Ditched (27 page)

He looked surpris
ed by the question. “What? No. That’s your dad’s business, literally. That’s not what’s bothering me.”

“Hey,” I said as I moved up beside him. He had his back to me as he
set his dishes in the sink. I tugged his arm until he turned to face me. “What is bothering you?”

He made a face that let me know he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Max?” I pressed. “Please?”

“It’s just,” he threw his hands up, “it’s stupid because I’ve known all along that you’re going to be leaving. But I just hate the thought of…” He stopped himself, pressing his lips together, sealing off what he was going to tell me.

I waited and he stared off at the kitchen cupboards, mulling things over.

“Whatever it is, if it’s bothering you, it’s not stupid.
”

“Okay. I’m going to be here, thousands of miles away. You’re going to be there with him. You’ll be on the same campus. You’ll probably run into him all the time.
Not to mention your parents trying to set the two of you up again. Your Mom will probably have those fancy Friday night dinners like before,” he sighed. “And I know we’ve never talked about what we’re going to do at the end of the summer. And I know I have no right getting all pissed off even
thinking
about you being there with him. But,” he slammed his palm down on the countertop, “I just can’t stand it. Okay? That’s what’s bothering me.”

“Collin?” I asked with surprise. “You’re worried about Collin?”

He raised his eyebrows at the question.

I shook my head. “Max, please don’t.
You know how I feel about you, right? How much I care about you? Not just as a friend but I like
this
,
us
, I mean.”

“Yeah, but you’re
here. Pretty soon you won’t be.” His expression was twisting my heart into knots.

“
I promise you, you’re the only one that I think about,” I said, trying to reassure him.

“Maybe now. But what happens when you go back? What happens when I’m here? And you’re there. And he’s there and—”

“Hey,” I said as I put my hands on his cheeks. I pulled his lips to mine for a quick kiss. “I want you. Just you. Okay?”

He nodded and blew out a breath. “
This summer is going way too fast. I’ve been waiting years to be with you. Now that I am, it’s going to be over and it feels like it’s barely getting started.”

“I
know.” I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest. It felt so good to be that close to him. I must’ve felt that way about Collin at one point. But being with Max, it had chased all of my feelings about Collin away. “We’ve got a few weeks left. Let’s just make the most of it, okay? Don’t worry about the rest of it right now. When the time comes, we’ll figure out something.”

He squeezed my body against his
. “I wish I could take the next few weeks off and just spend all day with you.”

“I know, you can’t,” I told him. It was tourist season and they were busy. 
Villette and Charles would probably find a way to let him have the time off, if he asked. But I knew he wouldn’t do that to them. And I wouldn’t want him to.

***

As if his phone calls hadn’t gotten to be annoying enough, Collin had finally started leaving voicemails. The upside to this was that now, at least, I knew what he wanted. The downside was that he apparently thought we still had a chance at fixing things. I wasn’t sure if Monica Miller was aware of this. Or if she was even still around. I didn’t care enough to ask Lanna about it, either.

After another rather long and rambling message, I decided I needed to go for a walk to clear my head. I knew that at some point, I
was just going to have to call him back. I was in no hurry because I didn’t really feel like I owed him anything. His messages seemed to imply he felt differently. And day after day, I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. Instead, I’d sent a few texts asking him to stop calling. That hadn’t worked at all. Collin was stubborn and that was precisely why I wasn’t in a hurry to talk to him.

What he felt was no longer my concern.
He
was no longer my concern.

Max was. I needed to decide where I hoped things would go with him. With
us
. Everything was so perfect right now. It’s possible I was being overly optimistic but I had a feeling that things would stay that way. Or get even better. Because even though our relationship was new, our friendship wasn’t. I knew Max well and he knew me. I knew I loved everything about him.

These wer
e the things I was thinking of as I strolled up and down the sidewalks of Sapphire Bay. The weather was just this side of scorching but it was summer so I really didn’t mind. Living with snow half of the time, I cherished the warmth. Even if it did make me crave ice-cream, which I’d been eating far too much of. Most often, I ended my walks with a cone. I had, however, downsized to a single scoop. Usually.

I was a few blocks from home, rounding the last corner of the business area before it turned to residential. The
Sapphire Bay Café was the last business, nestled onto the corner. My thoughts were already sorting through the various ice-cream flavors. I had tentatively settled on Blackberry Bliss, which I hadn’t tried yet, when Tori rounded the corner from the opposite direction. She was twisting her short hair into a ponytail as she walked. I had a vague idea of her schedule and I knew she typically didn’t start work this time of day. Either she was coming back in after a break, or she was covering for someone else.

So far, I’d been lucky and I hadn’t run into her. During the times I thought she’d be working, I took a different route. I would have today, too, if I hadn’t had ice-cream on my mind.

I faltered just a step or two, realizing how ridiculous it would be to pretend I didn’t see her. It would be far too obvious if I spun on my heel and headed back the other direction. Instead, I mentally braced myself and trudged ahead. I did slow my pace, thinking I’d give her time to go inside before I passed by.

She slowed her pace, too, obviously not wanting to avoid a confrontation.

I gave her a tentative smile and a small wave as I neared.

“So,” she said, “how are things going?”

It was a neutral question. It was possible that she had no idea about Max and me. Perhaps she just recognized me and wanted to say ‘hi’.

“Darren said you and Max seem pretty close lately.”

Or maybe she did know
.

Max and I hadn’t been inappropriate by any means. I was pretty sure we’d walked into the
café holding hands a time or two. Always in the evening when we were sure Tori wouldn’t be working.

“I guess,” I said
, immediately wanting to change the subject. “How have you been?”

She shot me a look of disgust. “How do you think? I know we’re not friends by any means. But you made me think you were trying to help me. And then you just…
you…you helped yourself to Max!”

“Things just kind of…happened…with Max and me, I mean.” I was wishing I’d walked to the next block down.

“I thought you were
so nice! I thought you really wanted Max and me together. I thought you were trying to make him see he should be with me.” Her voice was harsh with an edge to it. I immediately felt defensive. Then I noticed her spurt of rapid blinking and realized
I
only did that when I was trying to derail my tears.

I inwardly groaned. The last thing I wanted was to make this girl cry.
I already felt bad enough about what I’d done.

“I
’m sorry,” I told her, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. “But things got a little complicated. I didn’t have any right to step in the way I did.”

She shot her hip to the side and ground a fist into it. “Do you know what I think? I think you’re one of those girls that
like to prove she can get any guy she wants. You wait until they’re taken. Then to make yourself feel better…you steal them away. Does that give you a sense of power or something? Being one of those girls? Because that’s a pretty sad hobby if you ask me.”

I shook my head. “That’s not what happened. I swear.” I stopped there. I felt like she deserved an explanation. But the explanation that I had was far too detailed, far too personal to give. I wasn’t going to stand there arguing with her all day. What more could I say?

That I had wanted to help her until my own feelings got in the way?

That it took far too long to see Max as the person I wanted to be with but now that I had, I just couldn’t go back?

That Max wasn’t interested in her in the first place?

That Max had been waiting for the opportunity to be with me for
years
? Absolutely not. It felt conceited
thinking
it; I could never actually
say
it.

“Max and I have a history,” I finally said. “We’ve known each other a long time.”

“I’ve known him since kindergarten,” she said with a sarcastic smile.

“Right,” I said with a curt little nod. She was upset and had every right to be. But I also knew that this conversation was only going to end up in a tailspin if I didn’t get out of it right now.

“You know what they say about karma,” she said with a nasty smile.

“Look, I
know you don’t want to hear it but I honestly didn’t plan this. I’m sorry you got hurt. I am
truly
sorry.” I had wanted to tell her that for a while. I was relieved to be able to say it, even if she didn’t want to hear it. “I’ll just get out of your way.” I took off before she could argue. That didn’t stop her from uttering a few choice words about me. Loud enough so that I could hear them, of course.

Chapter 21

“Oh! Look at this one!” I motioned to Max.

He headed my way, humoring me. The morning had been far too gorgeous to even think of spending it indoors. We’d decided to go for a walk. We headed north, making our way over the rocky areas that broke up the sandier beaches. We passed the resort and continued on.

And on.

I’d spent hours crouched down, checking out the tide pools among the rock formations we hiked over. They were fascinating, each its own little world. As I knelt down, inspecting each one, Max had been wandering around, finding the most interesting ones and pointing them out to me. We were like two little kids on our first fieldtrip. We were having a blast and totally oblivious to our surroundings.

We’d found a few more sand dollars, live crabs and even a starfish that we
decided not to bring home on the off chance that it was still alive. Max assured me it wasn’t but I was stubbornly optimistic so I’d scooted it back into the water. Just in case.

“Now what did you find?” he asked.

I was rubbing my finger across the sticky surface of the anemone. I knew you really shouldn’t touch them. But I was a bad little tourist and I couldn’t help myself. I was as gentle as I could be, gliding my finger softly over the surface of the bright green creature.

“Nice one,” he
said as he knelt down next to me.

Neither of us had paid any attention to the sky.
I looked upward when I felt a raindrop land on my bare shoulder.

“Uh-oh,” I said as I pointed out toward the water. The sky seemed to be darkening by the second.

Max muttered an expletive and tugged me to my feet. “We better get going. I don’t think we’re going to beat this storm,” he said. “We’re a long way from the beach house.”

He was right. It was nothing more than a tiny speck off in the distance.

I followed him as we tried to hurry along. The raindrops, when they began, were nothing more than mist. But even that was enough to change the surface of the rocks into a slick obstacle course. The closer we got to home, the slower we were able to move. The mist changed into drizzle, the drizzle turned into rain, and the rain turned into a deluge.

If Max had been on his own, he could’ve hurried along. But my flip-flops were slippery as I tried to traverse the rocks. If I tried to go any faster, I was
likely to not just land on my butt but to also crack my head open. So Max held my hand, helping me stay steady as we slowly made our way home.

Running across the sand wasn’t easy either.