They woke up in a sauna. Ellie was sleeping on her side with her head on his shoulder and one leg draped over his. She opened her eyes as Max was trying to gently move her off of him so he could get up. She was instantly wide-awake. She rolled over him and tried to move off the bed. He caught her about her waist and pulled her down for a long kiss. The flash of embarrassment she’d felt waking up with him was gone, and she kissed him back just as thoroughly. Then she got up and went into the bathroom to shower.
Max went into the kitchen and drank a glass of orange juice while he tried to figure out how to turn the air conditioner down, but the dial on the thermostat wouldn’t move.
Her dad definitely had been ripped off no matter how much of a discount he’d received. Max wondered how he would react the next time he opened his electric bill. If the wiring was faulty, the thing could be a fire hazard. Max decided, before he and Ellie left for the airport, he should talk to him about it.
The air came back on while Max was in the shower. Ellie went into the smaller bedroom to get ready. She applied a little makeup and lip gloss, and even put on a skirt to please her mother. It was short, pale blue, and barely wrinkled. Her crisp white blouse was fitted but not too tight.
Since she hadn’t slept in the bed, she didn’t change the sheets. She smoothed the covers and then went into Max’s bedroom to strip the bed, but he’d already made it. She wasn’t surprised. She’d noticed what a careful, disciplined man he was when he was working, and that spilled over into his personal habits. His shaving kit was organized, and his shirts were perfectly folded in his bag. Max controlled what he could in his environment. She surmised that the trauma of losing his parents at such an early age had a lot to do with his behavior. It was also probably what made him so good at his job.
She stared at the bed a long moment as pictures of what they had done the night before flashed before her. She actually blushed as she remembered how enthusiastic she’d been. Max most likely thought she was a sex fiend, and with him, she just might be.
With a sigh, she went back into the living room. After they had their talk with her father, she’d change the sheets, she decided.
She drank a Diet Coke for breakfast and was leaning against the counter checking her phone when Max came into the kitchen. He was sliding his gun into his holster at his side. She watched him bring the leather strap over the gun and snap it in place.
She was suddenly feeling shy again. “I haven’t changed my airline ticket yet,” she said.
“Let’s talk to your father first, then worry about getting back.”
“Thank you for not fighting me on this.”
“Protecting you will be easier if you’re in the hospital all day and home the rest of the time. We’ll have more manpower.”
“I’m not going back to the hospital permanently,” she replied. Then she added, “Maybe if they’re shorthanded for a little while until…”
“Until you find out where Patterson is?”
She shook her head. “No, until I figure out where I want to live and work.”
Ellie heard someone calling her name. She was pretty sure it was her father, and she went to the door to open it. She’d unlocked the dead bolt when Max put his hand on top of hers and said, “You don’t open doors. I do. And I go out first. Understood?”
She turned around and found herself plastered against the door. His hands were on either side of her.
“Last night…,” he began.
He was frowning. Oh no, was he going to tell her it had been a mistake? Or worse, apologize for what happened? She thought she just might kick him if he did.
“It’s okay,” she said, trying to ease what she perceived to be guilt. “It’s all good.”
Then she noticed the amusement in his eyes and realized he wasn’t feeling guilty about anything. He kissed her. It was a brief glad-to-see-you-again kind of kiss and definitely unsatisfying.
“Good? Sweetheart, it was a whole lot better than good.”
“Yes, it was,” she said, sighing.
Just standing this close to him made her weak. She had thought that after making love most of the night, she would have moved past this crazy reaction to him. It didn’t happen. He still could turn her stomach into jelly.
Had she not been anxious to get the talk with her parents over and done with and be on their way, she would have kissed Max the way she wanted, but she had no intention of starting something she couldn’t finish.
Her father bellowed her name. She took a deep breath and said, “Okay, let’s do this,” and stepped back to let him go outside first, then followed him.
He made himself a target. Whoever would try to hurt her would have to go through him first.
“I’m good at removing bullets,” she whispered. She didn’t know why she needed to give him that inconsequential information. Was she telling him this so he wouldn’t worry? The possibility of him getting injured was too awful to think about.
“I know you are,” he said. “One of the other surgeons at the hospital told Sean you hit the one hundred mark before your third year of residency.”
“That’s not something I want to be remembered for,” she said. She poked him between his shoulder blades. “Don’t you dare get shot.”
“I won’t,” he promised as he looked around.
Ellie’s parents’ backyard was square, extremely large, perfectly manicured, and surrounded by trees and bushes on all sides, blocking the neighbors’ view. Behind the greenery was a fence, but that, too, was hidden from view. It would be difficult for Cogburn to get a good shot, Max thought. Even if one of the neighbors didn’t notice a stranger cutting through his yard, the fence and the bushes would be a deterrent. No, there were better places to wait for his target. Too many, in fact.
Her father held the door open for them. “I made waffles,” he announced. “Your mother’s starting the eggs, and the bacon is already on the table getting cold. Didn’t you hear me calling?”
“Dad, Max and I need to talk to you and Mom. It’s important,” she said.
“Important can wait until after breakfast,” he said.
“But this is-”
“Eleanor, you heard your father. No worrisome talk before breakfast,” her mother said.
“Is that a new rule?”
“It’s a Southern rule.”
“Yes, all right,” she said. “But directly after breakfast we need to talk.”
Neither parent responded to her demand. “Mom?”
“All right, dear. Now eat your breakfast.”
Ellie wanted only a PowerBar or a piece of toast, but she couldn’t hurt her father’s feelings, and so she ate a little of everything that was offered. Max ate like a man who’d been starving for a week.
“Want to know the secret to my waffles? Club soda,” her father said proudly. “That’s why they’re so light and fluffy.”
“Dad’s an expert on waffles,” she explained.
“And baking bread,” he added. “It’s therapeutic. But that’s all. Waffles and bread.”
“Did you sleep well last night?” Claire asked Max.
The question reminded him about the air conditioner, and he told William that he should call the store where he had purchased the unit and make them replace it.
“It was all sales final,” William said. “But I’ll have a repairman over here today. I know just who to call. In the meantime, would you mind helping me disconnect it?”
Max followed her father outside. “Don’t forget to tell him about the thermostat,” Ellie called.
He raised his hand to let her know he’d heard her just as the door closed.
Now that Claire had Ellie alone, she sat down at the table next to her.
“I see you still drink milk,” she remarked with a smile as Ellie finished her glass.
She then began to talk about all the wedding arrangements, and in the midst of describing the wedding cake, she burst into tears.
Ellie was astonished and alarmed. She hadn’t seen her mother cry in years, not since the day she had to leave her with the Wheatleys.
“Mother, stop that,” Ellie demanded. She grabbed a tissue from the box on the shelf and handed it to her. “Please, stop crying.”
“I know how hard this is for you,” her mother began. She wiped the tears away as she continued. “I wish things were different. It breaks my heart to see you and Ava not getting along. I love all my girls, but I’ll admit that Ava has been a trial for your father and me. She’s so headstrong, and what she did to you was cruel and despicable.”
Ellie was speechless. She knew her mother loved her, and she also knew she didn’t favor one daughter over the others, but she had never expressed strong feelings about what happened between the two sisters until today.
“Ava knows how her father and I feel. After you left so abruptly-and who could blame you-we got into quite an argument. You were so devastated and destroyed by the betrayal.”
No, she wasn’t, Ellie admitted to herself. She was neither devastated nor destroyed. She was furious and humiliated, but there hadn’t been any heartbreak.
“Ava said it wasn’t deliberate, that there was this instant attraction between the two of them. That does happen.”
Yes, it does, Ellie agreed as she replayed her initial reaction to meeting Max. There had definitely been an instant attraction, and it seemed to be getting stronger.
“Then she should have come to me and told me instead of jumping into bed with him,” Ellie said.
“Yes, she should have,” her mother said. “I know you don’t want excuses, and I understand that, but Eleanor, we have to find a way to get past this. Ava’s going to marry John a week from Saturday, no matter how any of us feel. She loves him, and he loves her. Please try to be all right with it.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll try. Now please, stop crying,” she pleaded as she handed her mother another tissue.
“Do you want to hear about the preparations for the garden party?”
“What garden party?”
“You didn’t get your invitation?”
Ellie shook her head. “Maybe,” she said then. “There was a lot of mail piled up. I paid the bills, but I didn’t have time to go through all the rest…”
“Annie’s giving a garden party here Saturday evening for Ava. It’s going to be lovely. Annie’s taken care of all the preparations long distance, if you can imagine. Of course, Ava insisted that she approve every choice. There will be about eighty people here, maybe more.”
Ellie continued to listen while her mother talked about all the difficulties with the planning and how nervous and demanding Ava had been to have everything just so.
“You’re not paying for this wedding, are you, Mother?”
“No, no,” she rushed. “Ava and John are paying for everything.”
Ellie didn’t think she was telling the full truth, but she didn’t argue.
“Ava’s done most of the work. It’s just been very stressful. I’ll be so thankful when this is over.”
Max walked in with her father but stopped when he saw Ellie’s mother dabbing at her eyes.
“You told her?” he asked.
Ellie was shaking her head. “Not a good time.”
“Tell me what?” her mother asked, the worry already creeping back into her eyes.
Ellie braced herself for the battle ahead. “Something’s happened, and we have to leave. I didn’t think it was necessary for Max to tell you because we wouldn’t be here, but he insisted, said it was important that you know and I…” She realized she was rambling and forced herself to stop.
“What’s happened?” her father asked.
“Max, why don’t you explain.”
Max pulled out a chair next to Ellie, sat, and quickly told them about the Landry case and the shooting of Sean Goodman. The rest of the account took only fifteen minutes, but for the next hour Ellie tried to calm them down.
“But if you’re not a witness and you can’t identify these terrible people, why would they send someone to harm you?” her mother asked.
“They don’t take chances,” Max explained. “And they have their ways of finding out who potential witnesses are. She and Sean saw them.”
“They were both wearing disguises, you said,” William said.
“Yes, Dad, they were. I really couldn’t identify them.”
“What should we do, William? I don’t want to let Ellie out of my sight. I want to keep her locked up in the house until they catch that man, but I know I can’t.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Figure something out? “Dad, unless you want a plus two at the wedding, Max and I need to leave.”
“What plus two?” her mother asked, not understanding.
Max understood. He put his arm around the back of Ellie’s chair and gently tugged on her hair. Plus two would be Max and the hired killer. Not funny.
“I’ve been accused of ruining several of Ava’s parties, and I don’t think she’ll appreciate someone shooting up the church during the ceremony.”
“Oh my Lord, don’t talk like that,” her father said.
“I’m putting everyone in danger staying here. I do wish I could stay for a little while. I haven’t seen Annie in over three years. And all the aunts and uncles will be here, some I haven’t seen since I was a little girl.”
“It’s too dangerous for you,” her mother said. “I so wanted you to attend the garden party, though. Annie’s going to be disappointed. The whole family would be together, and that hasn’t happened in years, has it, William?”
“Mom, please don’t tell Annie or Ava the real reason I had to leave. Make up an excuse.”
“How safe is my daughter going to be back in her apartment?” her father asked Max. “Strangers stick out here, but not in the big city.” His face was getting red with anger, for it was all sinking in.
“There will be more agents and police to watch over her.”
“What about you, Max? Are you going to keep my daughter safe?”
“Yes, sir, I am. I’m not going to let anyone hurt her.” It was a promise he would die to keep.
“Then you aren’t her friend, Max?” her mother asked. “You’re here to protect her?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I’m both.”
