“Yes,” I said incredulously. “I was living in my car, Max, with no guarantee of a future.”
“Key word:living.”
I pulled the towel tighter around me. “Are you saying you would give up billions?”
“Well, my other suggestion involves preemptively whacking the entire Hawthorne family, and I was afraid you’d take that as a euphemism.”
“Max!”
“Hey, I’m not the one who made out with Jameson Hawthorne.”
I wanted to explain to her exactly how I’d let that happen, but all that came out of my mouth was “Where were you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I called you, right after it happened, before the thing with Jameson. I needed you, Max.”
There was a long, pregnant silence on the other end of the phone line. “I’m doing just fine,” she said. “Everything here is just peachy. Thanks for asking.”
“Asking about what?”
“Exactly.”Max lowered her voice. “Did you even notice that I’m not calling from my phone? This is my brother’s. I’m on lockdown. Total lockdown—because of you.”
I’d known the last time we’d talked that something wasn’t right. “What do you mean, because of me?”
“Do you really want to know?”
What kind of question was that? “Of course I do.”
“Because you haven’t asked about me at all since any of this happened.” She blew out a long breath. “Let’s be honest, Ave, you barely asked about me before.”
My stomach tightened. “That’s not true.”
“Your mom died, and you needed me. And with everything with Libby and that bob-forsaken shipstain, you really needed me. And then you inherited billions and billions of dollars, so of course, you needed me! And I was happy to be there, Avery, but do you even know my boyfriend’s name?”
I racked my mind, trying to remember. “Jared?”
“Wrong,” Max said after a moment. “The correct answer is that I don’t have a boyfriend anymore, because I caughtJaxonon my phone, trying to send himself screenshots of your texts to me. A reporter offered to pay him for them.” Her pause was painful this time. “Do you want to know how much?”
My heart sank. “I’m so sorry, Max.”
“Me too,” Max said bitterly. “But I’m especially sorry that I ever let him take pictures of me.Personalpictures. Because when I broke up with him, he sent those pictures to my parents.” Max was like me. She only cried in the shower. But her voice was hitching now. “I’m not even allowed to date, Avery. How well do you think that went down?”
I couldn’t even imagine. “What do you need?” I asked her.
“I need my life back.” She went quiet, just for a minute. “You know what the worst part is? I can’t even be mad at you, becausesomeone tried to shoot you.” Her voice got very soft. “And you need me.”
That hurt, because it was true. I needed her. I’d always needed her more than she had needed me, because she was my friend, singular, and I was one of many for her. “I’m sorry, Max.”
She made a dismissive sound. “Yeah, well, the next time someone tries to shoot you, you’re going to have buy me something really nice to make it up to me. Like Australia.”
“You want me to buy you a trip to Australia?” I asked, thinking that could probably be arranged.
“No.” Her reply was pert. “I want you to buy me Australia. You can afford it.”
I snorted. “I don’t think it’s for sale.”
“Then I guess that you have no choice but toavoid getting shot at.”
