By Atonia and Jo

Jo writing Maximus, Caroline, Bud, Marie, Sid, Zack, Hope, Cort, Daisy, Lachlan, Ben

Atonia writing Terry, Dee, Alex, Linda, Jack, Tarwyn, John, Bethany, Dino, Max, Sophia

PART 13:

Jack and Tarwyn stopped for dinner on the way home from the hospital and once they arrived back at their house Tarwyn found No Way Back. She made a pot of coffee and they sat down on the sofa and watched the movie. She’d seen it before but Jack hadn’t.

“What is FBI?” he asked.

“Federal Bureau of Investigation. They’re like federal cops.”

She had to explain several things to him. Sometimes it was easy for her to forget he wasn’t as well acquainted with the times as she was.

“I like this man,” he said half way through the movie.

“I thought you might. You would have done the same thing to save your child, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, without a doubt I would have. What a shame it is now that he no longer has him.” Jack was quiet after the end of the movie. The full measure of Sid’s crime came to bear. “I think I shall walk down to the barn and see to the horses.”

“Jack, it’s pitch black outside.”

“We have a torch.” He rummaged in a kitchen drawer for a flashlight. “I won’t be long.”

Tarwyn wrapped up in the sofa blanket. There were times when Jack pulled away from her. He had his own thoughts and feelings to sort out. She knew she had to give him the space to think and work out whatever was in his mind. Yet she longed to hold him and comfort him.

The horses were still getting used to their surroundings and Jack. But they spoke to him as he neared the barn. He went to each of them and talked to them, rubbed their noses. “I’m sorry, I have nothing for you. You’ve been fed and you’ve plenty of water. Tomorrow, tomorrow we’ll ride. I’ll show you your new home, the fields and paddocks where you can roam about.” He rested his head on a partition for a moment. “Oh…why…Sid…why?”

In the city Max and Sophie were back at his apartment. The heat of passion spent, they lay in each others arms. She was thinking about how she could fly down a couple of times a month and perhaps he’d come to New York.

“Max, will you come to New York to see me?”

“I can,” he nuzzled her neck. “I’d prefer that you stay here. A lot easier that way, don’t you think?”

She smiled, playing with his soft hair. He would be so easy to love. She kissed his hair. “I could fly down here, too.”

“What if,” he raised up on an elbow, “there was a way for you to stay here, losing nothing in the process, and we could be together all the time.”

“What do you mean losing nothing?”

“Sophie, did you read the contracts for the sale of the winery?”

“Ye-ss.”

“Didn’t you wonder who MS Enterprises might be?”

“What are you saying? How did you know?” She sat up in the bed.

“I bought the winery…I did it for us.”

“You…You!...You bought it?’ She was out of the bed and standing by it. “How…how could you…YOU! You have used me…Oh!” She flicked her hair back. “You used me, Max…how could you do that to me? You have lied to me…”

“I have not lied to you, Sophie. I just didn’t tell you. I thought you’d be pleased.”

“PLEASED! Oh-you-you lie to me. You tell me this fantastic story about who you are and all the time you are trying to get…you are a fraud!”

“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. Sophie!” She was dressing as fast as she could.

“I can’t believe I fell for this…” She let out a string of Italian he didn’t understand but he got the gist of it. She was furious with him.

“Sophie, listen to me, love. It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time. I heard you were going to sell. I hadn’t even seen the property. I’ve been looking for somewhere to…to put down roots in this…this…Texas. A winery seemed like a plausible place to start. I saw you and…I was blown away by you. Apart from anything else…I haven’t lied about anything. Sophie…please.”

“You used me, that’s what I know. You used me to get my winery.” Tears were filling her eyes, tears of anger and imagined hurt. She blinked them away and buckled her belt around her waist. “You got what you wanted…the house, the land, the vines. I was not part of the bargain. You didn’t buy me.”
 

 She stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door. A moment later she slammed the apartment door.

Max was struggling into his pants and he ran after her. “Sophie!”

“Get away from me!” She ran to her car. “Don’t speak to me.” She started the motor and backed out ramming a car behind her and kept going. Max ran to the end of the parking lot

and stopped.

“Ooooh…Arrrghhh…OoooO!” he moaned aloud. Of all the things he might have expected…

this wasn’t it.

Maximus was restless in the night, sleeping little.  So much had been stirred up inside him because of Zack, because of Zack’s son.  At such times he felt himself a discredit to the way he had been raised, the way of thinking he’d been so carefully taught.  Acceptance and getting on with things, that’s what had been drummed into him from his earliest boyhood.  Yet why could he still feel the small weight of his dead son in his hands? 

Without waking Caroline, he slipped out of bed and, followed only by Marcus and the ghosts

of his past, walked out through the gardens and into the pasture a way. Dew had already fallen on the grass and his slippers and the bottoms of his pajama legs were soon wet.  He paid them

no mind, only stood there silently looking up at the nearly full moon while Marcus sat leaning against his right leg, companionable but utterly silent. 

Tarwyn waited what she considered a reasonably amount of time and wrapped in the blanket she walked out the back door and toward the stables. Jack’s flashlight shone bright enough to guide her down the path. When she was almost there she whispered his name.

“Tarwyn, what are you doing out here in the cold?”

“Obviously I came looking for you. What are you doing out here?”

“Communing with the horses.”

“Jack…talk to me.”

“It’s painful…and it means nothing now. There is no need.”

“Yes, there is.” She took his hand and led him over to an old wooden bench just inside the barn door. “Whatever it is, Jack.”

“None of it was real, Tarwyn. I know that, I understand it.”

“What wasn’t real?”

“I…I had twin daughters. They were only babes. I never had the opportunity to spend much time with them…and Sophie.”

“Zack…he’s brought this home to you, watching his movie. I’m so sorry, honey, so sorry. I didn’t know if you had the girls or not.”

“I’ve tried to forget all that went before. I know my life was only words on paper and what

was filmed. I know what I am, Tarwyn.”

“You’ve never talked about any of this before. Your memories are real for you, Jack. Just like everybody else’s. A lot of you have children you had to leave behind. John, Terry, Maximus

lost his before…I know it hurts. It would have to. None of you wanted to leave your lives behind. I also know if you could, you’d go back to the Surprise in a heartbeat.”

“No, I cannot say I would do that now. My life is with you…here in this world. I cannot go back to what I knew as my life.”

She leaned her head down and looked into his face. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you? I know you very well, Jack, maybe better than you know yourself. I know who you are.”

He caught her face in his hand. “I do not know what I would do without you.” He kissed her and gathered her and her blanket in his arms. “I love you, Tarwyn. There are times when you must overlook my moods.”

“If you say so. Let’s go inside the house and go to bed. The horses understand how it is with us.”

Caroline woke and, her hand not finding Maximus, she got up and went to the window.  She knew him so well now that she was aware he would not be in some other part of the house, not tonight.  No, he would be outside.  So much of his life had been spent outside and he’d told her more than once that when he stood under the canopy of stars he felt connected to all of himself that had gone before.

There he was at the crest of the gentle slope behind the barn.  His form was in silhouette to her, backlit by moonlight, and she smiled when she saw Marcus leaning against his leg.

“Good dog,” she whispered. 

Maximus was in profile to her, his chin lifted toward the moon, and that feeling that lived

always in her core at the mere thought of him and sometimes even clutched itself into emotion that went beyond words, clutched now, and tears sparked in her eyes. 

“I love you,” she said.  “My God, how I love you.”

Even at that distance, even though it had been impossible to hear, his head then turned and he looked toward the house and the mere fact he would do that at that very moment, sent a tear trickling its way down her cheek. 

Max sat on the sofa with his head in his hands. He’d bollixed it up big time with Sophie. It

would do him no good to go over it all again. He’d simply misread her. He’d transposed his

own feelings about selling a winery he loved onto her. But…he looked up…he had not lied to her. He had not used her to get the winery…where did that come from? No, he would have bought the winery even if there hadn’t been a Sophie.

Sophie left the car in front of the house and ran inside tossing the keys on a hall table. Upstairs in the privacy of her own room she finally gave way to the tears that had followed her all the way home from Max’s apartment. How could she have been so stupid to let him get to her? She threw the pillows off her bed onto the floor and stomped around her room. He’d been slinking around Toscana…yes…even that first day when she saw him on the patio. Oh…oh, he was a

wily one. And all the time he was…he was…what?

It came to her that he’d never mentioned buying the winery. Ah…no, he was secretive. And all that stuff about being a movie character…ha! He was a fraud. Got up to look like Russell Crowe. Yes, that was it! An impersonator! An actor…a liar of the first degree. Smooth…oh, he was so smooth. And she’d fallen for it all. And all the time he was working to buy the winery out from under her…well…

But, hadn’t she wanted to sell it?

“But not to him!”

Why?

“Because he…Ohhhhh!” She sat down on the bed and rubbed her face. After a while the anger drained away and she felt empty. There was nothing to take its place. She pulled a pillow back onto the bed and curled up with it. Tomorrow she would fly to New York…and forget him. Forget the winery…forget everything. Somehow she’d get through the little ceremony in the morning. Hand over the keys to him and…leave.

Max finally got up from the sofa and went to the bedroom. His feet felt heavy, his whole body

felt heavy. All the joy he felt over the purchase of the winery was weighing him down. Without Sophie to share it with him, it was a burden.  He stopped by the bed. Was it too late to pull out

of the deal? Yes…the money had been transferred. But still…it was worth a try. He’d give it

up if only she’d…oh, what misery! He fell onto the bed and pulled a pillow into his arms.

Maximus had turned his head because he felt her there.  She was that much a part of him. 

That, too, was why it tore his insides apart when he thought he lost her.  Twice now he’d

thought that and the exquisite pain of it, just the memory of it, made the moon and the starfield instantly less important than it had been mere seconds ago.  He did not need to connect with Roman times.  No, all in the world he needed to connect with was right there, back inside the house.

Turning, he strode quickly toward the arched gateway to the garden, a few roses yet clinging

to it in the autumn chill.  Marcus padded silently at his side, a companion in that open, giving, patient way dogs have with a beloved master.  Once inside, he motioned the big dog to lie down in the art studio then he continued alone into the bedroom he shared with Caroline.

She was still at the window, having watched his coming.  “When you come,” she said, her voice low and quiet, “always my heart leaps inside my chest at the sight of it.”

“Ever I am drawn to you, my beloved lady.”  Smiling just a little, he scooped her into his arms and laid her on the bed.

Tarwyn was still trembling from their lovemaking. A warmth filled her; she felt soft and boneless molded to his body. Their blond heads meshed together on the pillows. Sometimes she felt as though she would burst from the force of her love for him. She laced her fingers with his, resting their hands on his broad chest. There was nothing in the world she would not do for

him. If only she could banish the past that haunted him. He handled it well and for all intents and purposes he’d managed to enter the modern world and was finally finding his place here

on the farm. She kissed his shoulder and his arm went beneath her and drew her closer.

But for this woman Jack would be lost. He depended on her, perhaps too much. But she was there at every quaking…understanding and knowing. She pulled him out of himself, out of the dark corners he sometimes sought and into the light of reality. He could not live without her

and that was a known fact to him. They’d weathered Yuma. He’d somehow forgiven Ben for what happened. It had all been Sid’s little party. All that was past now. She was his completely and God help the man who would try to come between them again. He held her to him, kissed her forehead, her eyes and found her lips. She stirred him deep within his soul.

Bud woke as the sun streamed through the window.  He’d forgotten to close the blinds last night.  His first thought was that Zack must have made it through the night or else his phone would have rung with a call from Canfield.  He planned to go back to the hospital with Marie when her shift began later in the morning.  Relieved, he closed his eyes again.

Marie had awakened at his slightest movement but when she looked at him, his eyes were shut.  “You’re awake, aren’t you?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m lying here being grateful Canfield didn’t call.”

He opened his eyes then and looked over at her.  “We have our closing at 9.  I’m thinking about that, too, Marie, about how everything’s going good for us right now, what with the house and getting married and all that.  I can see our future out there and it’s all glowing with promise.  Then I think of Zack so close to dying and losing everything.  Doesn’t seem fair.”

“Life is rarely fair, darling.  But your happiness, Bud, it takes nothing away from Zack.  It really doesn’t.  You are allowed to be happy.”

He touched her hair.  “You make me happy.  You know that, don’t you?”

“I do know it.  You show me all the time.  I just want to do what I can to make you happy, too.”

“Like 36 kids?” he smiled.

“Even that,” she smiled back.  “Even that.”

They made love in the shower, dressed, and drove to the real estate office.  Because no

mortgage was involved, there were just a few papers to sign and two sets of keys were handed over. 

“It’s official,” he grinned, walking with her back to the small parking lot.

“Officers like official,” she grinned.

“Officers do.  So do gumshoes.”

“Juicy Fruit or Trident?”

“Um, what?”

“The gum on your shoe,” she chuckled.

The first thing Max noticed when he went down to the parking lot was his car. The right front fender was smashed along with the headlight. He pulled the metal away from the tire and got behind the wheel. He’d been looking forward to this day but now he wasn’t sure he could get through it. With his eyes behind sunglasses he pulled out of the parking lot, ignoring the glass falling from the headlight next to the curb. There was a nervousness in his stomach that nearly rejected the coffee he’d poured into earlier. He didn’t even think about eating after that.

Sophie pulled herself together, being especially careful with her makeup but forgetting lipstick and blush. It still didn’t hide the ravages of the night. She packed up the remaining things in her bathroom. Her bags had already gone down to the car. With no other alternative she stuffed the makeup bag in her purse. No…her eyes wouldn’t do. She pulled everything out of her bag and found her sunglasses. Not appropriate indoors but then she wouldn’t be indoors for long.

When she came down the house staff was already assembled in the hall. There weren’t that

many of them. Theresa the cook, Berta the maid, Howard, Theresa’s husband who was more

of a handyman than anything else, Carlos, the Peruvian driver and whatever was needed of him. From the house she would go up to the winery with him and introduce him to the permanent staff there and then she would be free.

“Miss Sophia…what happened to the car?” Carlos was waiting by the front door.

She stopped a moment, yes she had hit something the night before…well…HE could take care

of whoever the victim was. It was HIS parking lot. “I don’t remember, Carlos. I’m sure it can

be repaired. Please take care of it. I’m sure the new owner will want that.”

She had second thoughts about all this introducing around. Let him find his own way. She handed her handbag to Carlos and he zipped down to the car.

Max drove past the winery and followed the road he’d traveled in the golf cart. It would take him to the house. The empty house. However as he approached he saw that it was not empty. There were people standing about the entrance and in the center…Sophie.

Bud followed Marie back to Zack’s ICU room.  No one else was there at the moment and she began to check his monitors.  To Bud he looked exactly the same except that some of his

bruises had more yellow in them today.

“What do you think?” he asked Marie.

“He’s the same, Bud.  I don’t see any changes in the readings except that his temp is down half

a degree, which is good.”

“His heart?”

“Doing the same as last night.  It’s really different, Bud, like it doesn’t know what to do with itself.  Same with his brainwaves.  Sid really did a job on him.”

“He was more thorough than usual,” he said grimly. 

“But why?”

“Sid is the only one who knows why Sid does anything.”

“I’ve got to get to work, darling.  Do you want to stay longer with him?”

“Just a little maybe, if that’s all right.”

When she was gone, he walked up to the bed and curled his hands over the top bar of the bedrail.  “Zack, if you can hear me, buddy, you’re among friends now…family now…and

we need you to come out of this.  So you give it your all like you did to get Eric back.  You

fight like that and you’ll make it through.  You hear me, buddy…you fight.  You don’t let

Sid win.”  He sighed and looked up at the brain monitor.  “You’re not gonna win this one

Sid.  You’re not.”

Max’s heart gave a little leap when he saw Sophie on the steps. He pulled his car up behind

the Mercedes and parked. A young man came running over to open his door and took a look

at his front fender and then looked at the bumper of the Mercedes. With a wide smile he

opened Max’s door.

“Good morning, Sir. I’m Carlos.”

“Ah, good morning, Carlos.” Max looked across the top of his car at Sophie. Her face was half covered in large sunglasses. He kept his on too. “Good morning, Sophie,” he tried.

Sophie raised her chin. “Welcome to Toscana.” She went on to introduce Max Skinner as the new owner and in turn introduced the staff. “You of course, can make whatever changes you wish but these people have been here for some time.”

She held the keys to the house by the key holder and dropped them into Max’s hand. He held them, still warm from her palm. “Sophie, can we talk?”

“Now, if you will follow me.” She walked down the stairs to the Mercedes. Carlos held the door open for her. “I will take you to the winery.”

At the winery it was the same performance. She would not look at him or speak to him other than what was necessary for the introductions. Max was in such a state that none of the names registered with him. He did recognize the security chief who now looked a little shamefaced.

With the final turnover of the keys Sophie turned to go to the car. Max came after her.

“Sophie, you can’t leave me like this. I apologize for anything and everything you think I might have done. I can assure you my intentions toward you were honest and real. I find you extremely attractive, beautiful and…loving. If I’ve hurt you in some way, I am sorry. I certainly didn’t mean to. Sophie…Sophie, I love you.”

She stopped at the car door and turned around. “Good bye, Max…or whoever you are.”  She quickly sat in the car and turned her face away from him before the quivering lower lip could

be seen.

Carlos closed her door and rolled his eyes making a little swinging motion with his hand. He went around to the driver’s seat.

Max didn’t move.  He felt as though he was full of cement. He watched the car until it was out

of sight. There were people behind him and he realized he must be making a spectacle of himself. He finally turned around.

“The winery is closed today, thank you all for coming in. I’ll be meeting with you all shortly but for the rest of the day, please…take yourselves home. Enjoy the rest of the day.”

“Bud, is there news of Zack?”  Maximus asked.

Bud was walking out the doors of the hospital when Maximus called.  “Nothing. Maximus.  I

was just there with Marie.  Looks the same as yesterday.”

“Do not give up hope yet, Bud.  Zack is a fighter and may yet pull through.”

“I’m trying to hang onto that thought.  He just looks so fuckin’ bad, Maximus.”

“I know, but even that may still be overcome.  Let me know, all right, if you hear anything else.  I will let Cort and Benjamin know what you said.”

John was standing in a dressing room while his suit was being fitted. He hadn’t worn a suit in

a long time. The last one was…Bailey’s funeral. He didn’t own a suit anymore. With the pants pinned and the sleeves pinned, he carefully slipped out of it. Bethany was having a new dress

and he allowed as how he needed to compliment her. He selected a couple of ties and a few

dress shirts, a pair of slacks and a nice sport coat. As he left the men’s store he was unaware Max had leased the upper floors for HAWCO and that he would be required to make an appearance there soon.

He drove over to the hospital to check on Zack.

Jack was dropping Tarwyn off at Beth’s going by the hospital. She was to call him when she

was ready to come home.

“We really need another vehicle, Jack.”

“We need more than one, Tarwyn. I need a truck, according to Dennis.”

Tarwyn looked at him with a little smile. Captain with a truck, she giggled.

Beth hugged Tarwyn. “I’m so glad you came. I miss you. You’re too far out.”

“Not that far, girlfriend. If you could tear yourself away from that Alaskan long enough you’d find out how far it is.”

“Only three days and I’ll be Mrs. Biebe.”

“Gosh, Beth, did you ever dream of all this? I sure didn’t. It’s a dream come true.”

“Yeah, it is. I couldn’t ask for anyone better than John.”

“I see you’re not showing a baby bump yet.”

Beth ran her hand over her tummy. “No, not yet. We’ve found a house. It’s a log house but

really nice and I love where it is. Now we just have to find time to move into it.”

“What a busy little bee you are,” Tarwyn laughed. “I can’t picture you in a log cabin, Beth.”

“It’s not a cabin. It’s a house and a big one, too. It’s more modern-looking than a cabin. We’re wasting precious time.”

“Yeah, we can talk in the stores. Let’s go…there is something I want to look at today, too.”

Cort, Daisy, and Ben had come over to Maximus’ for lunch and shortly afterward were going into the city to help Ben find the things he needed for Outlaw’s Roost. They planned to stop by the hospital while they were there and then have dinner with Hope and Lachlan. 

Ben could either drive the truck over or ride Ranger and leave him in the barn while he was gone.  Outlaw had taken a liking to Hank and when the rest of them were gone on errands of

one sort or another, the two dogs followed Hank about the farm.  It was a good arrangement

and put Ben’s mind at ease about leaving them.

More than any time since NanoCorp had been blown up, the brothers were all busy settling in

to homes and cementing relationships with their ladies.  Ben tried not to feel like a 5^th wheel when he was with the four people he tended to be around the most, but both couples were very overtly in love and it was inevitable he’d feel that way at least some of the time. 

“Cort,” he spoke up as Maximus drove, “I guess you noticed a lot of that there No Way Back took place in Arizona.”

“I did, Ben.  You ever get up to the Eagle Rock area?”

“Coupla times.  Sure wasn’t no roads like that goin’ by it when I was there.”

“That’s three of us now with Arizona connections,” Cort smiled.

“Don’t forget Bud,” Caroline added.  “At the end of his film he was headed to Bisbee.”

“That there’s kinda strange that Bud was goin’ to Bisbee.”

“He did not make it, however,” Maximus said.  “Sid took him right after he was shot at the motel.”

“Seems like he coulda done took the man before he went an’ got all shot up.”

“That’s not Sid’s way,” Cort sighed.  “But I think he wanted Bud injured so he could experiment on him with the nanobots.  Bud has told me he doesn’t think if he had been left as he was he would ever have been able to talk again.”

“Bullet right through the mouth like that sure ain’t doin’ a man no good.”

“Sid saw that he was restored,” Maximus said, “but he did it for his own purposes.”

Do you really think, darling, that he had ‘purposes’ when he kept me from dying?”

“I do not know why he did that, Caroline.  I am grateful that he chose to do so, but his motivations remain only in his own keeping.”

“What if there is more humanity to him than any of us knows?”  Daisy ventured.

“He has yet to demonstrate it, Daisy, and his history of dealing with us is not one that leads one to think much of the possibility that he may.”

“What he done to Zack don’t speak well of the guy.”

Linda stood inside the glass doors out to the patio. Alex had insisted in sitting outside in the

sun. The sun was misleading for it was cold. She’d wrapped him up well and hoped he didn’t catch cold. But he was right about one thing, he’d breathed filtered air long enough.

She moved away and went into her office, a recently remodeled room. No traces of the shooting remained in there. She went over to her desk and noticed her answering machine was blinking but she didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. The weight of HAWCO was leaning on her and some decisions would have to be made about the employees in Dallas. One department in particular had caught the independent auditor’s attention. Security seemed to have the largest budget of all and it sent bells ringing in her head. How much of that money was used to pay off the thugs that beat Alex senseless? She picked up her phone.

“Hello, Carlton. I want a complete investigation, and I mean complete, of any and all people associated with the security department. I want to know where the money went. I want background checks and I want to know where these people are.”

Alex leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The sun felt good on his face. There was only a faint trace of the bruising left on his cheek.  He thought about Zack and wondered how he was doing this morning. He knew the body could take a lot and come back. He was a perfect

example of it but the brain wave thing worried him.

John ran into Jack at the hospital and after viewing Zack, John followed Jack to a car dealership. Jack said he needed some help.

“Some small little runabout for Tarwyn, and I need a truck.”

“What kind of truck do you need, Jack?”

Jack looked at him. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked you to come with me. I know nothing of trucks. I should imagine it needs to be able to pull a horse trailer.”

“Ah, okay. Let’s do the car first.” John knew nothing of trucks either but he was willing to help.

Ben looked at the white box Caroline was insisting he needed for his kitchen.  “I done lived more’n forty years without havin’ no white box,” he protested.

“It’s not a white box, Ben.  It’s a microwave.  It’s fast.  It’ll save you a lot of time.”

“How you say that there thing works?”

“It takes all the building blocks of food and shakes them around until they get hot.”

He made a face.  “I ain’t sure I want my food shook.”

“Oh, you can’t see it shake, Ben,” she laughed.  “All you know is that it gets hot fast.”

“Caroline, I always found a rabbit done taste a whole lot better when it’s been turned all slow-like on a spit.”

“Ben,” she said, her hands on her hips as she looked at him, “just how many rabbits do you think you’ll be eating at Outlaw’s Roost?”

“Many’s I can catch,” he grinned.

“He’s not an easy man to buy for,” Daisy chuckled quietly to Cort.

Ben looked at Cort, whom he considered understood his time and inclinations better than anyone.  “You got one of them there white boxes?”

“I do,” Cort smiled.  “An’ it gets a lot of use.  My suggestion would be to go ahead an’ get the thing an’ if you want to use it sometimes, it’s there.  Just don’t build a campfire on the living room floor,” he teased.

Ben cocked an eyebrow sharply.  “I ain’t uncivilized, you know.”

After the winery employees left, Max drove back to the house. The staff was still milling around unsure of their duties for him. Questions came at him. Would he be staying? About meals…did he need a tour of the house?

“If you don’t mind I’d like to wander about on my own.” He tried to be pleasant. “I won’t be staying tonight but lunch would be nice. Anything really…I’m not hard to please.”

He went through the rooms downstairs noting their purposes. Formal rooms in the front of the house and a large den with a huge TV and other electronics. Heavy leather furniture in there. The room smelled of leather and traces of tobacco. An office-library…again the dark furniture but nice large windows opening onto the wrap-around porch. Further back the kitchen and breakfast room, various storage rooms.

He climbed the stairs and found a sitting room open to the landing. Off the sitting room was the master bedroom. Large…it took up a full corner of the upstairs area. Max felt overwhelmed by the dark ornately carved case pieces and the headboard of the bed nearly reached the ceiling. Nothing of the former occupant remained except for a framed photograph on the dresser. He went over and picked it up. Formidable looking chap. Dark red draperies swagged at the floor to ceiling windows. It was a masculine room but too heavy for his tastes.

Down a hallway there were four other bedrooms. One he remained in sitting on the bed with a decorative pillow in his arms. It was Sophie’s room, still holding the scent she wore. A photo of

a younger Sophie was on the bedside table. He held it for a long time and spoke barely above a whisper.

“I know I bollixed it up. I’m just no good at that sort of thing. I tried to give you a gift, the gift

of your home back. I wanted to share it with you. I made a mistake in thinking you were on the same page as me.” He set the photo back on the table and stood up. Replacing the pillow on the bed, he turned toward the door.

“I had to come back. I have to know if you are real or not. I was on the same page but I think

we were reading the book in different languages. Something got lost in the translation. I think

I have lost my mind to be standing here. Carlos says the car was in bad shape and would not make it to the airport…we should come back to the house. I think he lies to me…it does not matter. Already I knew I could not board that plane without knowing.” She took a step into

the room and stopped, a little uncertain.

“Sophie.” Max felt his emotions welling up inside of him. He went to her and took her in his arms, unmindful of her prickly nature holding her apart from him.

“We start again?” She looked up at him through her sunglasses.

Max removed her glasses and tossed them toward the bed. “We start again.” She wrapped her arms around him and he kissed her. “I’m a known asshole. You’ll have to help me past that.”

“I am a known bitch. We should get on fine, Max.” She smiled and kissed him back.

ON TO PART 14

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