Being outside the house helped Max relax a little more than he would ever have been able to being inside Sadie’s home. He could handle her scent in small doses, the familiar feeling of sitting beside her and smelling her scent on the breeze, but being consumed by her scent in the house was nearly driving him insane.

“I hope everything was to your liking…”

Sadie’s soft voice was quiet; shy in a way. It reminded him of the way she had spoken on their first date. He had been thrilled when she had agreed to go out with him, and her timidity had only made her all the more appealing to him. Now, they were in nearly the same situation, and he found himself wishing there was some way for him to get over the hurdle that was preventing them from moving forward. It was time to have the hard conversation. No matter how vulnerable and awful it was going to be.

“I’ve missed you, you know,” Max said finally. It was the understatement of the century, but it was a place to start, nonetheless.

“Really?” Sadie asked, looking at him with an expression on her face that was difficult for him to pinpoint. Usually, it was easy for him to hone in on her emotions, but they were so all over the place that it was impossible to tell what it was she really felt.

“Yeah,” Max said, sighing inwardly. Of course, this would come as a surprise to her. Sadie had already more than moved on. She hated his guts. The fact that they were sitting here together was basically a funny fluke; a joke the universe was playing on him so he would really have the point driven in to him that he would never be able to have a true family.

“What’s it like to be back after so long?” Sadie asked, shifting in her seat.

“It’s bizarre, you know. Everything’s the same, but it’s also really different,” Max said quietly. “I almost wish I would have stayed where I was. Ever since what happened with my parents, I don’t think I take change very well.”

Sadie laughed softly.

“No…I don’t think you do either.”

Max grinned and shook his head. “You always knew me better than anybody else. It’s so strange how everything has changed.”

“Are you seeing somebody?” Sadie asked abruptly. “Because if you are, you should work harder to let them in. It’s been this long already. You deserve to be with somebody who understands you.”

Max prickled. She sure was glib about it all. Did Sadie seriously expect him to get over her just like that? She had broken his heart into about a thousand pieces and hadn’t even bothered to write back to him, and now she was telling him, in no uncertain terms, that it was time for him to move on. What the hell had he been thinking when he had accepted her invitation? Why did he delude himself into thinking he had a chance in hell to make things right.

“No,” Max said rigidly. “I’m not seeing anybody. I’ve been with a girl here or there, but nothing that took. I guess I’m just too much of a loner.”

Sadie smiled. “I’m not really surprised about that. You always had such high standards…”

“And you met them,” Max said, a sudden sternness in his voice.

Sadie seemed startled by the statement, and for a brief moment, Max regretted letting the words slip from his tongue. But the flicker in Sadie’s eyes stopped him from apologizing, both to himself and to her.

“I didn’t think I did,” Sadie said softly, looking down at her hands. The tone of her voice made Max second-guess his own feelings. He wanted to gather her close to his body the way he once had, and feel the soft brush of her lips against his own. Why was he bitter or angry at her when the situation had been horrible for both of them? He had been an insufferable idiot, and she had been right not to put up with him. At least, to a point.

Still, she had driven him away pretty harshly, and he had learned, long ago, to take a person at their word. When she had gone off on him that fateful night, she had cut him more deeply than he had ever been cut by anybody since his parents had abandoned him. He had needed a long time to recover from the wounds her tongue had lashed onto his body, but once he had, he had realized that most of what she had said was truth. That was when he began writing to her…letter after unanswered letter…leaving him feeling worse off than he had been if he had just heeded her advice and forgotten her once and for all.

“You were everything I needed, Sade,” Max said, holding her gaze in his dark, serious eyes. She was staring at him now, her beautiful eyes clear and concerned. “I never needed anybody but you. My last few years in Stonybrooke were the best of my entire life, and that was because of you.”

Sadie gasped softly, staring at Max as though seeing him for the first time. The wolf within him stirred, and he could sense the heat rising in her body as he reached out to her slowly, caressing her face, and holding her hand in his own. She shuddered under his touch, as if she had been waiting for it just as long as he had. The heady scent of arousal immediately electrified the wolf into wakefulness, and suddenly, there was no self-control left for Max any longer. He was succumbing to his deepest, most carnal desires, and the man within him was gone, only to be replaced by the very beast Sadie had claimed she never wanted to see again.

But, this time, he wasn’t going anywhere. He was going to make her his again, no matter what it took. That was final.