Beyond Eighteen(49)

“Max, Wilson?” Camille whispered through the door as she knocked. Suddenly we weren’t alone.

Max cleared his throat, “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to tell you that Gary just called. He’s running a little behind and will be here in about fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks, we’ll be right down,” Max answered before he lowered his voice and whispered against the side of my head, “I’m going to take a shower. Why don’t you try and get a hold of Joanie?” He leaned down and kissed me before turning and indulging me with the lovely view of him walking away.

Max got into the shower, and yeah, every inch of me—from my body deep into my soul—craved the thought of sneaking in there and being with him. But I had to call J and tell her what the heck was going on. God, it feels like I haven’t talked to her in days, even though it was just yesterday. I wonder what she’s been doing with Nick? I felt a small pang of jealousy vibrate through my chest. Wait, what the hell is this?

I flipped open the phone and pressed the number one on my pre-dial. The phone rang three times before Joanie answered it.

“Good Morning, Wilson,” Joanie sang. Her tone was happy, almost electrifying. It caught me off guard, making me lose my train of thought.

“Ahhh, goooood morning?” I dragged my words out questioningly.

“Did you and Max get a chance to talk?”

“Yeah, but I called you yesterday…why didn’t you call me back?” I snapped. I didn’t mean to sound pissed off, even though it probably came off that way.

“I’m totally sorry I didn’t call you last night. My phone…died, aaaannnd I didn’t really have my charger…with me,” Joanie suddenly sounded cautious with her words as they came out slow and spacey. “I would have called you sooner, but we didn’t get back until late and I didn’t want to call and interrupt anything…just in case.”

I immediately picked up on her words. “We.” Where did she go? And was it with Nick? My heart fell into my stomach.

“Where did you go?” I tried to ask casually.

“Well, I was at the hospital last night—”

“What? Are you okay? What happened?” I demanded without giving her a chance to answer.

“I’m fine. It wasn’t me; it was Nick. After you and Max left yesterday I went back up to check on him. Cindy was standing over him, screaming and yelling to call 911. She went ballistic, hollering about calling the cops and pressing charges against Max. She was totally out of control. Nick told her to shut the fuck up and that it was his choice to press charges or not.”

My heart pounded in my chest and beads of sweat started to push from every pore of my skin.

“Are you serious? Oh my God, is…he—is Nick—okay?” I asked, struggling to say his name out loud.

“He’s fine. And don’t worry, Nick isn’t pressing charges against Max,” she sounded snappy as she continued. “And Cindy. God, she was out of her mind. And, of course, she won’t drive in the snow. No matter if her brother needs to go to the hospital or not. And Nick was just as stubborn and wouldn’t let me call an ambulance. Sooo, I drove him and Cindy to the hospital.”

Holy crap, I can’t believe what Joanie is telling me. I can’t imagine Max doing that to anyone. Max isn’t the violent type. What the hell did he do to Nick?

“Of course, once Cindy knew he was okay, she went back to being herself and called some friends to pick her up,” Joanie continued as she took a deep breath.

“God, I am so sorry, J. I never meant for anything like this to happen.”

“I know, honey, don’t blame yourself. As a matter of fact, Nick feels terrible about this whole situation. He wanted me to call you last night.”

“What? Why?” I asked. What the hell would he call me for? Really, after what happened…

“He wanted me to tell you how sorry he was for keeping you away from Max. Wilson, he told me everything last night. He explained why he didn’t tell you about Max calling.” Joanie’s voice lowered to a rumble.

“Well, maybe you can enlighten me, J.” The words passed my lips without a moment’s thought. There was a definite slice of time that grew larger with every breath I took waiting for Joanie to tell me why Nick had been so devious.

“Wilson, you’ve never realized how alluring you are. You’re so different than most girls Nick knows. Hell, Wilson, you’re different than any girl. I’m not trying to make excuses for him, but Nick’s been surrounded by self-centered, fake people for so long. You were like a breath of fresh air to him. So he got caught up in the idea that you’d want to be with him. He really feels bad about everything he did, especially for hurting you. He told me it was like something clicked inside him and he just wanted to protect you.”