by Caitie Quinn
“I’m sorry.” Officer Darby sounded beyond exasperated, which would have be…Huh, what’s beyond exasperated?
Ben kept that steady look focused on Max and nodded his head in my direction.
Max took a step toward me, waving his hand around as if he didn’t know what to do with it. Then stepped back. “Ms. Lane…Kasey. I’m sorry. Let’s just leave it at that.”
I could tell he didn’t want to, that part of him really was annoyed that I’d done damage and was just going to get away with it. Except for the fact that now that I lived here, I’d probably be outside every morning checking on the tree’s healing process.
He glanced around, desperate to find something. Who knows what mental rope guys look to grab onto in situations like this.
But, as apologies went, it didn’t stink as much as it could have. Even with the fadeout.
“That’s okay.” I said, trying hard to mean it.
“Max, why don’t you go upstairs and carry down whatever box is the heaviest.” Ben glared at his friend until Max headed toward the front door, giving him a hard shove as he headed inside. “Max can be…”
Now that Ben had taken over the reprimand, Jenna was looking her perky self again. “Max is a great guy. Don’t worry. He won’t be a you-know-what again.”
It wasn’t so much the you-know-what’ness of his words. It was that this was just one more thing.
I was supposed to be embracing my newfound freedom, finding the way to build a better life for myself. This was my chance to grow on my own, to spread my wings. I felt like one of those stupid kids who didn’t know how to do her own laundry or make her bed at college because she’d never had to do anything on her own.
I was a decision-making virgin.
I’d let life and Jason pull me along until I felt like all my options were gone.
The idea that Officer Darby was there at every one of my failures for the last forty-eight hours, that he redirected each of my disasters, grated. Like cheap parmesan over an expensive, handmade pasta. And I still had to deal with today’s disaster.
“What about the tree?” Yeah, look at me taking charge.
Ben came around and looked at it, pressing the bark back into place.
“No real damage. You dinged it, but didn’t take off enough bark to hurt the tree in the long run. Why don’t you give me the keys and I’ll park the van while you guys bring the first load up?”
That was an offer I wasn’t going to refuse. Learning to make my own way in the world was one thing. Knowing when to let someone more capable do what I wanted done anyway was completely another.
I was willing to be all Independent Woman except when parking. I really hated parking.
Jenna and I each grabbed a box and headed toward the stairs.
“Really, Kasey.” Jenna waited to let me pass into the foyer. She already had her game face on. Who knew where this was going. “Max is a good guy. He has a big sense of humor. He probably feels horrible about making you feel bad.”
Not as bad as I felt. I was one step away from a tree murderer. I was a tree maimer.
“Hey.” Max stood at the top of the stairs, his arms wrapped around a box.
“Hey.” I watched tiny Jenna slide by him then went to do the same. And of course, not-quite-as-tiny me practically knocked the box out of his hands while juggling to hold onto my own. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t worry about it.” He juggled the box until he could brace it on top of the banister. I tried to read his expression behind his mirrored Ray-Bans. “Listen, I get it. You’re having a crappy week. Ben called me and gave me an earful in the four minutes I’ve been upstairs. You seem to be managing a lot right now.”
“Well, I’ll admit, watching you handle Jason was fun.”
“Handling Jason was fun.” He grinned and a dimple kicked in. Just on the one side. The right, where his mouth hitched up the slightest bit—not quite crooked.
“So, yeah.” I dragged my gaze away from that dimple. He probably used it to hypnotize female perps into submission. Do cops actually say perps? Anyway…“Let’s just call it good and get the moving done.”
I pushed past him, trying to ignore the dimple. I was not looking for a guy and if I was, Officer Max Darby was as far from the polished, soft-spoken guy I was going to look for next. After Jason, I knew I wanted someone who treated me as an equal and respected my worth. Someone who didn’t scream Command and Control while standing still.
When my life was up and running, I’d look for a guy who fit in it with me. But, until then, no men. Not even just a flirt. I was looking to start my new business and steer clear of domineering men.
I glanced at Max’s shoulders as he carried the box down the stairs and tried to justify that looking from afar couldn’t do any harm.
Far, far afar.
ELEVEN
I avoided Max as much as possible for the rest of the day. That didn’t mean I wasn’t aware of him. It was nearly impossible not to be. As the day got warmer, he and Ben stripped off their jackets and toted heavy things around like they were feathers. There was much eye-candy to be had.
Eye-candy was acceptable. I mean, they say that a large number of serial killers are gorgeous, but I’d avoid them too.
Too bad it wasn’t July. Although, in this the neighborhood. I doubted even that heat level would have gotten them out of the t-shirts they were dusting up.
I wasn’t sure what it was about Max that had my attention. He was shorter than Ben, probably five-ten, maybe five-eleven. And, while he was darkly handsome, standing next to Ben’s golden good-looks, he had abrupt edges that seemed at odds with his charm.
But, there was something that had my gaze returning to him again and again.
Maybe it was that he’d been my unintentional hero over the last twenty-four hours, calling off ex-boyfriends and snotty landlords.
“He’s single.”
“What?” I tried to pretend I was looking out the window behind where the guys were dissembling Ben’s bed.
“Max. He’s single.”
This was the last thing I needed right now. Jenna seemed like one of those I’m happy as a couple so everyone else must be happy as well people.
“Yeah.” How to say this nicely? “I’m not really in a looking-to-date place right now.”
“Sure.” Jenna was so cute trying to look innocent that it was hard to be annoyed with her.
“Seriously. You’ve heard about my past couple days. The last thing I need is a guy. Actually, the last thing I want is a guy. I really don’t need some guy mucking up my life reboot.”
“Sure,” she said again.
I believed her even less.
“I’m moving into the I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar part of my life.”
Jenna nodded.
“Plus, he’s completely not my type.”
Jenna slid her gaze toward the guys, dragging mine along with it just as Max tugged the bottom of his t-shirt up and ducked to wipe his forehead, showing off an impressive six pack.
“Right.” I cleared my throat. “But, I know what I’m looking for and he’s not it. When I start looking I’m going to meet a guy I have things in common with. Who is going to see me as an equal.” Not the punch line of a joke.
“His last girlfriend was horrible.”
“Seriously, Jenna.”
“Actually, she was worse than horrible. She was like rom com evil villainess evil.”
I put down the box I’d been moving to the kitchen figuring I might as well just wait her out.
“He volunteers with kids. He coaches baseball.”
I glanced at the rag in my hand considering gagging her.
“His family is from Chicago and he flies home for every major holiday. But he still says this is home.”
“Don’t care.”
“He saved a kitten last week.”
“A kitten?” Okay. So that got my attention. What kind of guy actually rescues kittens?
“Yup.
Climbed right up the tree and carried her down to her seven-year-old owner.”
“You’re making that up.”
“Nope. He’s totally embarrassed by it. Hold on.” She pulled her phone out and shuffled through some pages. “It made the local Patch.”
Yup. There was Max, a seven-year-old girl looking at him like he was a super hero, holding a kitten and looking like he’d like to be anywhere else.
“Huh. He saved a kitten.”
“They’re not letting him live it down at work.”
“Well, why would they?” If police departments were anything like Law & Order had taught me, there would be kitten posters all over the place by the end of the week. “But still.”
Jenna gave me her own version of The Look.
“Okay.” She grabbed a box to carry down with her. “This last guy must have been quite a prize.”
“It’s more that I hadn’t realized what a prize he was.” I did a mental rundown of everything I must have missed again, cataloging things that may or may not have been clues to Jason’s jerkiness. “Plus, twenty-four hours is not enough time to recover, rebuild, and move on.”
And that was just my ego I was talking about. Who knew if that was more or less resilient than a heart? Luckily, I wasn’t going to have to find out since my heart had recovered before I’d even made it to the curb.
“You can’t blame yourself for trusting someone in your inner circle. And no one should be more inner circle than your long-term boyfriend.”
“It’s just—”
“I know. The dumping. The half-security deposit. The general idiotness.”
“You have no idea.”
Jenna gave me what I’m sure she thought was a reassuring smile but just made me want to ask her what she was up to. Before I could double down on my warning, she turned back to the box she was taping up.
We worked all morning getting Ben’s basics packed and moved to Jenna’s. Things like his bed and books we wrapped up and put in the small storage area in the attic. Everything else was staying right where it was. Which was perfect all around.
The entire time, Jenna kept smiling to herself.
You can’t blame me for keeping an eye on her after that. Any sane woman would have.
~~*~~
When everything was packed or stored, we headed down the street to a pizza place Ben swore by. He’d even pointed out the magnet on the fridge and suggested I memorize the number.
It was nice to have some sure things in place. I pulled out my credit card, planning to pay for everyone as a thank you.
“You don’t have to do that.” Jenna slid it back across the counter toward me.
“Yes I do. I want to say thanks for the help and the place to stay and everything you guys have done.” It was embarrassing to admit, but…“Most of my friends are still back in Ohio. I’d been so busy when I moved here that I didn’t really go out and meet the kind of friends who you call when you move. I met Jason and got serious with him pretty quickly when I got here for grad school. Life just stayed really focused.”
Or, narrow more likely.
They all just stared at me. I could tell the guys were embarrassed. Jenna just did that grinning thing. She had to be the happiest person I’d ever met.
“I know exactly what you mean. I just fired one of my best friends. The other one is a writer who lives on the other side of town. And everyone else I’m close with is back home. I followed my boyfriend to college where he basically dumped me the day before our wedding.”
“Wow. You’re making my story look lame.”
“I’m here to help.” She said it in her standard pixie-cute way making me believe she actually was sharing to help.
“But, I really would like to buy the thank you meal. We’ve all had a big week. I started a new company, Jenna has Ben moved in, and Ben has someone to sublet his place.”
Max toasted all of us with his drink then asked, “What about me?”
It was too easy. And I stilled owed him for scaring me about the accident. “Oh, you’ve had the biggest week of all.”
“I have?”
“You’re a hero. I saw you on the front page. Rescuer of Kittens!”
Max set his drink down and glared at Jenna. “Jenna.”
“What?” She turned her phone on where she had just made it the background, and flashed the group. “It’s adorable.”
“If I’d been carrying a pregnant woman out of an exploding building, that’s the kind of pictures you show. Kittens. No, Jenna. Don’t show that to anyone else.”
“But…” I could see this was going somewhere Max wasn’t going to like.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing too big.”
“Jenna.” Max actually sounded a little threatening.
Jenna glanced toward Ben as if he was going to take care of this.
“Don’t look at me, Sunshine. I’m guessing what you did and you know we have rules about that.”
Max all but gasped. “You didn’t.”
“You never said I couldn’t. Ben told you about the rules and you called him a chicken. But, you know, a worse word.”
I was trying to figure out what was going on between the gasping and allusions and self-censorship.
“This is true.” Ben gave him one of those completely unapologetic shrugs friends do when they really have nothing else to say. “This is what you get for questioning my manhood.”
“Your manhood is coming up a lot today,” I said, not really sure what we were talking about.
“It’s true.” Ben took a swig of his beer and grinned. “Still comfortable. Also, ignoring the non-mixed company joke potential in that statement.”
“Jenna?” Max prompted.
“Yes. It’s on my website. It’s already become a meme. My teens have started captioning it and passing it on. I wouldn’t suggest checking out #OfficerMax today on Twitter.”
Oh. My. Gosh.
Did Jenna have a death wish?
If she did, she was working overtime on it. She pulled out her phone and called up Twitter. “Here’s a few of my favorites.”
Max snatched the phone and paged through, horrified noises coming out of his mouth as he clicked one link after another.
“Hug me, I’m a cop? I’d climb a tree for that too? Officer Max can—” Max’s eyes widened and he set the phone face down on the table. “I’m not sure your audience is strictly teens at this point. Jenna, how could you?”
“But, Officer Max, you said nothing I could put on my website that was true would embarrass you. You said Ben was being a pansy for not letting me post pictures of him.”
“I didn’t think you’d do this!”
“It’s not like it isn’t already in the newspaper.”
Max stabbed a finger toward the phone. “Officer Max, Seducer of Kittens? That’s just wrong, Jenna. Just plain wrong.”
“I bet you’re wishing you were in on the rules now.” Ben leaned back, angling toward Jenna, and slid an arm over the back of her chair
“Whatever these rules are, I want in on them now.” I glanced toward the phone afraid of what would happen if the Underwear Situation was online as I tried to build my brand. That would be quite a brand all right. “I want it retroactive back to when we met as I wasn’t offered the deal ahead of time.”
“I want what she said.” Max crossed his arms, the glaring spread out now to all three of us.
“So, no more #OfficerMax tweets?” Jenna actually looked upset. “What will I tell the Camisoles?”
I glanced at Ben, already aware he was an expert Jenna Interpreter.
“Her fan group,” he answered under their argument.
“You’ll come up with something.”
“But, Max. They love you. I have people who have read my books just because of you. When you were one of the cops who went to speak about gun violence in schools to worried parents after the scare three towns over, people donated to those families all week.”
I cou
ld see Max’s inner battle in his expression—no dimple in sight. Of course he was the type of guy who wanted to do good things. That’s why he was a cop. But he also didn’t like becoming one of Jenna’s characters. I was betting the Officer Max tweets were even larger than life than anything Max could stumble into.
There were probably t-shirts and fangirl sites. I needed to Google this immediately. I glanced toward my bag wondering if I could pull out my phone without adding to the table tension.
This was seriously the best meal ever.
And, thank goodness I’d retroactively invoked my privacy rights.
“Jenna, I’ll make you a deal. We’ll let Kasey decide.” He smiled at me, obviously trying to win me over with his charm. Trying to convince me to vote pro-Max. “As a matter of fact, I went out on a really interesting call last night. A landlord situation—”
“Down with Officer Max!” I pumped my fist in the air. “You totally don’t need those stories. Friendship is far too important! And, Twitter is so 2009.”
Everyone was looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
“I’m just saying,” I continued. “Maybe Max doesn’t like his exploits blasted over the internet.”
“Obviously.” Max cocked an eyebrow at me.
“And, I’m sure the police department doesn’t want him becoming some internet poster boy.”
“This is a good point.” The cocky grin was back.
“And what about the innocents? Those poor people Officer Max rescues who don’t want their story going international with a bunch of teenage girls?”
“I don’t know.” Max tapped his chin as if thinking that one over. “The one last night was pretty good. She didn’t even know what day it was.”
“I’m sure she knew what day it was.”
“We almost had an indecent exposure situation on our hands.”
“I doubt that’s what happened.”
“Oh, it was close.”
“I’m sure the poor, innocent, covered girl knew what day it was and—”