Page 68 of The Young & the Sinner

I shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal, but a puppy sounded pretty good to me. Max dodged the rest of my questions about the surprise during the twenty minutes it took to get there. And when we pulled into a parking lot, I sat up in bewilderment. I turned to him. “We’re getting a car?”

Max shook his head. “You’re getting a car.”

“Oh, Max. You don’t have to. I have enough in my savings account for a down payment.” We talked about me getting a car before. And I told Max I would pay for it. He didn’t agree but he didn’t disagree either, so I assumed that was what we were doing.

But since we spent most of the summer fighting the Vitelli family’s lawyers, I didn’t really put much effort into getting a car, and Max hadn’t brought it up again.

“And now you don’t have to use your money. You can save it to buy things you really want.”

I shook my head, not really sure how I felt about this. Max was already taking care of me. I didn’t need him to buy me a brand-new car. But he interrupted before I could say anything more. “Now, Olivia. I don’t want to hear any objections. I’m pretty determined to do this. You don’t want to break my heart by rejecting me, do you?”

I glowered at him. “You can’t play the ‘breaking your heart’ card!”

“Even if it’s true?”

I groaned. “Max.”

He pulled his car into the parking spot by the entrance of the dealership and turned to me. “Olivia, look at me.”

I turned slowly and met his eyes. They were soft, and he was biting his bottom lip in contemplation.

“I want to do this for you. I want to take care of you. Let me?”

“But you already do take care of me. And a car is a luxury I don’t really need right now.”

“A car isn’t a luxury, sweetheart. For some people, it’s a necessity. And I want you to be able to drive yourself to work and school without depending on other people to drive you, or the public bus, which, I don’t care what you say, is not safe.”

“It is perfectly safe. I’ve been taking the bus since I was fifteen.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me. Let me do this for you. More for my peace of mind than anything else. I know you have enough for a down payment on a car, but it wouldn’t be a very good car. You might run into all sort of problems with of it.”

His earnest eyes took me in and I couldn’t say no. Would it be so bad if Max brought me a car? He was already doing everything else, and he seemed to really need to do this for me. It was just…

The same old problem.

The problem I had with Max doing anything for me was because he wasn’t biologically related to me. I just lucked out because Max loved my mom, and in turn, loved me, too. Was I taking advantage of him? Did he feel like I was?

“I don’t want you to think I’m using you,” I said quietly.

Max cupped my cheek and turned me until I was looking at him. “Never. I would never think that. I worked very hard in life to get to where I am right now. And what would I do with all that I have if I can’t spoil and take care of the ones Ilove? It would make all the hard work I do irrelevant, wouldn’t it?” When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “Listen to me, Olive. I love you. There is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you. This car is nothing compared to what I want to give you. So, accept it. Say thank you. And that’s all there is to it.”

“T-thank you.”

He smiled. “Good. Now, don’t you want to see which one I had picked out?”

For the first time since we got here, my heart fluttered in excitement, and I followed him with the biggest grin on my face.

* * *

Max gotme a silver Jaguar F-Pace.

Shewas beautiful.

She wasn’t big enough for me to feel intimidated sitting in, but sturdy enough to not make me feel like a hard Chicago wind would blow her over. With black leather seats, built-in GPS, the newest sound system, and a rearview camera, she was perfect.

I named her Margret, because despite the sleek look about her, she looked like a Margret.

I loved her.

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