Page 46 of Party Favors

Never mind that most of the events I’d done so far hadn’t been very much fun. “What about you? Did you always want to work for a nonprofit?”

“I changed my mind a bunch of times growing up,” he said. “But what I’m doing makes me really happy. I love giving back.”

“What kind of work are you doing?”

“Right now we’re assisting single mothers from under-resourced communities in getting their degree. We pay all their bills for them and their children, including their room and board, and pay for their tuition. We help them find their first job in their chosen field and theirown place to live. One of the unexpected side benefits they’ve discovered over the years is that the children go on to get college educations as well, emulating what their mothers have done. In a small way we’re helping as many families as we can to break the cycle of poverty.”

“Wow,” I breathed. I really loved my job and making people happy, but Max was doing real, lasting, serious work. Things that were changing the lives of people for generations to come.

It made me like him so much.

Which intensified when he said, “We’ve also started a program to help mothers of infants to get all the necessary supplies they need. I had no idea how expensive diapers and formula were.”

Oh, my heart and my ovaries were aching. He was the absolute kindest, sweetest person ever and all of this was just making me want him more.

I cleared my throat. “That’s really neat. It must be so rewarding to do that kind of work.”

“It is.” He nodded.

Then he proceeded to make everything worse. There was a green glass bottle on the ground in front of us. He picked it up, took it over to a recycling bin, and threw it away. It made my insides flutter. If someone had stepped on it, they could have gotten seriously hurt. He was thoughtful, aware, and considerate. He hadn’t done it to impress me—it was just instinct—and so it impressed me even more.

Meemaw had always wanted me to find a gentleman, and they were a dying breed as far as I could tell.

Max was apparently launching a one-man effort to revive the species.

I desperately needed to think about something else. “No Basta today?”

“She has a doggy playdate.”

“Like she has a boyfriend?” I asked with a laugh.

We came to a stop at the corner, waiting for the light to change. “In a way. There’s a woman in my building who goes to the same dog park nearby, and we met. Basta and Champ hit it off right away, so sheoffered to take them to the park with her a couple of times a week, and then they hang out afterward at her place.”

“Do you go, too?” I asked.

“Not usually.”

I pressed my lips together so that I wouldn’t smile. That poor woman. I bet that really frustrated her clever plans of getting to spend some alone time with Max. Well, if nothing else, she was getting in good with his dog, and that seemed as smart a scheme as any other, given how attached he was to Basta.

“How long have you had her?” At his quizzical expression, I added, “Basta, not the neighbor.”

“For a couple of years. I had another dog before her named Gelato, which was her favorite thing to eat. Her favorite thing to do was to chase squirrels.”

“Do you have a lot of squirrels in Monterra?” I asked.

“The same as anywhere else, I guess.”

“Well, maybe Gelato is still chasing squirrels up in heaven.”

“You’re not the first person to say that to me,” he said with a smile. “Although it makes me feel bad for the departed squirrels. They have to spend their eternity evading dogs?”

I thought about that for a second. “Maybe squirrel hell is doggy heaven. Like a two-birds-with-one-stone situation.”

That earned me another one of his delicious smiles. “And what sorts of mortal sins have squirrels committed on Earth that warrant that kind of torment?”

“Squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails,” I told him. “Adorable, and I would keep one as a pet if I could get away with it, but they can be very devious and destructive. Plus, they know those bird feeders are not intended for them.”

“What about the good ones?”

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