Chapter 27
MAX
Later that night, I lay in bed with Wren in my arms. I’d taken her twice after we’d gotten home, still feeling the need to claim her, to mark her. The taste I’d had in the bathroom earlier hadn’t been nearly enough.
“You have fun tonight?” I asked, burrowing my face into her neck.
“Yeah.” She yawned.
“I wear you out?” I grinned playfully.
“You know you did.” Her satisfied smile was sexy as hell.
“You looked beautiful tonight,” I told her again. “But you’re just as gorgeous in jeans and a tee with grease all over you,” I added honestly. That was the girl I’d fallen in love with.
“Thanks.” She smiled. “It felt good. I just needed the push that Gracie and Em are always willing to provide. If they have anything to say about it, there’s a shopping spree coming up in my very near future.”
I snorted, knowing that was all too true. My sister never turned down the opportunity to shop or to provide a nudge, or a shove when needed. “Don’t let those two have you showing too much skin,” I warned.
“I won’t,” she murmured drowsily, dropping her head back to my chest. I sensed she was just moments from falling asleep. “What’s the deal with Emmie and Gunner?” she asked, almost as an afterthought.
I tensed, surprised by the question. “What do you mean?”
“Have you told him he can’t date her or something?”
“No. Does he want to date her?” I asked in shock. The idea I might be missing the fact that my best friend had feelings for my little sister was disconcerting.
“You’ve never noticed the tension between them?”
“No.” In fact, I spent energy trying not to pay attention to my sister’s love life.
I felt her shrug against me. “Well, who knows what it is. Both of them are stubborn as hell about it.” She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Don’t tell either of them I said anything.”
I looked back at her with a wrinkled brow. “Babe, based on this conversation, I’m not even sure what the hell we’re talking about here.”
She relaxed and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy.”
“Hope I don’t need to prove that you again,” I replied dryly.
She let out a tired laugh. “You can prove it to me again tomorrow. How about that?”
I pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. “Sleep, babe.”
“Love you, Max.”
I’d never tire of hearing those words. “Love you too, baby.”
****
I stood under the showerhead the next morning, smiling to myself at the thought of Wren in the kitchen making breakfast. Food had been the farthest thing from my mind when I’d woken with her long-ass legs tangled with mine, but she was on a mission. I’d been teaching her how to cook, and little by little, she was getting the hang of it. We’d started simple, but she was eager and so fucking cute. We’d ended up on the kitchen floor more times than with a finished meal, but it had been a hell of a lot of fun.
I thought about the ring I’d bought for her. It sat in my bedside table drawer just itching to be on her finger. I’d bought it weeks ago, but I wanted Sal’s blessing, and I wanted this shit with her stalker done with. I wanted us to start our life together free and clear, without a hint of the fear I saw clouding her gorgeous eyes when she thought I wasn’t looking.
X was staying on top of Johnny and seemed to think he was doing what he could to run down an address for us in Reno. It would be a start—a start that would lead us to the end of this fucking mess.
When I heard the doorbell clang, I hastily threw on my shirt, wondering who would show up here without letting me know ahead of time. Everyone knew how on edge I was when it came to Wren.
I stalked out to the living room, tensing when I saw she had the door open to someone. Her expression immediately had me on edge. “What is it?” I demanded a moment before I spotted the woman on the other side.
All the air left my lungs, and for the first time since I could remember, my legs wobbled beneath me.
“This woman says she’s your mother,” Wren murmured, her eyes full of concern. She knew Jill wasn’t my birth mother, but beyond that, she didn’t know much. I kept that information locked down tight, always had.
“Hi, Max,” my birth mother, Janelle, greeted quietly.
My memories of her from childhood were cloudy, but I could assess that she looked much older than she should, years in prison would do that to anyone. She also appeared to be sober, which was not something I’d seen a lot as a kid.
I moved to stand beside Wren, glaring at the hauntingly familiar woman on the other side of the door. “What the fuck are you doing here, Janelle?” I demanded once I’d found my voice. I’d never expected to see her again after she’d abandoned Emmie and me at a motel over twenty years ago. We could have died had I not been able to reach Jill. She and Cal had taken us home that very night, and we’d never looked back. I’d never wanted to, and yet, here was my ugly past staring me right in the face.
“I just got out,” she admitted. “I wanted to see you and your sister.”
The possibility of her even setting eyes on Emmie enraged me. “You mean you want to see the daughter you abandoned when she was four years old?” I thundered. “You want to see the kids you tried to have kidnapped once we were finally living clean?”
She flinched at my rage, and I watched without pity as she fought for composure. “I was a mess back then, I know,” she acknowledged. “I’m trying to get my life back together.”
“Well, do it without me and Emmie. If I hear that you even breathed the same air as her, I’ll make sure you end up back behind bars where you belong,” I snarled.
“Max, please,” she whispered, her eyes full of tears.
“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t get a second chance. Hell, it wouldn’t even be a second chance or a third or fourth. You had plenty of those already. You made a choice. You chose to shoot shit up your veins rather than care for us. You made a choice to fucking abandon us in a motel by the side of the highway that most guests paid for by the hour. Get the fuck out. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
She nodded once through tears. “I thought you might respond this way. I’m staying at the Hampton Inn if you change your mind and want to talk.”
“Not gonna happen,” I bit out, watching as she pulled her purse further up her shoulder and, with a sad smile at Wren, made her way back to her car.
My chest heaved as I stared after her, hating feeling weak even for a moment. When Wren’s hand pressed gently to my back, I flinched away from her touch. I was too raw and too angry to face her now.
“Max—”
“Don’t.” I shook my head. “I know what you’re gonna say. That I was too harsh. That I should have talked to her.”
“That’s not what I was going to say at all,” she countered. “Don’t shut me out, babe. I’m on your side.”
I snorted, unable to quell the fury welling up inside me. “Save the hallmark bullshit, all right, Wren?”
She reeled back from my words. “Don’t try to hurt me because you’re hurting, Max,” she ordered, fire lighting her gorgeous eyes.
I needed to get away—from the look in her eyes, from the house, hell, from this town all together.
“You haven’t shared much about her,” she noted quietly. “But from everything you said, she doesn’t deserve you or Emmie. Don’t be ashamed. She’s no reflection on you.”
The fact that she’d zeroed in so precisely on what I was feeling—shame—pissed me right the hell off. I wouldn’t be weak. Not because of that poor excuse for a mother.
“I don’t feel anything other than pissed,” I barked, unable to quell my temper.
She flinched at my tone.
Fuck, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from lashing out.
“You don’t talk about her,” she noted softly.
“I don’t think about her, ever,” I snapped.
Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Yeah, clearly you have no issues, Max,” she shot back hoarsely.
I sucked in a breath, trying like hell to calm down. “Look, I need to get out of here for a while.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, the defensive gesture that I’d created, twisting my already churning insides to the point of pain. She watched me stoically, unmoving as I gathered my jacket and keys.
“Max, what are you doing?” she demanded quietly, her gaze seeing right through my anger to the pain underneath. She’d always been able to read me, and right now, I couldn’t stand having her see me laid bare.
“I’ll get Gunner over here in five minutes. Lock the door, set the alarm,” I ordered by way of answer.
The shit of it was, I just couldn’t seem to stop myself from running. And that’s exactly what I was doing. It was as though the memory of Janelle was cloying at my insides, making me itch. Making me ache.
I tore away from the house, kicking up gravel as I went trying to escape my past and knowing I could very well be fucking up my future.