But Max kept talking, proving that while my mind was on future disaster, Max’s mind was on other things entirely. “Best season to rent the house is winter. The A-Frame is in demand, I jack up the rent and, still, it’s booked solid, back-to-back. Construction dies down in winter too, jobs less easy to find. You and me can go to your brother’s house after Thanksgivin’, come back February, March. That enough for you?”
He was planning our future.
And it sounded like a good plan, a thoughtful plan, a generous plan. Max giving me what I needed, time in Charlie’s house, time to spend in England, my other home. It was, if we could swing it financially, the perfect compromise.
Even so, I informed him quietly, “Max, we’ve known each other a week.”
His hand squeezed mine and he asked, “And?”
I looked at him and repeated incredulously, “And?”
“Yeah,” he replied, not taking his eyes from the road, “and?”
“We barely know each other,” I explained unnecessarily.
“Met your Dad, heard your history with all those dicks and your Mom likes me,” he said and this was, of course, all true. “Also seen you pissed, sick, sweet, you love my house and it’s fair to say we got chemistry.”
“Yes, but –”
“No ‘but’, just ‘yes’.”
“Yes, but, that’s insane.”
He glanced at me and asked, sounding like he was getting annoyed, “Why the f**k’s it insane?”
“Max, we’ve known each other a week,” I repeated.
“You like the town?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s pretty.”
“You like Mindy, Arlene, Cotton, Becca, Bitsy?”
“Of course.”
“They like you too.”
That, I had to admit, felt nice since I liked them all a whole lot.
However, for sanity’s sake, I kept fighting my corner and explained, “Max, you don’t make decisions like this on the fly.”
His hand tightened in mine and it was so tight it almost hurt.
“So… what? You’re sayin’ you sit, you wait, you let life slide by while you decide to make the decision you were gonna make in the first damned place and hope to God some shit doesn’t happen, like you get in a car accident, lose your legs or worse, your f**kin’ life.”
I felt my chest freeze at what I read in his words so I could do nothing but breathe, “Max –”
He maybe didn’t hear me for he kept speaking. “Say you just lose your legs then you got the rest of your life to think about all those months you wasted, not livin’ it.”
That I knew too well.
Still, I whispered, “Max –”
But he knew I knew it and his voice dipped softer, he was still irate but he was attempting to be gentle. “I figure, what you went through with your brother, Duchess, you get it.”
“I just got out of a relationship,” I explained, latching onto another defense, no matter how lame.
“You didn’t just get out of that relationship, Nina, you been out of it for awhile, you just recognized you were.”