Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

S elfish Day Two had wiped me out, emotionally and physically. I had attacked Max, and thank God, he'd attacked back. Then we'd had dinner with Poppy, and the mustard chicken was great and I'd thrown in asparagus and my store-bought carrot cake, which was just ridiculously wasteful for me so I am now going to learn to make carrot cake because it's so good. Poppy was clearly relieved by the will, and I realized that she'd been a lot more concerned than I'd seen before. Then Max and I did the dishes, and Poppy went upstairs, and then Max and I went upstairs and went through Ozzie's secret war room and unfortunately did not find any more money, and then we hit my bedroom again and tried some new things—"Roll over," Max said, "You and my ass," I said, "A winning combination," he said and then it turned out he was right, of course—until we fell asleep in each other's arms, exhausted by a lot of stress and a lot of sex, just like in the movies.

Well, I thought we had. I conked out, but when I woke up a couple of hours later, he was gone. Just like in the movies.

I knew it had been too good of a day. At least that was my first, paranoid instinct. He was back on the Trail since things had turned out all right, Poppy and I had money and a place to live, I still had a job . . .

No, he wouldn't leave me while Serena and Junior were still out there.

I slid out of bed and hit the bathroom—the arnica had faded my bruise to yellow but it was still ugly—and then went across the hall to check Oz's bedroom for my missing lover. The door was open and I poked my head in to see if maybe he'd wanted to sleep alone, but there was no sign of him or Maggs.

Okay, my heart clutched a little.

I ran down the stairs and before I reached the bottom, I heard him call out, "Rose?"

"Yes." I tried to sound cheery and not "Why the hell did you scare me like that?" Don't be a crazy person, Rose.

And there he was, sitting in a chair in the hall between the store and kitchen, Maggs on her feet in front of him, tail wagging.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Security," he said.

"You think Serena or Junior will try something? Again ?"

Max shrugged. He really needed to work on his reassurance. "I think the Norman daddy info threw them for a loop, but they're not going anywhere. The stakes are too high for Serena."

"Which are?"

"Her life."

"Okay," I said. "That's big. But we don't have the film."

"We know that, but she doesn't believe that," Max said. "She exists in a world where lies and deception are the norm."

Well, so do I, I thought, but I said, "Great. So what do we do about it?"

Max looked grim. "We take the offensive. Luke and I are going to Bearton tomorrow to see if we can find her and Junior."

"Luke? Why not go with Pike?"

Max turned away to pat Maggs. "Pike needs to watch the town."

As a con man, he sucked. "Okay, what's wrong with Pike?"

Max sighed. "He had Junior and he let him go with a toothless warning. And he never tracked Serena down. He's not on top of things."

"So?"

"He's lost his edge," Max said, as if it were that simple.

If the current version was Pike without an edge, I wasn't sure I wanted to see Pike with an edge. And then I realized that Pike with an edge was Max. Or Ozzie. I realized Ozzie wouldn't have let Serena walk out of Ecstasy. He wouldn't have let Junior go with a talking-to. I didn't want to dwell on what he would have done, but they wouldn't have come into Coral's for breakfast and threats.

"So you've talked to Luke about this?"

"Not yet."

"He might not want to," I said. "He's very easygoing. Peaceful, even."

Max shook his head. "I've seen him in action. He's like Sasquatch on coke."

There was an image. "He might have changed," I said. "He's been here a long time."

Max frowned. "Really?"

"In all the time I've known him, since Poppy and Darius were in third grade, I've never heard him raise his voice. He's an assistant football coach at Bearton High and there was a brawl after a game a couple of years ago, and he just walked out onto the field and started to pull people out. He'd say something and whoever he'd grabbed would just leave the field. People asked what he'd said, and not one of the kids he'd grabbed would ever say. He has tremendous respect here."

Max nodded. "I can see just his presence doing that." He seemed to think about it. "Maybe he has changed. Ten years is a long time. And he's a father. Lot more to risk now."

He frowned as he thought, and it reminded me of how he'd backtracked on his snark about the Coast Guard with Poppy. He was open to rethinking things pretty quickly.

The silence stretched out, and then he said, "You best get some sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow. "

"What? I need to open the shop, and I thought you were going to Bearton."

"I am. But that won't take long. Don't open the shop. We have to search this place."

"For the film?"

"For the money."

"You found fifty thousand. Ozzie and Pike bought most of the town. You really think there's any left after that?"

"Yes," Max said.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, then. We'll search. And after school, Poppy and Darius will help, and probably the other kids?—"

"No," Max said. "You and me."

I drew back a little. "You don't trust Poppy?"

"I trust Poppy. I just don't want her doing a happy dance on TikTok when she finds wads of cash crammed into a teapot here."

I wanted to say, "She wouldn't," but she might talk about it to the others, and if Max wanted this kept under wraps, then we would do that.

I just found it hard to believe we were going to find millions in the thousand different pieces of junk Ozzie had in the shop. Or that we'd find a roll of film, for that matter.

That's when it occurred to me that if we found the film, Serena would leave. And if Serena left, Max would leave.

And that's when I realized that I'd rather have Serena threatening me than Max leaving.

I really needed to look at my priorities.

"Rose?"

I took a deep breath. "I would appreciate it if you would not leave."

"I told you I wouldn't."

"I know," I said, and then I blurted. "Ozzie said he wouldn't, too."

He reached up then and pulled me down in his lap—Maggs looked at us like she was thinking, That's new —and he kissed me, and I felt much better.

"It's gonna be okay, Rosalie," he said.

"I'm very glad you're here," I whispered in his ear .

"I'm pretty happy about that, too," he whispered back.

And then we just sat there, necking like teenagers, until he sent me back up to bed because he said it was harder to guard a place when he was hard.

I slept really well for the rest of that night.