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cat.” He kissed the top of my head. “Thank you.”
    I pulled myself from his grasp and turned around. “Do you mean you were worried I would say no?”
    “Not worried,” he said. “Just hoping you would do it for. . .well, for my mother. . .and Sammie.”
    “To avoid conflict and hard feelings, you mean?”
    “Something like that.” He pushed a piece of hair away from my face.
    “Well, I’m struggling with hard feelings today.” I crossed my arms. “Did you tell your mother that Sammie was stealing?”
    The drop of his jaw told me all I needed to know. “That’s what I thought,” I said. “I just needed to know for sure.”
    “I can’t remember exactly what I did say, but whatever it was, that wasn’t anywhere near the word I used. I can’t imagine where she got the idea.”
    “She called it kleptomania and said she’s found a really good psychiatrist for Sammie.”
    Max shook his head. “I’ll talk to her.”
    “And your mother isn’t the only one who’s taking over. My mother talked to a real estate agent for us. Linda Faye King. Remember the emergency room nurse? She’s into real estate now.”
    “What?” He raised his eyebrows. “Have we decided to move?”
    I shrugged. “Not that I know of, but everybody is making decisions for me. My mother. Your mother. As usual. So I just go along with it all.”
    He smiled. “You pretend to go along with it and then just quietly do what you want to do.”
    I considered that and frowned. “That’s a bit passive- aggressive, isn’t it?”
    He laughed. “No. Not in you. You just avoid making scenes, which is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.”
    “Oh. Okay.” I stared up into his green eyes. “I had a fleeting thought today about living out near your parents.” Surprise lit his face, making his eyes greener. “Really?”
    “The cat breeder lives out there. Hayley Whitmore. Her house is too huge for my taste, but I liked the deck and the pool.”
    “Whitmore? Leighton and Hayley?”
    “Yep,” I said. “And Leighton said you know him.”
    “I’ve met him through my father.” A quick frown wrinkled Max’s forehead, and then it slipped away. “Anyway, you liked their house?”
    “Not their house. It was way too pretentious. Like Tara from Gone with the Wind. But I just thought about you and how happy you’d be out there and. . .”
    He kissed me soundly on the lips, and I felt it down to my toes. When he was done, he stepped back and smiled while I pulled myself together. He knows what he does to me.
    “So we can, um, talk about it,” I finally said when my heart slowed.
    “We don’t have to decide right now,” he said.
    I heard the back door open, and Karen, my stepdaughter, rushed into the kitchen from work, her long hair swinging in her face.
    “Caaaaaaaa,” Chris squealed.
    “Hey, Dad. Mom.” Karen planted a kiss on Chris’ head, dropped a bag of pretzels on the table, and reached for the refrigerator door. After a quick look inside the fridge, she slammed the door. “What’s for dinner?”
    “Pizza,” I said.
    “Pizza again?” She screwed her pretty face into a frown. Even my kids were heaping burning coals of guilt on my head.
    “Yes, again.” I tried not to snap, and I also avoided Max’s eyes in case he felt the same way Karen did.
    Charlie exploded into the kitchen from the other direction, clinging to his cell phone and just missing ramming into Karen.
    “Watch it, moron,” she said.
    Charlie stuck his tongue out at her.
    “Stop now, you two, before you get started,” Max warned.
    She rolled her eyes. Charlie grinned and turned to me and Max, waving his phone in our faces.
    “Mike’s brother got caught today with drugs. He’s in big trouble. It’s called estisee.”
    “Ecstasy,” Karen said. “And he’s a moron, too. I see him at the mall all the time.”
    “Karen. . .” Max met her gaze, and she tightened her lips into a thin line.
    “He’s in such big trouble,” Charlie said.