Chapter 7 #2
“You might’ve shocked me a little, but in a good way.”
“You were saying how much has changed here, but one thing hasn’t. You were it for me ten years ago, and you still are.”
After he said that, Lexi could barely breathe, let alone eat. She picked at her pizza and salad and chased every bite with a sip of water to get the food past the huge lump in her throat. You were it for me ten years ago, and you still are.
He’d said the only thing she’d wanted to hear during the awful ordeal of her illness, so why did she feel more upset than elated?
“What’s wrong?” Max asked, tuning in to her distress.
“Nothing.”
“You never could lie to me, Lex.”
He knew her so well. He always had. He saw her the way no one else ever had. Not that she’d dated all that much other than him, but that feeling of being known was so much a part of who they’d been together, and it still was.
“Could we take the food to go?”
“Sure.” He got up to get boxes and a bag and had them on their way in a matter of minutes, leaving with a wave for Ella’s family.
Max helped her into the car and handed her the bag of food.
On the ride back to his place, neither of them said anything, which only added to her anxiety.
She was jolted out of her thoughts when Max slammed on the brakes, and the truck spun in a full circle. The bag of food flew off her lap and hit the dash before falling to the floor.
“Holy shit,” Max said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Uh-huh, but freaking Fred strikes again.”
The town moose stood defiantly in the middle of the road, staring them down like they were bothering him rather than the other way around.
“I can’t believe he hasn’t been killed by a car hitting him,” Lexi said.
“He’s unkillable. He’s demolished a few cars, though, including my sister-in-law Cameron’s MINI Cooper.”
“Well, that’s not exactly a Vermont car.”
“That’s what Will said, too. He made her get an SUV that she hates.”
Max lay on the horn, which only earned him a perturbed glance from the giant moose, so he put the truck in Park.
“I guess we’re gonna be here for a minute.
” He also turned on the hazard lights so they wouldn’t be hit from behind.
Looking over at her, he said, “You want to tell me what happened back at the restaurant?”
“I don’t really know. I had this weird reaction to you saying what you did, and I don’t even know why. I spent years hoping I might one day hear those exact words from you.”
“What do you suppose caused that?”
“Anxiety has been a big problem, for me and my family. We’re all medicated for it.”
“I’m not surprised. You went through such a stressful thing.”
“It’s made it so even things that should be wonderful are viewed through a lens of doom. Like, how could something so amazing be real? Where will it go wrong? Because it always goes wrong.”
“Maybe it won’t this time.”
“I want so badly to believe that, but it always does. Every time I think things have turned around, I get kicked in the teeth again. And it occurred to me that if we pick up where we left off, I’d be taking you down with me this time.”
“Maybe you’d be taking me up rather than down. Has that occurred to you?”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“We need to reprogram you to expect the best rather than the worst.”
“Good luck with that. My therapist has been trying for years to get me to see my glass as half full. I’m a work in progress.”
“We all are. You know that, right?”
“Some of us more than others.”
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and caressed her face with his fingertip. “I want to make a believer out of you. I want to show you that the worst is behind you, and the rest… The rest is going to be why you survived.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I just have a feeling. This was how our story was meant to play out. We were meant to go our separate ways for all this time and to find our way back to each other when we were ready to.”
“Did you read Twilight by any chance?”
“Haha, no, but my sisters made me watch the movies.”
“No wonder you’re talking about fated mates and such things.”
Max hit the horn again, but Fred wasn’t inclined to move.
“All I know is that after a couple of years, I told people to stop asking me about you because I didn’t have the answers.
I didn’t know where you were or why I’d stopped hearing from you.
It was too painful to think about why you left and never came back. ”
“I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “I know why now, and it all makes sense. When you think about it, nothing has really changed between us. Neither of us wanted to be apart for ten years, so it’s like no time has passed.”
While Lexi processed that, Max put the window down. “What do you think, Fred?”
“Are you really asking a moose for his opinion?”
“His free advice is almost as good as my grandfather’s.”
Lexi began to laugh and couldn’t stop. This was the most ridiculous ten minutes of her life.
Fred let out a noise that was between a moo and a groan.
“Do you hear what he’s saying?”
“I don’t speak moose.”
“You’re in luck. Hannah has taught me a few things.
” Max listened intently as Fred continued to speak.
“He’s saying that you fought really hard to overcome a very serious illness, and now that you’ve regained your health, you ought to enjoy every second of your life, starting right now by coming home with me and spending the night.
He says he remembers how much we used to wish we could sleep together all night, and now we can. ”
“Are you in cahoots with a moose? Did you plan this?”
“Not at all, but Fred knows a good thing when he sees it, and so do I.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips, running them over her knuckles.
She drew in a sharp deep breath.
“What do you say? Do you want to come home with me?”
“I, um, well…”
“It’s just tonight, Lex. We’ll let tomorrow take care of itself.”
With him, it had never been that simple, but he and Fred were right. She’d fought long and hard to regain her health, and she was determined to live every minute to the fullest in this second chance she’d been given. “Okay,” she said softly.
“She said yes, Fred,” Max said out the window.
Fred mooed loudly and ambled off into the brush by the side of the road.
“Is he for real?” Lexi asked, incredulous.
Max shifted the truck into Drive and continued toward his house. “As real as it gets. Fred has been interfering in our lives for as long as I can remember.”
“I’ve tried to tell people about Butler, but I could never do justice to what goes on here. How do you explain about a moose that everyone calls by name who’s as much a part of the town as any of the people are?”
“You can’t. You have to experience Butler to believe it.”
“I’ve missed it here so much. I’ve missed everything about it, especially you.”
“I missed you, too. I can admit that now that I know where you’ve been.” He paused before he added, “People wondered about you, and I’d have to say I wasn’t sure where you were.”
“It never occurred to me that you’d be forced to answer questions about me.”
“It was rough for a while. I won’t lie to you about that.
I was angry and confused and sad not to have you in my life.
With hindsight that has come with being back with you again, I can see that things didn’t work out with Chloe or anyone else I dated because there was so much unfinished business with you. ”
“That’s a good way to describe it. For me, it was like this giant question mark. ‘If I see Max again, will it be like it was back then, or will it be strange and awkward?’”
“We’ve answered that question rather definitively. It’s the same as it always was.”
No, it isn’t, Lexi thought. It’s even better. She wished she could get fully on board with picking up where they left off, but now that the moment was upon them, she was worried about whether it was fair to saddle him—and his precious son—with the anxiety she and her family lived with every day.
Max helped her out of the truck, something he’d done when they were dating that she’d never forgotten, and led the way inside.
Daisy let out a happy squeak, her tail wagging so hard, it banged against the wire frame of her crate.
Max let her out and scooped her up. “No! Not on me! Outside! Damn it, she peed on me.”
Lexi lost it laughing. She’d laughed more today than she had in years, and it felt good.
“It’s not funny!” He held the puppy away from him, revealing the massive wet stain on his torso.
Lexi bent in half laughing.
“I’ll remember this,” he said with a playful scowl. “I’m taking her outside before she poops on me, too.”
She was still mopping up laughter tears when he returned, shivering.
“Did you know pee freezes?” He held the shirt off his skin.
“I wasn’t aware, but you learn something new every day.”
Daisy sat at Max’s feet, looking up at him with a big dopey smile on her cute face.
“She’s very sorry,” Lexi said.
“I don’t think she is.”
“I’ll feed her while you deal with that,” she said, waving her hand in the direction of his soaked shirt.
“Quit laughing at me. It’s not funny.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t,” he said from right behind her. “I have a good mind to hug you right now since you think it’s so funny.”
Lexi screamed and darted clear of him.
Daisy thought that meant playtime, and she jumped into the fracas as Max chased Lexi into the living room.
“If you hug me, I’m outta here.”
Max stopped short. “If you’re gonna be that way about it.”
“I am. No pee hugs allowed. Tell him, Daisy. You pee only on him.”
Daisy barked in agreement.
“I can already see whose side she’s on.”
“We girls have to stick together in this bachelor pad.”
“I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home in the bachelor pad.”
“Thank you.” Lexi fed Daisy and then put their takeout food on plates she found in the cabinet over the dishwasher. She located silverware in another drawer, and by the time Max emerged from the hallway in a fresh set of clothes, dinner was on the table.
“Now,” he said after he opened a beer and joined her at the table, “where were we before we were so rudely interrupted by a moose and puppy?”