33. Chapter 33

Maxwell Carter stayed the night. In. My. Bed.

My brain must have short-circuited after Jack passed away because the universe wasn't this good to me. There was no way the man I'd been pining for since I was 16 years old was lying in bed next to me. His five o-clock shadow from the night before had grown in thicker and darker overnight. My fingers itched to trace across his cheeks to see if the texture of his impending beard felt the way I imagined it might.

Maybe I was a coward, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Part of me worried that this was all a dream. Truthfully, it had only been a few days since the big breakup with my live-in boyfriend. Shouldn't I feel guilty for having a new man in bed with me so soon – even though we didn't do anything but sleep? I didn't remember getting into bed with Max. The last thing I remembered was sitting on Max's lap in my comfy chair and talking about little, every day mundane parts of our lives.

"I hope you don't mind," his gruff voice said, startling me from my thoughts. "The chair is comfortable, but sleeping in it all night would have killed my neck and back."

"I don't mind, just trying to figure out how I got here because that memory doesn't exist."

Max chuckled. "You were drooling on my chest, and I carried you to the bed."

"You honestly could have left that part out."

"Pretty sure we promised to be open and honest with one another at some point."

"Yeah, well, when it comes to seeing me do gross shit, I think we can dull the details down." We both laughed and moved a little closer to one another. Just as Max's head tipped down, and appeared to be coming in for a kiss, someone pounded on my door.

"Who the hell is knocking on your door like the police serving a warrant?"

"No clue." I pulled my phone up to log into my security camera feed. Max moved even closer, so he could see too. The minute I pulled the video feed up, we also heard him yelling at my door.

"Open up, Posie. We need to talk about this. We aren't over."

"That motherfucker had the nerve to come here the day after you lost your dad and demand you don't break up with him?"

"He might not know that Jack died. We haven't exactly announced it yet."

"He shouldn't be here at all. He was cheating on you and you caught him with his pants down."

"I did more than catch him with his pants down."

"Posie!" Mark yelled again. "Come open this door up before I break it down!"

Max jumped out of bed before I could, and it was the first time I noticed that he hadn't been wearing a shirt or pants. The man was on full display in just his boxers and there wasn't a force on Earth that could get me to look away.

"I want to see your eyes on me like that again, but right now, we need to deal with your ex."

Max was down the steps to the main floor before I could even blink, but the minute he shot out of sight, I finally came to my senses and tore off after him. The last thing any of us needed was Max getting locked up for killing Mark.

"What the fuck are you doing here banging Posie's door down?" Max growled the words at Mark as he opened my door. Both men forgot I had a security system and the alarm started to go off.

I ran over and punched in the code as Mark stood there with his jaw hanging halfway to the floor. It didn't take him long to pull himself together after noticing that I was only wearing a t-shirt that barely covered my assets. I must have been really out of it for Max to get me out of my jeans the night before without me having noticed.

"I came to apologize, but here you are being a ," Mark snapped.

"Watch your fucking mouth," Max warned.

"What the hell is he even doing here, Posie?" Mark asked.

"The real question is what the hell are you doing here? Max was invited, you weren't."

"Max? As in Max Carter?" Mark asked with a smug set to his jaw. "So not only are you cheating, but it's all incestuous and shit, too."

I rolled my eyes. "First, it can't be cheating, because in case you missed the memo – when I tased you in the balls after catching you fucking Jenn – we broke up. I am single. I can fuck whomever I want, where and when I choose to do it. Second, Max is not my blood relation, nor was he around for all the years that Jack Carter claimed me as his daughter, so you can fuck off with that bullshit." I took a breath and then narrowed my eyes on my ex-boyfriend. "As a matter of fact, you can simply fuck all the way off anyway."

"I'd ask what Jack thinks of you whoring around, but since its with his precious grandson he always wanted you with, I guess he doesn't care."

"He can't care seeing as how he is dead, but yeah, he very much would have chosen Max for me over a cheater who just wanted me so he could sell my land and make a tidy profit he thought would go into his pockets."

"Jack's dead?" Mark asked, obviously stunned by the news.

"Yeah, he passed away while you were too preoccupied with your sidepiece to try to make up with the girlfriend you were cheating on."

"Fiancé," he corrected.

"You never asked me to marry you."

Mark pulled a ring out of his pocket and held it up. "I had the ring already."

"Then I suggest you go give it to your fuck buddy because I sure as hell don't want it. Now, a man I considered a second father to me just passed away and the last thing that I want to do is stand here arguing with the rotten bastard who cheated on me for months. Not just the one time I caught him, but MONTHS. Fuck you, Mark. Do not ever come here again or I will make sure to turn the voltage up on my taser so that it can do more than singe your ball hair. Come to my home again, and I'll be sure you leave without working testicles."

When Mark stood there, balled his fists up as if he might hit me, and gave me a death glare, Max stepped between us. "You heard Posie. Get the fuck off our property."

"Your property?" Mark asked in a stupor.

"You heard me. Mine and Posie's. Pops was a very generous man, and as you already pointed out, he wanted us together. We own all this property and everything across the street too." Max smirked at him, and I wasn't about to call him on the bullshit that we owned all of it together. If it got Mark to leave, then he could tell him purple pigs were flying out in the pasture for all I cared.

Mark backed up a step. "This is not over," he insisted.

"Oh, it's really fuckin' over. You come near Posie again and we're going to have a big fuckin' problem."

"What do you think you can do about it? It's not like you even live here. You might be a fancy detective in that town of yours, but here, you ain't shit."

Max grinned at Mark. "I'm the new detective here in this town. I suggest you get right with that fact and take heed of my warning."

Mark spun around and stomped to his car, but not without looking back as he pointed his beefy finger my way. "We're not done, Posie. You know it was a mistake."

"You're right about that. Dating you was always a mistake," I countered before Max shut the door and locked it.

"Reset that alarm." He pointed out as he moved out of the way. "Are there cameras at Pops' place, too?"

"There are."

"Good. I want to know if that asshole comes back and tries to harass you. Same goes for phone calls and texts." I nodded my head at his authoritative demands and grinned at him. "What?"

"Bossy looks good on you." Before Max could reply, I turned and made my way back to the stairs. "Family might start showing up over at Jack's place, well, I guess your place, soon. We should get dressed and head over there."

"Why would they show up?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Isn't that what people are supposed to do when someone dies?"

"What happened after your mom…?" His voice trailed off and I could almost taste the regret in the air after he thought better of what he asked me.

"No one came to offer condolences about my mom because they never really liked her. Jack Carter was a beloved and respected man of this community, though. I'm shocked no one has shown up yet."

"I suppose you're right. We'll probably be knee deep in weird casseroles by the end of the day." I snickered at the way Max shuddered.

"This might sound strange, but I always wondered if it would be awkward between us in person," I admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess since you never really knew me before you left town, I thought if we were ever really together in person, it would be awkward and not at all the easy banter we have in our letters and emails. I guess, maybe that it would be too good to be true if we were as at ease in person as…" I didn't get to finish my thought because Max reached over and grabbed my hips to pull me to him.

"I never had a doubt that you'd be as amazing in person as in your letters."

"No?"

"Nope. In fact, I kicked my own ass a lot over the years for not taking the time to get to know you when I was home. The only saving grace in me not doing that is I got to leave and make a fresh start for myself. I think if I'd gotten to know you and stuck around for you, there may have been some resentment due to unfulfilled dreams, especially when I was younger."

"Jack always said things work out when they're meant to, not when we want them to."

Max rolled his eyes. "Funny coming from a man who tried so hard to put us in each other's orbits."

"He also said sometimes things needed a little shove in the right direction." We both laughed because if Jack were here with us, we'd be teasing him while he told us how absolutely right he had been all along. "I hope to one day be as wise, kind, and loving as that man. He was my hero."

"He was mine, too, sweetheart."

Max moved us so that he held me in a tight hug instead of simply holding onto my hips the way he had done when he first stopped me from moving upstairs.

"Let's go get dressed and over to Pops' place."

"Your place now," I corrected.

Max shook his head. "That will forever be Pops' house. I could live in it for a million years and my earliest memories would still be of sitting on that porch with my grandparents as they sneaked cookies or candy to my brothers and me while our parents huffed and puffed about having to deal with us."

"The only reason I'm not completely crippled by the loss of him is because I know without a single doubt that he is with your grandma right now. They've missed one another."

"That'll be us one day, Posie. If I go first, I'll be waiting until you're back in my arms. If you do…" He swallowed thickly. "I'll be just like my Pops sitting on the rocking chair beside yours, talking to your spirit until you guide me home to your arms on the other side."

"Max," I whispered. "You can't know that. We haven't even… We aren't even dating."

"The way I see it, we did something far greater than dating."

"How do you figure?"

"We got to know one another over years of letters, with no physical temptation to get in the way."

I raised an eyebrow at that and gave him a wide-eyed stare. "There was plenty of physical temptation, Max. Have you seen yourself in a mirror?"

He laughed at me. "I meant that we weren't in proximity to take what we had to a physical place, so we nurtured the heart of us first. We have years of learning the ins and outs of one another to fall back on where most couples don't. I promise you, there isn't a bit of doubt in my heart when I tell you that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together."

"I really like the sound of that."

"Good because that means Pops is truly at rest, since his job here on Earth is well and truly done."

"Dammit…" I sniffled. He was right. Pops wouldn't have anything left to worry about if he knew that his final breath brought us together after everything.