10. Max
CHAPTER TEN
Max
“Max!”
Lila’s voice rises above the festival music.
I stop at the edge of the boardwalk.
She runs toward me through the crowd, clutching her skirt in one hand and steadying her rhinestone crown with the other, the Frosting Queen sash glimmering across her chest.
She’s beautiful.
The sight of her hurts.
“You won? When I left, Candi—”
“Judith found surveillance footage from last night.” Lila slows as she reaches me, breathing hard. “The historical society recorded Candi's magickal attack on the Ferris wheel.”
My fox growls.
Lila’s smile fades. “I looked for you.”
The hot pink notebook is tucked beneath her arm, the mere sight of it twisting my stomach.
“I’m sorry I left.” I drag a hand through my hair. “I just… I couldn’t…”
“About what Candi showed you—”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“Yes, I do. You deserve my honesty.”
I don’t want it. Not if it means learning that every moment I’ve replayed since meeting her meant something different to Lila.
Besides, her plan actually did me some good.
Before heading to the festival, I signed a new lease with Jolene.
As much as I want to be here with Lila, I want to be here for myself even more.
She’s our mate. Meant to be. We’ll find her again.
I shake my head. “It’s fine. We can call last night what it was.” I force the words past the knot in my throat. “A mistake.”
“Magick.”
We say in unison.
Silence falls between us.
“You mean that?” we ask together.
A startled laugh escapes her, and I can’t help but smile at the wondrous sound.
Lila steps closer. “Last night wasn’t a mistake.”
“I’m pretty sure it was just a box to tick off from the operation manual you created to manipulate me.”
Her smile fades. “I wrote it before I knew you. Yes, I brought you that cake because I wanted your vote. And while every premeditated run-in was contest related, that’s not why I kept doing it.
” She looks down at the notebook. “Somewhere along the way, I stopped looking for you because you were a judge and started looking for you because seeing you is the best part of my day.”
We can trust her.
Can we?
“And last night? The cupcakes?” I ask.
“A shameless attempt to lure you into my house.”
My chest tightens.
“But not because I wanted a crown.”
“Why, then?”
Lila’s mouth curves. “Have you seen yourself?”
A laugh breaks through the last of my defenses.
She takes another step. Barely a foot separates us now.
“Max, I have never been so grateful for faceplanting into a cake, bathing in hydration-station water, or nearly falling out of a Ferris wheel.”
My fox bristles at the final memory.
“That one isn’t funny.”
“No,” she says softly. “But you were there. Every ridiculous disaster brought me closer to you.”
Her fingers slide into mine, and I look down at our joined hands.
“What will you do with the money?” I ask.
“I’m not sure . Maybe open a bakery. Maybe create a shared kitchen for local bakers who can’t afford their own equipment.” She lifts one shoulder. “Whatever I build, I want to build it here.”
With us. My fox hums. And the cat.
“I thought the prize money would give me a way out of Crescent Cove. Then they put the crown on my head, and I realized winning hadn’t transformed me.
I was still the same human woman I’d always been.
” Her smile trembles. “I don’t need to escape this town to become someone new.
I need to stop believing everyone else gets to decide who I am. ”
A tear rolls down her cheek, and I catch it against her warm skin before it can fall.
There was never any hope for me. I belonged to her from the moment she barreled up my walkway carrying a lopsided cake. My fox knew it then. It simply took the rest of me a little longer to figure it out.
“Max, I know this might not be enough to convince you, but please…” Her fingers curl around mine. “Stay in Crescent Cove.”
My pulse stumbles, and behind my ribs, my fox does zoomies.
“With me.”
The first firework launches from the beach. It streaks into the night with a shrill whistle before bursting over the ocean in a sphere of golden light.
My fox answers at the same moment I do.
Forever.
“Forever.”
I pull her to me as another firework explodes overhead, painting her skin pink and violet.
“Lila Hart, you and Mr. Biscuits are my home.”
Her laugh catches on a sob, and tears spill over her lashes.
Fireworks erupt across the sky as I lower my mouth to hers. She tastes like summer and frosting and a future I was almost too afraid to make mine.
Deep within my chest, my fox purrs, and I let the soothing rumble pour into her.
My mate.
My home.