Max made Logan leave the mess to her. She shooed him into the kitchen and told him to finish up with dinner. She mopped up the champagne with the rag then brushed all the broken bottle pieces into the dustpan. She shook her head at the mess and thought of what a waste it was. A perfectly good bottle of champagne, wasted on Zack and the floor.
She walked to the kitchen and emptied the contents of the dustpan into the garbage can.
"Where should I put this?" she asked and held up the rag.
"You can just trash it," he said and began plating the food.
Max dropped the rag into the trash then sat on one of the stools at the butcher-block island. "You mind if we eat here? I'm not really in a dining room sort of mood anymore."
Logan nodded and placed a plate of food in front of her. He set his plate down before transferring to one of the stools.
Max picked at her food, barely hungry anymore. It was quite the accomplishment to make her lose her appetite - a craft that Zack had plenty of time to perfect. Her brow furrowed as she thought of him. She knew her mind should be on her meal, on her company, but she couldn't rid her brother from her troubled mind. She worried about him. Despite their volatile relationship, she worried about him. She worried about all of her family, but Zack was something different. He put himself in danger on purpose, with protecting them all in mind, but he never realized that they could all take care of themselves. She knew that omission would be his downfall. It was his weakness - the only thing Lydecker might be able to use against him.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
She looked to Logan and tried her best to smile. "They're not worth a penny, trust me."
"They must be worth something if you're not finished eating already," he replied.
She shrugged and pushed her plate away. "I just have a lot on my mind is all. A lot of… family stuff. A lot of… stuff."
"Stuff," he repeated with a nod. "You okay?"
She bit her lower lip and nodded. She was distracted. Everything with Zack had brought out all the memories from Canada she had been fighting to suppress. She remembered Logan's words and frowned deeply.
"I can't stop thinking about Zack," she said quietly. "It's stupid, I know, but… I can't stop thinking about him and what you said and…"
She wanted to finish "that one night" but didn't. She wasn't sure how Logan would react to that story and honestly, she didn't want to find out. It was all right to keep things hidden if it prevented heartbreak, plus she didn't want to think about it herself. It only made her realize she didn't have the brother she thought she did.
"He's family," Logan said after a while. "Family's important."
She shook her head, knowing that wasn't it. She knew that he was aware that that wasn't it either, but didn't say anything more on the subject.
For the first time in a long time, she rubbed her hand on the back of her neck, allowing her fingers to dance briefly over her barcode.
"I just wish it wasn't so hard," she said. "Whatever happened to easy?"
"I don't think easy was ever an option for you, Max."
Max thought that was the understatement of the century. "I'm kinda hating my options at this point."
Logan pushed his own plate away then transferred to his wheelchair. "What do you say we forget dinner and play some chess?"
"I'm up for that," Max replied and slid off her seat.
She went to the living room and made herself comfortable on the leather sofa. She watched Logan pull the chess set from its drawer in the entertainment center and smiled to herself. She felt normal again. She pretended for a moment that her time in Canada had been a nightmare and that she had never left Logan. She smiled at the thought.
"Ready to lose?" he asked with a grin as he began setting up the board on the coffee table.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Max returned playfully. She changed positions on the couch and tucked her feet under her body.
"I'm feeling lucky tonight," he said then turned the chessboard around so that Max had to play the white pieces.
"A new strategy?" she asked and moved a pawn forward.
He rested his elbow on his knee then rested his chin on his fist. "Well, it was. You were supposed to make a dramatic first move so I could predict the rest of your moves throughout the game. Instead, you move a pawn a space. Is this a new form of torture?"
"If you consider losing at chess a torture," she replied with a small shrug. She had to admit that his determined face was a pleasure to watch.
He moved a rook forward.
"Are you sure?" she teased.
"I was," he mumbled quietly. He hadn't taken his hand off the piece so he was free to move it back to its original spot. Before he could pull his hand all the way back, however, Max had reached out and grabbed it.
"Leave it," she said.
He had no idea what the expression in her eyes meant, but he guessed he could have stared into her brown eyes for hours trying to figure it out. He set the rook down carefully.
Max proceeded to sweep another pawn forward, leaving the option of capturing the rook open.
"Not fair," he grumbled.
She shrugged. "I never said I played fair."
"You're not allowed to trick a guy like that," Logan said with a smirk. "It's against the rules. You can't use your superpowers against we mere mortals."
"I don't remember signing any agreements," she replied with a smirk of her own.
"Remind me to type one up then," he said and moved a pawn forward. He developed a new strategy.
Max utterly destroyed his strategy as she captured his rook.
The seconds ticked by into minutes and thirty minutes ticked by before Logan was looking over the chessboard with a smile. Max was smiling also, but for a different reason. She knew Logan was laboring under the delusion that he was going to win the game.
"I'm hungry all of a sudden," she remarked.
"You're trying to distract me," he said as he stared intently at the board. "It won't work."
"Trying to distract you? I would never," she said and chuckled. "I don't have to distract you to win."
"You're very confident," he said, raising his eyes to meet hers.
She leaned over the board so that her face was hovering as close to it as his was. She met his eyes and replied, "And you're very slow."
They stared into each other's eyes for a moment too long. Suddenly the game disappeared. They both knew what they were getting themselves into and were all right with it. Max leaned further across the board to bridge the gap and pressed her lips to his. They were still for a moment, both wondering exactly how far the other was willing to go. Impatient as always, Max deepened the kiss and snaked an arm around Logan's neck to pull him closer. In response, Logan reached across the table and wrapped an arm around her waist. In one swift tug, he had pulled her across the table, sending the chess pieces everywhere.
She found herself in his lap and pulled away from him for a moment. She looked down at him and smiled.
"You only did that 'cause you knew you were gonna lose."
A million replies raced through his mind, but he couldn't vocalize them. Instead, he put a hand on the back of her neck and pulled her face to his, eager to continue the kiss.
Max felt the dull pain in her chest dissipate and suddenly felt as if her heart had been repaired and placed back in her chest where it belonged. She wanted to tell Logan everything that was behind the kiss, but as they made their way to the bedroom, she had a feeling he already knew.
His name was the last sound she made before they crashed onto the bed.