AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The restaurant has a balcony with a stunning ocean view and Reid and I claim a cozy corner table that will allow us to eat and work, as is the plan we determined we’d follow right before leaving the cottage. We order what the waiter declares to be “world famous” macaroni n’ cheese, as well as a wine Reid wants me to try, which he favors. Soon we have our glasses filled and I decide I too love this wine. “Do I dare ask how much it costs?”
“Don’t,” he says. “Just enjoy it.” His voice is warm and his eyes warmer.
“I am,” I say, the spark between us damn near igniting. “Very much,” I add, and when I’d once felt perpetual anger toward Reid, I now feel connected. On some unspoken level we understand each other and yet, I understand too little about Reid. “But,” I add, setting down my glass, “I better drink cautiously. I’m meeting your family tonight. I can’t imagine a room with three Maxwell siblings.”
“You know Gabe, and Cat’s someone you’ll get along with. She’s independent, hard-headed, intelligent, and fiercely protective of those she loves. In other words, you two are alike.”
“And yet you and I are—compatible. I get the idea that you and your sister aren’t close. Actually, you made it sound you aren’t close to anyone.”
“If there was anyone who knows me, it would be Gabe,” he concedes. “We’re alike in ways that aren’t obvious on the surface.”
“What ways?”
“What makes us tick.”
“Which is what? Money? Power?”
“It’s deeper than that, and I know you know that.”
He means the parts of me that are about my mother. I don’t push him to explain. Those are the inner demons we all battle privately. “And Cat. Does she get you like Gabe does?”
His jaw sets and he reaches for his wine. “We’ve had problems.”
“For how long?” I ask.
“A decade.”
I blanch. “Ten years? You’ve had problems for ten years?”
“Give or take. I’ll spare you the questions. I was an asshole to her and that’s how we got where we are now.”
“Were?”
“I remain an asshole.”
“Have you apologized? Because I know you know when you’re wrong, Reid.”
“I have not.”
“Why?”
“I have my reasons,” he says, giving me nothing more.
The waiter appears. “Hot plates!” he announces and then sets a monstrously wonderful looking entrée-sized macaroni n’ cheese in front of each of us.
We chat with the waiter just a minute and when he finally leaves, as much as I want to try my food, I don’t want it as much as I want to say something else to Reid. “Fix it with Cat,” I say. “She’s your sister, and like your mother, you could blink and she could be gone.”
His jaw sets hard. “That’s the point. That’s always been the point.”
My brow furrows. “What does that mean?”
He studies me for a few beats. “I’m going to the party, Carrie,” he says, avoiding the question. “We’re going. I wouldn’t have in the past—attended, much less taken anyone with me. Let that be enough.”
“Right,” I say. “I’ll leave it at that then.”
His knee connects with mine under the table and he reaches out and covers my hand with his, “For now, Carrie.”
His expression is hard, jaw firm, but there is a softness to his voice, a plea that promises his shutdown is not forever. And this right now is him telling me I’m pushing his limits, but he’s not unwilling to be pushed. And so I say, “For now.”
