But now he wanted to take their friendship to another level. The question was, would she let him?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It wasn’t until a week had passed that Silken began to feel like herself again. The blow of getting so far in her search and then not being able to achieve her ultimate goal was devastating. Even Suave seemed to be handling the situation better than she was, which was unusual because she’d always been the ‘strong’ one.
But now, with the passing of time, she was beginning to accept things as they were. She was not happy about it, not by a long shot, but she’d begun to realize that maybe there were some things that were just not meant to be.
In the last few days things had gotten busy around the shop and she was glad for it. She would not have been able to find the time to mope even if she wanted to. Lots of clients were getting ready for long trips over the upcoming holidays so they were turning up in droves to get their vehicles tuned up for the drive. She didn’t mind at all. When Suave told her the current status of their bank balance she was all smiles.
And then she remembered that apart from a brief call the following morning she hadn’t heard from Max, not since he’d thrown her out of his house. Well actually, it wasn’t fair to say that since he’d only been trying to help. But still, what must he think of her, throwing herself at him like that? That night she’d begged him to kiss her and then she’d tried to divest the man of his clothes. God. She still blushed every time she remembered it. She must have been out of her mind.
She could only imagine what he must be thinking about her after that episode. Would she ever be able to look him in the eyes again? She grimaced just thinking about it. She should probably avoid him for a while, at least until he’d forgotten all about what had happened. He hadn’t called her and maybe that was for the best. She, of course, would not call him either.
But then, as she packed up that Friday evening and prepared to head home, she couldn’t help thinking about Max. He was the only one who knew how much she’d been affected by the failed trip to the doctor and his refusal to reveal the identity of their mother. Not even Suave knew. But Max, he’d been there when she’d broken down in tears.
And now she wished she could see him again. Should she swallow her pride and call? She pondered that for a minute but then she sighed. No. Bad idea. Better to give him time to get over the shock of her bad behavior.
She was climbing into her car when her cell phone rang. She knew exactly what this was about. Suave had forgotten her shopping list again and, as usual, Silken would have to remind her to get the stuff that they kept running out of, like dishwashing liquid, ketchup and fabric softener. Eggs, milk and cheese were no-brainers but Suave could never remember the other stuff.
She pulled the phone out of her pocket and stuck it to her ear. “Hand towels,” she said drily, “and dishwashing liquid and detergent. Oh, and bring me some garlic powder. I used the last of it yesterday.”
“Anything else?”
Silken almost jumped out of her skin. That wasn’t Suave on the other end of the call, it was Max. She laughed out loud. “Max, I’m sorry. I thought you were Suave.” And then, realizing she was on the phone with the man she’d been thinking about all afternoon, her body went warm all over. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” he said, and he did sound good. Deliciously so. “What about you?”
He didn’t say more than that but Silken knew what he meant. He wanted to know if she’d recovered from her meltdown at his house.
“I’m fine,” she said, glad her voice had not even a little waver in it.
There was the briefest of pauses and then he asked, “Are you busy this weekend? I’ve got tickets for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in Daytona. Want to come?”
Silken sucked in her breath but she didn’t scream into the phone like she wanted to. Did she ever. “Are you serious? I’d love to. But wait. Didn’t that happen in June?”
“No. The tickets say July six. That’s tomorrow. And,” he said, sounding like he was teasing a toddler with a piece of candy, “one of these tickets has your name on it.”
“God, I would love to,” she groaned, “but that’s all the way in Florida. And it’s tomorrow. I probably couldn’t get on a flight even if I went out to the airport, went down on my knees and begged. Those flights must be booked solid by now.”
“Let me worry about the ‘getting there’ part,” Max said, his voice one hundred percent confident. “Just tell me you can be ready by four o’clock in the morning and I’ll come get you.”
“I’ll be waiting at the door with pom-poms.”
“Fine. Now tell me, would Suave like to come, too? She’s welcome, you know.”
Silken gave a snort. “Suave? At a racetrack? I don’t think so. She’d spend the whole day pining about all the reading time she was losing.” Then a thought came to her. “Hey, you think we’ll see Danica Patrick in action?”
“Absolutely. Probably the most popular female racecar driver in the country? You bet your socks she’ll be there. She draws quite a crowd.”
“And I hope she beats the shorts off all the male drivers. Go, Danica.”
“Yeah, yeah. Save the cheering for when we get there,” Max said drily. “She’s still got Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer to contend with. We’ll see what happens when we get there.”
Silken was ready a whole half hour before the appointed time. Suave was still lost in dreamland. It was way too early on a Saturday morning to wake her just to say bye. The night before, when Silken had told her about Max’s invitation, she’d been excited to hear that Silken would be out of the house for the day. Maybe Suave wasn’t as unaware as she’d thought.
At four on the dot Max buzzed the apartment. “I’ll be right down,” she told him then grabbed her jacket and her purse and flew through the door.