Taming Mad Max (14 page)

CHAPTER 11

Usually Kari and Molly looked out at the stars and the moon before Kari said goodnight, but tonight Kari shut the blinds with a flick of her wrist and then took a seat in Molly’s desk chair in the corner of her bedroom. She looked over at her daughter who was sitting on the edge of her bed.

After returning to Max’s house, Kari called Lindsay only to learn that Molly had been suspended from school. “I’m going to give you one more chance to come clean,” Kari said. “I want to hear it from your lips, Molly. Were you kissing Grant Parker, or not?”

Molly faced her way, but she wasn’t looking at her. Instead, her eyes were wide and unblinking.

“So this is how it’s going to be?”

Nothing. Not one twitch.

“I don’t know what you think this silent treatment is going to solve or prove, but if that’s the way you want to play it, fine with me.”

Kari stood, walked across the room, and promptly emptied out Molly’s backpack and purse. She gathered up Molly’s Ipod and the cell phone she’d given her daughter for emergencies. Next, she unplugged the regular phone and piled everything outside Molly’s door before she came back for more.

Molly’s eyes narrowed, which Kari took as a good sign since her daughter obviously needed to learn to communicate.

Kari got down on the ground, unplugged the computer, and took the monitor with her. After a few minutes she came back for the clock radio.

“There,” Kari said, looking around the room. “I think that’s everything. “You’ve got plenty of books to keep you busy for the next few days. “Let me know when you’re ready to talk.”

When Kari got to the bottom of the stairs, she found Lindsay on the phone in the kitchen. Lindsay saw her and raised a hand. “Oh, here she is now, Max.”

Max? Kari waved her hands wildly in front of her, letting Lindsay know she didn’t want to talk to him.

“Never mind,” Lindsay told Max. “It was someone else returning home. Yes, a neighbor. I have no idea why Mrs. Johnson was in my house, but as soon as I find out, I’ll let you know.” She rolled her eyes at Kari.

“Okay,” Lindsay said. “I’ll tell her. Goodnight, Max.” She hung up the phone and didn’t waste any time pouring them both a glass of Chardonnay. “Here you go,” Lindsay said, setting a glass of wine on the coffee table. She took a seat on the couch and patted the empty seat next to her.

Kari sat down and sipped the wine. The forty-eight inch black metal oscillating fan in the corner of their small living room sounded like a dying animal as it squeaked and sputtered and sent a warm breeze her way. Past eight o’clock at night and the temperatures were still in the eighties. Days like this made Kari wonder why she hadn’t moved away.

“What did Max want?”

“I have no idea. You should have talked to him if you were curious.”

Kari grunted.

“Molly still won’t talk to you?”

“No, and I don’t understand it. Molly has never acted up like this before.”

“She’ll come around eventually.”

“Did she say anything when you brought her home from school?”

Lindsay appeared thoughtful. “No. But Cole was there and I’m sure she was embarrassed at having him there.”

“Cole went with you?”

“My car isn’t working, remember? Truthfully, I was lucky he hadn’t left before I got the call.”

“Maybe we should drop your car off at the shop right now so they can work on it tomorrow.”

“No need. Cole said he’d take a look at it in the morning.”

Kari sipped her wine. “You like Cole, don’t you?”

“As a friend,” Lindsay assured her.

“Oh, come on. He’s gorgeous and he’s very sweet.”

Lindsay scoffed at that. “Give me a break. The first night we spotted Cole he had your standard big-chested Barbie doll sitting next to him. He’s your typical bad boy: Charming and predictable, which equals heartache.”

“You could work with him a little,” Kari teased, “mold him into the man of your dreams.”

Lindsay chuckled. “Most women would love to get a man like Cole to lie down on their couch so they could figure out all his troubles and then tell everyone that they “fixed” their jerk boyfriend. ‘He once was a bad boy, but now he’s a sweetheart...a changed man.’” Lindsay put a finger halfway inside her mouth and pretended to gag. “The last thing I want to do is tame Cole Fletcher and then run around acting like I’ve performed an incredible feat, only to find out ten years into our relationship he’s had a string of mistresses.”

“Not all men are two-timing jerks.”

“No. Some men are geeks,” she said, gesturing toward the front door.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

Kari lifted a questioning brow.

“It’s that realtor guy. He’s been calling all day and he already stopped by once. Does he have it bad for you, or what?”

“He’s my realtor. He wants to make a sale.”

“I’ll say.”

Kari shook her head as she made her way to the door. “Hello, Richard.”

The strong scent of his cologne enveloped her senses. The man was preppy, bordering on stiff, but definitely not geeky.

“Mind if I come in for a moment?” he asked.

“By all means, come in,” she said, opening the door wider. As she followed Richard inside, she shot Lindsay a look that said, ‘See, he’s not so bad.’

Reluctantly, Lindsay went to the kitchen and brought him a glass of Chardonnay.

Richard the realtor took the offered glass and held it up for a toast. “I can’t remember the last time I found myself in a room with two lovelier ladies.”

“Why, thank you,” Kari said, clicking her glass against his.

Lindsay offered him a tight smile. “What brings you here so late?”

“I found this incredible house,” he told Kari. “I think you and Molly are going to be very excited once you see it. It’s a two story just like you wanted. It has central air and a newly remodeled kitchen with granite countertops. It’s nearly two thousand square feet.”

The house sounded promising. “How much?”

Lindsay sipped her wine.

“Ten thousand under your minimum price.”

Kari’s eyes lit up. “That’s fabulous.”

“Where is it?” Lindsay asked.

“Chatsworth.”

“Oh.” Kari sipped her wine.

Lindsay narrowed her eyes at Richard. “Isn’t that close to where you live?”

He loosened his tie. “A few miles away.”

“I really don’t want to commute,” Kari reminded him.

“At least take a look at it. How about tomorrow morning?”

“I don’t know.”

“She’s working very closely with a client these days,” Lindsay said.

Kari thought about Max with his black eye and bloody nose. Would his family blame her for his injuries? She already felt as if she’d intruded on their visit. Joey hated her guts and his mother hadn’t exactly greeted her with open arms. It would probably be best if she stopped working with Max until his family left. She met Richard’s gaze. “What time do you want to pick us up?”

“Doesn’t your daughter have school?”

Kari was beginning to see that Lindsay might be right about Richard wanting more than just a sale. “Unfortunately, she’s been suspended from school.”

“She was caught making out with a boy,” Lindsay told him.

Kari tapped Lindsay on the knee. “I’m sure Richard isn’t interested in the details.”

The next hour turned out to be informative and fun. Despite Lindsay’s best attempt to scare Richard off, he’d entertained them both with interesting stories about real estate. But Kari didn’t want to give Richard the wrong idea, so she didn’t bother walking him to his car when he got up to leave. They all said goodbye and Kari shut the door after he left, leaning against it until she heard his car pull away.

Lindsay finished the last of her wine. “I was wrong. He is a nice guy. I’ll give him that much.”

Kari nodded, but her thoughts were a million miles away, or maybe only thirty miles away, on a man with a black eye and a broken nose. Richard may be a nice guy, but he was no Mad Max.

#

“What happened to your face, Uncle Max?”

“A little beach volleyball with the guys.” Max ruffled the top of his niece’s head and continued on toward the living room where he could hear everyone talking at once.

“Oh, my God,” one of his sister’s cried. “Your eye!”

“Look at his nose,” somebody said.

“We better get you to the hospital.”

“No need,” Max said. “I just got back from the emergency room. Nothing’s broken.”

His mother reached for his face. He jerked back. “Please,” he said. “No touching. Just because it’s not broken, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

“Who did this to you?” she asked.

“One of the guys.”

“Which guy?”

“Derek Hoffman.”

“Which one is Derek?” Jill asked.

“He’s the new hot one,” Sally told her.

“He is hot,” Nicole agreed.

They all turned to stare at Nicole, since they were pretty sure she hadn’t looked at a man since Jake passed away.

She shrugged her shoulders.

“He’s not that great,” Max told them as he rustled around in the refrigerator for a cold beer.

Dan saw Max open a cold one and said over his shoulder, “I thought you weren’t supposed to drink beer.”

Max pointed at his beat up face. “I think I deserve one damn beer, don’t you?”

Dan shrugged. “I just assumed, since you have a nutritionist and everything, that you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol.”

“Well, you know what happens when you assume, Dan.”

Fred smiled. “Man, you’re in a fighting mood, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Max said. “You wanna step outside?”

Everybody laughed except Max.

“What were you and Derek fighting about?” Nicole asked.

Max didn’t want to go into it. “It was nothing. Stupid actually.”

Breanne’s eyes lit up. “It had something to do with Kari, didn’t it?”

“He wouldn’t fight over someone like Kari,” his mother said.

Max gave his mother a long hard look. “What do you mean by that, Mom?”

She lifted her slender shoulders and gave him an innocent look. “Nothing.”

Sally sighed. “Mom doesn’t like you getting too attached to anyone, Max. You know that.”

“I don’t know that. What are you talking about?”

“Oh, come on,” Nicole said. “You’re her only son. You’ve taken care of most of us since the day Dad passed away. The thought of you having a long term relationship with anyone scares Mom to death.”

“She would have heart palpitations,” Sally agreed, “if you ever asked anyone to be your wife.”

“Stop that. Both of you,” their mother said. “You girls have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“She doesn’t care who you sleep with,” Nicole added, ignoring their mother, “she just doesn’t want you falling in love.”

This was all news to Max. His eyes were still focused on his mom. “Is that true?”

“Of course not. I want you to be happy. I’m just not sure settling down would be the right thing for you.”

He raised his hands in the air. “Okay, that’s it. I don’t want to talk about this right now. My head is throbbing.” He sat in an empty recliner and took another swallow of his Corona. “Let’s change the subject.”

“Okay,” Jill agreed. “I want to know why Derek slugged you in the face and mutilated your nose.”

“He wouldn’t stop ogling Kari,” Max said. “I found his actions to be disrespectful.”

“Ah,” Dan said. “So you were fighting over Kari...the woman who is not your girlfriend.”

Max answered with a tight smile, then took another long swig of his beer. “Happy everyone?”

“If you look like this,” Fred said, “I can’t wait to see what Hoffman looks like.”

“It’s not pretty,” Max lied.

“Is Kari coming to the house tomorrow?” Breanne asked.

“After today? Who knows. Although I doubt it.”

“That’s too bad. We wanted to invite her to the barbeque on Sunday.”

“She left her shoes in the back of my bike. I’ll invite her when I take them to her tomorrow.”

Jill smiled. “Wonderful.”

Not even a second of silence stretched between them before Sally said, “I was thinking about Kari today.”

They all patiently waited for her to continue.

“I was thinking about the day Kari picked me up on the side of the road when I ran out of gas. It was a day or two before my graduation party. Remember the party I had?”

Max nodded, more interested in the taste of cold beer running down his parched throat than anything else.

“Mom and Dad were gone and you came home from college unexpectedly?”

Max nodded again. “I remember.”

“You found your girlfriend, Alyssa Anderson, making out with Scott Vance. You were furious.”

“He wasn’t that furious,” Jill reminded Sally, “because the next day he kept talking about some new girl he’d met. But nobody could figure out who he was talking about.”

Jill looked at Max. “Did you ever figure out who the mystery girl was?”

Breanne jumped out of her seat as if she’d just spilled hot coffee on her lap. “What if it was Kari!”

The only thing Max wanted to know was when all these people in his house were going to pack up and head back to Santa Barbara where they came from. He should have bought a smaller house. “What are you babbling about now?” he asked Breanne in hopes of calming her, since she was still hopping around like a bunny gone mad.

Breanne started pacing instead. “The mystery girl could have been Kari. One,” Breanne said, holding up a finger. “She’s from Roseville. Two,” she said as she lifted a second finger, “Kari told me she went to Sally’s party. And three,” she said with way too much enthusiasm, forgetting about her finger count, “Kari said that the two of you had met before.”

Something rumbled and swirled within Max’s gut as images of Kari floated through his mind; her eyes, her mouth, her smile.

Dream girl?

How could that be? This was crazy talk. And yet a nagging pain deep inside his chest made him wonder why he hadn’t connected the dots before now.

Breanne was right.

That’s where he and Kari had met...at Sally’s graduation party. He had been watching Alyssa and Scott when he knocked into Kari accidentally, spilling a glass of punch onto her blouse. He had led her upstairs, intending only to give her a clean shirt to change into, but she’d stood in his room and shivered, and she had mesmerized him with those big green eyes of hers. He shut his eyes, remembering. Some girls were giggling in the hallway that night, which had prompted him to shut the door and lock it. Kari was trembling. “What do you want me to do?” he’d asked.

“Hold me.”

He did as she asked, wrapped his arms around her and held her close to his chest until she stopped shaking. He couldn’t remember how long exactly they had stood there in the middle of his bedroom, but he’d finally drawn back to look at her. The heated interest he saw beneath heavy-lidded eyes had urged him onward. Next thing he knew, she was helping him remove his jacket and his shirt. The tips of her fingers slid over his chest, and that’s when he noticed she was no longer trembling. His lips slid across her cheek and over her mouth, his tongue circling the tip of her tongue. She had tasted like fruit punch and pure sweet bliss. The kiss had grown in intensity, her mouth sending a rush of heated excitement through his body. His palm covered her breast and his insides exploded, crazy tingles like he’d never felt before shooting through every part of him. He wanted her, and he knew she felt the same way when she pulled her mouth from his and helped him slide his pants down over his hips.

“What about birth control,” he’d asked.

As if it had all happened last night, the memories came flooding back. She had drawn her gaze to his and said, “It’s okay.” That’s all the assurance he had needed. They moved to the bed, and he could still recall how his meticulously calm movements had contrasted with her semi-reckless pace as they removed each other’s clothing and moved toward the bed. As they made love, he’d watched her. She had looked content, satisfied, happy...as if she had never wanted anything more. He’d never forgotten that look.

Instinctively, she had arched her hips, her hands kneading his flesh as he pressed deeper, seeming to want him more with each thrust until she exploded and said into his ear, “I love you.”

That particular declaration had gotten his full attention. His shoulder muscles tightened. For a long moment he remained still. But she covered his chest with feathery kisses, her hands soft against him, and he had closed his eyes and gave one final thrust. And that’s when he shattered too.

He hadn’t realized it was her first time until the next morning when he’d found blood on the sheets.

Why hadn’t he put it all together before now?

Max looked up. He wasn’t too surprised to see most of his family watching him. “Kari Murphy is Dream Girl,” he told them. Then he stood and walked out of the room.

“What girl?” Fred asked.

“I think he’s talking about Marlo Thomas from the hit show
That Girl
back in the sixties?” their mother said.

“He’s not talking about
That Girl
, Mom.” Jill rolled her eyes.

“I hope he doesn’t have a concussion,” Sally said.

“I think Dream Girl has something to do with Kari Murphy,” Breanne said.

“We probably shouldn’t let him go to bed,” Jill said. “What if he’s bleeding internally and he never wakes up?”

“He went to the hospital,” Nicole reminded her. “They wouldn’t let him go if he was bleeding internally.”

“Did you see how pale he looked?”

“I think he’s in love,” Breanne said. “But I think we should let him figure that out all on his own, don’t you?”

Everybody nodded their heads in unison.