“I’m glad I could help.”
He looked like he was about to say more, then Marnie piped up, “Uncle Nicky, I got green in my scarf!”
…
One hasty wash-and-dry cycle and an early lunch later—my snowman grilled cheeses were amazing, as usual—and Hal was back to take over minding the girls while I drove Max over to talk to the mechanic who’d taken in his car. Unfortunately, the news was nothing good. I glazed over at “cracked cylinder head” and waited out the mechanic’s prediction of a week to get parts in and get the repairs done.
Aside from a clenched jaw and a long exhale, Max took that pretty well, honestly, but then—
“Since you’re here, are you gonna see the old man while you’re waiting on your car?” the mechanic asked, trying for casual but failing miserably. Of course he knew who Max was—the family name was distinctive, and being a busybody was pretty much everyone’s side hustle in this town.
Max had stiffened, his smile fixed in place like a wax figure. “No,” was all he said.
After we left, we jumped back in the Jeep, and I let it idle while the heater worked its magic. Max was still tense if the tick in his jaw was any indication, so instead of heading straight back to Hal’s, I asked, “I know you mentioned work this morning, but do you want to take a walk?”
He’d mentioned wanting to go to Adirondack Park, and now seemed as good a time as any for it. Besides, Hal had things under control at home, and I was kind of looking forward to having a little more one-on-one time with Max.
“Sure,” he said after a moment. I didn’t give him a chance to second-guess, just fired up the Jeep and drove for the trailhead.
Technically, Edgewood was already part of Adirondack Park. The park itself was a combination of state and private land, and there were lots of little villages and towns like ours inside of it. There was a pretty big balancing act between allowing private owners the freedom to do what they wanted with their land and preserving the landscape for wildlife and recreation, but most people agreed that what the tourists wanted, the tourists got, and that meant the conservationists had won out over the clear-cutters for now.
It also meant that getting into an uninhabited but well-walked part of the Park was pretty easy. The trailhead was just a ten-minute drive from the mechanic’s. We started hiking from there, up a steady incline that traced a path around the well-wooded hill ahead of us until it reached the very top, where the trees had been cleared to give hikers a better view.
“I like this trail,” he shared as we stepped side-by-side along the slightly icy path. “Hal and I used to ride our bikes here all the time when we were little. We liked to pretend we were explorers looking for wild animals. We never saw any bears or bobcats, though.” He half smiled. “Which is probably for the best.”
“I used to follow you sometimes.” I said it before my brain could take it back. Way to set yourself up looking pathetic, Dominic. The way Max was looking at me didn’t make me feel pathetic, though. There wasn’t a hint of pity in his face—only curiosity.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt. You were Hal’s friend, you know? Not mine. He was pretty good about sharing things, but I don’t think he’d have shared you back then.”
To his credit, Max didn’t immediately leap to defend my brother, who I knew full well had gone through a little-shit phase in middle school. “Maybe not,” he said at last. “I like getting the chance to get to know you now, though.” He sighed. “I feel like an idiot for not recognizing you when you picked me up, but I’m kind of glad I didn’t, too. It gave me a chance to meet you before the past started butting in.”
God, if that wasn’t an opening line, I didn’t know how to recognize one. I still didn’t leap, though. I was too nervous. Last night had been good, this morning had been better, but…what was this all about? What did Max want? To be better friends with his bestie’s brother, or something more?
“I kind of wish we could have met again somewhere else, though,” Max said before I could ask any of the questions buzzing around in my brain. “I know I’m ‘interesting’ to people, given everything that happened with my dad and the fact that I haven’t been here for so long, but honestly? I can handle an eighty-hour work week way better than I can handle questions about the past. Having to think about everything that happened before my mom and I left feels…overwhelming.”
Wow. I’d just gotten more honesty than I’d been hoping for. It took a moment for me to process it all, and Max’s smile started to slip away. “I know it’s kind of pathetic, but—”
“It’s not pathetic. Overwhelming sucks,” I said before I lost my nerve. “I had a hell of a time at first when I left the military. There are a lot of companies in bigger cities that advocate for hiring vets, but I just couldn’t handle being around so many people. I came back here just to take a breather, at first, but even with the nosiness—and people asked me a ton of questions when I first got back, it was ridiculous—I can handle a small town way better. Plus the police were hiring, and I met the qualifications, and…” I shrugged. “It just came together.”
“I can’t imagine moving out of the city.”
I knew a lot of people felt that way about urban living, but I personally couldn’t fathom it. “Doesn’t it get kind of lonely?”
Max chuckled. “It never gets lonely. That’s part of the charm—you’ve always got people around you.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know most of them, right?”
“That’s also part of the charm,” he replied wryly. “Although I’ve always had the best time when Hal and the girls came out for the holidays.”
I wasn’t surprised. “He was really supportive about me coming back here when I finished my tour,” I said, looking down at my feet to make sure I didn’t slip and fall on my face.
I didn’t want to bore Max with details about my life, but when I glanced over, he was looking right at me with nothing but genuine interest in his face. “He set me up in my old room in the basement, told me I could stay as long as I wanted to. I didn’t want to intrude in their family life, though, so I bought my own place as fast as I could.”
“Hence the remodel with the rats.”
“Yeah. It was the best thing I could find in my budget, and even then…” I wagged my hand back and forth, to indicate the sketchy nature of my living arrangement. I didn’t regret buying the house, but there was a lot that needed to happen before I could do something like have the girls over or think about bringing a date home. “Hal’s offered to help me out with it, but he’s working all hours these days, and I don’t want to dig into his off time.”