Falling for Max

by Shannon Stacey

  Meeting a friend like Tori was the unexpected bonus. He stopped wiping the counter and frowned. That was something to take into consideration. If he was going to have a serious relationship with a woman, she’d not only have to not mind having her living room occasionally overrun by sports fan, but she’d have to like Tori.

  “Are you trying to set the toaster on fire with your eyes?” Tori nudged him in the side. “That only works in the movies, you know.”

  “I was thinking about something.”

  “I could tell. Something serious?”

  Guessing she might think it was ridiculous for him to factor how a woman felt about Tori into the equation, he shook his head. “Nothing serious.”

  She looked skeptical, but didn’t push. “If you’re trying to find a way to twist my arm into watching an old musical, don’t even try.”

  In the end, he let her have her choice because he was a gentleman and she was company, so they watched The Avengers. He didn’t bother to tell her he’d seen it many times already, and he laughed when she quoted some of the dialogue just ahead of the actors. She’d seen it a few times herself.

  He didn’t mind. There were definitely worse ways to spend an evening than watching a favorite movie with Tori.

  Chapter Twelve

  Late Tuesday morning, Tori punched her time card at the diner, then went back out front to grab a soda in a to-go cup. She’d stayed up very late working, so the early morning phone call from Drew had been unwelcome. The explanation of morning sickness, complete with background noises, had been worse. She’d jumped at the chance to work Liz’s shift just to get off the phone.

  She was seriously dragging now, though, and she knew no matter how much soda she drank, there was a nap in her near future.

  “Thanks again for coming in,” Paige said. With her dark hair in a ponytail and the same Trailside Diner T-shirt they all wore, nobody would guess Paige was married to a guy with a bunch of money.

  Mitch Kowalski owned a controlled demolition company that imploded big buildings all over the world, which apparently paid well. But the diner was Paige’s pride and joy and, even after they married and had Sarah, Paige had no interest in walking away from it.

  Which was especially good right now, because Tori really wanted to sit down. And sleep.

  “I told you I don’t mind filling in beyond my regular hours if you need it. I was at my computer until two, though, so I’m glad you’re doing lunch.” Paige would fill the gap between Tori and Ava. When Tori got called in without warning, she usually tried to keep the hours to a minimum.

  “I’m going to talk to Rose later, and call Mitch. I’m thinking if I bring a playpen in, I can bring Sarah in with me to open and then Rose can pick her up here once it’s a decent hour.”

  “If we change up the schedule, I can cover for Liz. If it’s planned in advance, I can change my schedule accordingly.”

  Paige smiled and shook her head. “I appreciate you and I’m so glad you’re here, but a person who works until two in the morning doesn’t become somebody who gets up to work at four-thirty in the morning just like that. You’re a night owl. I’m a morning person.”

  There was no denying that. “Schedule me however you think it’ll work best for everybody and I’ll work around it. But, yeah, I’m not sure the customers would like the version of me that gets up at four-thirty every day.”

  Taking her soda, Tori went out through the kitchen door into the parking lot. She’d gotten a text from Gavin earlier, asking her to stop by his place on her way home. Since his place was a very small mobile home at the back of the diner’s parking lot, it wasn’t much of a detour.

  She knocked on the door and wasn’t surprised to find him dressed and ready for his shift at the diner. He always went in early because he truly loved his job and nothing excited him more than cooking whatever he had planned for the day. There was a good chance he’d already been over there, tucked away in the prep area while she was out front.

  She sat on his couch and looked around. “Have I ever told you this is the tiniest trailer I’ve ever seen that wasn’t hooked to the back of a pickup truck?”

  “Every time you come in. And I’ll say what I always say. It takes like five minutes to clean the entire thing.”

  Paige had lived here until she moved in with Mitch, from what Tori had heard. The trailer had come with the diner and Paige hadn’t cared that it was small and not...recently renovated. It was all hers and it was home.

  “So what’s up?” she asked, because it was obvious he was looking for somebody to talk to.

  He leaned against the fridge. Thanks to the floor plan, he was still only a few feet away. “I have an opportunity to cook for a restaurant in Kennebunkport.”

  Tori’s eyebrows arched. “Holy crap, that’s amazing, Gav! Maybe you’ll get to cook for former President Bush.”

  “I have to prove myself. It’s like a tryout, I guess. But it’s a fancy place, Tori. For a lot more money. And he also owns two restaurants in Boston.”

  “When do you go? Do you need my car?”

  He laughed, holding up his hands. “I have my truck.”

  “The exhaust is held up with a wire coat hanger and you get about six miles to the gallon. You can’t show up in Kennebunkport in that. Take my car to save on gas, if nothing else.”

  “I’m not sure if I’m going to go.”

  “Whoa.” She sat forward on the couch, seeing the conflict in his expression. “This is a great opportunity for you. It’s a step toward living your dreams. What do you mean you’re not sure if you’re going to go?”

  “What if I get the job? If I leave, who’s going to cook at the diner? Carl only does breakfast but, even if he did dinners, he can’t work that many hours every day. His wife would kill him.”

  “Paige can hire a new cook.”

  “Who? Where is she going to find somebody? After all she’s done to support me, I can’t just leave her like that.”

  Tori grabbed his hand, squeezing it and pulling him down on the couch next to her. “It’s because of all she’s done to support you that you have to go. She’s so proud of you and she wants you to follow your dreams. Why do you think she’s bought all those weird ingredients and let you test recipes on her customers?”

  “I talked to Carl this morning. I know you had to come in and cover for Liz. She could have morning sickness for months, right? I can’t tell Paige that, on top of that, she’s going to lose her dinner cook.”

  “We’ll make it work. I can cook. Paige can cook. Hell, I bet Rose would help out.”

  “Rose has enough on her plate. And she doesn’t need to be on her feet that long.”

  “She believes in you. We all believe in you—the whole freaking town, Gavin—and we’ll figure it out.”

  “You can’t run a kitchen with rotating, untrained staff. There’s quality and consistency and—”

  “Gavin.” She sighed and leaned back. “I love the diner and I know you do, too, but you have to take this shot.”

  “The chef came here. You see these guys ride into town on their ATVs in muddy jeans and you don’t give them much thought. I guess one of them is some super-rich banker guy who knows the chef and he kept talking up my food. The chef stayed at the lodge and came in three times and nobody knew. He came to Whitford to taste my cooking, Tori. Can you believe that?”

  “That just proves my point.”

  “I guess this chef isn’t hung up on formal training because anybody can be taught to cook. He’s big on instincts and passion and the ability to take whatever you have on hand and make it a meal a customer won’t forget.”

  She shook his arm, unable to contain her excitement. “That’s what you do, Gavin. When are you supposed to go?”

  “A week from Thursday. They’ll put me up in a bed and breakfast and I’ll have the weekend to show them what I can do. That way, if they offer me the job, I can acclimate during the off-season and be at full strength for next tourist season.”
<
br />   “That’s great timing for us, too. The ATV season’s about over, but the sledders won’t start coming in until mid-to-late December, so we can look for a cook during the slow time. Gavin, tell me you’re going to do this.”

  He took a deep breath and, when he exhaled, she could hear the tremor. “I’m going to do this.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I think you’ll have to make this town at least a year’s worth of buffalo chicken dip to freeze before anybody will let you go.”

  “I’ll leave you the recipe. Or you can find it on the internet. It’s not exactly a secret gourmet dish.”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “It won’t be the same. It’s never the same if you have to make it yourself. And I confess I tried to make it and screwed it up.”

  “Says the woman who offered to cook in my place.”

  She grinned. “Hey, we’ll make the Trailside Diner the first potluck restaurant in Maine if that’s what it takes.”

  The nap was put on hold while she helped him plan what he’d take and what he’d wear. She also taped a note on his fridge reminding him to go see Katie for a haircut. The closer it came to next Thursday, the more nervous he was going to get.

  She was getting pretty good at taking care of other people, she thought. Tori Burns, helping men get their shit together. Too bad she was barely keeping up with the two jobs she already had. And Max.

  * * *

  Max finished his lunch and pushed his empty plate back toward the edge of the counter. Paige snagged it as she walked by with a coffeepot and dropped it into a bus pan under the counter without even slowing down.

  He’d hoped Tori would be working, but Paige had told him she’d already left. It was disappointing and he’d thought about texting her, but during a lull, Paige had told him how their morning had gone. Tori had enough going on without dealing with him.

  Nola was a conundrum. He wasn’t sure how to handle the follow-up to their first date. Should he call her? It seemed like if he called to thank her for a lovely evening, there would be an expectation of asking her for a second date. If he wasn’t the best at taking social cues in person, he was even worse over the telephone.

  He paid the bill and then walked outside, debating on his next course of action. He’d parked in the municipal lot, which meant walking by the town hall to get back to his car.

  He could go in, thank her for the information and inquire as to the next step. While it may have begun as a way to talk to Nola, actually building a garage made sense. He wouldn’t have to arrange things like a jigsaw puzzle in the shed, his property value would go up, and there would be less lawn to mow.

  As he went by the town hall, he turned sharply and went through the door before he could change his mind. It wasn’t fair to ask Tori to keep holding his hand—figuratively, of course—and he needed to stand on his own two feet.

  Nola’s smile was warm and genuine when she saw him step up to the counter. “Hi, Max.”

  “Hi. I was walking by and I thought I’d come in and thank you for the information you gave me. I think I’m going to go ahead with the project, so I need to research the next step.”

  She held up a finger, then rummaged through a file drawer behind her. Then she handed him a form across the counter. “Fill out this building permit and the building inspector will look it over and then you’ll talk. You need to know your property lines and the setback and such.”

  “Okay.” His grandmother had given him a fat folder of house papers, so he made a mental note to go through it again. He thought that information was in there.

  “I should warn you, he’s only here every other Wednesday because it’s part-time so it could be a slow process.”

  “That’s fine. It wouldn’t make sense to start the construction until spring, anyway.”

  “Okay, then.”

  There was an old-fashioned industrial clock hanging on the wall and Max could literally hear the seconds tick by. “I also want to thank you for having dinner with me. It was very nice. The good kind of nice.”

  She looked confused. “Is there a bad kind of nice?”

  “So I’m told.” Now what? “I’d like to do it again, if you’re so inclined.”

  “That would be lovely. I have plans Saturday, but I like the fish fry at the diner on Friday nights. If that’s not too soon.”

  “No.” He frowned at the pen chained to the counter, wondering if people actually tried to steal them. “I mean, no, that’s not too soon. I haven’t had their fish fry yet.”

  “So five o’clock Friday?”

  He was aware of somebody coming through the door and was grateful for the interruption, which effectively ended the conversation. “I’ll be there. And thank you for the form.”

  Once he was outside, he took a deep breath and started the walk back to his car. There. He’d done it. He had a second date with Nola Kendrick, who was a very nice woman. The good kind of nice.

  It was unfortunate the diner was their only option, no matter how much he liked the place or how good their fish fry was. It wasn’t very romantic, like the place he’d taken Tori to on their mock date. There had even been candlelight, which had seemed very romantic when reflected in Tori’s brown eyes.

  He paused in the process of unlocking his car. It seemed odd that, despite several conversations and a dinner date, he had no idea what color Nola’s eyes were.

  He’d have to remedy that lack of knowledge on Friday.

  * * *

  The next morning, Tori was once again filling in for Liz at an obscene hour of the morning. But she’d been ready this time. After leaving Gavin’s yesterday, she’d gone home and made a list of everything she had going on, professionally.

  The first thing she’d done was put a notice on her website that she wasn’t accepting new clients for the remainder of the year. Then she prioritized the jobs she had in the queue and sorted them into tasks that required a lot of time and concentration, and smaller jobs that could be done in short bursts between everything else.

  She was going to get everything done, but it would be a delicate dance. Then she’d foregone the nap and gone to bed earlier than she had in years, anticipating that early morning phone call.

  What she hadn’t anticipated was Max walking through the door at eight o’clock. As far as she could tell, breakfast at the diner was yet another break in his routine. The guy was living on the wild side now.

  She poured him a coffee and snagged a wrapped silverware bundle. “What brings you into town so early?”

  “I’ve asked Nola for another date.”

  She set the cup down, then cursed under her breath when the hot liquid sloshed over the rim onto her hand. “At eight in the morning?”

  “No. A breakfast date would be weird, wouldn’t it?”

  She shrugged. “I guess it depends on why you’re together for breakfast. But I meant, did you ask her at eight in the morning?”

  “Oh. No, I asked her yesterday. I’m going to build a garage, so I went to see what the next step was and she gave me a building permit form. And I asked her if she’d like to go out again.”

  “And? What did she say?”

  “We’re going to have dinner again. The fish fry here on Friday. I haven’t had it, but she says it’s very good.”

  “I’m happy for you. A second date is kind of a big deal.”

  “By a third date, we should be comfortable enough to make the drive to the city and back together.”

  The smile on her face felt incredibly fake, but he didn’t seem to notice. “You’ll be dancing with her before you know it.”

  “And I owe it all to you.”

  “No, you don’t. I might have boosted your confidence a little and we had some fun with it—helped you relax—but you’re the same Max now that you were before you met me.”

  The way his green eyes captured and held hers made her stomach do a flip. “No, I don’t think I am.”

  She wasn’t the same, either, but the c
offee counter at the Trailside Diner was not the place to have deep personal revelations. Especially unwelcome ones. With a glib laugh, she reached under the counter and grabbed some sugar packets even though his didn’t really need refilling, just to break the eye contact.

  “Hey, if you want to give me the credit, I’ll take it. You can name your first kid after me.”

  “Then let’s hope it’s a girl.”

  She could tell by the slight curve of his mouth that he was teasing. He wasn’t really mentally naming the children he might have with Nola, which was a good thing. Max could be intense and, if he moved too fast, he’d scare off any woman.

  “Do you know what you want for breakfast?”

  He looked at the menu, but didn’t pick it up. “What’s good?”

  “Everything’s good. Carl isn’t a fancy cook, but his breakfasts are amazing.”

  “Paige lucked out with Carl and Gavin from the sound of it.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Max about Gavin’s opportunity in Kennebunkport, but she kept her mouth shut. She wanted to talk to him about it, especially the chaos it would bring into her own life, because he was so logical and calm when it came to facing a problem, but it wasn’t time yet. As far as she knew, Gavin hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to Paige yet and she didn’t want their boss and friend to find out through the grapevine.

  “Just write something down for me.”

  She arched an eyebrow, considering him. “It’s not like you to just roll with things.”

  “I’m broadening my horizons.”

  “Anything you don’t like?”

  “No seafood and no beans.”

  She wrote out an order for a veggie omelet, home fries and raisin toast, which she handed over to Carl. Then she did a circuit of her tables, refilling coffees and checking up on everybody. Three parties came in and two tables had food go out before Max’s appeared in the window.

  When she set it down in front of him, his eyes got big. “Carl doesn’t skimp on portions.”

  “It’s the best breakfast in the state of Maine. Trust me, you’ll eat it all.”