Page 64 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Max was silent for a moment before he admitted, “You know, I don’t even know what I want. I always complain about the customers, and I don’t really like them, but I assumed it was something I just had to put up with. What would it be like if I really didn’t have to deal with any of them and could just do research all the time?” His hands tightened and loosened on the steering wheel. “It’s hard to imagine, to be honest. And I have no idea how we’re going to get up to Mr. Jones’s to do all this research.”

“We’ll talk to Alex,” Rory said calmly. “We’ll see how they feel about it.”

“They’re fifteen,” Max pointed out.

“They won’t be fifteen forever,” Rory countered, since that wasn’t how humans worked.

Max huffed a breath and conceded, “Well, that’s true.”

“When’s their birthday?” Rory asked.

Max frowned as he stared ahead of him, eyes on the road. “You know, I have no idea. I mean, I must have written it down several times on all those blasted forms when I hired them, but once I worked out they were fifteen, I just plugged the number in and didn’t think any more about it.”

Rory patted his arm. That sounded like Max. Rory would have checked for when to plan the surprise party.

“We’ll just ask them once we’re back.” Rory was silent for a moment, and then offered, “And if you wanted to head up here on your own, I could always stay and manage the store.”

Max’s gaze actually strayed from the road for a fleeting moment, looking at Rory’s face before snapping back forward. “You don’t want to come with me?”

He sounded… unhappy?

“Of course I want to come with you!” Rory exclaimed, a bit too loud. “This was awesome.” He cleared his throat. “But it did occur to me that I wasn’t exactly useful. So if I could be of more use at the shop, I could definitely do that.”

Rory had a lot to thank the man for, after all.

Max was silent for a moment, and then he said firmly, “We’ll talk to Alex. This doesn’t have to be resolved instantly. If things are going well, I could probably even hire someone else, like a weekend supervisor or something. Besides, Mr. Jones might not want us to descend on him every weekend. I think it’ll take a little time to come up with a schedule that makes sense—and you are definitely coming with me if you want to.”

Rory couldn’t help but beam at him, delighted by that certainty. “I want to. Very much.”

“Good,” Max said, nodding definitively. “That’s settled, then.”

He sipped at his coffee and let out a happy noise.

Rory felt himself melt a little. His grumpy mate was really the sweetest man in existence, as long as you weren’t a jerk, and Rory definitely wanted to keep him. But he wasn’t sure that Max had an interest in being kept—or getting Rory in return. Although the fact that he wanted Rory to come with him was definitely a good sign. Rory was going to take it as a positive, and he’d try not to get ahead of himself or get greedy.

He needed to be patient. And Max was definitely worth it! It was just that Rory wanted him so very much. But he was going to be sensible about this. He’d been hoping for his mate for centuries. Of course Max, who wasn’t even sure he believed in fated mates, was doubtful and less open about the whole thing.

Besides, Max did wanted Rory to be with him, which was wonderful. Rory still didn’t know how this was going to end—but he’d leave that up to Max.

“Why don’t you find us some music to listen to,” Max suggested. “I have a streaming service on my phone.”

Rory switched out of the map app, then scrolled through various music options, trying to decide what the best thing to listen to would be. Rory’s tastes were varied, and he finally picked based on the playlist name.

Max laughed when Rory told him, “It’s called crisp autumnal leaves in shades of orange and soft rain and you have an umbrella.”

“Is this your favorite season?” Max asked.

Rory shrugged. “I love the colors so much, but I love the heat of summer.” He considered this for a moment. “I also like all the life bursting in spring. And I like how everything’s sleeping in the winter and yet it can be so bright and crisp with the snow.”

Max snorted. “So you just love everything?”

Rory grinned at him. “Yeah. I mean, there are things I don’t like as much about them, too, but it’s better to dwell on the positive, right?”

Max nodded slowly, a contemplative expression on his face. “I get the idea that’s how you approach most things.”

“You’re not wrong,” Rory conceded. “I mean, I can’t control everything. Sometimes, bad things happen. Sometimes, I have to start over somewhere new when I’m not ready to let the old things go. But the old things are gone just the same. Rather than dwelling on all the things that I miss, I try to focus on all the good things instead. If I were always looking back, I’d miss what was right in front of me.”

Rory had so much past that he could look back on, and while there were many beautiful moments, there were terrible moments, too.