“Because toasting bread and cheese is super hard.”
Hal rolled his eyes at me then glanced over at Max. “Don’t let them run you into the ground too hard,” he said, mostly joking, but I knew there was a thread of truth there. “Try to think of this as an unplanned vacation. You need to tap out, do it. Nicky can handle the girls by himself.”
Max’s smile for Hal was small yet genuine. “I appreciate the concern, but I think I’ll be fine. Dominic can keep me on the level.”
Warmth started to creep over my cheeks as he effortlessly included me. He also kept calling me Dominic instead of Nicky, like he understood the difference, and it was doing things to me. “Go on, worrywart, get out of here before you’re late,” I told Hal, partially because he really was running late but mostly because I wanted to forestall my blush.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Ruthless taskmaster.” Hal gave the girls one more kiss apiece then walked out the door. It shut with a gentle creak and carried away the easy atmosphere with it.
Or so I thought, before Max nudged my plate. “Eat up before they disintegrate,” he said. “They’re nice, but they won’t last under that much syrup for long.”
I gratefully turned my eyes back to my breakfast. “You admit they have a weakness, then.”
“A minor design flaw, really more of a motivational challenge than anything else. Who could leave something like this on the plate for long, after all?”
“Not me.” I grinned and ate another bite.
…
The girls polished off their pancakes then put their dishes in the sink and headed upstairs to finish getting dressed without me having to say anything—damn, I had them trained. I grabbed Max’s plate along with mine and went to load everything into the dishwasher.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said, getting up to help.
“You cooked, I’ll clean,” I told him. “You can tidy up for me after lunch.”
“Thanks.” He poured himself another cup of coffee and took an appreciative sip—I didn’t blame him; Hal was frugal in a lot of areas, but he liked good coffee—and leaned his hip against the counter. I turned my attention back to the dishes fast before I took an appreciative look at him and made a fool of myself. “The girls told me they wanted to do all sorts of things today,” he said, “including ‘go ice skating with Mrs. Jackson’s dog’ and ‘ride a unicorn reindeer to see Santa at the mall.’ What’s on the actual agenda?”
“The Santa thing is happening closer to Christmas,” I said after taking a second to recollect Hal’s list of to-dos for the girls. “Minus the unicorn reindeer, I’m sad to say.”
“Pity. That was the part I was really looking forward to.”
I risked turning around to smile at him. “If you really want to court the impossible, you can go grab Phee’s ancient Chihuahua and see if he tolerates you skating around an ice rink with him instead of barking his head off, but I doubt it’ll happen.”
Max shook his head. “I’ll pass. What else?”
I shrugged. “The usual stuff. Snowmen in the backyard—although they’ve melted and been rebuilt so many times at this point they’re kind of hideous. We can put some hot cocoa into thermoses and go on a walk in the park—the girls like to look for animal tracks. We can visit the library or go to the children’s museum—it’s like an indoor playground that nods in the direction of education here and there,” I added when I saw the confused look on his face. “What sounds good to you?”
“The snowmen and hot cocoa would be fun.” He scratched his chin, which he hadn’t shaved that morning. The hint of golden scruff looked good on him. “Maybe the park, too. It’s been a long time since I’ve been for a walk in the woods. But I’ve got to schedule in some time for work today at some point.”
Of course he did. Were all lawyers this busy? I almost thought better of it, but eventually the question slipped out. “Why did you stay away for so long?”
Max looked down into his coffee mug. “Edgewood didn’t have anything I wanted that I couldn’t get in New York,” he said after a minute. “And Edgewood has plenty of things I don’t want, so on the whole I figured it was better to ask Hal and Ariel and the girls to come to me and leave all the rest of it behind.”
That sounded kind of grim. I mean, I could understand avoiding the reminders of his family’s worst days and the car accident. Plus, his mother didn’t live here anymore, but… “Why did you decide to come back now, then?”
A second of awkward silence later, I realized how invasive I was being. “Shit. I’m sorry. Don’t answer that.” If I could have reeled the words back in, I would have. “I get stuck in cop mode sometimes,” I said. “I really didn’t mean to pry.”
“I don’t mind telling you,” Max said, sounding a little surprised at himself. “It’s because of the girls. Marnie called me up and basically begged me to come visit, and I’d been planning on saying no, but after talking to her…” He shook his head. “It’s hard having a parent suddenly vanish from your life. I didn’t want to make their first Christmas without Ariel any tougher for them.”
Oh wow. That was actually really sweet of him. I knew he got along with the girls—everything they ever said about Max was positive, and of course he was best friends with Hal, but until right now I didn’t know he felt so strongly about them.
Max smiled and tilted his head, and I tried hard not to stare. “Anyway, I—”
Whatever else he had been going to say was cut short by the sound of elephants tromping down the stairs. A second later, the girls careened into the kitchen, dressed in weather-appropriate and vaguely matching clothes. “We’re ready!” Marnie announced. Her snow pants were electric purple, whereas Steph’s were neon pink. I think Ariel had been afraid of losing her kids in the snow or something when she bought them.
Not that she ended up giving a shit about losing her kids in the end.
I tried to turn my mind away from her—thinking about Ariel always put me in a bad mood fast. I could understand wanting to get a divorce and even understand her divorcing my brother. I couldn’t understand how she could just pick up and leave one day, leave everything, leave her children, and not give a shit about the turmoil her leaving produced. Edgewood PD had looked for Ariel for three days before she finally bothered to make contact from two states away.
No, I couldn’t think about her now. I shook my head a little and draped a smile over the sour taste she left in my mouth. “You guys look great. Should we start by introducing Max to the snow family out back?”