Chapter 34
AVERY
Apparently, the man fixing sinks in rolled-up sleeves and okay with eating takeout on a chair that could double as a pincushion makes more money than I’ll see in five lifetimes.
Instead of wallowing, I walk over to the bike shop at the other end of town and wait in the line. I feel like I’ve been in a lot of lines lately, and while I appreciated the ones at my shop, I’m extra tired today and not sure if my social battery is functioning.
Or maybe my brain is just muddled and still bugged over the Max debacle. The man is a mystery. He was okay with an air mattress, yet he has a lot of zeroes in his net worth. He could probably just create his own house with no problem, as if he has a magic genie in a bottle and unlimited wishes.
I try to smile at the people around me and am grateful no one is attempting to talk to me right now.
Except there is.
“Hey, I thought you were going to text me when you got done,” Max says from behind me.
I turn around slowly. “Oh, I just needed to get out after my shift.”
He frowns. “Are you okay?”
I want to lie and say I’m totally fine, but I did that for so many years with Curt, and it never really did me any good. And if I bottle up my feelings now, it’ll be worse later.
“I’m a little frustrated, Max, to be honest.”
He takes a step closer and reaches out for me, touching my elbow as if I’m about to faint. Maybe that’s just a gentlemanly way to be a good guy. Or a way to persuade people because they’re distracted by manners.
I take a slow step back and look at him. “Why didn’t you just tell us you’re Max Bauer?”
His jaw goes slack, and he looks like I’ve just hit him. He glances down and it takes so long before he looks back up at me.
“I wanted to tell you, and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to explain it to you. I needed anonymity when I came here. A break from life to regroup and figure out a clear path forward.”
“A break, huh? That’s good to know.” I turn forward, breathing in deeply before I say anything I might regret.
Max reaches out for my shoulder and turns me slowly.
“It was a break at first, a needed vacation after years of work first and only. But being here has made me realize that I’ve been alive without really living.
I’ve been blinded to things, good things, that didn’t relate to a grocery store empire.
Penrose Beach has shown me just how much I’m lacking. ”
Raising an eyebrow, I lower my voice and say, “Lacking? Is that why you sent that letter and asked for the invoices? Because you felt sorry for me?”
Max steps back, a deep line in his forehead from his frown.
“Avery, I’ve come to care about you, deeply.
But I would’ve sent that letter and asked for the invoices to anyone in one of my buildings.
Yes, I’ve been blessed with a successful business, but with that, comes a great responsibility of sharing, whether it be through advice, money, or time. ”
His words are nearly perfect, but I’m not done with my questions. “Who is Max Luca?”
Disappointment floods his expression. “It’s me. My name is Maximus Luca Bauer.” He stands still with his hands tight to his side.
“What was the catalyst for bringing you out here?” I ask. This is beginning to sound like an interrogation, but Max hasn’t asked for a lawyer yet.
“My father demanded something of me that I couldn’t readily take part in. At least not without a lot of introspection.”
Raising an eyebrow, I give it a beat before I ask, “What was the demand?”
I glance around to see there are only a few eyes watching us, but they’re trying to be discreet.
He lets out a long breath before saying, “He and my mother requested that I marry a family friend.”
All the air whooshes out of my lungs, and I try to concentrate. Every interaction I had with him parades through my head.
“You’re engaged?” I ask, scowling.
Max’s eyebrows lift and his eyes widen. “No, I’m not engaged. I told him I’m not marrying Victoria.”
Ugh, even her name sounds perfect.
There’s an entire life for him out there, one he’ll be heading back to soon. Not that Max and I have been anything more than good friends, but I’ve grown close to him, have trained myself to look for him when I’m outside the coffee shop.
Everything that has started to feel more permanent is, instead, falling like a house of cards.
“Thank you for the discount. I just wish I’d known,” I say, letting out a long breath.
“I wasn’t trying to manipulate the situation,” he says, frowning.
“That’s not as comforting as you think it is,” I say. “I liked what you and I had here.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “But would you have treated me the same if you’d known I run a billion-dollar company?”
I hesitate a beat too long, and he frowns. “That’s what I thought.”
“How was I to know you wanted me in that life if you didn’t tell me anything real about yourself.”
Max swallows, looking like this is killing him.
“I downgraded my role in everything because I was trying to figure it all out too. I sent Aiden money to purchase the buildings and to renovate them, but I came here to find that they weren’t done, or were done poorly.
A few days was all I thought I needed to get my head on straight and go back to work.
” His voice drops even more when he says, “Then I met you, and things changed. I wanted you to like me because of my character and not because of my money.”
“Money has never been a selling point for me in a relationship.” I let out a deep, shaky breath.
“Which I’m grateful for, and why I’ve wanted to spend time with you. You’ve changed my perspective on so many things.”
“But your life is still across this continent, with someone your family has handpicked for you. I don’t think I’d fit into your world.”
Life would be so much easier if people just came with a warning label.
“Maximus!”
We both turn to look for the voice, but Max turns away and looks at the ocean much faster than I do.
“Who’s that?” I ask.
The man is dressed in a tailored coat despite the warm coastal breeze.
Dark trousers too clean for sand. Hair silvered at the temples, neatly controlled, like even the wind had been corrected once and never tried again.
I’m fully prepared for the answer of him being in some kind of mob or even the mob boss.
Gina is next to him, pointing toward us. She gives us a smile and a wave.
“That’s my father,” Max says in a flat tone.
As mad as I am at Max right now, I’m more caught up in the situation. “Did he know you would be here?”
“I’m sure his right-hand man, Hoffman, had me tracked.”
Shaking my head, I say, “And Gina thought she was helping by pointing you out.”
Max’s eyes narrow as he stares out at the sand. The man walks closer, but he looks like an executioner heading to a jail cell.
“Maximus, it’s time to go.” The man’s accent is stronger than anything I’ve heard from Max.
I don’t know why I stay or why I speak when it’s not my problem. Maybe I’ve stayed quiet for too long and I can’t do it anymore.
“He obviously doesn’t want to go with you,” I say. “So stop treating him like he just got expelled from school and let him be.”
Mr. Bauer turns his attention to me, looking at me as though I were a bug needing to be stepped on. “This is a family affair. I suggest you leave this conversation, now.”
Max pushes in front of me, putting me behind him. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
Mr. Bauer gives a pitying smile. “You don’t belong here, Max. You belong in New York.”
Shaking his head, Max says, “And here.”
“You can use this run-down place as a vacation, somewhere to come for a few days, but Victoria is going to want to invite people to the lake house or to the Maldives.”
I blink a few times, trying to wrap my head around the amount of money involved in that sentence alone.
“Victoria isn’t going to be in my life in that way.”
My phone buzzes with a text, and I see Cora’s name on the screen.
Cora
I know it’s late notice, but I just landed at the airport. Any chance you’re free to give me a ride to the apartment?
I’ll be right there.
I’m not sure if I should say goodbye or just leave. The conversation has only gotten more tense, and I need to debrief, hopefully with my sister.
We can laugh and cry and chalk this up to a weird fling, where he held my hand and gave me a discount on rent.
He’s a billionaire.
Yeah, from the amount of fighting with his father, I doubt I’d even be accepted.
Then again, I was never in line to be his wife.
I just wish my heart would stop acting like that mattered less than it suddenly does.