Page 61 of The Charming Checklist
“She lost her phone again.”
“Why am I not surprised.” Daddy groaned. “She’s in Charming with you? But why?”
“I think that’s something you’re going to have to find out for yourself.”
Later that night, Ava couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned, wondering if Mom was going through a midlife crisis, or if she was serious about divorce. She’d seen another side of her mother in the past two days. A woman who didn’t simply see herself as Dr. Katherine Long. Someone who understood she was more than a doctor. She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother. She was ready to retire from medicine now and enjoy the rest of her life. Since Ava had never known Mom to be anything but goal-oriented in her pursuits, it was a safe bet that she’d get her way.
With or without Daddy.
Giving up on sleep, she dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, pulled on some sandals and went for a drive. It was another quiet and calm evening in Charming as she drove through town and turned onto the curvy road that ran along the coastline. From here, she could see the nonoperational lighthouse where Valerie and Cole lived. There, just outside on that beach, Max had told her to stop looking for his future wife. The thought was a warm thread that wrapped around her heart. She understood that this highly successful man had finally realized he couldn’t plan everything. He hadn’t planned on her.
This particular lighthouse no longer beamed a path to lost sailors, or warned of rocky shores, but when someone was home, such as now, the lighting spilled outside through the porthole windows. When Ava had first arrived in Charming, not knowing a single soul, she’d driven along this windy road. Trying to get her bearings and get to know the area. The lighthouse had seemed like a beacon then, reminding her that everyone found their way eventually. Sometimes with a little help.
Right now, she could use a little help. It felt like her world was about to collapse in on itself when the two people most suited to each other in the world were having problems. It just didn’t make sense. She consoled herself with the thought that once her father understood how important their retirement was to her mother, he’d relent. But after hearing him on the phone tonight, his irritation clear as they hung up, she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
She drove all over their small town, wrapping around it twice, and somehow wound up in front of Max’s place. No surprise there. He’d been that shiny beacon for her recently. The kind of man she’d never pictured herself with, but now...they fit. Of course, the stupid list was never far from her mind. She wanted to forget it. She’d begun to see that the man behind it, sexy and sexually experienced though he was, had to be somewhat emotionally stunted on some level. Still, she couldn’t stop thinking of him.
She checked the time. It was not quite ten o’clock and the lights were on inside. Just in case, she knocked softly on the door. The door opened but this man wasn’t Max.Thisman had a bushy beard, wild hair, and wore rumpled and torn clothes. He looked to be homeless, poor guy.
“Can I help you?” he asked from his towering height.
Good. Hesoundedperfectly normal. “Um, is Max here?”
He stood aside. Ava wasn’t too sure about this, but she trusted her initial instincts, and stepped inside. This poor man would not harm her. He was just a little dirty, a little dusty, having fallen on hard times.
“I’m Adam Cruz,” he said, giving her his hand.
“Hi. Ava Long.”
He nodded. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You have?” She was far more pleased with this than she should have been.
Max appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Hey.”
“We just met,” Adam said with a chuckle. “I think I scared her.”
“No, you didn’t,” Ava protested.
“It’s okay. I have that way about me. It’s the beard.” He scratched through several thick layers of dark scruff. “I think.”
“And the wild hair, too,” Max added. “Don’t worry, he’s shaving and cutting off most of his hair before he starts cooking in our kitchen. Meet our new head cook.”
“That would be me. Speaking of shaving, I was about to do that. Please excuse me. It was nice meeting you.” With that, he walked down the hallway.
“C’mere.” Max flashed her a wicked smile, and only then did she realize she still stood a foot from the front door in the foyer.
Maybe he had scared her a little bit.
“He’s very polite.” She went into Max’s open arms. Those arms were toasty and strong as he held her tightly against him.
She needed this hug tonight. Needed him, and all the strength and warmth that seeped into her.
Max took her hand, led her outside to his small patio and spoke in a hushed tone. “I know it doesn’t look that way, and he would never talk about this, but that man you just met is a highly decorated navy SEAL.”
“Oh, my goodness. He’s fallen on hard times?”
Max nodded. “The transition to becoming a civilian hasn’t been easy for him. But Adam surprised me today by coming down from Montana earlier than I thought.”
