A feel a deep blush rising from my neck to my cheeks. “You’re pretty, too,” I say in an attempt to be funny. Max gives me this lopsided smile, but he doesn’t blush, and I’m immediately jealous of how calm and collected he is.

“Want to sit down?” he asks, gesturing to the chair in front of him.

I set my coffee on the table and then sit down, and then the next thing I know, I’m face-to-face with the guy I’ve been texting. “What kind of coffee did you get?” he asks.

“Iced vanilla sweet cream.” I bite on my bottom lip. “But we’re not here to talk about coffee.”

He grins again, and there’s this shyness to his expression that makes me smile. “Can I just say, that…you have the most amazing smile ever?”

That only makes me smile bigger. I roll my eyes. “No compliments until you explain to me about your girlfriend.”

He nods. “Right. You mean to say that I will explain about how I don’t have a girlfriend.”

I fold my arms across my chest and try to give him a stern expression. “I’m waiting on this explanation.”

He laughs. “Okay, so, you totally confused me the other day. My phone didn’t have any unusual texts at all, but then I realized someone could have deleted them.”

I nod. “Duh.”

He grins every time he looks at me, and this time is no different. “So anyway…” he says, sliding his fingers around his coffee as he gazes up at me. “I was totally confused because I didn’t even leave the house last weekend. My mom had a bad arthritis flare-up so I was taking care of her. And then it hit me.”

His eyes widen and he makes his annoyed face, curling his lip. “Her nursing service.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“There’s this nursing company that sends nurses over to care for people with illnesses. Mom needs a nurse pretty much full time when she’s having a flare up. But when it goes away after a few days, she’ll be fine for a while and I can just take care of her. But this week one of the nurses stopped by to bring her a new heat compress for her back, and she brought her daughter, who is this chick I can’t stand. Her name is Ashley and she’s a freshman at my old school.”

I lift an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. “Brenda is the nurse, and she’s great. She’s really sweet and my mom likes her, but she brings her stupid daughter with her all the time, and this chick is like—” He scowls. “She’s obsessed with me. The first time she met me, she asked me to go out with her, and she’s totally not my type so I said no, and then she got pissed and kept asking me. And now every time she comes over, she tries to talk to me and it’s the most annoying ever. I usually just leave the house and wait for Brenda and her evil daughter to leave before I come back.”

“Okay…” I say, giving him a penetrating glare. “This story is sounding a little bit believable.”

He tilts his head and gazes at me with this expression that makes my heart speed up and my toes tingle. “I’m getting to the proof part.”

“Okay,” I say. “I’m waiting.”

“So…”  he says, grinning at me. “This weekend, when they stopped by the house, I was in the shower. My phone was on my bed. When I got out of the shower, they had already left, but I could smell Ashley’s perfume in my freaking bedroom. It really pissed me off, because I figured she had come looking for me and then left when she didn’t find me. But then I realized that she could have gone through my phone.”

“So where’s your proof?” I say, even though I’m pretty sure I believe him anyway. No one can fake being this sincere.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “I called Brenda and explained the situation, after talking to my mom about it. She’s the one who told me to call Brenda because she remembered Ashley disappearing for a while when they were at our house.”

While he talks, he pulls up something on his phone, and then he hands it to me. It’s opened to his saved voice mail messages.

“Listen to the first one,” he says.

I press play, then hold his phone up to my ear. While I listen, he watches me, his eyes glued to mine.

“Hi Max, this is Brenda,” A woman says on the voice message. “I just talked with Ashley and she admitted to messing with your phone. I am so sorry, Max. I had no idea. I will not be bringing her with me to any of my client’s homes anymore, especially not yours. I’m so very sorry that she violated your privacy like that. Please tell your mom I have taken care of the situation, and I hope she’ll continue to let me take care of her. Thank you.”

I set the phone down. A few moments of silence pass between us while we have this little staring contest. A little wrinkle appears between Max’s eyes. He’s pleading with me silently, asking me to believe him.

“That does sound pretty convincing,” I say at last. I let out a shaky breath. “You have no idea how horrifying it was to get those texts from her.”

“I’m so sorry, Jess.” Max reaches out and takes my hand from across the table. The feeling of his warm hand on mine sends a shiver of delight up my arm. “I know it sounds crazy, but I had so much fun talking to you. It felt—I don’t know—like—”

“Like we’re perfect for each other?” I suggest.

He smiles and I’m still not used to how cute he is. “Yes. Exactly like that.”

“I feel that way too,” I say softly. I don’t know where this boldness comes from, but I like it. I like Max.

And I think he likes me.

“So, am I forgiven?” he asks, his shoulders lifting up in this boyish way.

I nod quickly. “I think so.”

“Good,” he says. He turns my hand over, so that my palm is facing up. His fingers slide lazily up and down mine. “Because my next question is really important.”

“And what is that?” I ask, my breath catching in my throat.

His other hand reaches across the table, and he takes both of my hands into his. Then he meets my eyes with a mischievous and terribly sexy grin. “Want to go on a date with me?”

“Yes,” I say, unable to hide my excitement. Relief replaces all of that ache in my heart, and I grin like crazy as he grins back at me, and as we hold hands across the table, I can tell we’re thinking the same thing.

This is the start of something wonderful.

 

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