“The sooner I can get out of Destiny the better. There’s nothing left for me here except bad memories.”
Movement near the ambulance doors had her looking up, and right into Max’s eyes. Again. And just like in the grocery store, his jaw tightened and his eyes darkened.
“Max. Um, hi. How long have you been standing there?” she asked.
“Long enough.” The bitterness in his voice surprised her. Had he heard what she’d said to Mr. Leonard? Why would it matter? He certainly didn’t have any feelings for her anymore, as evidenced by how he’d treated her at the deli.
Or did he?
He motioned toward the bandage. “What’s wrong with your arm?”
She blinked and looked down, having forgotten all about her injured arm. “It’s just a little cut.”
“More like a gash,” Don said. “Eight stitches.”
“How did that happen?” Max elbowed his way past the lawyer and hopped into the ambulance. He grabbed Bex’s left hand to inspect the EMT’s work as if he would demand a redo if it didn’t meet his standards.
Bex frowned and tugged her arm out of his grasp. “I assume it happened when you...when I hid between the shelves. It’s not a big deal. I’m fine. Really.”
He studied her a moment, then promptly ignored her, speaking instead to the EMT.
“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?”
“She said she didn’t—”
“I refused to go to the hospital,” she said.
“Well?” he asked the EMT, as if she hadn’t spoken.
Don’s brows rose to his hairline. “I, ah, Miss Kane didn’t want to go to the hospital. She asked me if I could take care of her arm here.”
“What about the risk of infection? Those grocery store shelves aren’t exactly sterile.”
The bewildered look on Don’s face hardened. “I know how to clean a wound, sir. And I asked Miss Kane about getting a tetanus shot, but she insisted that she didn’t need one.”
Max turned to face her. “You either get the shot or you’re going to the hospital.”
Bex rolled her eyes and grabbed her purse from the bench beside her.
“I’m not an idiot, Max. I’m up-to-date on my shots. And I don’t need you, or anyone else, bossing me around.” She shook the EMT’s hand. “Thank you, Don. I appreciate your help.”
She went to hop down from the ambulance, but Max gently pushed her back and hopped down first. Then he lifted her out before she realized what he was about to do.
The feel of his warm hands around her sent a delightful shock of awareness up her spine, making her stiffen in surprise.
His jaw tightened and he dropped his hands, taking a quick step back. Before she could correct his obvious misinterpretation of her reaction, Mr. Leonard stepped forward.
“I’ll escort you back to my office.”
“She needs to answer some questions about the shooting,” Max said, a thread of steel in his deep voice.
Eager to avoid any kind of confrontation, Bex stepped between the two men and shook Mr. Leonard’s hand. “Thank you, for everything. If you don’t mind, I’ll go to your office some other time to sign that power of attorney.”
“Very well. My door’s always open for you, Miss Kane.” He tipped his head politely. “Detective Remington.” Then he headed across the parking lot toward his office, one of a handful of businesses and restaurants on Magnolia Street.
Max waved Bex back from the ambulance so Don could close the doors and prepare to return to the hospital.
Bex crossed her arms, not quite sure which Max Remington was standing before her now—the one full of anger at the deli, or the one who’d nearly broken her heart with kindness as he’d soothed her after carrying her out of the store.
“I never really thanked you before. You saved my life today.”
“Just doing my job.” His voice was curt, clipped.
She sighed. Deli Max was back.
“Chief Thornton wants me to show you some pictures of the gunmen to see whether you recognize them. And I’m sure he’ll want me to interview you about what happened,” he continued. “I figure it will be easier at the station. We can take my truck. I’ll bring you back to your car when we’re done.”
He reached for her good arm, but she jerked back, her stomach churning with dread. At the mention of the police station, her body flushed with heat, in spite of the chill in the air. She shook her head and took a step away from him.
“I’m not going to the police station.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
She glanced past him at Thornton, who was talking to a uniformed officer about thirty yards away. “I...don’t have fond memories of that place, as you can imagine. And I never intend to go there again. So, unless you’re arresting me, the answer is no.”
She hurried toward her car, which, thankfully, was no longer blocked by a fire engine, as it had been earlier.
“Bex. Wait.”
The irritation in his voice as he followed her had her practically running and pulling out her keys. She stopped beside a blue Honda and reached for the door handle just as Max caught up to her. He braced a hip against the door and crossed his arms as if daring her to try to open it.
Which was fine, since this wasn’t her car.
She stepped back, her hands on her hips. Then she took another step, then whirled around and ran to her Toyota RAV4 SUV two spaces over. By the time Max realized she’d played a trick on him and started toward her, she was zipping out of the parking space.
He stood watching her in her rearview mirror, his hands fisted at his sides.
Running from him was childish. Especially since he was a police officer and she’d have to answer his questions eventually. But facing angry, cold Max was more than she could take right now after everything else that had happened. How could she stand there, talking to him as if he was a stranger, when even now her body yearned for his touch?
It might have been ten years since she’d last kissed him, a decade since she’d felt the comforting weight of his body pressing her down into the mattress. But from the moment she’d seen him at the deli, all those years had fallen away as if they’d never happened. And her emotions were just as raw now as the day she’d left.
She wanted, needed, some time to herself. To decompress, to reflect about what had happened today and get her emotions back under control. Trying to do that with a man she’d once loved looking at her like he despised her was more than she could bear, more than anyone should have to bear after the kind of crisis she’d
