Chapter 32
Sol
My moods are a mess. One minute I’m wondering if Max ever truly wanted the women before me—I know he didn’t; not like this—and the next I can’t stop thinking about climbing him.
It’s beyond crazy. The pregnancy has completely rewired something in me.
Max ignites something with every touch, wink, smirk, smile, laugh, kiss, slap to the ass, dirty talk, and even a brush to the shoulder makes me want to hump him.
I’m no better than a man at this point. I really wish we had been each other’s first.
At night, I literally sleep with half of my body on him.
He must think I’m terrified of him leaving me or that I’m having nightmares that I have to sleep on him.
All he does at night is rub slow circles between my shoulder blades with his calloused palm, his breath warm against my ear as he mumbles into the darkness, his voice thick with sleep. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
My nightmares of Max have stopped. It could be because he’s eased my mind, and the guilt I had if I let go.
Instead, I have more vivid dreams of him running and playing with small children.
In them, he’s playing with a small boy and a girl, both around three.
As the dreams have become more persistent, I’ve only seen the woman’s back, and it’s clear it’s me.
The kids giggle as they run and chase their dad.
The children reach for him like he’s the whole sky.
It…does something to me. This is what we’ve been reaching toward.
Both of us. Without even knowing it. The smile on Max’s face crinkles at the corners of his eyes.
He’s shirtless and in jeans that make his ass look good.
He hoists the children skyward, their little bodies weightless in his strong grip.
His deep voice buzzes with exaggerated engine sounds. “Vrrrrrrroooom!”
The kids’ faces glow pink with delight, their teeth gleaming as they shriek through breathless giggles, “More, Daddy! More!”
The little baby girl shouts, “Mama, did you see me?”
I wake up with my hand on my stomach. The room is dark. Max’s arm is around me. I treasure those dreams. I worry someone will take them away from us. Watching Max as a father in my dreams is so damn hot because he’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait.
This could be why I can’t get enough of him.
My mind is constantly thinking about climbing him.
Sex on the brain. I’m not sure if all women experience it, but if they do, does it turn me into wanting to strangle him by the third trimester instead of wanting to drink him like fine wine?
I don’t even know. My mind is constantly on my man.
I’m running late. I’d told Isabella I’d be there by nine to go over inventory before we opened.
The morning had unraveled before it started—a longer conversation with Lana than I’d planned, Daisy deciding the backyard needed investigating, Hector asking me how the coffee maker worked for the third time.
Max was out the door early. He had paperwork he needed to catch up on and a meeting at noon.
At the stoplight, I toss my hair into a bun.
I didn’t get a chance to style it. I make a left turn toward the café and stop breathing.
Above the roofline, a column of black smoke is rising into the pale sky.
No…no... please...no. I pull over and get out of the car without turning off the engine.
The front windows have gone orange from the inside.
My neighbor across the street bursts through her door, her phone already at her ear.
“The fire trucks are on their way,” she tells me, then she swallows. “The owner is here,” she tells them. She looks at me. “Is anyone inside?”
I shake my head frantically. “No.” My body shakes. “Wait…Isabella.” I look around. Her car isn’t here. “I don’t see her car. My employee, Isabella, was supposed to come in after me.”
The front of the café looks intact. Windows are still whole. The smoke and flames are coming from the back of the kitchen and my office.
I was supposed to be there an hour ago. I’m always on time. What if? I shake my head. No…that would be crazy. What if someone started the fire?
The fire trucks are heard from a distance.
“They’re coming,” the woman says. I don’t remember her name, but she goes for coffee regularly.
I can’t breathe, and tears fill my vision. I worked so hard for this place. Isabella drives to the parking space where I parked. The worry in my chest loosens when I see her. She runs to me.
“Mija. What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I don’t know.” My voice trembles.
The neighbor talks to Isabella.
The firefighter puts the fire out while I pull out my phone and call the only person who can ease my heart. He picks up on the second ring. “Hey, baby.”
“M…Max.” My voice comes out in stutters. “My café is on fire.”
“Where are you? Are you okay?” I can hear the door shut or open.
“Outside. I’m outside. I’m okay. I had just driven up when I saw the fire.”
“I’m on my way.”
“No, you don’t have to, you’re bu—”
“I’m already getting in my truck.” The door slams. “You’re my priority.”
I sniffle. “O…okay.”
“Are the firemen there?”
“Yes.”
“I’m almost there, amor.”
I stand on the sidewalk with the phone against my ear, hearing Max’s rapid breathing while he maneuvers the streets to get to me. The smoke rolls out of the back of everything I’d built, and I try to think clearly.
“Okay,” I whisper into the phone on my ear.
Who would do this? The answer sits in my chest before the question finishes forming. I push it away.
“The fireman said it could have been an electrical wire, but they are not sure yet until they do an investigation,” Isabella says, walking toward me.
“Okay.” My voice is soft.
I couldn’t say it out loud. Not in front of Isabella.
I could put her in danger. And Max is on the line.
But the thought keeps coming back. I knew who had the address.
I knew who had been at my house four days ago with threats still wet on his lips.
I knew who had threatened my baby. I knew who had threatened Leo.
He wanted to get rid of me or threaten to shut me up.
Isabella’s eyes are wide, and the firefighters are moving through the back of my café, and neighbors are gathering on the sidewalk. My mind is racing, keeping pace with my heart.
He thought I was in there. What will he do next?
That thought arrives quietly and stays. Max’s truck comes around the corner twelve minutes later.
He parks a distance away, pointing at me, and the police let him through.
He crosses the distance between us in four strides, and then his hands are on my face, and his eyes are doing that thing—scanning, assessing, checking every inch of me.
“Are you hurt?” He kisses my lips. “Are you okay? The baby?”
“I’m fine. We’re fine.”
He pulls me onto his chest, and I can’t hold it in. I cry. My arms wrap around his body, and he holds me tight. “I’m here. I got you,” he says, his voice low. “You’re safe.”
A firefighter and a police officer approach and start asking questions. I answer what I can, and Max fills in the rest. Max rubs my back as he converses with the police. Chills run up my spine at the thought I could have been in there if I had gotten in on time.
“If I hadn’t been late…I.”
His jaw tightens, and then he buries his head in the crook of my neck. “You’re here. No one was in there. Let’s not think like that.”
Max lifts his head and dries the tears from my face. “We’ll remodel it.”
I nod.
I couldn’t tell him what I suspected. Not yet.
But I knew I was right about who did this— I knew it the way you know certain things, the kind of knowing that sits in your chest and doesn’t move.
Leo, Hector, and Max would pay for it. Max would go looking for him.
The thoughts of what he could do to our baby scare me.
Once the fire was out and the firefighters had left, we locked the front door, and Max took me home.
He stayed with me the rest of the day and into the night, his arms around me. I kept thinking about how good it felt, then hating myself for thinking about it. I turn my face into his chest so he couldn’t see mine.
I want to tell him. I almost did twice. But I thought of what would happen to all of us if I did, and I press my mouth shut and let him hold me.
It’s been a week since the fire. The investigation is still going.
We have already started the cleanup. I’m grateful it was empty.
My heart aches to see my hard work going up in ashes, but it’s all material stuff.
It can all be fixed. Hector says it was Carlos, no doubt about it.
He was so close to showing up at Carlos’s home. I had to stop him.
Max’s gentle hands find my waist before I even settle into the restaurant booth.
He brought me tonight to distract my mind from the fire.
Of course, he doesn’t know what’s on my mind.
What bothers me is the weight I’m carrying on my chest. The danger lurking.
And the repeated question in my head. Was he trying to kill me?
I know the answer even though I keep repeating the question in my head.