Leave it to Max (Lori's Classic Love Stories Volume 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Garrett
demanded.
    Max’s slow, warm smile was worth the icy
stare he received from Livy.
    “Excuse me?”
    “What makes you so sure that none of those
things is real?”
    “Come now, Mr. Stark, even you know
there’s a line between fantasy and reality.”
    The sneer in her words did not appear on her
face, but Garrett remembered every nuance of that voice. He’d
listened to the mellow southern tones often enough in the dark—
both in fantasy and reality.
    “Even me?” he repeated. She loathed him, and
he couldn’t figure out why. From where Garrett stood, he was
the injured party. “I’ll tell you what I know. If you believe in
something strongly enough, it becomes real to you. And what is real, anyway?”
    She gave him a withering glare, as if he were
too dumb to live. “What you can see and feel and touch. Right here,
right now. Belief has nothing to do with it. And I’ll thank you to
keep your rich fantasy life to yourself. Do not entice my son into
dreaming impossible dreams.”
    She sounded so certain there was no magic to
be had in this world, which was so different from the Livy he
remembered, Garrett wasn’t sure what to say. As if there was
anything to say in this situation.
    “Max, take a bath like I told you. Rosie’s
already making breakfast.”
    “’Kay. Bye, Mr. Stark.”
    Garrett swallowed the lump in his throat as
Max disappeared. His own son had called him “mister.” Garrett was
getting madder by the minute.
    “What’s going on here, Livy?”
    She put her finger to her lips. “We’ll have
to discuss this later. I need to get Max off to school and be in
court by nine.”
    “Are you in trouble?”
    “No, but my client is.”
    “Y-you’re an attorney.” He couldn’t stop the
horror from seeping into his voice. To him, attorneys were all like
his father—and the way Livy was acting, James, Sr. would just love
her.
    “You sound like my mother.” Her words weren’t
a compliment, either.
    Garrett stepped closer. She smelled exactly
the same—like river dreams and night hopes—navy blue, cool spice.
His head spun as the memories came hard, fast, furious—from both
the best and the worst time of his life.
    She looked the same, too. Hair the shade of
ocean sand and eyes like midnight on the water. He’d always loved
her eyes, so dark, yet blue. Garrett had been captivated by the way
they loomed large in her fine-boned face. In times past she’d been
tall and slim, on the verge of gangly. From the cinched waist of
her robe, these days she was slimmer still.
    He noted other changes—the shadows beneath
her eyes; the lines above her lips; the cut of her hair, shorter
and more austere than the long and easy braid she’d once favored.
The strands of gray in that hair—few, but apparent—made him wonder
how hard her life had been since he’d left Savannah.
    Garrett lowered his voice. “How did this
happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “You know very well how it happened,
J.J.”
    “I’m Garrett now.”
    “And that’s why I didn’t tell you.”
    “What?”
    “Never mind. Call me later, and we’ll set up
a meeting.”
    “Forget later. What time does Max go to
school?”
    “Seven-thirty.”
    “Fine, I’ll be back at 7:35.”
    “I don’t have time.”
    “Make time. I’m not waiting all day to talk
about this. It’s now or at 7:35.”
    Her narrow glare appeared out of place on a
woman who’d once glared rarely. How could the eyes he’d imagined so
often they’d become a part of him, a comfort in times of trouble,
now seem the eyes of a stranger?
    Livy must have sensed his determination
because she made an impatient sound and threw up her hands. “Don’t
be late. I need to be in court at nine.” She turned her back on him
as if he were nothing to her.
    As a child he’d heard the same words, been
faced with a similar back...
    Daddy, play ball with me.
    I can’t, Junior. I need to be in court at
nine.
    Garrett shook his head to make the voices go
away. But