“Had to pay double, but yeah.” He grabbed their two bags and tossed her the leash. “You got him?”
For some reason that made her feel slightly better. Though he had good reason to hate her, he didn’t, not if he trusted her with Carl. Maybe he’d finally really hear her apology. “Max?”
He turned to her, impatience on his face. There were snowflakes clinging to his perfectly long, inky black eyelashes, and his jaw was tight.
She bit her lower lip. “I just want to say how sorry I am that—-”
“Not now.”
“Then when?”
His laugh was humorless. “Rory, it’s ten fucking degrees and it’s coming down sideways out here. You’re shaking so hard your teeth are going to rattle out of your mouth.”
“I don’t care.” She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his jacket to hold him still. “I’m trying to make everything okay, Max. Don’t you get it? I really need everything to be okay. God, just once in my life, I need that. I can’t live with all this past stuff in my head anymore, I’m going to lose my mind.” She gripped his jacket tighter and put her face in his. “So I’m going to tell you I’m sorry and you’re going to listen to me, dammit!”
He hadn’t so much as blinked as she basically yelled at him but she thought maybe there was the slightest softening in his hard eyes. “Okay,” he said.
“Okay.” She let out a breath and nodded. “Good.”
“You ready to go inside now or do you need to yell at me some more?” he asked.
She choked out a laugh and got out of the truck.
The lobby of the motel consisted of a desk and a love seat that looked like it’d seen better days. So did the paint on the walls and the floors. The wide--screen TV though, that was brand spanking new and the twentysomething guy in front of it waved them through a hallway without taking his eyes off his show. “Last two rooms on the right,” he said, glancing over, his gaze slowing a little as he took in Rory. “They connect if you want them to,” he added slyly.
Rory stumbled but Max caught her and nudged her along without comment.
To their connecting rooms.
She didn’t say a word as they stopped in front of the first door. Max handed her a key and waited until she unlocked it.
“Try to get some sleep,” he said. “I’ll come for you when the roads are open and clear.”
“You kissed me.”
“Yeah.”
“You kissed me like you liked me,” she said.
He just held her gaze as snow flew all around them.
She drew a deep breath. “Max, the girl who made that video, she isn’t the same woman standing here in front of you. You have to know that.”
Max dropped his head and stared at his boots for a beat before meeting her gaze again. “Look, maybe we could go in our rooms and take showers to recover from the snow apocalypse, and then take some time to think things through like rational -people. Would that work for you?”
She paused and then nodded.
A very slight bit of humor came into his gaze. “You sure?” he asked. “Because if you want to go back outside in this crazy--ass storm and yell at me on Christmas Eve some more, that works too.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back to her door. “The rooms connect.”
“Yes.”
She glanced at him. “You going to knock first?”
He studied her for a long moment and then stepped into her a little bit, enough to make her breathing hitch and her heart skip a beat. His fingers stroked a rogue strand of hair from her temple. “Worried?”
Yes. She was worried that he wouldn’t come over at all.
“Listen,” he said. “Let it all go for tonight, okay? I mean what’s the worst that could happen—-you wake up and go back to worrying in the morning? Because maybe life’ll surprise you and everything’ll be fine.”
She gave a rough laugh and he smiled. “It could happen,” he said.
“Not in my world.”
His smile faded. “There’s a first time for everything, Rory. Shut and lock the door. You know where to find me if you need me.”
He said this lightly but she had a feeling he was hoping she wouldn’t need him. Which was fine. She didn’t need anyone, thank you very much. So she did as he said. She shut and locked her door and stared at the small but neat room. She set down her duffle bag and then eyeballed the connecting door to Max’s room.
The walls were thin. She could hear him unlocking his door and then the padding of Carl as he trotted in.
“Stop,” Max said and Rory froze.
“Don’t drool on the windows.”
Rory had to laugh at herself and then imagined Carl at the window, up on his back legs so he could see out into the night.
“You wouldn’t believe the security deposit I had to put down for you,” Max said, tone warning, “and I want it back, every penny.”
There was a thump. Probably Max’s duffle bag hitting the floor. And then the interior door, her connecting door, rattled a tiny bit.
He’d unlocked his connecting door, she realized as her heart took a good solid leap.
He wanted her to be able to get him if she needed him.