“Come here, Max,” Jennifer said, opening her arms. “We knew this day would come. I wasn’t going to stay with you forever. Kids grow up.”

  “Yeah, but they aren’t grown up yet,” he said.

  Yes, he knew this day would come, but it wasn’t making it any easier. Not even knowing he had Quinn at home to help with the kids.

  Jennifer rested her hands on his shoulders, looked over at the kids briefly to see they were watching the crowd more than him, and said, “It’s time to forgive yourself for moving here. You did very little wrong, and almost everything right. Just remember that.”

  “It doesn’t always feel that way. Especially with Davey.”

  “He’ll get there. He already is. Quinn is helping, even you can see that.”

  “I do see it.” And he was thankful for it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to miss Jennifer.

  “Go with your gut. It’s never been wrong before.”

  “Why are you smirking at me that way?”

  “You know why, Max. It’s not just time for the kids to move on, but you too. It’s been long enough. Stop beating yourself up over everything. You’re a great father, and you were a great husband. Be a great someone to somebody else now.”

  He snorted. “Like I’ve got time.”

  “It’s right under your nose.”

  Damn her for knowing what he was thinking and feeling these last few weeks. “It’s wrong.”

  “Not if it’s mutual. Don’t rush, don’t push. Just be yourself and the rest will follow. And just like I said with the kids, call me anytime.”

  He hugged her one more time, kissed her cheek, and whispered, “You always were a bossy busybody.”

  “And I always will be.”

  Twenty minutes later, Max and the kids were leaving the airport, tears dried up—his and the kids—and on their way for some shopping.

  Most of the kids’ needs were met via online shopping. The pickings around Lake Placid weren’t that great. At least there was more to offer an hour away in Plattsburgh near the airport.

  “Who needs what today?” Max asked.

  “I need new sneakers,” Lara said. “Can I get new black boots too?”

  “We can look,” Max said.

  It wasn’t a matter of money, but a matter of just giving the kids everything they wanted when they asked. He tried to never do that. He wasn’t looking to buy their love.

  “I don’t need anything,” Davey said.

  “Your winter jacket can’t possibly fit you from last year. You’ve grown too much.”

  It seemed every time Max turned around, Davey’s pants were looking shorter and shorter. That just reminded him he had to make sure Quinn’s credit card came in soon so she could take care of those things for the kids, too.

  The typical shrug from Davey was the only response, but Max took that as a yes.

  Once winter jackets, sneakers, winter boots and yes, black dress boots for Lara were purchased, along with some more pants for both kids, Max was ready to call it a day. They’d been gone for five hours already and he was beat.

  “Do we need anything else since we’re here?”

  Not that the hour’s drive to Plattsburgh was long by any means, but his time was normally limited and, since he had the weekend with the kids, it was best to do it all at once.

  “Can we get Quinn a computer?” Davey asked.

  It was the first thing Davey had asked for in a long time, so Max took notice. “Doesn’t she have one?”

  He hadn’t really paid attention to any of that with Quinn. Sure, now that he thought of it, she did tend to ask the kids to look up a spice or recipe when they were helping her cook, but he thought it was for them to learn how.

  “No. She doesn’t have an iPad either,” Lara said. “She asks to use mine when she’s cooking.”

  “Or she looks it up on her phone,” Davey said. “It’s not easy to see recipes on a phone.”

  “She has her cookbooks too,” Lara said. “She uses them a lot.”

  Max listened to the kids going back and forth talking about Quinn and realized they were right. The most he’d ever seen Quinn use was her phone.

  “How about we get a house laptop? How does that sound? One for everyone to use.”

  “Really?” Lara asked, excited.

  “Yeah. Let’s go pick one out and I’ll set it up when we get home. There will be rules though,” he said, but neither of the kids were listening to him. They were both chatting back and forth about food, of all things. They were wondering what Quinn was going to cook them for dinner.

  Funny how the little things in life could bring people together.

  ***

  Quinn put the last of her belongings away in her new suite.

  She’d been in Jennifer’s room—correction, her room now—a few times to see where Jennifer was, but not for more than a minute.

  Who would have thought she’d have all this space in the house to herself?

  There was a bedroom with a small sitting area and a desk in the corner with a full bathroom and soaking tub.

  She would have been just as happy to have stayed in the guest suite at the other end of the house, but this was even better. Plus, there was an intercom on the wall and the kids could call her if they needed her at night.

  She’d seen one in Max’s room too, but tried not to think along those lines. He wouldn’t need her in the middle of the night.

  After placing her TV on the small table against the wall, Quinn looked around the room at the couch and end table. Her suite might be on the cozy side, but it was nicer than any place she’d ever lived in before.

  There was a hookup in this room for her TV, so she connected it to the satellite dish. All she ever had before was an antenna, which got her one if not two fuzzy channels. She still didn’t know what possessed her to buy the small flat screen TV a year ago.

  This week was the first time she’d actually watched TV, and even then it was with the kids in the family room.

  Max had been late several days this past week, and when he came home, he ate leftovers that she’d kept warm for him. Then he went right to his office to work.

  The nights he wasn’t working in his office, he was on his phone either talking or texting his staff or the hospital. She was starting to see what he meant about being on call.

  Sure he was in the house, but he wasn’t really left alone often either.

  It was probably for the best. They hadn’t really talked much the last few days. Between Jennifer packing up the rest of her things and Quinn trying to take over, with Jennifer just watching and giving her bits of information, Quinn started to relax more with Max not around as much.

  She wasn’t sure what it was, why every time she was around him she got all warm.

  Quinn wasn’t stupid; she knew she found him attractive. She could even say she had a slight crush on him, but that was it. There was nothing wrong with that as long as she didn’t act on it. Or he didn’t suspect it.

  So the busier he was, the better it was for everyone.

  Except she noticed he’d watch her at odd times, and smiled at her sweetly. Not just that, but it almost seemed like he was flirting with her now and again. Nothing outright obvious, but enough that she had to stop and think. When she thought and put it all together, she realized he was acting toward her the way she was with him.

  Both of them seemed to be teasing, smiling, even blushing. Dancing might be a better term.

  She sighed. It was wishful thinking on her part. Probably just her imagination. He was only watching her to see how she was interacting with the kids. Nothing more than that, she was sure of it.

  Why was she trying to please him so much then? Because she wanted this job to work out. She needed it to.

  Done with the self-lecturing, she walked back into the kitchen and decided to start dinner. Everyone would be home soon, and she figured they’d be upset. Nothing like a home-cooked meal to bring everyone together.

  The Best He Could Do

  “Are those collard greens I’m smelling?” Max asked when he walked into the kitchen.

  He had to be imagining it. He hadn’t smelled that since he was at his grandmother’s house in Mississippi all those years ago.

  “It is,” Quinn said. “Jennifer told me that your grandparents lived in the South and that you visited with them often as a kid. I took a risk and made something Southern tonight.”

  “Really?” he said, looking around the kitchen and trying to figure out what else she was making. “No way. Are you making fried chicken too?”

  She laughed, a soft sound that sent heat traveling to parts of his body that he’d pushed aside for years. Damn Jennifer for what she said to him before she left.

  “I wasn’t sure what the kids liked and figured I’d serve it with waffles. What’s more Southern than friend chicken and waffles with collard greens?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.” She held her giggle back when she saw the grin he was sporting.

  “We got you a surprise, Quinn. We got a new home laptop,” Lara said, pulling one of the bags out of Max’s hand. “Where is it, Daddy?”

  “In the car still. Go get the rest of your things and put them away. Same with you, Davey. I’ll set the computer up.”

  “You bought the kids a laptop?” Quinn asked, going back to her cooking. It looked like she was mixing the waffle batter up. He wondered where the chicken was.

  “A house one. Davey has my old laptop which isn’t of much use. Lara is too young for her own, and I realized you don’t have one. This is for everyone.”

  “I don’t need a laptop,” she said, looking offended for some reason.

  “Of course you do. You’ll need to order things for the kids. How are you going to do that without a computer?”

  “Oh. I didn’t think of that.”

  “Your credit card should be here this week too.”

  “Credit card. Why do I need a credit card?” she asked.

  “Food and other necessaries for the kids and the house,” he pointed out. “Jennifer has been with you when you’ve gotten food for the house, right? She charges everything and I pay the bills.”

  He hoped Jennifer had been paying for everything and never thought of asking before.

  “Yes, most of the time.”

  “What do you mean most of the time? Quinn, you shouldn’t be paying for anything for the house. No arguments,” he said when she opened her mouth. “I supply everything, including all the food.”

  “But I’m making things that you don’t normally eat.”

  “Thank God,” he said laughing and drawing a laugh out of her. Gosh, she was cute when she laughed. So open and honest. Who would have thought that could be such a turn on? Though to be honest, everything she did or said seemed to turn him on lately. “It’s still food and goes on our grocery bill. Don’t worry, I trust you to not go out and buy yourself a plane ticket to Aruba.”

  “I would never buy anything that wasn’t for the house. I’ll give you all the receipts too,” she rushed out, and he felt like a slug for teasing her. So far she’d been pretty good-natured when he made a joke, but not this time for some reason.

  “I’m kidding. Like I said, I trust you. Yes, just leave the receipts on my desk. I still trust you, though. Of course, if you decide you want a ticket to Aruba you need to take me with you. I could use a break from the cold.”

  He smiled when he said it and saw her blush. “I’d never go somewhere like that alone,” she said, tilting her head.

  Good, back to the way they’d been. He hadn’t really realized he was flirting with her until Jennifer made her comment. If it was obvious to Jennifer, he figured it had to be obvious to Quinn.

  After dinner was done and cleaned up, Davey went downstairs to play video games online with his friends, and Lara was watching a movie on another TV in the game room. That left Quinn and Max alone in the family room.

  He could tell she didn’t seem to know what to do with herself and decided maybe they could talk. Again, Jennifer and her damn comments before she left.

  It wouldn’t hurt to chat though, get to know each other better. It was better than the awkward silence just now.

  “If you don’t have anything to do, why don’t you sit and have a drink with me. Wine?” he asked, wondering if she would have a glass. “I think we both deserve it. Me for taking the kids shopping and you to celebrate the start of the job on your own.”

  That didn’t sound like he was pressuring her, did it? He didn’t care either way.

  “Sure. That sounds good,” she said.

  “White or red?”

  “Either works. I’m not really fussy.”

  He opened the wine fridge and grabbed a bottle of white and two glasses. It almost seemed like a date in his eyes. Which was pretty pathetic he was even thinking that.

  Once they were both seated in the family room, he turned to her on the other couch. “Thanks for dinner. It brought back a lot of memories of home for me.”

  “I thought you lived in New York City before here?”

  “I did. I grew up on the outskirts of New York in Rye, then moved to the city after my residency was done. My father is from Mississippi though, and we visited often when I was kid. My grandmother was the best cook I knew. I guess you could say I got my love of food from her.”

  “What made your father relocate to New York?”

  He liked that she was asking him questions. Personal questions. Better and better. See, just like a date. “His residency at Columbia.”

  “Your father’s a doctor, too?”

  “A plastic surgeon. He has a big practice that I was part of before I moved here. I think he hopes I’ll return and take it over.”

  “Will you at some point?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He wasn’t sure he wanted that life again. He moved here to get away from the busy life and reminders of Mia.

  The things that drove a knife between them. The temptations of the wealthy on his kids. He always loved the simple life of the South and wanted his kids to at least see that money didn’t control the world. Or at least shouldn’t.

  “Why here? Why Lake Placid? Pamela told me your practice is booming here, but still couldn’t understand why you left the city.”

  “She doesn’t understand.”

  His staff didn’t. He knew they felt he was wasting his life here, but he didn’t see that. Most of them were from this area and had dreams of leaving. He’d been there and done that. This was where he wanted to be now.

  “I get it. This is the quiet life. So much different than Chicago. I’m sure New York City and Chicago have a lot of the same things I hated.”

  “Overpopulation, snotty people, the wealthy and the privileged,” he said.

  He was one of the wealthy and privileged and knew it, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be around them.

  The housewives coming in for their next nose job and Brazilian butt lift. Bringing their teenage daughters in for breast augmentations and lip fillers.

  It was one thing to want to improve yourself with a little bit of cosmetic surgery. Grow old gracefully even. He got that, it’s what provided the life he had.

  But it was another thing to bring your teenage daughters in and encourage them to change who they were. To buy themselves friends and beauty.

  That wasn’t the life he wanted to be a part of. He was all for helping someone enhance their confidence, or their looks, but not for changing themselves completely.

  It wasn’t always about making a buck to him, not like so many other plastic surgeons.

  His father and he never saw eye to eye there. Thankfully his father didn’t push him, but he never understood either.

  “And the poor. I’m sure there are a lot of poor there. Not like you see in small towns. Here you don’t see so many slums or homeless,” she said.

  He remembered that about the city, too. Always stopping to drop money in a hat or a basket for someone. Bringing them food after work.

  He couldn’t save the world, but he could help someone for a day. He knew sometimes it was the best he could do.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t seem to have the best childhood, Quinn. I shouldn’t be talking about my life to you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s in my past. There’s always someone out there that has more than someone else. Someone that has more than you.”

  “True, but I never worried about where I was going to sleep or where my next meal was going to come from.” Her face flushed and he regretted saying that. “That didn’t come out right.”

  “It’s the truth. I know you didn’t mean anything by it. Remember, I was in the restaurant when you bought all those breakfast meals for the homeless that day.”

  He’d completely forgotten about that. About doing something without thought, because he tried to do things like that all the time.

  His grandmother not only taught him a love for food, but also about humanity and to always give back.

  “Still, I shouldn’t have said it.” Talk about putting your foot in your mouth.

  “It’s nothing to worry about.”

  He didn’t want to talk about himself anymore but wasn’t sure how open Quinn was to talk about her life. “Do you talk to your siblings often?”

  She got more comfortable on the couch and finally took a sip of wine. He was wondering if she only said she’d have a glass to humor him since she hadn’t tasted it yet.

  “I talk to my sister a few times a month. My brothers not as often.”

  “What are their names?”

  She seemed to hesitate, but finally said, “Lily, Brett, and Karl.”

  He got the feeling she didn’t want to talk about them, but he was going to be nosy and pry anyway. “Are they still in Chicago?”

  She sighed and he figured she was going to end the conversation. She took another sip of wine. “This is really good,” she said gesturing to her glass. “You don’t find this odd? Us sitting here together drinking a glass of wine?”

  “Odd how?” Maybe he was way off base with her.

  “I don’t know. I guess it sort of seems like a date.” He smiled, and she blushed then rushed out, “I’m sorry. That came out completely wrong.”