Page 6 of Reckless Liar

“You really don’t need to get my groceries too, you know.”

I slid the cans into the cabinet, all their labels facing out the way I liked. “I know. I was already at the store, and I knew what you liked.”

“You’re too good to me.”

“Nah, you’re the one who’s too good, Xan,” I replied, shooting him a quick smile. “Nicer than most people have been.”

He sat his bowl down on the counter, a little milk splashed over the side. I eyed the spot, frowning.

“Trouble in town?”

I grabbed a paper towel and handed it to Xander. He smirked as he wiped up the spill.

“Not really. Just Giselle Keller trying to chat about how great Max was.”

Xander laughed. “No way!”

“Yeah! Honestly, I almost wished she would’ve talked to me about how much she detested Max. At least then her condolences would’ve been more honest. Instead, I had to stand there in front of the hot case hearing about how sad she was to hear about his death. As if she cared. He wasn’t even allowed in that store!”

“Oh, I remember. Who do you think drove the car that night?”

My eyes widened. “You didn’t!”

He waved a hand at me dismissively. “You knew I did. I was the only one with a license back then.”

“But Max...”

He nodded at me. “I know. I wanted to confess, but Max told me not to. He didn’t see the point of both of us getting into trouble. They had him on tape, but not me.”

“You guys never told me that.”

“I think Max was embarrassed about getting caught. He was impulsive, you know. Hot-headed. He was going to ride his bike there. He was planning on smashing in the front windows, but I talked him into egging it instead.”

With security footage in hand, that incident earned Max his first stint in the criminal justice system. Along with the community service and lofty fines he had to pay, he was banned from Town and Country Market for the next five years. While it was a fairly small sentence, it put his name on the list of kids to watch out for.

“You still should’ve told me.”

Max could be heedless to rules when he was worked up about something. I could see him riding his bike to the store in the middle of the night, smashing things up, laughing, setting off alarms. The punishment would’ve been much more serious than a minor count of vandalism.

Max getting arrested was the beginning of a string of bad things for him, some of his own volition. We broke up for the first time a month later, and he moved away soon after.

Xander laughed at me. “Yeah, okay.”

“Hey,” I looked at him, shocked. “I’m serious. I never liked him doing that stuff. I should’ve been told.”

“What would you have done? Are you really telling me that part of Max’s appeal wasn’t his bad boy ways?”

“Not at all.”

“I don’t believe you.” Xander picked up his bowl off the counter and shoveled a big scoop of cereal into his mouth.

“I didn’t like him getting in trouble. I worried about him constantly.”

He held the spoon up as he talked, milk dripping onto the floor. “But it was exciting for you, wasn’t it? Someone your parents didn’t really like. So different from your wonder-boy brother, or from your dad.”

“Not in the slightest.” I threw a dish towel at him. “Wipe that up. You’re making a mess of my kitchen.”

He smirked at me, throwing the towel on the floor, moving his foot around to mop up the spill. “It’s my kitchen, too.”

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