45. 45
The flight was brutal; business class was full so Tana got me a seat in economy, the middle seat between a young mother and her six-month-old, and a forty-year-old man who loudly complained about the baby when he wasn’t hitting on me.
I finally told the mother I’d hold the baby to get him to stop.
As bad as it was flying away from Max, the three-hour wait in the airport was worse. I honestly thought Max would come for me, and spent the first hour planning what to say to him. I went through every scenario in my head—good, bad and the ugly.
But he didn’t come. It wasn’t until after I knew his plane would have left that I stopped imagining the scene where I rushed into his arms.
Even the ugly had ended with me rushing into his arms.
I try to read but end up replaying the scene in the bedroom over and over again.
DidMax betray me? Was he telling his father I wanted to buy Tingel Island so wrong?
My head insists that yes, it was a horrible thing to do, that I can never trust him again. But my heart tells me maybe I overreacted.
Maybe I got scared that he said he was falling in love with me.
That maybe, I was falling in love with him too, and the idea of that was too much to handle.
Not having a phone is torture and I know that somewhere in the tiny island airport, I could buy another one, but I sit in the painful silence without even doom-scrolling to distract my thoughts.
I give up trying to read on the plane and pass the book on to the young mother for her to give it a try.
When we finally land, I drag myself home, checking the hope that Max might meet me. Why would he do that when I was so nasty to him? All the things I said—if I could apologize, that might be better. This disappointment might go away and I can continue with my life—without him.
Without Max in my life, what reason does he have to be in it?
It’s not a nice thought.
“Cady?” Tana is upstairs at the sound of the slam of the door, cats and Travis racing behind her. “What happened?”
“What’s going on with the Tingel deal?” I demand, losing my usual confident tone and sounding like I’m broken.
I am broken. Beyond repair.
Tana waves away my question. “What happened to you?”
I smile sadly. “The Tingel deal.”
Tana heads straight into the kitchen when I tell her I haven’t eaten since last night. The wedding seems like it happened weeks ago, to another person. The way Max made love to me…
Travis hands me my phone, and sets up my laptop at the counter because I make it clear I’m not saying another word until I find out what I’ve missed.
Tana reports on the activity of the last few days as she makes me soup. It’s as if she knows that while my stomach may be craving food, my heart wouldn’t be able to take anything too substantial.
I miss Max.
As I scroll through reports and read emails, my heart thumps to the beat—I miss Max. I miss Max.
Which shouldn’t be possible because I’ve only known him for a few days. How can I miss someone in that short of a time?
When Tana pushes the bowl over to me, I close my laptop. “What did he do?” she asks evenly.
“What makes you think it was something he did?”
“Because I know what you did. You ran, Cady. But before that, I’m sure you closed up tighter than that suitcase I’m sure you packed in a hurry. I can only imagine the state of your clothes.” She shakes her head in mock horror. “What did Maximus Steele do to you?”
“I had fun with him,” I say in a small voice.
“And that’s a crime?” Travis demands.
“It is when there hasn’t been much fun in your life,” Tana corrects. “Is it broken beyond repair?”
“Is what broken?”
“Your heart.”
I stare at Tana for long moments before turning my attention to my soup, taking a few quick spoonfuls and burning my tongue in the process. “I did it to myself,” I admit. “I was with him. I was… happy. And then I read his texts from his father—”
“You broke into his phone?” Travis asks incredulously.
I shake my head. “He let me borrow it because I didn’t have mine.” I don’t even bother admonishing Tana for confiscating mine. “There were all these text notifications from his father about Tingel Island. He knew that I was the other interested party, and was demanding Max find out everything he could from me.”
“And did he?”
Another shake of my head, this one leaving it hanging down. “No. I don’t know. I don’t even think he shared the information that I was the buyer. Was it important that it be kept quiet?” I ask suddenly.
“No, it’s just what we always do,” Tana says. “You like to keep things quiet.”
“So it won’t hurt anything, even if Max did tell his father.”
“I can’t see why it would. Steele is headed up there now. Patel got in touch with me earlier today, said he was accepting a counteroffer and did we want to up our bid.”
“We don’t.”
“If you’re sure.” She studies me with a wary expression as I blow on my soup before taking another spoonful.
“It’s… spoiled for me now,” I say.
“And is Max spoiled for you now?” she wants to know.
“He’s with his father. It doesn’t matter.”
The doorbell rings. And then again, insistently, like whoever is out there is demanding to be let in.