
I tried to sleep, but I was too upset about Max, so I lay awake for over an hour, wondering if he was right. Was I overstepping? I admitted that I was by investigating what Neil Carpenter had been doing at the motel. And perhaps I’d overreached when I’d asked Max if he wanted to walk Greta to her car, but he could have said no.
But Lula…that was the one that puzzled me. Why would he care if I looked for her? Wouldn’t he want me to find her?
I finally fell into a fitful sleep, but I woke with a headache when the alarm went off at seven.
Hank was already up, which was no surprise since he was an early riser. His stitches had all been removed, so I no longer had to change his bandages and clean his wound, but his compression bandage still needed to be changed. Hank had trouble doing it himself. He’d tried to insist that I no longer needed to massage around the incision area, something I did to break down the scar tissue, but I’d refused to let it go. If he ever changed his mind about getting a prosthesis, a thick layer of scar tissue would make it painful to wear. I hated to think his pride and stubbornness might cause him trouble later.
He was bundled up in his jacket and sitting on