Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
New York taught me that the seemingly perfect life could come crashing down with one little choice–that people I thought I knew could reveal themselves to be unrecognizable overnight. It was hard not to wonder if the same thing was going to happen here. No matter how close to perfect this was shaping up to be, how did I know it would last? How the hell did I know I wasn’t the problem? That eventually I’d screw this up somehow and wind up running again.
My thoughts were a mess all morning, so when it was time to go up for Max’s daily lessons, I formed a somewhat reckless plan. We both needed to get out of Stone Tower and the never too-distant sense that Mr. Stone was watching from somewhere, glaring in disapproval.
Max popped up from the couch when I came into the penthouse. She never exactly smiled at the sight of me. She was too cool for that. But I had gotten to know her enough to understand that tossing her phone aside at the sight of me was a very good sign.
“Hey,” I said easily, keeping my bag over my shoulder and waiting by the elevator.
Max’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong? Are you going to give me a pop quiz again or something? Because I still don’t forgive you for that.”
“I was thinking we could both really use a pedicure.”
Her eyes went so narrow they were almost closed. “But we’d have to leave the tower for that. Uncle Stones says–”
“I know what he says, but what is it going to hurt? We’ll put a baseball hat on you and sunglasses. Nobody will ever recognize you.”
She hesitated, but I saw her eyes fall to her nails. She looked back up. “I do like pissing off Uncle Stones, but he really put his foot down about leaving the tower. He won’t tell me why it’s such a big deal, but…” She chewed her lip. I’d never seen Max look particularly torn about doing something bad, and I felt my own resolution to be reckless start to slip.
“We will be super careful, Max. I promise. We both need this, and if we get caught, I’ll take all the blame. Okay?”
She said nothing for a few seconds, then suddenly jumped up and hugged me with a small, girlish squeal. “Okay! Let me go get a hat.”
I smiled as I watched her hurry off. Max carefully curated a mask of disinterested teenage girl whenever she could, but I’d come to personally love the moments when the mask slipped. Underneath the feigned disinterest was a sweet little girl who just wanted a normal life. If I could give her even a little taste of it, then it was worth the risk. Although I couldn’t help thinking it would’ve been much more logical to wait another week for this until after I’d earned my first twenty-thousand-dollar bonus.
Max and I headed out of the building separately to draw less suspicion. I went first and then waited in the parking lot for her to follow two minutes after. When she got in my car, she balled her fists and let out another excited squeal. A split second later, she had arranged her face into a perfect illusion of disinterest. “Alright, whatever,” she said in a flat tone. “I guess we should get going.”
I grinned. “Yeah, whatever.”
Max punched my arm softly, and I didn’t miss the hint of her smirk in my rearview.
Half an hour later, Max and I were in pedicure bliss. My calves were being massaged and Max was watching with interest as a woman painted white skulls over her fresh, black nail polish.
“Dad used to let me do stuff like this when he was still cool.”
I nearly choked on the sparkling water I was sipping. It had been three weeks and Max hadn’t mentioned her dad a single time. I decided I wasn’t going to ever ask unless she brought it up, but I was deeply curious to know what the story was behind this bizarre arrangement.
“Was your mom in the picture?” I asked carefully.
Max shook her head, not raising her eyes. “Dad never talked about her. He messed that up, too. Before I was old enough to remember.”
“I’m sorry, Max.”
“Nah,” she said easily. “It’s better this way. Uncle Stones is a hardass, but he mostly leaves me alone so I can do my own thing.”
“Your own thing, as long as it’s in the tower, right?”
She paused, licking her lips. “He won’t say, but I think he’d get in some kind of trouble if people knew he was taking care of me. Like he could lose his business maybe?”
I considered. “I could try asking him if you are curious.”
“Don’t bother. He’ll just growl at you and get pissy.”
“Was your uncle always such a grouch?”
Max grinned. “No. I mean, sort of. But he used to always bring me toys when he’d come visit dad. He was pretty cool back then, even if he was a little too serious. But it was like… two or three years ago when my dad and uncles messed everything up. Uncle Lance was sleeping with an employee or something and got kicked out of the company. Then Dad did some kind of illegal boring business thing for money and wound up in jail for the next five years. Then he tried to pass me off to his deadbeat girlfriend, but she wasn’t even taking me to school anymore. It was cool at first, but eventually Uncle Stones found out and made some kind of deal with her to take me off her hands." Max shrugged. “So here I am.”