Wanting to Remember,Trying to Forget(36)
“Are you complaining?” She shifted her legs on the bed and his eyes were drawn to the top of her thighs, her nighty barely covering that firm ass.
“Definitely not complaining!” he said with a smile.
He re-dressed, re-combed his hair and walked to the front door with Danny following behind him. Stopping outside, he turned around and kissed her, ensuring it didn’t linger too long or he would be pulled right back in.
“Have a great day, Sugarpie,” she said.
His face scrunched with distaste. “Sugarpie? Really?”
“What?” She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “You said you wanted us to behave like a normal couple. That’s what normal couples say.”
“Maybe in the fifties.”
“Well, I like it.”
He nodded but still couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet. “You’re meeting a new client today, right?”
“Yeah. They’re coming over at nine.”
This conversation was starting to sound exactly like a normal couple, so much so that he had to remind himself that the basis of their relationship was the furthest thing from normal.
“I need to learn how to drive again,” she said. “I need to be able to go to clients instead of them coming to me.”
“I’ll teach you. I taught you the first time, too.” He leaned forward and gave her another quick kiss. “I’ll see you later, Honeybun.”
“That’s even worse than Sugarpie.”
She giggled and he felt his chest tighten. “God, I lo—”
He stopped himself once again from uttering the words that could expose him. Every time she smiled or laughed or looked at him in a certain way, he had to catch it before it slipped out. If she regained her memory or he told her truth, there was a chance that all this could end and he just wanted to hold onto those words, keep it to himself. It was a form of protection, a way to save his pride if it all blew up in his face. She knew his body. She knew his strengths and his weaknesses. And he was fine with her knowing that. But if she found out the truth and she left; at least she wouldn’t take those words with her. It was better not to reveal it because at least that way she wouldn’t know…she wouldn’t know how desperately in love with her he was.
* * *
Max switched on the air-conditioner in his office then loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves. It was the fourth day of August and the heat was unbearable for eight o’ clock in the morning. Or maybe it was just him. Every time his mind hopped back to Danny wearing nothing but that tiny nighty and her lips encircled around his cock, his heart began to race. He had to remind Penis several times that she wasn’t in the room so he would go back to sleep.
He had a wide smile on his face when Charlie walked into his office and sat down on the opposite side of his desk.
“Why, don’t you look happy this morning,” he said. “Did you get lucky?”
“Charlie!”
“You can’t blame a guy for asking. At least one of us is getting some action. Until Dorothy wakes up and realizes what’s good for her, I’m stuck in a dry spell.”
“Well, you still have Lili. CGI but still smoking hot.”
Charlie chuckled. “I’m glad you finally got what you wanted, Max. I actually like her better this way. There’s a part of me that’s wishing she doesn’t regain her—”
Max’s ringing phone silenced him. “Hang on, Charlie. It’s my mom.” The fact that his mother was calling him during working hours was strange, but he began to worry when he answered it and heard her tremulous breathing on the other end.
“Ma? You there?”
“Max…oh, Max…it’s bad. Kevin…and Perry…when we picked him up from the hospital…he was covered in blood…and…and they couldn’t…they couldn’t save him.”
Max felt a cold sweat trickle down his spine. “Mom, slow down. I don’t understand what you’re saying. Who got hurt?”
“Not hurt,” she choked out. “Perry died last night.”
His blood ran cold. His throat closed. It took a few seconds for it to sink in and when it did, his hands began to tremble. The happiness he had felt just moments ago evaporated into thin air.
“Your brother needs you, Max.”
“I’m on my way, Ma.”
Max hung up the phone and it dropped from his weak hands. His body shuddered as he shut down his computer.
“Max, you’re as white as a ghost,” Charlie said worriedly. “What happened?”
“Perry…Perry died last night.” And as he muttered the words, it was more real, final.
“I’m so sorry, Max. I know he was like a brother to you.”
Max only nodded, unable to speak from the shock. He stood up and pushed his phone into his pocket. “I have to go,” he said after a few moments. “Charlie, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Tell the boss that I’m taking a few days off and get me on the next flight to Montana.”
Charlie nodded and Max left the room, racing to the elevators with heavy legs. His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Jordan: Did you hear?
Max: Just got off the phone with mom
Max: Leaving ASAP
Jordan: I could only get a flight on Thursday night
Max: It doesn’t matter when you get there. Just get there
* * *
“I don’t know why I can’t come with you,” Danny said.
Max released a loaded breath and continued packing his bag. He couldn’t deal with this right now.
“Max, I know how much Perry meant to you. You’ve always been there for me, now I wanna be there for you.”
And he wanted her there too, but that meant he would have to ask his family to play along with the façade. He couldn’t do that, not now, not in this time of crisis. They were all grieving and asking them to lie just to keep up this pathetic act was not something he would ever ask them to do.
“Danny, please. Just try to understand. You don’t know any of them…and this is the worst possible time for you to meet them. It’s just for a couple of days. I really need to be with my family right now.”
Her lips pouted a bit and she tried to smile despite her disappointment. “Okay.”
He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tight, stealing as much comfort as he could because he was going to have to face the next few days alone.
* * *
It was early the next morning when the taxi drove down the tree-lined street and dropped him off. Charlie had managed to secure him a late night flight and Max felt exhausted as he lugged his bags out of the car. He walked up the stairs to the large wooden porch of his parents’ massive country-style house and inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of home. This house held so many happy memories yet as his feet dragged lethargically across the floor, all he felt was sadness. Perry was gone and all the cheeky comments and witty remarks were gone, too. Perry had grown up in this house right alongside Kevin.
They were five years old when they’d first met and it didn’t take long before Perry started sleeping over and spending Christmas with them. His parents, Beatrice and Patrick, lived four houses down the road so their homes and their families were easily interchangeable. Their lives were intertwined from a young age, the bond of their friendship so deep that they even shared their moms. Momma J and Momma B, and neither mother ever complained about having an extra son.
Kevin was a difficult person to deal with, and that was putting it mildly, yet somehow Perry had done it with ease. His little brother was intense, a ticking bomb, a landmine. Step in the wrong place and he exploded with awful words and rude remarks. That’s how he dealt with things. He lashed out at anyone who tried to get too close. He put up walls and stopped everyone from entering his personal space, everyone except Perry. And now the only person who knew how to comfort him was the reason he needed comfort in the first place.
Max stepped inside and went past the dining room, straight to the large kitchen to find his mother. He found her sitting sadly at the table, holding a cup of tea in her hand but it didn’t look like she had even taken a sip yet. Her shoulders were hunched over and her eyes were red and puffy. Although her dark hair was graying and there were wrinkles at the corner of her eyes, Max had never thought she looked old until now. Perry’s death had aged her overnight.
“Mom?”
She gave a tired smile when she saw him. “Hey, baby. How was your flight?”
“Too long.” He walked up to her and hugged her tight. He didn’t ask how she was doing. The answer was apparent. Completely distraught, as if she had lost her own child. She held him for a long while before she finally pulled away.
“Dad’s at Momma B’s house,” she said, “helping with the funeral arrangements. It’s on Saturday.” Her voice grew shakier. “She’s a wreck, Max. Completely shattered. She was frantic at the morgue. They had to sedate her. Our Perry is gone. He was a good boy…such a big heart.”
He watched the stream of tears roll down her face. Standing there silently, he offered no words of comfort because there was nothing he could say to make the situation better. Instead, he listened to his mother as she poured her heart out, small smiles tugging at her dimples as she reminisced about the last fifteen years they had spent with Perry. But then she started talking about the night he died and the depression returned.