Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

I left the Ecstasy kitchen, sated with food, and started for the outside door with my dog and my pepper spray. Lionel came hustling over as the door opened again, and this time it was Max, looking like hell. He took in the situation and shook his head as he walked over to me, his hair wet and his boots squelching. There was a bruise on his forehead and his cheek was bleeding.

Lionel stepped away from me as if scorched.

"What happened to you?" I grabbed one of Coral's napkins to press it to Max's cheek to clean up the blood, and I did not say "See what happens when you leave a good woman and a good dog behind?" For all I knew he'd been saving orphans by wrestling a bear in the woods. He was that kind of guy.

"You're a honey pot," Max told me, surveying the guys behind me. "Shame on you."

"She is not," Geoffrey started, so I put my hand on his arm.

"He's kidding," I told him. "He never insults me."

Geoffrey looked flustered so I added, "But thank you for sticking up for me," and he blushed again, so I threw in a Cheery Boost and he smiled.

Then I felt Max's hand on my arm, guiding me out of the group, Maggs at our heels.

"Stop flirting with strange men," he told me, his voice low as we went toward the door.

I frowned at him. "Geoffrey's not a stranger. Actually, I know all of them. Unfortunately. What happened to you?"

"Geoffrey is definitely strange. And Sid is weird as hell." He thought about it for a moment. "And so is the rest of your harem."

"Yeah, well, it's okay, Coral just gave me this." I held up the pepper spray tube. "She tried to give me a knife, but I said no."

"Front toward enemy," Max said.

"What?"

"Don't pepper-spray yourself if you have to use it," Max said and took it out of my hand to look at it. "Good brand. Did she show you how to use it?"

"Kind of," I said, holding out my hand to take it back.

He handed it back.

He looked miserable. "Enough about me, you're cold and wet." I reached up to smooth the wet hair off his forehead. "This isn't good, Max, you need?—"

Oxley Crothers from the bookstore came in, almost bumping into me, and said, "Rose!" with a big smile. Then he saw Max and said, "You have a nice day," and kept going toward the bakery cases.

"Honey pot," Max said and opened the door for me.

* * *

When I unlocked the door to Oddities, I said, "Really, Max, what the hell happened?"

"I fell in the river," he said.

I opened the door and we went through the shop and into the kitchen, so at least he was out of the cold. "The Little Melvin is a very dangerous river." I was trying not to yell "You could have died!" at him. "How did it happen?"

He dropped his pack on the floor. "The rope bridge broke."

I wanted to go closer, to put my arms around him, pull him close to me, make sure he was safe, but I had just given up smiling at annoying men, so instead I went to get a dry towel from the laundry room. When I came back, he was toweling off his head with the dish towel, looking miserable.

Do not hug that man. "That rope bridge would not break," I said, handing him the bath towel. "I remember when Reggie and Marley made that and I wouldn't let Poppy on it until Luke checked it out. He said it was fine; it was just something Reggie wanted to learn to do." I was babbling, trying not to pull him close and keep him warm and safe, which would have been impossible with a guy like Max anyway.

But I still wanted to.

He gave me a tense smile as he shook the dish towel out to give back to me and began to really get dry with the bath towel. "Somebody helped this break along by cutting the bottom rope. Marley and Reggie pulled me out."

"Oh. Good for them." Somebody tried to kill you? "Are you okay?"

He reached up and touched his forehead and winced. "I'll live."

And there it was again, him waving off things he didn't think I needed to be concerned about. If he stayed I'd have fixed that, but since he was leaving, there was no point. I don't work on spec.

"Forget the bridge, Rose, Luke and I are handling that," he said.

"At least let me get you warmed up again." I realized what that sounded like and added, "Hot shower, aspirin, something for that scrape on your cheek."

"In a minute," Max said. "There's a problem in town and I need to look into it. Close the store and stay inside until I get back. Poppy's at school, right?"

"Right. What's going on?"

Somebody knocked on the door to the shop, and when I went to look, it was Luke. Max was right behind me and let him in.

"Sid said yes." Luke looked at me and then back at Max. "Did you tell her?—"

Max handed me the towel and opened the door wider to go out. "She'll be fine if she stays here and keeps the door locked and doesn't worry or do anything rash like leaving." He looked at me. "I'll be back shortly and tell you everything, once I know more for sure. You stay here with the door locked."

"You can tell me now ," I said. " What's going on? "

"Relax," Max said. "We've got this." He noticed Luke wincing, which is probably why he didn't see I was about to rip his face off. "What?" he said to Luke.

"Now tell her to calm down," Luke said. "Chicks love that."

Max turned back to me. "I'll tell you everything when I know something. Which I am now going to find out. Stay here. With the door locked. Do not let anybody in."

He turned to go as I said, " Why ? Plague? Locusts? Zombies?" and then he was out the door, Luke behind him looking apologetic.

Well, if he was leaving, at least I wouldn't have to put up with any more don't-you-worry-your-pretty-little-head-about-this crap.

I headed to the counter to get back to work and almost tripped over Maggs. "Still not going with your dad, huh?"

She lay down at my feet, looking up at me with those big dark eyes, refusing to leave me.

Well, you have more sense than your father.

Yeah, it was time Max went back on the Trail. Nobody there who'd expect him to communicate .

And it was time I stopped bitching about Max's life and started on my own new life. Like turning Oddities into a real business.

Yeah, goals, that's what I needed.

Not Max.