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Chapter Fourteen
The tree-trimming partywas in full swing the next night when Max arrived. His parents were supposed to arrive in Whiskey River this evening as well. So he was on edge. He just didn’t know what to expect from them. There hadn’t been any messages since their dinner in New York and he hoped that meant that his mom was still…well back to normal for lack of a better word. But he wasn’t sure.
Angelica had texted him three times on his way over asking him if he’d mind stopping by Jock’s restaurant to pick up the food they’d ordered as well as some last-minute things that she’d ordered from Delilah’s mom’s shop in Last Stand. Apparently, there was some kind of restaurant emergency and neither Jock nor Delilah were able to attend the tree trimming until later.
It was the most couple thing that she’d done and didn’t know if he liked it. He’d been telling himself that he wanted to figure out a way to make this relationship with her work beyond Christmas, and this was simply reinforcing what he already knew. Her life was here. She couldn’t leave Whiskey River. And he wasn’t going to ask her to.
But he had his family flying in from New York, Reg was back in Los Angeles and lining up some art dealers and big-time art buyers to come look at Sox’s work and a part of Max wished he were there.
It was becoming clearer each day that this wasn’t going to work. He’d never been a man to indulge his feelings and he felt for some reason—maybe the holidays or maybe Angelica’s family—he’d forgotten that. Or more like ignored it. He was sure that it was time to take action.
As he parked the Lamborghini and started to gather the boxes of food and other stuff from the car, Angelica ran out to greet him.
“You’re a lifesaver. Oh my gosh, it’s so cold out here. I’ve got hot cocoa waiting for you inside. Here let me take that,” she said, taking one of the boxes, giving him a kiss on his cheek.
And smiling at him as if he were the only person in the world she wanted to see tonight.
That.
That was precisely why he was staying here. Trying to figure out some way to make their lives mesh when he knew they couldn’t. They simply wouldn’t and he’d never gone in for self-delusion until now.
He followed her up the walk toward her town house, which had been gaily decorated outside with multicolored lights lining the two-story building, making it look like a brightly decorated gingerbread house. There was an inflatable snow globe in the front yard that depicted the nativity and luminary bags lit the way to the front door.
There was a wreath on the front door that had an angel in the middle of it holding a banner that readGloria. He stepped inside the hallway and Cosima waved hi to him as she closed the door behind him.
“You’re the hero of this party. We both were panicking and trying to get ready quickly and then you said yes. Thanks,” Cosima said, giving him a one-armed hug as she took the box of food from him and went down the hall to the kitchen.
He took off his coat and hung it in the entryway closet before going to find Angelica in the living room. She wore a winter-white sweater dress that skimmed her curvy body. She’d left her hair down to curl around her shoulders and she had on a pair of boots.
She was busy emptying the box that he’d brought from Yippee Ki Yay and he went to join her. “So I’m sort of your white knight tonight?”
“You are,” she said, then put down the box of ornaments she’d been opening and turned fully to face him.
Putting her hands on his face, something that he loved her doing, she leaned up and kissed him. Not the quick buss she’d given him earlier but a deeper kiss that felt familiar and right. It turned him on because he knew she was his. If he wanted to scoop her up and carry her down the hall and make love to her, he could.
She was his. That kiss told him so in a very explicit way and he craved that. He wanted something of his own. Not the businesses he bought and sold or the community projects he created for other people to enjoy. Something—no someone—who was his.
That was why he wanted this to work.
He hadn’t had someone he could just be himself with since Cal had died. Someone who knew him without the polish and the reputation. Someone he could love.
She pulled back and smiled up at him. As he was grappling with the fact that he was in love with her. “Are you staying over?”
“I can’t. My parents are flying in tonight and I want to be home when they get there,” he said.
“I can’t wait to meet them. Thank you again,” she said.
“It was really nothing. Just a few extra minutes in the car,” he said, trying to be cool and normal—not like everything in his world hadn’t just changed with that simple revelation. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for her to meet them.
“Not just for this,” she said, gesturing to the box. “Thank you for taking a chance on me. Your confidence and attitude made me remember that I’m not someone who hides away from life. I needed that reminder more than you can know.”
She hugged him, putting her head over his heart. “You helped me start living my life again instead of just existing and it means more than you will ever know.”
He hugged her back, thinking that she’d done the same for him. He didn’t know that he’d ever be able to say it the way she had. He simply wasn’t a man to talk about his feelings that way, but he felt them.
*
Angelica couldn’t believethe difference a few weeks had made. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told Max that he’d changed her life. He’d been the white knight she hadn’t known she needed. Not to charge in and rescue her, but to just accept her for who she was so she could start to feel comfortable in her own skin again.
