Chapter Nineteen
Max saw me approaching his truck with Rachael a few feet behind. He looked rested and seemed really upbeat when he explained, “I know you said that you had plans after school today, but after last night I wanted to make sure you weren’t pissed. Pathetic, right?”
I grabbed him tightly and whispered, “Yeah, it’s pretty pathetic, but I’m sooooo glad to see you.” I turned to Rachael, “I don’t need a ride home after all. I’ll call you in a few hours with an update.”
Rachael waved goodbye, fully understanding my cryptic message. Max opened the driver’s door and motioned for me to get in. I climbed in and slid over to the center of the seat and asked him, “So, what’d you do today?”
“Not much. My sleep schedule is all jacked up, so most of the morning I spent snoozing. I got to thinking about our conversation last night. You’re right, regardless of how I feel, it was out of line for me to tell you to check with me before going to the jail or anything else you feel you need to do.”
“Well, thanks,” better to tell him now than let him find out about it later, “In interest of full disclosure, I went to the jail today and bailed Paul out.” Max’s jaw tightened and his muscles went rigid. I could see his knuckles were clenching the steering wheel hard, but to his credit he remained silent.
“I know this may not be how you want to spend your free time, and it’s okay if you say no, but there’s an end of term party called the Class Bash this Saturday. You wanna go?” I hadn’t thought much about it, but this would be a good night out, and with Max’s new found bond with Seth, maybe the four of us could go. I’d have to broach that with Seth later.
“Have you lost your mind?” Max’s knuckles were completely white on the steering wheel, and I could see now that his teeth were still clenched. “You bail a murderer out of jail, and the very next sentence you ask if I want to go to a party with you? Never mind that last night you agreed you wouldn’t even see this guy unless you talked to me first, now you’re telling me you went to see him and you made his bail? What would possess you to do either of those things by yourself? You knew I wasn’t working. You knew I didn’t want you to see him alone.”
“Easy, Max, you asked me if it was too much to ask for me to call you beforehand. I didn’t say that I would. As far as the party, it isn’t a big deal. I wasn’t going to go, and I didn’t mention it before because I thought you would think it would be silly.”
Max got out of the truck and started walking away. I called after him, “Where are you going?”
He yelled over his shoulder to me, “I need to take a walk . . . alone. Go ahead and take my truck. I’ll get it from you later.” I sat there watching him for a full minute - he was really just wandering away.
What kind of a bozo storms off like a little kid? Should I let him have his little tantrum on his own? Then I thought about it. I could have called him this morning and told him what I was up to. Heck, I could have told him last night when I started forming my plan. I’ve always liked that I do things my way, on my own, but there wasn’t any reason for me to keep Max out of it. Seth’s been my closest friend my whole life, but he never interfered in any of my decisions. I guess I’ve always been this way. But I can’t put Seth and Max in the same category. There’s a reason I always kept Seth at arm’s length.
Rather than sitting there arguing with myself, I bolted after him. “Max, please stop.” He stopped and looked at me but remained quiet.
“I know you’re angry. I would ask you to give me a chance to explain, but I don’t know that there is anything I can say to you in the next thirty seconds that would make you understand why I did what I did.
“Lauren, I really think if I just go for a walk, I’ll be fine.”
I pointed to a bench a few feet away and asked, “Give me five minutes.”
Max lowered his head a little, looking at the pavement and nodded. He reached for my hand and I gladly grabbed his. He breathed in deeply and then let the air out, “I’m listening.”
“I know after such a short time together you may still be struggling with this, but you’re not just a boyfriend, you are much more. As far as I’m concerned this is just as much a fact as anything else I’ve ever known. Normally a couple gets to know each other, go on a few dates, meet each other’s friends, find common interests, experience life together for a while before they make this kind of commitment. I’m okay if you want to slow things down to catch your breath; I really wouldn’t even care if you got mad and broke up with me.”
A hurt look shot through his eyes. “There’s a reason I tell you that I don’t care, because no matter what, I know that no one, anywhere, will ever be a better match for you. Being the right match doesn’t translate into being your carbon copy. It also doesn’t mean that you’ll always be happy with decisions that I make. It means that I’ll never lie to you – even if telling the truth pisses you off.”
Max didn’t interject and was still in receive mode, so not wanting to lose my momentum, I continued, “There are things that I just know. One of those things is that Paul Stratford is not a murderer, and I needed to get him out of jail. I talked to him, and I know that he was the one in danger Sunday morning. Whatever crazy sixth sense I have was telling me I needed to keep him from returning Mr. McMasters’ car. I think if he would have, whoever killed the McMasters would have killed him, too.”
He made no move to interrupt me, so either I was making sense or he was just holding it all in until I stopped speaking. “As for the party this weekend, I didn’t plan to go, but now that you’re here, I’m ready to celebrate a little.” I paused after this last statement making it clear that Max needed to respond to something.
“Lauren, I like that you’re so sure of your feelings. Believe me, I’m all for being tied to you until your last breath; but as a courtesy, if you choose to do something that might result in your last breath being taken several decades too early, I’d like for you to share that decision with me before you act on it. Is that fair?”
I couldn’t help but nod at his logic, and he continued, “I understand better than anyone else how special your abilities are. I don’t understand how it works. I’m glad that you limited a triple homicide to a double. Paul’s a lucky person for you to take such an interest in him. And yes, I’d love to go to your party with you, or anywhere else you want to go, but I need to see if I can move my work schedule around.”
“Was there anything else we needed to discuss, or am I back in good standing?” I asked Max with a half smile.
Max’s face got a very serious look on it, “So, what’s your next step?”
“I need to wait for Paul to call me. He should be out in the next few hours. By the way, what’d you and Seth talk about last night, or was that a secret male bonding experience or something?” I knew this question took him by surprise.
“I don’t know if I would classify it as male bonding, but he’s as genuine a friend as you’ll ever have. He asked me about what happened at the hospital.”
“Oh. He and I had never talked about that. What’d you tell him?”
“There wasn’t much I could tell him. I told him we met, and we both felt a connection. Before we did anything about the connection, you needed to get things in order with him.”
“How did he take it?”
“Seriously? He wasn’t pissed. I think he just wanted to know. He said he was taken by surprise when you broke up with him on the way home from the hospital. He said the last few months you wouldn’t discuss any of it with him. He felt like you’d shut him out.”
“I guess I did, but when you left town, I pretty much shut everybody out.”
“He actually told me he was glad that I was back – that you seemed really happy now. I’m sure he said a lot of other things but...”
“But what?”
“I just got the impression he’s not over you. He was telling me
he is happy for us, he’s glad to see you back to your normal self, but he’s still really hung up on you. I guess I don’t blame him.” With this Max wrapped himself around me and followed with, “I don’t know what I’d be in his situation, but three months wouldn’t be enough to get over you.”
“It was strange to see you two together. Strange in a good way. So do you finally believe me that you could have skipped the three month hiatus and stayed here?”
“Yeah,” Max stood up, “Let’s walk.”
We strolled hand-in-hand for a while when he asked, “Don’t you graduate next weekend?”
“On Saturday.”
“Have you thought any more about what you plan to do after graduation? Go on for a graduate degree or dive into the workforce?”
“Wanda told me to call her whenever I was ready to come back to work. I think I’ll take a week or two off to do nothing, then maybe go full time at Tasty Burger in June. There’s a pretty decent management program. My degree’s in Marketing Management, so it should be easy to get into it. Other than that, no real plans.”
“I know this is going to sound crazy, but sometimes you seem to radiate crazy. What if I took a couple months off of work and we went backpacking together for the summer? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. We could trailer a couple horses and go to the mountains.”
Could there be anything more romantic than a couple months with Max? “I like the idea, but I also like the idea of hotels with showers every night, too. I don’t know how much hiking around I can do on my leg.”
“Are you forgetting? I’m a paramedic. I’d be the perfect person to go hiking with. And if we stay in national parks, most have showers. If you’re up for it, I can let my boss know to take me off the schedule until September. I hafta go back to work tomorrow; I could finish the week and then start planning the trip. Once you’ve got your degree, we could just take off, the same day if you want.”
A thought occurred to me, my stomach knotted, “Max, maybe today you should come by and meet my parents. I’m sure they’d take issue with me leaving for a couple months with someone they’ve never even met.”
“But you’re twenty-two?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s a little weird because I live with them. They don’t give me a hard time or anything, but before I tell them I’m taking off, they should at least meet you. Unless you don’t want to?”
“Are they home now?”
“Not yet, but they’ll be home in an hour or so.”
Without hesitation, “Let’s go.”