He is going to be the death of me. What with promising both him and my dad that I’d think about sticking around, I suppose I should give it some thought. It didn’t occur to me on my mad dash back here that I would seriously be contemplating moving back. But it is home and I’ve missed everyone, including Max. Perhaps especially Max.
Chapter Sixteen
It is six o’clock when I pull up outside Sugar and Causey’s house. It seems silly to still be calling them by their nicknames.
“Hi, Leigh; thanks for agreeing to this.” Sugar greets me when she opens the door. “The girls are all ready for bed, but I said they could watch some TV before bedtime.”
“No problem. You look lovely.” Sugar is dressed in red capri pants and a white sleeveless top and flat shoes. Her blond hair is teased, with a red scarf tied around her head.
“It’s date night.” She winks at me and ushers me through to a big sitting room where two little girls are watching SpongeBob on a huge flat-screen TV that hangs on the wall.
Causey wanders into the room and slings an arm around Sugar’s shoulders. “You ready?” She nods and rushes over to the girls.
“You be good for Leigh now and I’ll see you in the morning.” They both mumble a good-bye, never taking their eyes off the TV and the annoying screech of SpongeBob.
“We won’t be late. Make yourself at home.” Sugar squeezes my hand and picks up her purse.
“Good to see you, Leigh.” Causey smiles warmly and follows his wife out the door.
I turn to the girls to ask if they want anything when I hear the door open. Thinking that they must have forgotten something, I turn back and my jaw drops as I watch Max saunter into the house like he owns the place.
Rushing over to him, I hiss, “What are you doing here? I’m babysitting; you can’t be here.” He presses a quick kiss on my stunned face and walks past me.
“Sure, I can. Sugar won’t mind and neither will the kids.” He stops behind the sofa. “Hi, girls.”
With a squeal, the girls scramble over the back of the sofa and launch themselves at Max.
“Uncle Max.” He catches them just in time as they both hang from his neck, one in each arm.
“Uncle?” Confusion furrows my brow.
“Yeah, did you not know Sugar was my sister?”
“No. I don’t even know if Sugar is her real name.”
He sets both the girls down on the sofa, and they resume watching TV.
“It’s not. Her name is Meghan.”
“Ah, so how did she get Sugar?”
“Causey thought her hair looked like spun sugar.”
I think on that for a second, and I get it. “Makes sense, I guess.”
One of the girls leans over the back of the sofa and watches the two of us with interest, resting her head on her crossed arms.
“Is this your girlfriend?” She looks adoringly at her uncle. He seems to have that effect on all females. He reaches over and ruffles her hair.
“Yup.” He looks at me and dares me to contradict him, and for the first time ever, I don’t argue. Instead, contentment fills me as he lays an arm across my shoulders, pulling me into his body, and presses a kiss to my temple.
Now both girls are watching us. “Eww yuck,” they scream and run away. Max just laughs and pulls me into the kitchen where he proceeds to take leftovers from the fridge and put them all on a plate.
“You want some?” he asks, and I shake my head, unable to look away at the amount of food he’s shoveling onto his plate.
“Have you not eaten?”
He shakes his head. “I normally come here for my dinner.”
“Where do you live?” Not for the first time, it occurs to me that I don’t know very much about Max or his life. How it escaped my knowledge that Sugar was his sister, I don’t know.
“Come here.” He holds out my hand and ignores the look of confusion on my face. I take it and he guides me over to the French windows looking over the back garden. “Over there.” I follow his finger to where it points at a big double garage with an apartment above it. “That’s where I stay.”
“Handy.”
“It is. When we came here, it was just Sugar and me. We lived in the apartment above the diner. Causey’s mom owns it, and that’s how they met. Sugar worked at the diner, and his family helped us. When they got married and built this house, it made sense for me to live nearby because I’ve never known any different. Plus, I don’t like to be too far from her.” I hear the pain in his voice and when reach out to touch him, it jerks him out of his reverie.
“What happened?” I ask quietly and he looks down at me with a tired smile, wrapping his arms around me and curling me into his chest.