Maximum Commitment (Sin City #13) - Tricia Owens Page 0,36

eye. “You’re so good to Ethan. I never thought I’d see him this happy. I’d always hoped, but—life is rarely fair. This time it is.”

“Oh, jeez,” Ethan murmured, but Max could tell he was moved.

“If your son wasn’t the man he is—the man you raised him to be—I wouldn’t be here right now with you,” Max reminded her. “Never forget that.”

She nodded quickly, dabbing at her eyes some more. “Sorry. Sorry. Old people tend to get sentimental. I’m happy. I really am. I couldn’t be happier.”

“The wedding is all she talks about,” Mr. Winter agreed with a gentle pat of his wife’s shoulder. “It’s going to be a real highlight for us, for sure.”

“Dale’s so patient with me,” she said with a laugh. Composed again, she took a deep breath. “Alright. Enough of the waterworks. Maxmillian, have you spoken with your mother recently? I had a question for her about the flowers but I haven’t heard from her in a few days. She’s normally very punctual. I think I see some of that in you, in fact.”

Max smiled, though he didn’t agree with the attribution. As unfair as it was, he found it easier to trace his negative personality traits to his parents rather than his positive ones. “I haven’t spoken to her lately, but I do expect her to make contact soon. She last mentioned looking at tablecloths.”

“Hmm, yes. She seems to want to purchase brand new ones. They’ll be a bit expensive and I’m not sure...” Jeannie gave a self-deprecating little laugh. “I’m sure she’ll choose lovely ones. They’ll be much better than what the rental service will provide.”

“It seems to be an unnecessary expense,” Max offered. Eyes wide, she nodded hesitantly at him. He read her unspoken request and said, “If the cloths from the service seem adequate to you, we’ll go with those, Jeannie. I’ll inform my mother the next time I speak with her. It will be one less thing she has to concern herself with.”

“Okay, but if she really wants them, we should go with them.”

Her insistence on accommodating his mother reminded him of Ethan’s selfless nature. The apple had not fallen far from the tree, and Max was grateful for it.

“The rental cloths are more convenient, therefore preferable,” he told her. “We’ll go with them and focus on whatever else is more urgent.”

As dinner continued, Ethan’s mother explained the preparations she and Marcela had already made and where they needed input from Max and Ethan. From Max’s point of view, the majority of the primary steps had already been completed, with one exception.

“The venue, um.” Jeannie shared a look with her husband that left him just as uncomfortable as she appeared to be. “The deposit was already put down, but they’re asking for the balance. Marcela said she’d take care of it, but I haven’t heard from her, as I mentioned. I don’t want to push her—but, they’ve been calling.”

Marcela hadn’t come through because she was still angling for a change of venue. Max suppressed his annoyance, not wanting to taint their pleasant evening. But the truth sat sourly in his stomach and he could see that Ethan seemed slightly depressed by the reminder that Max’s parents were still a source of some difficulty.

Max tried to imagine his parents sitting in this booth with them. Would they be polite or would they let their elitism show? Never in a million years would his mother eat spinach-artichoke dip made by a chain restaurant. His father would likely pick at the salmon Max had ordered and question the quality of the fish and the inferior way in which it had been prepared.

But, allegedly, they were trying, so perhaps Max was being too harsh. Perhaps they would eat the food and participate in the small talk and Ethan’s parents would be left unaware that this was an environment in which the Pooles never found themselves.

Whether or not that scenario was possible, one truth remained: his family and Ethan’s were from two different worlds. He strongly doubted the Pooles and the Winters would ever truly be a family and he questioned whether he should stop trying to make it happen. His parents weren’t evil or wrong for possessing expensive tastes. Ethan’s parents weren’t backward or dumb because they found pleasure in simpler things. Holding two weddings might be the best in the end. At least both sets of parents would get what they wanted and feelings would be spared.

“I’ll take care of the balance,” Max told Jeannie.