AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes.” The one she couldn’t find, but now sat, prominent as could be, in the middle of the table.
“He came back and left it for you. When? Before or after he ‘died’?”
She appreciated that he still entertained her notion that Kyle could still be alive. “I guess we’ll never know.” Even if in her heart she wanted to believe this proved he was still out there somewhere.
If nothing else, it was a message that he’d been thinking about her and loved her even when things looked so bleak.
Max hugged her.
She held on to him, letting his strength and love seep into her and dull the grief again.
Max cupped her face and made her look up at him. “He will always be with you.”
“And so will you.” She believed that with her whole heart again.
“You and me, sweetheart. Always. Forever.” He kissed her softly. “I’ll start in the living room. You take thekitchen.” He looked down into the bedroom at her bed. “I don’t think your bedding survived.”
The pretty white bedspread with embroidered leaves in several shades of green hadn’t just been torn from the bed and dumped on the floor, but a lamp had been smashed on it, then the person walked over the shards, which had torn the fabric.
“That was my favorite thing in the room.”
“Maybe it can be repaired.” Max didn’t sound convincing in the least.
“Not without it being completely noticeable.” She sighed over the destruction of her things. “And every time I look at it, it will remind me of this. I don’t want that.”
“Me either. I’ll go get the rest of the boxes out of the truck. We’ll pack up what you want to bring to the ranch. Anything that’s trash, we’ll throw out here in one of those big bins in the parking lot. Anything you want to donate, we can drop at the thrift store later.”
She loved that Max knew how to get her back on track by laying out a plan. “Sounds good. I’ll work on folding all the clothes that got dumped in the bedroom and packing those up. Most of my kitchen stuff can probably be donated.”
“You can bring it to the ranch if you want to keep it. We’ll make room.”
“Most of it will probably be duplicates of what you already have there.”
“But these are yours, and if you want them, keep them.”
“Max, I appreciate that you’re being sweet, but we also need to be practical.”
“I just want you to be happy there and not feel like you’re a guest in someone else’s house.”
“I don’t feel that way,” she said quickly to reassure him.
“Are you sure? Because you asked if it was okay last night if you took a soda from the fridge, then you asked if you could use the washer, even though it was empty.”
“I was being polite.”
Max shrugged. “If it was just you and me, I don’t think you would have asked. Which makes me think you’re being polite because you feel like the house is my father’s and we’re just living there.”
“It does feel that way,” she admitted, even though she was now sleeping in Max’s room. The rest of the house felt like someone else’s. She felt weird about using things without asking, or even just plopping down on the sofa and watching something on TV. As soon as Mr. Wilde walked in, she always felt like she should hand him the remote.
Max put his hands on his hips. “It is your place now, too. I want you to feel that way, and so does my dad. In fact, we talked about the house yesterday morning when you slept in. He thinks you and I should make some updates and changes, since it’s going to be our house one day.”
“What about Chase and Hunt? It’s their place, too.”
“The ranch is split between all of us, but they already have their own places, so everyone agrees the big house will go to me.”
“Okay.” That relieved her concerns that there’d be some sort of dispute down the road.
“I have some ideas for the house. But I’d like your help to make the place ours.”
