“Not particularly. It doesn’t suit you.”
Max laughed and shook his head. He had the sudden urge to shout at her to go back to Nashville and leave him be. Or to take her in his arms and kiss her.What the hell, Max?
Max kept his tone light, trying not to let her get under his skin (too late). “So, how can I help you this afternoon, Sadie? You obviously didn’t come two thousand miles, without any snow gear, to comment about my beard.”
“You haven’t answered your phone or replied to the, oh, two hundred text messages I’ve left you.”
They stood there a moment longer—and then Max said, gruffly, “What do you want, Sadie?” He no longer had the energy for pithy commentary.
“I want you to come back to Nashville with me.” For a moment, Sadie looked like she might cry. Max noticed a few other things: the light purple circles under her eyes; the slight red rash she always got on her cheeks after having to wear heavy makeup for shows; the two braids poking out from the toque—which was how she wore her hair after a show, to give it a rest from all the teasing.
“Did you have a show last night?” Even if he hadn’t talked with Sadie, he had been following what she’d been up to.
Sadie nodded. “It was the last stop on tour with Tasha. I ditched the wrap party to come here.”
“How did you even know where to find me?” He hadn’t remembered ever talking to Sadie about the cabin in the Rockies, but even if he had, it wasn’t exactly easy to find on a map. The directions were more like,Drive toward the mountains, then when you hit the fork in the road turn left, and after the row of seven evergreens, take a right at the Fox’s Corners sign...
“Bobbi gave me the address.”
“Did she now?” Max tried to garner irritation toward Bobbi, but he felt as tired as Sadie looked. “Look, I’m sorry you came all the way here. And the whole ‘car into the snowbank’ thing. But I’m not going back with you. End of story.”
Sadie suddenly looked furious. “End of story? Oh no, Max Brody, you do not get to ‘end of story’ me. We had a deal.”
“Trust me, Bobbi reminds me frequently about my ‘contractual obligations,’ ” he grumbled. Max had to hand it to Sadie—Bobbi had been calling and leaving voicemails relentlessly, but she had not gotten on a plane and showed up in a snowstorm to get him. “But I’m not skipping out on anything, okay?”
Max waited for her to berate him further, but she had gone quiet and looked pale. He set his hands gently on her upper arms. “Are you going to fall over on me?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but her voice betrayed her.
“Oh, I know you are,” Max said. “But we should get out of the cold—I can barely feel my fingers and toes. And when was the last time you had something to eat?”
“I don’t remember,” she replied. “But I can’t be bribed with a good meal, Max. You’re coming back with me.”
She moved closer still, and the scent of vanilla was oddly soothing, even if the expression on her face wasn’t.
14
Sadie
Banff, Canada
December 14
Max led Sadie down the snowy road, her bag slung casually over his shoulder, as if it weighed nothing. The tavern they were headed toward was strung with unruly Christmas lights, half of them burnt out.
“I’m guessing this place isn’t exactly known for its food,” Sadie said. The wooden sign, hanging askew, said “The Local” in uneven, fading lettering. Her stomach growled and she wished she could give it some sort of warning that it shouldn’t get its hopes up too high. She wished she could send that same message to her heart. The moment she had seen Max it had started racing as fast as it did before she went onstage. And she hadn’t been telling him the truth about the beard not suiting him. He looked rugged and handsome—and more relaxed than he did in Nashville. Almost like he was an entirely different guy.
But he wasn’t. He was still the same guy who had ghosted her for almost an entire year. She had come all the way to Banff to get him—and he still refused to come back.
“Trust me, they have a killer French onion soup served in a bread bowl, and great poutine,” he was saying. “I come here all the time. It’s not a bad spot, really.”
Inside, the bar was dingy yet charming, a post-and-beam-style cabin with sawdust on the floors and kitschy art everywhere. There was one entire wall covered in Canadian two-dollar bills. Some of them were brown, some red, some featured Queen Elizabeth staring out benignly while some had little brown robins instead.
“Hey, Maxy. Haven’t seen you for a few days.” The woman behind the bar was pretty, in a fresh outdoorsy way. Sadie couldn’t help it, she felt a pang of jealousy.
“Kara, you know wild horses can’t keep me away,” Max said, grinning back.
Sadie was standing awkwardly beside Max, not sure what to do or say. Was he really flirting with another woman in front of her? True, Sadie was just his fake girlfriend, but this Kara, with her strawberry hair in soft waves almost to her waist, and her big green eyes, didn’t know that! Sadie cleared her throat and Max glanced her way as if he had just realized she was still there. “Oh. Kara, this is—”
