Always (A Ditched novella)

by Amity Hope

  At the moment, I needed to put those other interests out of my mind so I could concentrate on the task at hand.

  I was sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop as I waited for Max to get back from his run. I should’ve been concentrating on the paper that was due in my Media Ethics class. Instead, I was gazing out the window. I knew better than to sit facing the ocean as I tried to study. I always found the view far too distracting. After all of these months, I still had not tired of it.

  I was lost in thought, trying to come up with a few ideas for my paper when Max’s phone chimed on the kitchen counter. I jumped as I glanced over my shoulder. He had a bad habit of forgetting it behind. It sat, connected to the charger. Clarissa’s name glowed across the lit display as the text came in.

  I wondered what she wanted. She hadn’t left all that long ago. I tapped my fingers against the tabletop for a minute as I stared at the phone. It would be so easy to just take the few steps to the counter and pull up the text. I could read it, mark it as ‘unread’, and Max would never know. I shook my head, slightly appalled at myself. That would be a complete invasion of privacy. And what did it matter what the text was about? That was between Max and Clarissa. Not me.

  None of your business, I told myself as I stared at his phone a moment longer.

  Clarissa was another girl he’d known for years. They were friends. Just friends. I thought Clarissa and I were becoming friends too. At the very least, we were friendly acquaintances. She was always overly perky and she seemed really sweet.

  She was a year younger than Max. But apparently, way back forever ago, they’d ridden the same school bus. I guess they got to be pals. Good pals. She started working at the Crystal Bay Café last fall. Since the café was within walking distance it was easily one of our favorite places. The first time we’d seen her there, the girl had nearly catapulted herself over the countertop so she could throw herself at Max. Literally. She hugged him like he was some long lost friend. Which he was. So I’d seen nothing wrong with that.

  I forced myself to twist back around in my chair. I had more important things to worry about. Like the paper that was only half written. I managed to tap out almost half a page before Max returned.

  “Are you getting anything done?” he asked as he strolled into the kitchen. His bronze hair was windblown. His cheeks were rosy, probably from the wind rather than exertion. The coloring made his pale green eyes stand out. I smiled to myself. After all of these months together, my heart still did a little flip every time I saw him.

  “Actually, yes,” I said. “In fact, I’m getting so much done I was hoping maybe we could go out tonight?”

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” he said.

  “Crystal Bay Café for burgers or somewhere nice?” I asked.

  “Somewhere nice,” he answered immediately. “I’m going to go shower.”

  “Okay. I’m just going to finish up with this,” I said as I motioned toward my laptop. Then I remembered Clarissa’s text. “Oh, by the way, you got a text when you were gone.”

  He crossed the room to grab his phone. “It was just Clarissa. She probably had a question on the notes.” Then he frowned. “It looks like I missed a call from the contractor too. I better call him back before he decides he needs to call my grandparents.” He was already dialing as he left the kitchen.

  Fifteen minutes later my paper was nearly completed.

  When Max came back into the kitchen, he was wearing jeans, a blue button down shirt and a frown.

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I’m really sorry. I need to run out the winery. There was a problem with a delivery of some of the supplies. The contractor wants to meet me there to go over it.”

  “I’ll come with you,” I said.

  “No,” he held up his hand, as if to stop me. “No, that’s okay. I’ve got it. I’ll get back as soon as I can. I shouldn’t be more than an hour. I’m not sure about dinner though,” he said apologetically.

  A sigh slipped out. This was not the first time that Max had cancelled on me recently. Or even the second or third.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “No. It’s fine,” I told him. He had a lot going on. I knew that. I tried to be understanding. I knew he didn’t like cancelling on me. I could always tell how bad he felt about it.

  Too much work and not enough fun were making Max into a very stressed out boyfriend. He was going to school full-time and even though the winery was closed for the renovations, he still managed to work plenty. He was meeting with distributors, meeting with the general contractor in charge of the construction, or looking over the books. He always had something work related to do. Today, apparently, was going to be no different.

  I had lost track of how many times we’d had to change our plans because of something work related. While I understood his need to prove himself to his family, I also knew he needed to take a break from it all.

  “I suppose I could call my grandpa and let him handle it,” he hesitantly offered.

  I shook my head. I knew how hard it was for him to make that offer and I appreciated it. “No. You go take care of whatever it is you need to take care of. We’ll just go out when you come back. I mean, you’ll still need to eat so I’ll just wait for you.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked but he was already edging toward the door.

  “Positive,” I said as I forced a smile.

  ~*~*~

  “I’m sorry. I am so sorry,” Max said as he made his way into the house.

  I didn’t mean to glance at the clock. It was simply a reflex but the action caused him to sigh. He’d been gone for far longer than I’d anticipated. At least he’d sent a text telling me he was running late. I was no longer in the mood to go to the café or anywhere else. He didn’t look like he was really in the mood either.

  In fact, he looked exhausted.

  “Everything always takes longer than I think it’s going to,” he said hesitantly. He was looking at me cautiously, as if he was expecting me to be mad.

  Disappointed, yes. Mad, no. It wasn’t as if he was out having fun without me. He was working.

  I pushed a smile onto my face. “Pizza just got here. Chicken alfredo, your favorite.”

  “Pizza?” he echoed. “I thought you wanted to go out tonight.”

  I had wanted to go out. Hours ago. Now, I was just hungry. I finally had Max to myself. I didn’t want to waste that time being crabby with him. When he’d sent me a text giving me his new estimated time of arrival, I’d ordered the pizza to coordinate with it. I knew if I was hungry, he’d be starving by now.

  With a shrug I said, “We’re going to Clarissa’s tomorrow so it’s not like we won’t be doing anything fun this weekend. Besides, it’s been awhile since we ordered pizza.” I moved closer to him, sliding my arms around his waist. “In fact, it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve had you all to myself.” I tried to keep my tone light and flirty, not accusatory. Thankfully, I seemed to pull it off.

  Max slipped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I felt myself relax against him, any trace of annoyance fading away. He rested his chin on the top of my head for a second. Then I felt his lips brush against the top of my head.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “As soon as the renovation is complete, things should quiet down. I just want everything to be perfect.”

  I tilted my head back so I could look at him. “You know, Max, this isn’t really your responsibility. Your grandparents still own and run the winery.”

  He sighed. “I know. But I told you how tense things have been with the rest of the family.”

  I nodded. He had told me. There was a lot of underlying jealousy, which I personally thought was absurd because no one else in his family had shown an interest. Not until Max had. Now, his aunts had suddenly decided they should become more involved. Recently, the phone calls to Max’s grandparents had become a daily occurrence.

  “I just feel like I have to prove m
yself to them. And this renovation? I feel like it’s my chance to do that. I want everything to be perfect. I want the vineyard to really stand out. I want it to be something that tourists go home and tell their friends and families about,” he said. “My aunts have made it clear that they don’t want me to take over Villette Vineyards. I don’t want to slip up and give them actual justification for feeling that way. In fact, I want to prove them wrong. I want to prove to them that I can handle it. That I can be good at it. I can’t let them think I’ll be failure. Because if they find any reason to doubt my abilities, they’re just going to try to push me right out of the door.”

  “Max, that wouldn’t happen,” I said, trying to reassure him. His grandparents wouldn’t let it.

  He frowned at me. “You don’t know my aunts. Then again, I barely know my aunts. They aren’t big on family gatherings. But I do know they’ve been giving my grandparents a hard time about me. At first, they thought I was just going through a phase or something. Now that they know this is what I want to do with my life, well, in Grandma’s words, all three of them are in a snit.”

  “A snit?” I asked with a laugh.

  “Says Grandma,” he confirmed.

  I ran my hands across his shoulders. “Do you know what you need? You need to take a deep breath and just relax for once.”

  “Relax?” He asked with a teasing frown. “How do I do that?”

  “I might be able to help,” I teased back. I ran my hands through his hair, cupping his head so that I could bring his mouth down to mine. I felt his tension instantly fade away as he gave himself up to kissing me. His hands slid up and down my back, settling on my waist briefly before landing on my backside.

  I felt his knees bend as he dipped down, quickly scooping his hands around my thighs. I let out a little shriek as he lifted me off my feet. My legs circled his waist and he grinned at me. I was short, had been referred to as petite. And when he lifted me up, he made me feel as if I weighed nothing at all. Max made me feel positively tiny sometimes.

  He carried me down the hallway. I took advantage of his neck being in alignment with my lips. When I softly nipped the area between his neck and shoulder, I felt a rumble against my lips that was awfully close to a growl. I continued to kiss him, though my lips were tilted up in a smile.

  When we entered our bedroom, he carefully lowered me onto the bed. I tugged him down with me, moaning happily when the weight of his body pressed down on me. I closed my eyes as he dotted kisses along my neck.

  In seconds the pizza waiting for us on the kitchen counter was forgotten.

  CHAPTER three

  I wasn’t sure what the proper attire was for a friend’s nineteenth birthday party. Simply because my friends back home had all stopped having birthday parties back in grade school. Did we go out? Get each other gifts? Have fun? Yes, absolutely. Did we have a party thrown for us at our parents’ house? Nope, we did not.

  In fact, my birthday was coming up at the end of the month. I’d finally be leaving my teens behind. Then Max’s birthday would soon follow. Did either of us plan on throwing a party? I sure hoped not.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of this party for Clarissa. Maybe it was just the way people did things in Harmony Bay.

  I took another look in the mirror and decided I was satisfied that my hair was as flat as I would get it. I applied a light layer of lip gloss and then went off in search of Max.

  I found him sitting on the couch, one knee bouncing up and down. He glanced at me when I walked in.

  “They’re here,” he said cryptically.

  I paused for a second before glancing around the room. The room that was empty other than Max and me. I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering if he’d finally cracked from the pressure of the stress he was under.

  “Um, Max, sweetie, no one is here but you and me,” I said as I moved toward him, settling carefully onto the edge to the couch beside him.

  “I meant my aunts are here. Not here, here. But in Harmony Bay. They showed up at my grandparents,” he said with a grimace.

  I didn’t know what, exactly, their visit meant. I did know that likely it meant nothing good.

  “All three of them?” I asked. Villette had often pointed out how rarely her family came to visit. It was a fact that did not sit well with her. She and Charles had purchased the beach house years ago in an effort to encourage them to visit more often. Until Max and I had moved in, the beach house had more or less stood empty. It seemed odd to me that all three of Max’s aunts had come at once.

  “It’s obvious they’re up to something,” Max stated flatly. “The three of them barely get along. If they’re all here, together, that means that they’re all after the same thing.”

  “The winery,” I guessed.

  He nodded. “It’s not like I didn’t see this coming. We’ve never really talked out the details. But I’ve known my aunts would want to stick their noses into everything eventually.”

  “They should be happy that someone in the family wants to take over,” I pointed out.

  I noticed that Max had his phone clenched in his hand.

  “They’re calling a family meeting,” he said. “That basically means they want me to come over so they can all tell me what they think.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. He was tense, which had been a rarity for him until the last few months. Now, it was becoming all too common.

  “When?” I asked.

  “Right now, of course,” he said with a bit of irritation.

  I was already shaking my head. “No.”

  “Maybe you could—”

  “No,” I interrupted. I knew exactly where he was going with that. I could go to Clarissa’s party alone. He’d come later. Only later would be a whole lot later than either of us expected.

  “Max,” I said, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. “We’ve had this planned for weeks. They can’t just show up and expect you to drop everything in an instant! That’s ridiculous!”

  “I know, but I really think I should go see what they want.”

  “You’ve been so busy lately. You’re gone all the time. I haven’t complained. I haven’t said a word all the times you’ve cancelled on me. But this? This is important to me. We said that we would be there. I want to go but I want to go with you. Can’t you just this once tell someone else no?” The words had all come out in a rush. I leaned back against the cushions, surprised I’d said so much.

  Max looked miserable, torn.

  I suddenly felt guilty for my little tirade. I was about to tell him he should do whatever he felt he needed to do. Before I could, he sighed and stood up.

  “Yeah, I’ll give Grandma a call. I told her I wasn’t sure about tonight, that I’d have to talk to you first. I’ll see what else we can work out.” He left the room, apparently needing some privacy.

  I fidgeted with a throw pillow while I waited, wondering if I should’ve just told him he should go. I was sure now he’d spend the whole night worrying about the visit. It might’ve been best to just let him get it over with.

  However, he was long overdue for a night off. If anyone deserved to go out and have fun with friends, it was Max.

  Worry twisted my stomach into a knot.

  Several minutes later, he came back, not looking any less frustrated than when he left.

  “I have classes tomorrow morning. They want me to drive out there when I’m done,” he said glumly.

  I hesitated, not knowing if I should offer to go with or not. Lately, it seemed as if Max didn’t want me a part of anything even remotely related to the winery. Still, I wanted him to know he had my support. “Would you like me to come along?”

  “Yeah, actually, I would.” He glanced at the clock. “But if we don’t want to be late, we better get going.”

  ~*~*~

  I had no idea what to anticipate for a nineteenth birthday party. As it turned out, Clarissa’s parents had rented out Harmony Bay’s Country Club. I’m not sure what I was expe
cting to see when I walked in. I knew what I wasn’t expecting. I did not expect an explosion of twinkle lights, pink balloons, a live band and a dance floor to go with it. Nor was I expecting a large table at the back for gifts. Another table held a pink and white, three-tiered cake. It was pretty, and classy, and somewhat odd to me.

  In fact, it had the feel of a wedding reception. Not a birthday party. But who was I to judge? I already knew that Harmony Bay was a town of old money. Max’s family, for instance was considerably wealthy. He’d shown me the house he’d lived in growing up. It was just down the road from Clarissa’s. He’d lived there until his sophomore year of high school. The year his parents had divorced and gone their separate ways. His dad had moved to Vermont and he and his brother had moved with their mom to Chamberlain.

  I’d always thought the house I had grown up in was of considerable size. My dad was an architect, the owner of the largest firm in the area back home. He’d designed our house, often used it for show. Yet, it paled in comparison to some of the homes around here. So it maybe shouldn’t have come as a surprise that birthdays back home paled in comparison to birthdays in Harmony Bay.

  I held Max’s hand in one hand and a gift bag in the other. I had no idea what to buy Clarissa so I’d wrapped up one of my necklaces. It was similar to a crystal piece I’d been wearing one day at the café. She’d complimented me on it several times. It had been one of my nicer, more expensive pieces. I created one for her similar to it, yet still unique. Hopefully, it would make an acceptable gift.

  “I should put the gift on the table,” I said to Max. I spotted Paige amidst the milling people. She gave me a little wave. I smiled back since both of my hands were preoccupied.

  “Oh, hey,” Max said. “Jake’s here. Do you mind if I go say hi?”