A Familiar Star (Romance Mystery) (9 page)

The warning Mrs. Troy gave Kylie didn't go unheard. An alarm system was installed in the house, and she spent the rest of the week locked up in her room at night when Max was at work and on the paddleboat during the day admiring the homes around the lake. Max, however, seemed to be nowhere in sight. When he wasn't working, he was sleeping, and as soon as he got up, he left. He was avoiding her and she almost missed having him around.

Wednesday night s
he sat on the back deck, looking out at the sky. A thin cloud paled the moon as she wondered if all of the stupid mistakes she’d ever made were for a good reason. If she was to learn something from them, she learned that she should probably be alone for the rest of her life and save everyone a lot of heartache, including herself. But that reeked of pessimism and that’s not how she wanted to live her life. She needed to face the fact that things weren’t always going to be perfect. If you couldn’t accept your mistakes then you had to forget about them. They weren’t going to make you a better person if you let them drive you crazy. “What’s done is done,” she quoted her mother.

That night, she had her first solid sleep
since moving to the lake. She woke up feeling completely refreshed and went downstairs with a much lighter spirit.

"Hi, I thought you moved out."
Kylie said quietly, reaching the bottom of the stairs where Max was making breakfast.

"No such luck."
Max smirked without looking at her.

"I didn't mean it like that."
She explained.  "It’s just that I haven't seen you all week."

"Did you
miss me?"  His playfulness came back.

Kylie laughed then felt relieved.
"Actually, I kind of did."

Max looked up at her and smiled over her honesty.
"Well, I missed you to.  What did you do all week?"

"I paddled around the lake, met the neighbors."
She brought her coffee to the table.

Max sat down across from her
, and got that strange feeling of being transfixed to something so beautiful that you just can't turn away from it.

"Anyone interesting?"
He tried to unscramble his thoughts.

"Yes actually.
There's a nice couple with kids who live next door to the Hamilton’s who told me this story."

"What story?"

"Something about a man named Jeffery Williams who lives about six houses away from us, directly across from the Hamilton’s in fact."

"Ok
ay," Max's curiosity was peaked.

"Well, they said that he lost his family in a car accident when he was ten years old.
He was the only one who survived but he's extremely disfigured."

"Wow, what else did they say?"

"Only that he was brought up by a friend of the family.  Then when he was twenty one, he inherited his family's fortune, came back to live at his parents manor on forest lake and no one ever sees him.  He’s some kind of recluse. He buys and sells stock online and has a bunch of weird statues on his property." Kylie paused then looked up at Max. "What do you think?"

Max shrugged. 
"I don't know, I think poor guy, it must be tough living like that."

"Yes
, but don't you think something like that might change someone."

"Of course, but what are you getting at?"
Max wondered what the beauty in front of him was concocting in her head.

"Well
, isn't it possible that if you lock yourself away for too long, you’re bound to pick up some bizarre addictions?"

"What l
ike murder?"  Max asked.

She
nodded gently. "You see the strange thing is, two of the people who were murdered lived next door to him?"

Max
looked serious. "Kylie, unless you’re intending to switch professions and write a book, this whole thing is a long shot to me. Besides, I'm sure the police have checked him out."

"Well maybe you're right, but I think it’s
someone from around the lake."

Max just shrugged.
"I don't know Kylie."

"I
f I could only meet him, or someone could tell me if he had a small frame.  I did
see
the murderer Max."

Max noticed the frustration in Kylie
’s tone of voice but chose to ignore it. "That guy could have been a prowler."

"Well the
n why didn't he take anything?"  She frowned.

"
Maybe you interrupted him.  I don't know Kylie, all I do know is your opening a can of worms that best be left alone." He leaned over really close and stayed there for a minute. “Let the police take care of it.”  He stared at her intently.

Kylie let out a little sigh and forgot what her argument was.
God, she couldn't get too close to him.

Max got up to get more coffee.
"How about you come with me to Rocksdale?  I’m going to buy a patio set for the deck then I'll take you out and buy you lunch."

It sounded like
a great idea.  She didn't feel like being alone all day, and so what if she spent the day with him, they were only going shopping.

"Sounds great!"

Max turned around at breakneck speed and smiled. "Really…good, let’s go."

Heaven help her, Kylie thought as they were looking for a patio set.
Max was more charming than she remembered. He was fun and pleasant to be with and he made every care in the world seem to disappear. Exactly what she needed! She also realized, he was trying his very best to be a perfect gentleman and was doing an excellent job too. However, it would take some time to figure out if this was the real Max or Max on his best behavior.

"Why don't we try Natolino's for lunch?
A friend from work told me it's excellent," he said.

Kylie made a face.

"What’s wrong? I thought you loved Italian food.”

"I do, it's just last time we had Italian…."
Kylie didn’t finish her sentence and realized she shouldn’t have started it in the first place. God why did she say that?

Max stopped walking and got that mischievous grin that told her what was coming.
"We were very, very naughty."

“Don’t make
it sound so innocent.”

“It was innocent, like two teenagers sneaking out at night.
We had a little too much to drink. That’s why teenagers shouldn’t drink. They’re naughty, very naughty.”

Kylie had to bite her lower lip to keep herself from grinning.
She ought to know better.  She might’ve started this but boy did he know how to use it. "No actually we’re grownups, adults, and maybe we were a little bit delirious,” she returned, regarded the potted plants to suppress giggling.

Max started walking again.
"Delirious! Then lock me up and throw away the key."

Kylie just shook her head.
"Max, you are incorrigible!"  She pretended to be shocked yet couldn’t help falling prey to his charms.

"If you say so
, my dear." He gave her that heart-stopping smile and Kylie knew that Max's middle name was trouble.

The restaurant was far nicer than anything Kylie had ever seen in the city.
That was mostly due to the fact that the terrace dining overlooked a vista of mountains, the city of Rocksdale and the Roy River that separated the two. But even though the scenery was too beautiful to ignore, Max couldn't take his eyes off Kylie, and she couldn't help but watch the woman seated to the left of them that wouldn't take her eyes off Max.

"That woman
, sitting alone over there is staring at you." Kylie motioned in her direction.

"Oh
Yeah." Max said nonchalantly, his mind on other things.

"I mean she's really staring at you," she glanced over quickly at the woman.
"Not only that, the weird thing is I think I saw her at the Hardware store." Kylie frowned.

Max snapped out of his daze long enough to look directly at the woman who made no effort to look away
, but smiled at him instead. Max smiled back then turned back to Kylie who looked completely shocked.

"What's the matter?"
Max had to contain the urge to laugh.

"Well
, did you see that? I just can't believe she just smiled at you like that!"

"Why?
I'm single aren’t I?"  He gave her that mischievous look.

Her shoulders slumped
. “Well yes, but she doesn't know that!"

The warm glint in his eyes made it hard to get upset with him.
She took a deep breath and ordered herself to calm down. What did she care if this woman outwardly wanted him?

"I'll tell you something to put your mind at ease.
She's not my type." Max stated.

Kylie decided it was his arrogance that was upsetting her as usual.
"I really don't care."

"Could have fooled me."
Max leaned forward and stared into her eyes.

Kylie was caught off guard again.
Something tugged at her insides and for a moment her breath got caught in her throat.

“Listen to me for a second.  I think your beautiful, not her.”

They stared at each other for what seemed to be an exaggerated length of time. If that woman was still watching them, Kylie thought, she might just change her mind about their status.

Kylie pulled back first.
"You’re impossible Max!"

"Well thank you, I try,
" he smiled.

"I'm sure you do," she smiled back.

The food came and Kylie almost forgot the strange but pretty woman sitting adjacent to them. She popped a shrimp into her mouth, and listened to Max tell stories about him and his brother and all the innocent trouble they used to get into growing up. He’d had a good childhood despite his mother’s passing. It sounded like it was partly due to his father’s wonderful sense of humor and the great bond of love he had with his brother. It reminded her of how she felt about Lucy.

It was getting hot and the sun was working its way around the table's umbrella.
Kylie picked up her glass of iced tea and absorbed its coolness through her hands then brought it up to the light and admired its pretty, amber color. When she looked back up, Max was staring at her just as she was hoping he would be. He was so handsome; he sent shivers up and down her spine. She didn't want him to want her but it was hard not to like all the attention. Damn it, he was getting to her, she thought.

"Are you ready to go?"
She asked softly.

Max was so busy fantasizing he couldn't answer fast enough.

“Are you ready to go?”

"
I guess so.  What are you thinking about?" Kylie asked him.

"You."
Max said frankly.

Her head dropped slightly then she looked at him very seriously.
"I think you should just forget about me."  But as she said it, it didn't sound convincing enough for her, and she wondered how it sounded to him.

Max got up from his chair and picked up the bill.
"You do what's best for you and I'll do what's best for me. How does that sound?"

Kylie felt bad and reached for the bill
, but he grabbed her by the hand. "It’s ok," he said, but Kylie knew he didn't mean the bill.

He held on to her for a minute and she felt so right. He knew she was just scared.
It had to be that, he thought.  He didn't imagine that she was staring back at him a few minutes ago and he sure as hell didn't imagine the other night.

He took her hand in his own and led her
out of the restaurant as if it was the natural thing to do. They passed the arrogant woman on the way out who was now sitting with a man. Kylie cringed as she looked down at her. Maybe the women thought she knew Max and it was just a misunderstanding. Still, something didn’t feel right.

Late that afternoon after putting up the patio set and relaxing by the lake
, Kylie had renewed energy and decided to rake the lawn. She still felt bad about Paul and couldn't get it off her mind, but thought that a little work might change that. She’d left him a message on his answering machine twice, but he never called her back. It was true that if he never wanted to speak to her again, it was justifiable; she simply wished that he would give her the chance to explain.  Except explain what, she reflected. That she had nearly made love to the man she lived with. No, that wouldn't work at all. She might as well resign herself to being alone for the rest of her life. Surely Paul was the nicest man she had ever met, and if she had messed it up with him, she knew she’d regret it for a very long time, she thought.