Closest unit, shit. I was their only unit for another…two minutes. Great. At least an eleven eighty-two meant the accident didn’t involve any injuries. “I’m right next to Highway 10,” I said into my radio as I headed out of the parking lot. “How far out are we talking?”
It must have been a slow night, because dispatch was being downright loquacious. “Just a couple of miles. Poor guy slid off the road, but from the sound of things, he’ll be okay once he’s towed out of the ditch. Probably won’t be able to get a truck there until tomorrow, though. You know how tonight can be.”
“Yeah.” I turned my Jeep onto Highway 10 and drove, keeping my eyes peeled for headlights off to the side. “What kind of car am I looking for?”
“Um, some sort of…let me see…a BMW coupe, looks like.”
I just about drove off the road myself as I fumbled the radio. “Repeat, please.”
“Black BMW coupe, just the driver to worry about, I’ve got his name here somewhere…”
Up ahead on the left, a roadside flare illuminated an emergency warning triangle. A little farther down I saw a pair of headlights. One of them was partially covered by snow, but the other one illuminated the silhouette of a man. It was a very familiar silhouette. “Never mind, I’ve got it,” I mumbled before putting the radio away.
I pulled over on the far side of the road, put my Jeep into park, and took a deep breath. Oh my god. He was here. He came back. And I was making him wait in the cold. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment then grabbed my flashlight and got out. We were separated by only the width of the road. The clouds overhead were clearing, and I could make out Max’s features in the light of the moon. He was smiling.
“Hey, Dominic,” he called out, tucking his hands in his coat pockets sheepishly. “So, um…this wasn’t how I planned on seeing you.”
“Are you sure?” I managed, trying to sound nonchalant and failing miserably. “Because this is the second time I’ve found you on the side of this road. I’m starting to think you’ve got a thing for being rescued.” I forced myself to take a single step into the road then another. The third came easier, and in a few seconds, I was there, in front of him. Max was dressed for the weather this time, at least, but I still wanted to hold him tight and warm him up.
“Maybe I do,” he admitted. “But only if it’s you doing the rescuing.”
“I guess you’re lucky I was working tonight.”
“I guess so.” He pushed a gloved hand into his hair then grimaced. “Look, I came back because I realized that…being in New York, it isn’t…it hasn’t…”
I decided to take the plunge and try to make things easier on him. “I’m in love with you.”
Max blinked.
And blinked again.
He looked as stunned as if I’d just walked up and slapped him.
I hoped my confession was more welcome than that, but I was on a roll now, so I was gonna go with it. “I love you, and I was going to pack a bag and drive to New York City tonight so I could tell you that I love you in the morning. Things got weird before, and then they got weirder because we didn’t talk, not really, but I wish we had. I want us to talk about the good things and the hard things. I want us to talk, the next time we argue about something. I want to fight it out with you, and then I want to kiss you and make up, because I have never been a sadder excuse for a person than I was this last week, and that includes the week I spent at Walter Reed recovering from tour.”
“Oh.”
My heart was about to beat out of my chest, and that was the best he could do? “I’m kind of looking for a little more specificity than that,” I said haltingly. “Do—do you want me to back off, do you want to call Hal, do you want me to—”
Before I could say another word, Max reached out, grabbed my jacket, and pulled me into a kiss. It was a cold, awkward kiss—our noses were freezing, his lips were chapped, and my mouth must have tasted like too-sugary frosting. But damn. It was still the best kiss I’d ever had. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer, warming him as best I could, welcoming him against my body. He could stay there forever, as far as I was concerned.
Finally, Max pulled back, though, just far enough to catch his breath and say, “I came back because I missed you too much to stay away. I’m not happy in New York anymore, and once I finish the case I’m working on, I want…I want to make a new future for myself. A new life. And I want you in it.” He chuckled. “I want to move back to the weird, codependent town where the mayor dresses like a beaver and news travels at light speed in the diner and my own father doesn’t recognize me.”
That last part sucked, and we’d be talking about it soon enough, but first… “And where there are people who love you,” I said. “Hal and the girls and me. Especially me.”
Max smiled again and kissed me gently. “I love you, too, Dominic.”
Oh, Jesus. It was like a huge weight had lifted off my chest. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him again and again, until the sharp beep of a horn as a truck drove by on the road reminded me that, technically, I was still on the job for at least another—
Bedoopadoop. Bedoopadoop. I reached into my pocket and silenced my phone’s alarm, reminding me that it was finally midnight.
“Happy New Year, Max,” I said, warm and close and a little breathless with how giddy I felt, like sparklers were going off inside my rib cage.
Max’s expression was soft, a smile still dancing on his lips. “Happy New Year, Dominic.”
Yeah. I think it would be.
Epilogue
Max
“Sit, Baby!”
Baby sat, tongue lolling out and waiting for the next command, like the good, obedient girl she was.
I turned to Jake. “You see that? That’s what we’re shooting for, buddy. Sit, Jake!”
Jake blinked his big brown eyes and looked up at me, happily panting.
Baby glanced between us then stood, like she was testing whether or not she needed to stay sitting.
“No, Baby, you’re my role model,” I told her. “I need you to stay strong. Sit!”
Baby sat again.
“Good girl.” I looked at Jake, the two-year-old Labra-mutt that Dominic and I had picked out from the shelter for his birthday. “Sit, Jake!”
Jake reared up, put his paws on my chest, and tried to lick my face.
“Oh my God, you’re gross,” I informed him, scratching him behind the ears. I didn’t coo when I talked to him, no matter what Dominic said. “Groooooooss.”