“What are you doing here?” Maxi asked.
“Oh, just wanted to check it out.” James frowned at Chandler. Maxi wondered if he was jealous.
“James, this is Chandler Vanbeck—he owns the new art gallery—and this is Muriel Fox.”
“I hear your wife is quite an artist,” Muriel said to James.
“Yes. So do I.” James’s odd reply caused Muriel to frown. “I mean, she hasn’t had a chance to do it for a while. When we were younger, she was quite good.”
“Would you like to sit?” Maxi asked. “We could pull over a chair from that table.”
“No... I... um… I have to be somewhere else,” James stammered. “I was passing by and saw you so figured I’d say hi.”
“Okay.” Why was James acting so strange? Probably because he hadn’t expected her to be at the Purple Blueberry. But why washehere? Was he really just passing by? Her earlier suspicions of him and Sandee bubbled up, but that couldn't be true. Jane and Claire had assured her that was a misunderstanding.
James pecked her cheek and squeezed her arm, and before she could think any more about it, he walked away.
Muriel turned in her chair and slid the sunglasses down her nose as she watched him walk away. “Your husband is quite handsome. Both coming and going.”
“I know.” Maxi was also watching James leave.
Chandler cleared his throat, and both women switched their gaze from James’s retreating behind to Chandler.
“Don’t worry, dear, you’re handsome too,” Muriel assured him.
“Thank you.” He held up his empty wine glass. “And with that, I think I’ll go get a refill. Would you ladies like one?”
They shook their heads. Both of them had half-full glasses.
Chandler left, and Muriel put her sunglasses on the table then looked at Maxi. “Kind of odd that your husband didn’t sit with us.”
Was it that obvious, or was Muriel just really perceptive? Maxi sighed. “We’re kind of going through a rough patch.”
Muriel patted her arm. “I think I know what you mean. You’re branching out, doing things for yourself for once. You said you hadn’t painted in decades because you set it aside to raise your family. Now you’re havingyoutime, and it’s adding a different dynamic.”
“It’s not just that.” Maxi glanced at Chandler. She felt awkward talking about her personal problems to a stranger, but Muriel had a way of making one feel as if they’d been friends for ages. Maxi had a feeling that Muriel would understand exactly where she was coming from. “We were having trouble before. Our relationship was distant. That’s what prompted me to go my own way.” She didn’t want to tell her how she’d wrongfully suspected the cheating. It was embarrassing. “We’ve grown apart since the kids left.”
Muriel’s left brow quirked up. “Well, if you ask me, that’s not a man that wants to stay apart.”
“Really?” Maxi glanced in the direction James had taken, but he was gone. “Maybe it’s for the best. I’m afraid if we go back to our old ways, I’ll lose this new part of me. If I have to choose, I’m not sure if I would choose my old life or my new.”
Muriel gave her a funny look. “Who says you have to choose?”
Maxi frowned. “I don’t know. James never really encouraged me to do creative things before. Somehow, I feel like I have this one opportunity to live out my dreams, and I don’t want to waste it.”
Muriel shrugged and took a sip of wine. “I can certainly understand that, but maybe you can find a way to blend the old with the new and have it all.”
James’s mind whirred as he wandered through the crowd of tourists with their colorful summer shirts, flip-flops, and half-eaten ice cream cones. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but things hadn’t gone quite as James had planned at the Purple Blueberry.
Who was that guy—Chandler—sitting with Maxi? Okay, maybe he was reading too much into that. They had only been sitting at a table together, and it wasn’t just the two of them. Another woman had been there. For all James knew, the man and woman were a couple. Maybe they were all just friends. But the vibe the man was giving off wasn’t that of a friend. And the way he looked at Maxi told James the man’s intentions were more than just friendly.
He’d messed up. The whole plan was to join Maxi, loosen up, have a good time, and reconnect. But the presence of this Chandler guy had thrown him for a loop, and James had never been good at thinking on his feet. In fact, this whole misunderstanding had started because he couldn’t respond to Maxi’s question about how he’d ignored her downtown when he’d been trying to keep Picasso as a surprise.
What he should have done was sat right down at the table and joined in. Pretended to be at ease in Maxi’s artsy world. Had that really become her world so quickly? Would he ever fit in? Sally would probably say he never would if he didn’t try. And now he’d screwed up trying.
Maxi had invited him to join them, which probably meant that Chandler was just a friend. If James could only have thought that through faster, he would have sat down. Right now he could be drinking wine with Maxi. Instead he was walking down the street alone, and she was sitting back at the Purple Blueberry with Chandler. It was too late to go back now. He’d already said he was just passing by. Too late to fix what he should have done.
Should have, would have, could have. Hopefully he hadn’t blown his chances.
