Nothing was okay, and usually, Honey would be hysterical, but she had to keep it together. She had to make sure her children weren’t terrified.
“Come along,” The older policeman cuffed Max, while a younger one held back the crowd.
Numbly, Honey followed them to the police station, picking up friends along the way. News spread fast, and by the time they crossed the square, Max’s parents and siblings were already in front of the police station.
His sisters and brothers quickly whisked the kids to the Monster Mash with promises of candy and balloons.
“What happened to Max?” his mother, Anne, asked. “Why are they arresting him?”
“They think he kidnaped Honey,” Troy said, surprising Honey.
Why was he following her around. What if he were the perpetrator?
“He says it’s you.” Honey glared at Max’s so-called friend. “That the ropes and mask were in your truck.”
Troy held his hands up, palms out. “Now, wait a minute. I was with Phoebe’s husband, Joe, the entire time of the paintball war. The only thing I’m guilty of is covering for Max.”
“Covering for him? No way. Max was the one who called for the search party,” Honey said. Her head reeled and all the yelling and faces staring at her made her dizzy. “Max would never pull a prank like that. He knew how scared I am of monsters and zombies and horror movies.”
But even as she said it, her stomach sank with a gnawing ache. Max was also the only person who knew about her fears and the zombie had made fun of them. The zombie had also brought up her writing, and had said mean things about her and Max’s relationship.
Things Troy and Max’s brothers wouldn’t have known unless Max had told them—like her secret wish of being tied up during sex.
Anne put her arm around Honey’s shoulder, patting her. “Max would never have scared you if he was in his right mind.”
Max’s father, Carl, took her by the elbow, his demeanor serious and grave. “I was afraid of this. I think it’s time we let you know …”
* * *
Max held an icepack over his nose with one hand and grabbed the bars at the jail, located right next to the haunted house. He’d been booked and processed, and then left alone for who knew how long, while the party outside continued with loud dance music, announcements and all the fun he was missing with his family.
A few minutes after midnight, the sheriff opened the door to the one room jailhouse and a group of people filed in. Honey led the charge, walking straight up to him.
Her face was a mixture of pity and disapproval. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I can’t believe you think it’s me,” he shouted at Honey.
Standing at her side in complete solidarity with her were her new friends: Phoebe, Hope, and Delaney, as well as his turncoat buddy, Troy, who played the hero and acted like he was Honey’s protector.
His parents flanked Honey, obviously supporting her and taking her side of the story. No one listened to him, least of all Ed and Scott, the two policemen.
They wouldn’t even let him call a lawyer.
“It was you,” Honey insisted. “You knew everything about my billionaire romances. You told me how you really felt about me, that I was a spoiled brat and how I always blamed you for everything. You even made fun of me for being afraid of horror movies, and you said my books were stupid and unrealistic. You taunted me and asked me if I knew for sure that my Max loved me or not.” Honey’s voice hiccupped as she blinked back tears.
The crowd gasped and murmured, clearly indignant at what Honey had revealed.
“It wasn’t me, Honey, you have to believe me. Troy must have read my diary, or stalked us. Maybe he made it up. All I know is I love you, Honey.” He got down on his knees and grasped her hands through the bars. “I’ll never stop loving you, no matter what.”
“But you have a problem.” She collapsed to her knees, too, and leaned against the bars, facing him. “You need help.”
“I need you. Honestly, you have to believe me. I never would have frightened you. This costume isn’t even mine. It’s Troy’s costume. I was going to wear my wolf one, but I must have switched at the last minute so I could nail Troy.”
Tears bubbled from Honey’s eyes and dripped down to her chin. “No, Max. You had an episode. Troy already gave his statement to the police. You asked him to let you borrow his costume on the day of the paintball tournament. When you gave it back to him, it was all dirty and splattered with paint. He suspected you had tied me up, because he heard everything I said, so he went back to the riverside and took the metal stake and ropes. He threw them into the truck and forgot about them. He was trying to protect you.”
“No, he’s lying, and the worst of it all is that you believe him.”
“He has an alibi,” Honey explained gently. “You, meanwhile, were missing for quite some time. Delaney said you came trampling back after all the scores had been tallied up and said I was missing. Yes, you did organize the search party, but only after you gave me a big scare.”
“Why would you believe I could do something like that? Why? I could never hurt you,” he pleaded to the woman he loved beyond time and space. “All I wanted was for you to come back to me.”
“You didn’t hurt me, Max. And none of this is your fault.” Honey caressed his swollen face where she’d head-butted him. “I know the real reason you left Sapphire Falls. Your parents told me.”
“Told you what? That I’m crazy? That I’ve gone nuts?”
“Shhh …” She continued to pet him, soothing the overwhelming weight pressed over his heart. “You have dissociative fugue amnesia. Senior year, right after you got admitted to Harvard, you took the car and disappeared. It was quite a joyride, and no harm was done, but you didn’t remember a single thing you did, and whenever anyone said anything, you told them they were lying, that you’d been home the entire time.”
“I don’t remember ever doing that. People are always saying I did things I didn’t do. Always blaming me.” The words tumbled from his mouth, and his tongue felt numb and heavy. It was useless. He closed his eyes, rubbing it. “I’m tired of fighting. Tired.”
She palmed his cheek and he leaned into her hand. Maybe he was deranged. His father’s words rattled in his muddled mind. Waking up in strange places. Finding himself somewhere other than he’d expected. Doing things that didn’t make sense and then covering up for it—claiming it was a prank.
He opened his eyes and took a resigned breath. “What’s wrong with me? What can I do?”
“Don’t fight it. Don’t fight me, Max.” She looked so beautiful and resolute as she stared at him, her lips quivering and her eyes watery. “I never doubted your love. Never. But you have to admit you have a mental problem.”
Max’s heart cratered inside as a glimmer of Honey tied to the stake flashed in his mind. “If I do, will you leave me?”
“No. I won’t ever leave you.” Honey grasped his hands through the bars and rubbed them. “I won’t leave you, but you need to keep from being stressed, and you need to be around people who love you, a town who can watch out for you and help you if you forget who you are.”
“Has this happened a lot?”
She leaned closed to him and whispered. “I think it happened when we conceived Sara. You were so romantic that night, and you claimed we weren’t divorced. You took me to a Broadway show in a limo—The Phantom of the Opera, I remember, and we spent the night at the Fairmount Hotel.”
“But I never hurt you, did I?” His heart tottered on edge. “Because if I hurt you, I’ll have to stay away from you.”
“No, you never hurt me or the kids, and you won’t ever. That’s not your nature. I believe that with all my heart.” Her voice was full of the confidence he’d never known her to have. His Honey was not just standing up for herself, she was standing up for him.
And she was giving him a chance of a lifetime. His last chance. If he ruined it, he would never forgive himself.
He held onto her hands, not wanting to ever relinquish her touch. “What do I do now? I’m in jail and my life is ruined.”
“I’m not going to press charges, but your family and I have had a discussion.”
Max swallowed hard, knowing that he would do whatever had been decided. If what they said about him were true, then he needed help. He needed family. He needed Honey most of all.
“What did you decide?”
“We’re moving to Sapphire Falls, and you can work out something with your business partner. You can still work and travel, but you can’t work more than twelve hours straight. You have to attend family dinners and volunteer in the community. Your mother said the psychiatrist told her that these states are brought on by stress and isolation. When you were a senior in high school, you isolated yourself from everyone while studying for the SAT and taking classes at the community college.”
He could only gape at the wonderful woman in front of him. An angel, yet more than an angel, the woman who loved him so much she accepted him and all his flaws. And then it was clear. He must have had these episodes on and off. It was why she’d left him, although she hadn’t known why he acted so strange. His father was right to question him, and he should have sought out a therapist.
“I’ll do it. It’s what I want.” His heart pounded with renewed hope. “Even this morning, I didn’t remember leaving Sapphire Falls. I believe now what you’re saying, because I was in the airplane handling the crisis, and then I remembered I had a festival to get back to. I had you and Mattie and Sara, and I no longer want to miss a single minute of our lives together.”
“And I don’t want to miss a minute with you, either.” She touched his forehead with hers, with only the bars separating them. “Let’s get married again.”
* * *
And that was the best decision Honey Myers Wolff ever made.
Epilogue
One year later
Max is just my Max now, no longer a character in one of my novels: alpha asshole billionaire or hunky down-to-earth farm boy or anything else.
He’s the father of my three children, Mattie, age five, Sara, age two, and little Petey, three months, and even though we don’t have a perfect family, we have the family we need and love.
It’s the last evening of the Sapphire Falls Halloween Festival, and we stroll through the square. This year, we’re a family of zombies. Papa Zombie, Mama Zombie, and the three little zombies. Max put in his time in the haunted house, scaring the nuts off people while I was in charge of the kids’ haunted house where we played our roles to the delight of our friends and playmates in town.
The evening is drawing to a close as we dance together at the Monster Mash. Mattie and Sara swing each other around, and I hold Max close with the baby between us in a sling.
“Are you happy here, Honey?” Max kisses me with his ghoulish scarred lips. “Is Sapphire Falls your home now?
“You know the answer,” I tease. Max is always looking for reassurance, especially after he became aware of his psychiatric disorder.
He’s much better than before, of course. No longer working long hours and under a tremendous amount of stress. Being constantly around people he knows has helped him snap out of the few episodes where he forgets who he is and does wild and crazy stunts.
I love his stunts and surprises, and now that he’s more in control of his dissociative amnesia, I think he sometimes plays tricks on me and I can never be sure if he’s seriously in a fugue or pretending.
But it’s harmless and I love being carried away by his fantasies.
Like the time we both thought we saw vampires in town.
“I’m not sure,” he says, grinning. “I might have dreamed that you’re here with me in Sapphire Falls, and then, when I wake up, we’re really asleep in San Francisco.”
“Does it matter?” I caress his scruffy jaw while the baby sleeps between us. We sway and turn to the spooky music while all around us, our dear friends and family are also enjoying themselves. “If it’s a dream, I never want to wake up.”
“Me either.” He takes my hand and kisses it. “Let’s take a walk on the wild side. You told me once you saw a vampire, and I didn’t believe you.”
“I did. She had long fangs. I was sure of it.” I’m actually not sure, but it’s good fun to pretend. The reenactors Hailey had come into town last year were so popular that this year, we’re overrun by vampires, zombies, shifters, fairies, and all sorts of spooky beings.
The music ends and I give my baby a kiss. He’s our little Halloween special, and I’ll always cherish the night I spent with Max at the Rise & Shine bed and breakfast. I’ll never admit this to Max, but it was only then, that I fell totally and completely in love with him—as in him, Maxwell Beauregard Wolff, the man with all his flaws and faults, and not some billionaire alpha bad boy that I had him painted as. Not that we’re billionaires or even millionaires.
We’re just very, very happy, and Max’s credit union is making many of the families here self-sufficient and happy, too.
Max’s mother and father surround us. Anne claims little Petey while my sister, Candi and Troy, her husband, take Mattie and Sara with them to admire the display of carved pumpkins. They are set out on rows of concrete bricks, and the candles inside of them flicker and flame, giving the entire square an orange tint.
“I think that’s our cue to make out in the corner of the square.” Max grasps my bandaged hands and leads me away from the gazebo and lights. We wander down a narrow path to a darkish corner where an old, gnarly oak tree presides. Its beautiful coat of burnished copper leaves flutter in the light breeze, and the ground is covered with piles of gold, red, and orange leaves.
A cherry red gypsy wagon sits underneath its stately branches. It is either an antique or a prop made to look like one. The exterior is brightly painted with beautiful green and yellow flowers and scrollwork full of interlocking curlicues.
The scent of incense, a spicy and warm fragrance, drifts from a half-door where votive candles illuminate the figure of a longhaired woman.
“Liz,” I cry out as she turns her pale face toward us. Unlike last year, the moon this year is becoming full, and from my position, I can make out her sharp white teeth as her mouth widens with an achingly bittersweet smile.
“Come up here and let me have a look at you two.” Liz motions us up the stairs to her window. “I swear, this year, the zombies are overrunning the place.”
“Rooarr-arrgh!” Max bares his teeth and makes a slobbering crunching noise.
Liz throws her head back and laughs. “Your kind don’t scare me a bit. But then, your blood is stale and putrid.”
She makes a face and shudders, then takes my hand. “Honey, I’m glad you’re back together with your zombie man. Remember what I told you last year?”
“Something about being bitten and not ever going back.” I stare into her dark, mesmerizing eyes. “But what about going forward?”
“Ah.” She takes my hand and then grabs Max’s and joins them together. She wraps a brightly decorated red and golden scarf around our joined wrists. “Going forward is taking one bite at a time. I see you two have found that secret, haven’t you?”
“Yes, together.” Max squeezes my hand. “Whether sweet, or sour, bitter, or salty.”
I let myself bask under his loving gaze. “Definitely together, bite after bite, after bite.”
~ ~ ~
Thank you for reading Max and Honey’s story. Writing about a divorced couple wasn’t easy—at all. But I wanted to show that despite the mistakes both of them had made and the damage they were both responsible for, they still had enough love to give each other a second chance. Sapphire Falls and the Halloween festival was the perfect place for Max and Honey to rediscover each other, along with a few surprises along the way.
If you’re curious about Liz, she is a character who appears by permission from PG Forte’s book Going Back to Find You. Check it out, along with all of the other Sapphire Falls K
indle World books. You won’t be sorry!
Honey’s sister, Candi, is next when she visits Sapphire Falls to be Honey’s maid of honor. Please turn the page for an excerpt from Going Toe to Mistletoe, a Sapphire Falls Christmas Romance.
Going Toe to Mistletoe Excerpt – Chapter One
Candi Myers was never going to kiss another man again.
Ever.
Kissing got her into trouble.
Kissing was germy.
Kissing was hot.
But hot was bad, especially if it meant ending up in the bed with her dancing partner.
Business and pleasure never ended well.
Firestorms started with a tiny spark. An avalanche started with a single snowball. Broken hearts started with an innocent kiss.
Breakups were costly, and her partner had absconded with more than half of her dancing students, leaving her unable to pay the rent on her studio.
Candi scrolled up and down the spreadsheet her accountant had sent her and cursed a blue streak, or was it a purple streak of prose?
She was done. Toe-to-Toe Dance Studios would close its doors. Her savings were wiped out, and her dreams were dashed.
Three weeks before Christmas. It was going to be real jolly applying for food stamps while everyone else gave gifts and rocked the parties.
And then, there was her sister’s wedding.
A Christmas wedding.
To be exact, a Christmas wedding in the charming little town of Sapphire Falls, smack dab in a state called Nebraska.
Not that Candi had anything against Nebraska, or Kansas, or Oklahoma, or any of the states full of cattle and corn. They were good for the food chain, but could there really be anything interesting smack dab in the middle of the continent?
Not to mention a cold, freezing winter.
With hot and fast farm boys.
No, no, no! Where had that thought snuck in from?
The last thing Candi wanted or needed was hot or fast.
Sapphire Falls: Going Haywire (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 13