When I Fall in Love (Christiansen Family) (29 page)

And Max had been more than she’d expected or imagined. Not only helping her overhaul the menu, order the ingredients, and train the staff, but making her believe, once again, that she could do this. Last night he’d given her another pep talk as they washed the dishes and loaded the sauces into the refrigerator. He even helped her roll the silverware into napkins and tie them with raffia.

And watching him, sitting on the stage rolling napkins, she realized . . .

She loved him. More than her fledgling feelings from Hawaii, the fullness of her emotion took root, embedded her bones. He’d glanced at her as she struggled to swallow the realization away.

How would she possibly say good-bye to him after the wedding? Especially since he had no more reason to be in her life?

Max seemed to sense her mood because he’d gotten quiet too, and it nearly touched her lips to ask.

He’d driven her home then, pensive in the darkness, and when they pulled up to Eden’s apartment and she turned to him, the expression on his face stopped her. As if he might want to say something to her.

She waited in the silence until he looked away and said, “Call me if you need anything. I’ll drop by the venue tomorrow.”

She’d ached with the frustration of it all when she got out of the car.

“Do you think Jace will like it?” Eden asked, still surveying the room.

“Are you kidding me? He will love it,” Grace said.

“He won’t even see it. He’ll be so entranced with his bride,”
Raina said, joining them. She wore her hair up, a pair of jeans and her chef’s jacket. “Grace, I finished chopping the vegetables and put them back in the cooler.”

“Perfect. Where are we with the fruit?”

“I have Ty storing it in the cooler now.”

“Sounds like you have everything under control,” Eden said. “I knew it. Has anyone seen Mom and Dad?”

“They should be getting to the hotel anytime,” Grace said. “I should go back and change for the rehearsal. I still think I was crazy to agree to be in the wedding party and the head chef
 
—”

“Listen, that’s what you have me for,” Raina said. “You did all the hard work. We
 
—me and Ty and the crew from the cooking school
 
—have this.”

The smartest thing Grace had ever done was take Eden’s idea and offer the local Minneapolis Institute of Culinary Arts class a chance to help cater. Not only did she get their services cheap, but she’d met the director.

A relationship she hoped to cultivate. Maybe someday she could ask for a second chance to apply.

“Besides, if I get in over my head, Max will be here,” Raina said.

Right. Max would be here.

Grace picked up her clipboard. “I just want to go over tomorrow’s schedule with the team, and then I’ll head back to your place, Eden, and get ready for the rehearsal dinner.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Grace. No one could have pulled this off but you.”

And Max
 
—ah, there he was again, ever present. “And Raina,” Grace said, winking at her friend.

But Raina had stilled, was looking past her toward the door.

Grace turned and spied Casper standing there, holding his
motorcycle helmet. “I just came by to see if I could help,” he said, his gaze landing on Raina.

Grace’s heart twisted at the hope in his expression. Once Raina had told her that Casper was not the father of her child
 
—and had never been a candidate
 
—the sad fate of his heart had Grace wanting to tell him the truth about Raina’s situation.

But it wasn’t her news to tell. And Raina clearly didn’t have it in her to tell him, not yet, despite Grace’s urging that Casper deserved to know. Did Raina plan on waiting until she started showing and Casper had to ask?

It didn’t help that he’d pitched in, ordered supplies, helped Grace dig up recipes, offered his suggestions as she experimented with flavors, and generally hung around her planning sessions with Raina for the last three weeks. Despite the fact that Raina barely looked at him, Casper appeared undaunted.

In the darkest part of her heart, Grace could admit that maybe, despite the hurt ahead for Casper, it would be best for him to let her go.

She hated to think that perhaps the same thing applied to her and Max.

Casper entered the room and Raina fled back to the kitchen.

Grace walked over to him, wanting to hug away the dejection on his face. “Hey.”

He forced a smile. “Mom and Dad are here. I’m headed to the hotel. Anyone need a lift?”

She knew who that
anyone
meant. “I’m headed back to Eden’s in a bit, but Raina might need . . .”

Her voice trailed off as Max came in behind Casper.

He could stun a girl by just the way he walked, a sort of easy swagger, as if he held the world in his hand. Now he wore black
jeans, a black- and gray-striped button-down shirt, a pair of cowboy boots. His hair had grown, and it looked fresh from a shower, spiky on top.

He even smelled good, a spicy aftershave mixed with soap.

“Hey,” he said.

Grace probably wore the same pitiful, hopeful expression as Casper. “Hi.”

Casper turned. “Hey. You’re Maxwell Sharpe. I remember you. Owen’s friend, right?”

Poor Max. For a second, he looked wrecked. Then he met Casper’s outstretched hand. “Yeah. Uh . . . remind me . . .”

“Casper. I’m the middle brother.”

Max pumped his hand. “Nice to meet you. I came to give your sister a ride to the rehearsal dinner.”

And although her brain screamed at her to say no . . . “Sure, that sounds great.” She glanced at Casper. “Raina can drive my car back to Eden’s place.” Sorry, Bro.

She gave the room a once-over, then went to the kitchen to drop off her schedule, talk through tomorrow’s events with the staff, and retrieve her purse.

When she came back, Max stood in the middle of the room, looking at the grandeur. “It’s really pretty, Grace.”

“Thanks.”

“You know how to take something ugly and turn it beautiful.”

“Well, I wouldn’t actually call the space ugly
 
—”

“It’s a warehouse with brick walls and a cement floor and big metal doors. It was ugly. Now it’s breathtaking.”

Oh.

“Ready to go?”

She nodded, and to her surprise, he held out his hand.

She took it, lacing her fingers with his, feeling the warmth. His thumb curled over her hand, caressing tiny circles, sending tingles up her arm.

When they got to the car, he walked around to hold the door open. He’d taken the top down, but the heat of the day lingered. The late-afternoon sun spilled gold around the buildings, glinting on the windows of the warehouse across the street.

Grace got in and watched as Max circled the car, climbed in.

He seemed . . . different. Like the Max she’d seen that last night before the competition in Hawaii. He glanced at her, and she thought she saw something sweet, even hopeful, in his eyes.

He drove them out of the warehouse district, down Hiawatha, but kept going past Eden’s street, heading southeast.

All the way to Minnehaha Park. He parked in the lot and got out.

“Max?”

“I need to talk to you, Grace. And this seemed to be the prettiest place I could find.” He came around to her side, opened the car door. “Will you take a walk with me?”

This was where he told her that they could only be friends. That she needed to get the thoughts about him out of her
 
—

He took her hand again.

They walked along a path lined with towering oaks and elms, cottonwoods that shivered with the wind. Behind it all, the roar of the falls reminded her of Hawaii.

He gripped her hand tighter.

“Are you okay?”

He said nothing, his face suddenly grim.

“You’re scaring me, Max.”

“Sorry.” He took a breath and stopped. The pathway overlooked
the falls, the spray rising up to capture the late-afternoon sun. He released her hand.

“What’s going on?”

“I need to tell you something and I know that you’ll want to make it better, but you can’t and it’s going to . . . Well, I wouldn’t even tell you at all, but you deserve to know.”

She rubbed her arms, chilled despite the heat. She should head him off before he made this more awkward for both of them. “Max, if you’re going to tell me that we can’t have anything past right now, I get that. And it’s okay. You always said that you weren’t looking for a relationship. I should have believed you. I know what happened in Hawaii was a mistake. And yeah, I was hurt. I was really hurt.”

“I’m so sorry, Grace. I didn’t mean to hurt you
 
—”

“I know. You had to get back to your real life. It was a fairy tale in Hawaii, and being with you on vacation changed my life. See, when you left me there, something happened.”

He looked at her fast, a crease in his brow.

“Nothing bad. In fact, it was all good. I realized that . . . well, I’d gone to Hawaii looking for something. It wasn’t until you left that I realized the thing I was looking for wasn’t you. It was God. I want more out of life than just . . . just staying where my fears trap me. I want to know all that God has for me
 
—His love, His power, His grace. And it wasn’t until I gave up everything I was holding on to and reached out for
Him
that I realized it was right there, waiting for me. I’d just missed it because I thought I could find it in you.”

He seemed worried, even hurt, so she touched his cheek. “You are an amazing man, Max. You are brave and patient, and you can cook circles around me. But I am going to be okay without you.”

His eyes glistened and his expression broke, something desperate in it. “But I don’t think I’ll be okay without you.” He took her face in his hands. “I love you, Grace. Wow, I want to love you. I want you in my life. I want to grow old with you and have babies with you
 
—”

She kissed him. Just rose up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

She tasted salt in his touch, and it only whetted her heart for him. She wrapped her hands around his neck, pulled him closer.

And then, with a tiny groan that escaped from deep inside him, he kissed her back. His arms went around her, and he pulled her to himself, into his strong arms, kissing her as if he couldn’t get enough of her. He touched his lips to her eyes, her cheeks, returning finally to her mouth.

Max. She slowed his pace, running her thumbs down his cheekbones.

Sweet Max was crying.

He pulled back and tried to smile, but it was lopsided. He opened his mouth, but nothing emerged.

She’d rendered him speechless.
I love you, too.
The words were bubbling up, ready to burst from her, when his phone rang.

He stared at his pocket as if it might contain a bomb.

Grace laughed. “Get it, Max.”

“Uh
 
—”

“Seriously. I’m not going anywhere.”

He held her hand, though, as he glanced at the screen, then frowned and answered the phone. “Yeah?”

He listened for a bit, his face growing darker. “I’ll have to call you back.” He hung up, pocketed the phone.

She asked, “What’s the matter?”

“It’s probably nothing. I need to get you home so you can change for the rehearsal dinner.”

Oh. She couldn’t deny the boulder that landed on her chest. He held her hand all the way to the car, tight, as if he couldn’t bear to let the moment go either. But they’d have more. At the wedding tomorrow and then . . .

Then . . . ?

It was on her lips to ask, but it felt so vulnerable and raw. Maybe she’d wait until she told him she loved him. Maybe then they could talk about a future.

He glanced at her now and again, squeezing her hand as he drove. But when they pulled up to Eden’s house, he didn’t get out.

Didn’t kiss her good-bye.

He just drove off, and she had the strangest sense, like she did in Hawaii, that she might not see him again.

Silly, right?

At night, it became easier to forget her mistakes. Her appetite returned, her stomach stopped betraying her, and Raina felt normal.

At least as normal as she could muster, given the fact that her life seemed to be unraveling before her eyes. Her plans to stay in Deep Haven, to become a part of Casper’s life, his family, were all a gnarled, sad mess.

In a way she
was
a part of the family, except she wasn’t going to show up on the Christiansens’ doorstep with Owen’s child in her arms, like an episode of
All My Children
.

No. Any hope of being a part of that family Owen had stolen
from her. Maybe she’d stolen it, too, but regardless, she could never return to Deep Haven. To the Christiansens.

If only her car hadn’t quit on her earlier this week, she could leave. But maybe as soon as the reception finished, she’d get on a bus, head west. Maybe to . . .

It didn’t matter. Anywhere but where her memories might find her.

Raina stood in front of the sink, letting the steam rise as she finished washing the last of the butcher knives. She’d already prepped the salad and vegetables for tomorrow, already looked over the schedule, already been assured that everything would hum along as planned, the vegetables roasting, the pig on the grill. She’d sent home the kitchen assistants and then taken a final walk through the venue.