Page 79 of Don't Call Me Sweetheart

I swallowed. “She died several years ago.”

“Oh.” Violet frowned. “I’m so sorry, Max.” She squeezed my hand.

“Thank you.” I wasn’t going to get into it all today—there was too much, and it wasn’t the time for it. But someday, I would tell them. I wanted to. Even though it sucked.

“I have some pictures of when our parents were kids.” Violet hesitated. “I thought…but I didn’t know she had passed. Do you want to see them? Or you can take them with you. Look at them when you’re ready.”

“I would…” My throat felt thick. “I’ll take them with me. Thank you.”

“Sure. Keep them as long as you want.”

I saw the sympathy there in her eyes. The caring. And it didn’t scald me, the way it would have once. Before I had come here to Hart’s Ridge. Before Kate. God, I wished I could tell her about this. I wished she would be there waiting for me at home, with cookies, ready to hold my hand and look at old photos with me.

But she wasn’t.

And that stung, a lot. It left a gaping, empty wound in my chest that wasn’t likely to be filled anytime soon. Still, even with that, I didn’t want to run from this moment with my cousins. I wanted to build on it, to nurture it until it grew roots, even if someday it left me hurting the way losing Kate did. It was worth it, just as she had been.

Violet smiled. “Welcome to the family, Max.”

Chapter 28

Kate

The latest Hart’s Ridge gossip spread like wildfire, reaching my ears as I rung up the bag of candy Caitlin Ross, the manager of Hot and Wired, had purchased as an afternoon pick-me-up, since too much caffeine made her jittery.

“Olivia told Jack Locklear when they were getting their mail, and then Jack stopped by for a coffee and he told me the whole story,” Caitlin said, her eyes glowing with the excitement of a fresh rumor. “Max Darlington is really a Hart. Violet, Olivia, and Hannah are his cousins. Apparently their dad and his mom are siblings? Is it true?”

I stood frozen, a bag of brightly colored candy in one hand and Caitlin’s credit card in the other, and stared blankly into space.

I had promised him cookies.

It was the only thought in my mind.

Max was a Hart. I had known that already, but no one else had. If everyone was gossiping about it now, that meant Max must have talked to the Hart sisters. I knew what that meant to him. How much courage it had taken.

What had been the outcome? How was he now? Was he okay, or was he devastated? It ate at me that I didn’t have answers to those questions. I didn’t know because I wasn’t waiting for him, with cookies, like I had promised.

“Kate?” Caitlin asked, cutting through my brain fog.

I blinked. “I’m sorry, we’re closed.”

“Um. Okay.” Caitlin’s brows wrinkled in confusion. “But can I have my candy? And my credit card?”

“What? Oh, right.” I handed over the goods and removed my apron over my head. I came around the counter, hustling Caitlin to the door. “Sorry for all this, but something just came up, and I have to close early.”

Caitlin gave me an assessing look. “Sure. No problem.”

Ninety minutes later, I was on Max’s doorstep, with a plate of fresh-baked cookies wrapped in tinfoil to keep them warm. He answered the door in bare feet and one of those soft sweaters I loved to cuddle against. My heart banged against my rib cage at the sight of him, as though it were trying to leave my chest and go straight into his arms. I gripped the plate tighter, holding it between us like a shield.

“Hey,” I said softly. “Sorry I’m late.”

He stared at me wordlessly.

“I brought cookies,” I tried.

He looked at the tinfoil-covered plate and then back at my face, his brow furrowed as though he were puzzling through something. “We broke up,” he said.

Heat spread up my throat. Oh God. What was I doing? I had been so consumed with worry for him, with needing to know that he was okay, that I hadn’t even paused to consider whether he wanted to see me. How thoughtless could I be? Of course he didn’t want to see me! After an emotional scene with his long-lost cousins, the last thing he needed was a surprise visit from the woman who had dumped him.

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