Finding Forever

by Gael, Christine

  “Hear, hear,” Max said dryly, taking a sip of her own tea.

  “No, I’m serious,” Anna insisted. “You said he was laughing at you, at one point?”

  “Well, no, not exactly,” Max replied. “It was more like he was… I don’t know, kind of smirking, I guess. And even when he did seem to be listening, no matter what I said, he just kept shaking his head.”

  “That bastard,” said Anna, a little too loudly, and the couple at the table next to them shot the group a confused glance. “Sorry,” Anna muttered, lowering her voice a little and leaning in to talk to the others. “Seriously, though.” She turned to Max. “I’m sure you did great, Max. Some people just think they’re better than everyone else. Untouchable.”

  Max sighed. “That’s the most frustrating thing about this. There really isn’t anything I can do – that much was obvious. He was pretty clear, and despite my threats about getting a lawyer, I’m pretty sure I’ve got no legal recourse here.”

  “Maybe he just didn’t take you seriously because of your age,” suggested Cee-cee.

  “That’s a good point,” Anna said. “You should let me talk to him. I bet I can change his mind.”

  “Come on,” Max replied, her lips tipping into a grin at her aunt’s unwavering support. “Don’t be silly.”

  This had been a good idea, Stephanie thought with a nod. Max got to vent to her family and take comfort in the knowledge that they had her back, no matter what. Steph was pretty sure Anna would start crafting some cockamamy revenge schemes against the man who’d hurt their niece. She’d never go through with any of it, of course, but it was sure to get a laugh, which Max desperately needed.

  “No, I want to do it,” insisted Anna. “Let me teach him a thing or two about manners, at the very least. Even if we can’t get him to reconsider taking your shop away, we can at least get him to reconsider how he talks to other people.”

  “It wasn’t anything he said,” Max acknowledged. “I mean, he was polite enough, in person. It was just this feeling that I got, you know?”

  “You can’t just give up, Max,” Anna persisted. “There’s got to be something…”

  Stephanie watched this exchange silently from her side of the table, her eyes drifting between the other three women as they discussed possible next steps. She knew she should be participating, trying to reassure Max, at least, even if she didn’t have any suggestions of her own. But she was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation, and an even harder time getting comfortable at the table.

  The luncheonette was an adorable, clean little place, and the smells wafting from the kitchen were out of this world. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn’t get herself to relax and enjoy the moment. The walls felt too close together, and she hated having her back to the entrance.

  Come on, she told herself, resisting the urge to peer over her shoulder every time the door opened. This is exactly your kind of place. And you were the one who suggested this. Why are you suddenly not having a good time?

  Her chair creaked and a shadow fell over her face as a pair of men, who might have been brothers, tried to squeeze past her in the close quarters. She froze for a moment as one of them stared down at her, waiting for her to scoot her seat in so they could get by. Her heart began to pound erratically and her hands went slick with sweat.

  “Steph? Hey, earth to Steph! Do you read me? Move your chair in so the guys can get by.”

  The sound of Anna’s voice was what finally dragged Steph’s attention back to the present. “Yeah, sorry,” she said, blinking a couple times as she moved forward to let the men pass. “I was zoning out for a minute,” she managed to murmur.

  “You were staring at those guys like you knew them and weren’t exactly a fan,” observed Cee-cee, her brows knitting together. “Do you know them?”

  Steph cleared her throat. “Oh. No, I didn’t even realize.” She forced a smile onto her face, glancing at the others, but they didn’t seem appeased.

  “Are you okay, Aunt Stephanie?” asked Max. “You look a little pale.”

  Cee-cee nodded. “She does. Have you been sleeping all right?”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she replied dismissively. “Anyway, I agree with Anna.”

  Anna stared at her blankly. “About what?”

  “I think it would be worth going to Ian,” Steph replied, eager to steer the conversation away from herself. She leaned forward in her chair, addressing Max. “Obviously, we all know you’re more than capable of standing up for yourself. But it sounds like the impression you made when you first met this guy is going to cause problems whenever you talk to him from now on. If someone goes there on your behalf, though, someone he can respect…”

  Max gave her an incredulous look. “So, just to clarify, you’re suggesting that I show him how mature I am by sending my mommy and my aunties to take care of my business?”

  Anna sniffed and gave Max a scowl. “Well,” she admitted, “anything you say that way is going to sound bad. Think of it more like sending in the muscle. Maybe he has old school manners and he’ll be nicer if three women his mom’s age go talk to him.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Ask yourself this,” Anna continued. “How much do you want to keep the store? Seems like you've got nothing to lose, at this point. If this doesn't work, we'll look into finding a lawyer you can afford to explore your rights.”

  “I don’t know, guys,” Max said, shaking her head. “I mean, what if that just makes things worse?”

  “How can that be? What’s he going to do, evict you twice? You’re already looking at worst-case scenario. But it can potentially make things better,” Anna insisted, pulling out her phone. “I’m gonna Google him. Maybe he’s got some dirty laundry we can use against him if things get ugly.”

  Max hardly looked convinced, but she didn’t protest as Anna began to tap away on her phone.

  “Hmmm, interesting. It looks like he’s recently registered a company for a business that offers ‘escape and adventure room experiences’.”

  “What does that mean?” Cee-cee demanded. “You don’t think he’s trying to start up some underground sex club or something, do you?”

  “Ha! Now that I’d pay to see, but no,” Anna said with a grin. “I’ve actually heard of this before. Basically, you get put in a room for sixty minutes and have to find clues and solve puzzles to escape. Usually, there’s a theme, too, or some kind of backstory, like ‘Zombies have invaded the planet and it’s your job to find the antidote and steal it from the lab before it’s too late!’ or some such. A lot of companies are using them as a team-building exercise. I only know about them because Ethan’s son and his wife had us babysit Teddy one night so they could head into the city and do one with another couple. They had a great time.”

  “Interesting,” mused Cee-cee. “So does that mean he’s not just tearing the whole strip mall down to build a hotel a la Thackery?”

  “Well, he did say he needed all the spaces for his venture,” Max admitted. “It doesn’t sound like he plans to tear anything down.”

  Steph opened her mouth to say something when the sound of a gunshot exploded through the restaurant, making her rock in her seat. Heart pounding, mouth dry, she ducked her head and covered it with her arms.

  “Holy cow, that startled me,” Cee-cee muttered with a chuckle.

  Steph swallowed hard and lifted her head to find their waiter staring down at the tray of dirty dishes he’d just dropped.

  No gunshot.

  She was fine.

  Everything was fine.

  But the damage was done, and panic had taken hold. She felt like she had in the alleyway that morning, unable to get a grip on herself, heart racing as her body flooded her bloodstream with an unbearable amount of adrenaline. Her stomach felt like it had been twisted into a knot, and when she looked down at her hands, she realized they were trembling.

  Standing up suddenly, she announced, “I’m sorry, you guys, but
I don’t feel so good.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Cee-cee, immediately looking concerned. “What’s the matter?”

  “My stomach is bothering me,” replied Steph, her voice sounding robotic to her own ears. “I think I drank too much coffee this morning. I think maybe I should head home and get some rest.”

  Anna and Cee-cee exchanged a look before Anna replied gently, “All right. Do you want one of us to drive you home?”

  “No! No, I’m okay to drive. I just feel a little queasy, is all. It will pass. I’ll call you guys later.”

  Anna nodded slowly. “Call us if you need anything. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll check in around dinnertime.”

  “Thanks, guys,” said Steph. She tried to smile at them, but her face was frozen, and all she could manage instead was a stiff wave before she was making a beeline for the exit.

  As soon as she was out in the fresh air, she sagged against the side of the building, running an unsteady hand through her hair. She hated lying to the others, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was spend another second in a crowded restaurant, full of strange people and loud noises. How was it possible that it could be this hard to be in a crowd, but also be just as stressful sleeping alone?

  Whatever this was, it wasn’t getting better. Something had to be done.

  I’m calling Ethan the second I get home, she vowed as she headed for her car. I’m not spending another night alone.

  Until then, though…

  She paused by the driver’s side door and began to rummage through her purse for the prescription bottle.

  8

  Max

  Max didn’t unlock the bookstore doors the next day until a good two hours after the shop normally opened, but that didn’t stop her from coming in an hour earlier than she normally would. She needed the morning hours to herself, without the distractions of customers. She would leave the shop open later than normal to make up the difference, even if it wouldn’t help much at the end of the day; she owed it to her patrons, if nothing else.

  The truth was that ever since her lunch with her mom and aunts yesterday, she’d been finding herself facing the bleak truth of things, like a tidal wave that was about to come crashing down on her. It wasn’t pretty. In all likelihood, she would have to close up shop over the coming weeks and start looking for a new place… even if the odds of her finding one this perfect in Bluebird Bay were slim to none. In spite of her mother’s words of encouragement and Aunt Anna’s colorful threats, the reality was that a guy like Ian wasn’t going to turn his plans upside-down to cater to a struggling nobody like her. The sooner she could get her head around that, she thought, the easier this whole thing would be for her.

  With that in mind, she had decided to come in early to start getting her things in order. All the non-essentials would need to be packed up and either sold or put in storage. She could keep the bare bones around until the last possible minute, but the bar – and all of Ty’s things – would need to be cleared out.

  “Denial is not just a river in Egypt,” she muttered under her breath.

  Just rip the band-aid off, Max told herself as she eyed the ruby-red bottles and pristine glasses that were all neatly lined up on the shelf. But that was easier said than done, and she felt a new wave of sadness wash over her as she stared at the empty bar.

  Ty had helped her add this to the bookstore. At some point, between all the planning and design of it, she had come to think of this as his space. It was her store, but the bar was something so completely and undoubtedly Ty that it felt like a world of its own in the shop. Someone new agey might have said it had his energy, and as Max stood there, blinking back tears as she tried to force herself to touch the wine bottles, she found herself agreeing with that.

  Swallowing a lump in her throat, she reached out and picked up a bottle of chardonnay that he’d introduced her to when they’d first started dating. It was sweeter than she normally liked, but the light, fruity notes had been so wonderful that it hadn’t taken more than a sip to convince her they needed it at the bar.

  What was Ty up to now, on the other side of the world? Was he drinking chardonnay with some Parisian beauty? Did he ever think of her as he was uncorking a new bottle?

  She’d give this one to Aunt Anna. It wasn’t like Max was going to drink it. The very thought made her stomach roll.

  Pulling it off the shelf, she set the bottle reluctantly down on the counter next to a small, battered book titled Wines of the World. She and Ty had found it at a rummage sale one weekend, and she’d joked that no one in their right mind would buy a book this tattered. “Come on, Max,” he had said, giving her a crooked smile, “this one isn’t for selling. You can put it at the bar for people to look at – it’s a theme, you know? And besides, it has its own kind of charm, don’t you think?”

  The little blue book shimmered in Max’s eyes as more tears began to trickle down her face. How the hell was she supposed to do this if she couldn’t even make it five minutes without getting choked up? There was still the grief of losing the store, yes, but this was a different kind of grief: the grief of lost love.

  Getting rid of the bar meant closing the book on Ty for real. It felt final. It felt like an ending, and Max wasn’t sure that was something she was ready to face.

  The sound of a knock at the door nearly made her jump. She glanced over her shoulder and was stunned to see the now-familiar face of Ian Thackery. He was peering in through the window, a hand over his eye as he watched her.

  How long had he been standing there? Max sniffed, wiping hurriedly at her eyes with her sleeve. Squaring her shoulders and putting on the most dignified expression she could manage, Max walked over to the entrance, partly relieved to have something to distract her from her excruciating task at the bar, even if it was Satan himself.

  She pulled the door open and Ian straightened, tucking his hand into his pants pocket.

  Setting her jaw, Max crossed her arms over her chest. “What can I do for you?”

  Ian’s brow furrowed a little. Her face was probably still red and puffy from the crying, and it was clear he had realized he was interrupting something.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  It’s always a bad time with you, Mr. Thackery, Max thought as she just turned around and retreated into the store, leaving the door open behind her.

  Ian followed a moment later, closing it behind him. He was looking around the shop, his dark eyes wide as he came to a stop at the counter, clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck. The silence between them stretched on until it verged on uncomfortable, and finally he asked, “How’s your leg?”

  Max glanced down at her knee, which was still wrapped. “Fine,” she replied curtly. “Is that what you came to ask me?”

  She wasn’t in the mood for small talk – especially not with this guy. The sooner she could get him out of here, the sooner she could return to solving the problems he had caused for her.

  “I had a visitor today,” he said, shifting from one foot to the other as he studied her.

  “Congratulations.” Her voice was icy, but she was past trying to plead her case. All she really wanted was to never have to see his face again.

  “She said she knew you,” Ian elaborated. Max raised her eyebrows, and he continued, “As soon as I got to the office this morning, there was this lady outside. She started reading me the riot act when I got out of my car. She said she was your aunt, or something…?”

  Max put her head in her hands. Shit. She could already feel her face flushing again, this time with a mixture of shock and embarrassment. Had Aunt Anna seriously gone behind her back without the all-clear and accosted Ian?

  But even as the thoughts swirled through her head, she knew the answer – since when had Anna waited for the all-clear on anything in her life? She was a tornado; all the rest of them could do was hope they wouldn’t get swept up in her path. Max made a mental note to give her aunt a stern talking to as she met Ian’s
gaze with her own.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said stiffly, running a hand through her hair. “I didn’t tell her to do that, I swear. She’s…difficult and headstrong, to say the least. I should have been more clear with her that her approaching you wouldn’t be appropriate.”

  Ian held up a hand to stop her. “It’s all right. I actually… Well, that’s kind of why I came over here, to be honest.” There was an earnestness in his expression that had her eyes narrowing. “I mean, she was definitely on the warpath,” he continued, “but she did get me thinking that maybe I brushed you off a little too quickly the last time we talked. I thought maybe I would come here and apologize, try to… explain the situation a little better, if you’ll let me.” He reached into the bag in his hand and pulled out a cardboard box, which he handed to Max. “Here,” he said. “A peace offering.”

  She accepted it, frowning, and peered inside to see a pristine white pair of tennis shoes.

  “You got me shoes?” she asked him incredulously.

  “Well, yeah,” Ian replied. “Since you obviously can’t walk in heels.”

  In spite of herself, Max laughed. The sound felt strange coming out of her in this context, talking to this man, and it was almost enough to give her pause as she stared down at the sneakers. Apparently, even Satan had a sense of humor sometimes.

  “I hate to admit that you might be right.”

  “Hey, I’m just glad you’re okay,” Ian replied. He took a moment to glance around the bookstore, his scrutiny making her feel a little self-conscious, but his expression was soft, and there was curiosity in his eyes when he turned back to her. “You were right about one thing. This is a nice shop,” he said. “Seriously. It has character.”

  Max cleared her throat in surprise. “Thank you.”

  “Could I have a tour?” he asked suddenly, his eyes lighting up.

  Max raised her eyebrows. “You want a tour of my store?”

  Ian shrugged. “Sure. Why not? If you have time, that is.”