Chapter 9
It had been a month and Maxie still wasn't talking to him.
He tried everything. The day Spinelli was there, it was Jake who got her to come out of her room. They all sat around that morning talking and laughing while Jason made everyone breakfast. Spinelli animatedly filled them in on the agency. Maxie seemed to become comfortable around him so when the agent finally left around lunchtime Jason suggested they all go have an early dinner at Ichiban's, Maxie's favorite Japanese restaurant. Without a word, Maxie promptly went to her room and an hour later when she came out, she left the house and didn't return until after everyone went to bed.
The next day, on her day off, Jason had flowers sent to the house. He didn't want to send roses so he sent a huge bouquet of fall foliage. It cost him over a hundred bucks but he didn't care about the money. The card proved to be more difficult than he imagined and after tearing up half a dozen of them in the store, perturbing the very feminine man behind the counter, he simply put "J" on it and sealed it for the flower shop owner to deliver.
The card and the flowers were sitting on Denny and Dale's dining room table that evening when he went to get the boys to come home for dinner. Maxie again, was no where in sight.
And this had gone on for a week.
When he got home with the boys, Maxie didn't show up until well after the boys went to bed and if Jason happened to still be up, which he purposely did regardless of how late she got home, she would immediately go to her room and shut her door.
If he spoke to her, she glared at him but never spoke back. It amazed him that she was so controlled because he had done everything to get her to talk to him. He tried to incite a response with complaints about her spending. She would simply nod and walk away. Then he noticed she didn't use the credit card for three days. This was a woman who couldn't go three minutes without using his credit card so he went to her and told her he didn't mean it. The next day, the credit card company called him to approve a purchase. He came home to a brand new eight thousand dollar living room suit.
With Jason's favorite old brown leather couch no where to be found.
And it had gone on like that until the next week, on Thursday, when for the second week straight he and the boys showed up at Georgie's Boutique, and Maxie was again no where to be found. Jake and Cameron were extremely disappointed to the point where Jake started crying. Because Maxie had been avoiding Jason, she was also avoiding the kids. Unintentionally, of course, but the only time they spent with her was in the mornings and that was not enough time. The boys had grown used to her always being around over the years and to suddenly stop was not only confusing but devastating to the two youngsters.
Brittany was the one who picked up the phone and called her. She answered on the first ring because the high schooler was not only at her boutique but they were announcing the winner of the formal dress promotion the next night at the football game. Lots of activity had been seen at the store over the past two weeks. In all she and Brittany figured they had sold fourteen prom dresses, not to mention the other items. The promotion was a success and she was already talking about doing the same thing for prom the following April. Maxie was worried Brittany would get so busy that it would be too much but then she should have known better. Brittany was just as efficient at multi-tasking in the store as Maxie was, ringing up customers, answering phones, changing out sizes and helping to order items online. In the six months since the store had opened, Brittany had proved to be an irreplaceable asset.
When Brittany explained that there were two little boys, one of which was crying because she wasn't there, Maxie's heart broke. She instructed Brittany to put Cameron on the phone and Maxie explained to the little boy that when they got home, she would be there. Cam was so excited and then Jake once the big brother filled him in, they didn't even want dinner. They just wanted to go home. Once there, they ordered pizza and Maxie explained to the boys that any time they wanted to call to talk to her, they could tell their Daddy to dial her number and she would talk to them no matter how busy she was.
That seemed to appease the boys and from then on. And for the next two weeks the routine changed but then was still silent between the adults. She was home when she normally would be around eight in the evening when she was working and would pick them up from school or daycare when she normally would have before on her day off.
But she still wasn't talking to Jason.
And boy did he try! He would get on the phone and call her. He'd hear her voice say hello in her high pitched aria but as soon as he started talking, she would close up like a cocoon and not speak again until she heard one of the boys talking. So on occasion he would go into his bedroom and call her with no intention of putting the boys on the phone but once she realized he just wanted to talk to her, she would hang up on him.
The night of the football game, Maxie was to announce the winner of the prom dress or rather homecoming formal dress at half time. The plan all along was for it to be a big outing. Denny, Dale and Vonnie were going. Vonnie and all three of her children were alumni of the high school. The entire Watson clan was attending the homecoming game with significant others and kids in tow and according to Denny, The Johnson family was a part of that very special crew now.
Jason was excited. He would get to be around Maxie in a public setting where he hoped she had matured enough not to make a scene. At least he thought she HAD. Jason showed up with the boys. Everyone was already there in the bleachers and Maxie and Brittany were down near the fence to the field talking with the Principle. When the game started, Maxie came up to join them. Jason moved over to make room for her between him and Hannah, who he knew she would want to sit by therefore purposely sitting next to her as well. Jake, as always, jumped into her arms and she took him to the other end of the row and sat down by Dale who was filming the game.
He went to the concession stand and bought her a Fuji water when he purchased the popcorn and juices for the kids and she accidentally thanked him. He was so excited to hear a peep from her after two weeks and the words being meant for him, he immediately dropped down on his knees to look her in the eye and apologized to her.
She stared at him long and hard and then handed off Jacob Martin and left, preferring to finish the evening sitting with Brittany and her parents in the other end of the stands.
Now, a month since the wedding, he had stopped trying to talk to her but was still making every effort to show her how truly sorry he was for hurting her feelings.
Oh he knew that they had neither one made any promises that night at the wedding. But there was definitely something growing between them. And Jason had blown it all by not trusting that what he felt for Maxie was being returned by her.
And he couldn't blame Spinelli anymore. He didn't trust so he ran. His usual MO. The fault for his predicament fell squarely on his shoulders.
The kicker of it all was that he didn't even know what to think about how he felt and had not had the chance to explore it with his roommate who over the past month had occupied his every waking thought. He blew any chance before even knowing what's what between them.
But unlike his behavior of the past, Jason had every intention of never giving up. Something that Dale said to him playing a game of pool quite some time ago stuck in his head. It was a piece of advice given before this fiasco had set a funk over the Johnson household. Even if he determined in the end that there was nothing but a working relationship between them for the kids, he was not going to slink away like he used to do.
Giving up was the cowards way.
Like he did with Elizabeth and now decades later realized how much time was wasted because of it. Like he did with Sam under the guise of it being for her safety and like he even did with Robin way back when. His choice was to always let the other person make the decision and he'd just let them be from there. Yet that option always left him alone.
Well he wasn't doing that with Maxie. The whole reason was because Dale, while talking about that asshole of a grandson of his, mentioned that Robbie regretted letting Maxie go just because he didn't want to try and didn't want to have to face his guilt, just because he didn't want to have to do the work it took to have a real relationship.
Living with Maxie was a lot of work already so the extra effort Jason was having to pull off was exhausting but it was just something he had to do. So when she would receive a delivery of her favorite sushi for lunch at the boutique and he still wouldn't receive a call, he would just trudge on and send her favorite Thai food for lunch the next day. And when he would find the fresh flowers that he put in her room suddenly in the garbage, he would just pull them back out and give them to Billy to take home to Hannah. And when he would leave notes thanking her for the most mundane of tasks she had performed like putting away the dishes, he would find them left right where he left them, on the kitchen counter or taped to the inside of the back door or pinned to the cork board near the answering machine where he had left them for her to find. They would stand out as a reminder that thankful or not, it was too little too late as far as she was concerned. But instead of ripping the notes to shreds he would just write another thoughtful note to replace it.
Like the one he wrote thanking her for putting her sales receipts at the boutique in date order for him. Or the written message letting her know that he hoped she was still enjoying her lattes he made for her every morning. Or the big message he wrote saying how much he really liked her new shorter haircut.
And still...NOTHING.
But here it was, early on a Monday afternoon in late October and Jason rushed through the automatic doors looking around wildly until he spotted Maxie in the emergency room of Largo Medical Center with Jacob in her lap, a huge bandage around his head and blood on the front of his favorite Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt and Maxie's arm in a sling.
"Are you okay?" Jason immediately went to her bending down on one knee and gently taking Jake out of her arms.
He noticed now that her jeans were ripped and blood was on the scraps of torn denim around her knee. "What happened?"
Jacob crawled into his fathers arms and still didn't say a word. Jason started rubbing his youngest son's back up and down with soft strokes as he stared into Maxie's eyes which immediately welled up with huge tears clouding her vision.
"Me and Jake" hiccup "We were" hic "riding the bike" cup "and a dog" hiccup.
"Big dog daddy." Jake finally spoke as he pulled his head off Jason's shoulder looking up at his father with matching blue eyes wide with wonder and fear holding his little arms out to show how big. "His mouth was bigger than my whole head"
"A dog attacked you?" He said looking from Jake up to Maxie and then pulling his son in to him so he could kiss the boy's forehead.
Since he received the phone call from the emergency room, he was in a state of panic when the elderly volunteer working in the ER reception area called him because he was listed on the paperwork as the person to contact. It hadn't escaped his notice that Maxie hadn't called him herself but from the looks of the sling and the blood stain on her jeans, she was probably too busy to call him. Jake's head was wrapped in fresh white gauze and he could see an area just above his ear where a big bandage was in place. Maxie also had a bandage he could now see through the small hole in her jeans.
"No Daddy, the dog ran up to the fence and scared us. Then Maxie and I started going all crazy on the sidewalk and then we hit a big bump and I went flying like Superman." Jake used his arm to show how he flew through the air. Then the excitement looked to have hurt his head and he laid it back down on his father's shoulder.
Jason looked up to see tears steadily streaming down Maxie's cheeks and he lifted himself and Jake up to sit beside her in the cold plastic chairs of the waiting room. He shifted Jake in his lap so that he could face Maxie and noticed that under the sling was a temporary cast wrapped in gauze and an ice pack on top.
"You broke your arm?" he asked but then was interrupted.
"Mr. Johnson?" When Jason looked at the long legged brunette in the business skirt and blouse with the reading glasses dangling from a gold chain around her neck, he nodded confirming he was indeed Mr. Johnson. "I'm April. I work here in billing. I need you to sign some forms for me. Jacob Martin is under your group medical through the city but Miss Webster…well if you could get her to just put some form of marking on the line, we can bill her at home for the charges. We're unable to verify her insurance at this point. She was a little shaken up when they got here and all she cared about was Jake. She said she had insurance but didn't know who or where her card is."
"I'll take care of any costs. I'll be glad to give you my credit card now if you need."
"No sir, it's best we bill you at home once we have all the physicians and radiology billed. And my business card is attached to the discharge papers so when you find her insurance card, just fax a copy and I'll file her claims for her. That way you can just pay us once. However, I'll be glad to take your credit card to charge the one hundred dollar co-pay for your son. That would be the only responsibility you'll owe for him." She smiled at the dark blond with the massive chest and wished she was just ten years younger and not married.
"That's fine…" he reached in his back pocket for his wallet and pulled his check cashing card out. Then he took Jake's medical card from her outstretched hand and went to put it into his wallet but then realizing it was Maxie's just held on to it. "Can you ask the doctor who treated them if he has time to speak to me. She's pretty upset and I'd prefer hearing everything from someone older than three."
He smiled up at the woman with that devastatingly gorgeous look and she was a puddle. "Sure, I'll go get Doctor Friedman now. I think I saw him heading into the doctor's lounge a few minutes ago."
"Thank you."
All three watched her walk away and hearing Maxie's sobs diverted his and Jake's attention back to their favorite blond. "Maxie, what…were you guys on the bike?"
Maxie nodded her head and Jason sighed in frustration. The bicycle they bought that had the seat affixed on it for Jake to ride in was too much for Maxie to handle. She was not big enough, strong enough or heavy enough to keep control of the bicycle. Especially since Jacob loved to rock back and forth to be able to see around. That's why when they all went out HE would ride that bike with Jake on back and Maxie had her own bicycle, pink with a basket and Cameron had his bicycle that looked like a Harley.
"Maxie, I've told you a million times it's not safe for you to be riding Jake on that bike. It's hard enough for me to control it. First it's too tall for you and it's heavy, especially with Jake on it. He weighs a third of what you weigh Maxie." He sighed as he leaned back in the chair thankful that it wasn't worse than it could have been. He was imagining cars running over their bodies or flying through the air because a semi hit them.
"Doesn't matter now Daddy. That bike's a piece of shit." Jake said matter of factly.
"JACOB!" Jason barked. "Where did you hear that word?"
"Maxie's gotta put a lot of her toys in the swear box daddy." Jake said with a serious face and then turned to look at Maxie and giggled.
"You little tattle tale." Maxie grumbled but then poked the little boy in the tummy making him giggle.
"No one has to put their toys in the swear box this time...but Jacob Martin...you and I have had the talk about how even if you hear adults swear YOU are no allowed to." Jason said sternly while still rubbing his son's back.
"Okay Daddy." Jake said and then went back to laying his head on his father's shoulder and then pulled the medical card from his hand to look at it.
Just then a young man, not much older than Maxie with dark curly hair and dark eyes wearing a pair of green scrubs and a stethoscope around his neck came up to the threesome.
"I'm Doctor Freidman. April said you wanted to speak with me?" He stopped when he was just in front of them and then smiled at Maxie.
A burst of jealousy sprang through Jason and he fought with all of his might to keep his tone and mannerisms under control. In another time and another place Jason Morgan probably would have just punched him to get his anger out. Then again in another time and another place Jason Morgan rarely felt jealous and when he did he never acted on the feelings simply allowing the woman to handle the situation herself. The only problem was they were never Maxie and he had never fought so hard to gain a woman's attention.
Clearing his throat Jason stood and set his little boy down in the seat he was just occupying. "I'm Jason Johnson. This is my son and this is…"
He didn't know how to answer that. He knew if he said anything more than roommate Maxie would probably break her other arm trying to injure him but 'roommate' just didn't cut it for him anymore. Unfortunately the doctor seemed to know exactly what she was to Jason.
"Your sister in law. Jake's Aunt Maxie. Yes, I was the one attending to the two of them when they came in." He looked around Jason who had physically put himself in between the doctor and Maxie without realizing what he had done.
"She's not my sister in law." Jason growled and then looked back at Maxie who was smiling up at the doctor. He turned back, "What exactly happened here?"
"Oh Maxie didn't tell you?" The doctor looked puzzled but then went into doctor mode. He looked at the woman again and then realized, "Yes well she has been rather upset since the incident. From what she told me when she and Jake came in…they were riding their bike down eighth street coming from Taylor Park. Apparently they rode by a house with a chain link fence and a big dog came running up to the gate barking at them. It was a Rotwieller. At least that's what the older woman who brought them in said. She was the neighbor. She said that if you wanted to get the bike back to come by anytime. She would put it in her garage."
"The neighbor of the house with the dog brought them to the hospital?" Jason asked and turned to see Jake nodding his head in agreement.
"Yes well, Jake here had apparently unlatched his bike helmet as well as the belt so when they crashed he went flying and hit his head on a decorative stump. She said it was quicker to bring them than to call an ambulance since they were so close to the hospital. I did a CT scan and everything looks good. He has no cognitive functional limitations and has been coherent the whole time during my examination. He did cut his head and required four stitches. The instructions in Maxie's hand tells you how to care for his wound. Watch him tonight and if he complains of headaches or gets nauseous then bring him back but I'm pretty sure he's okay. The stitches are the kind that dissolve on their own and it's under his hair so the scar won't be noticeable but some parents prefer to see a plastic surgeon. That's your right. He has prescription for an antibiotic and a topical pain reliever. Other than that, baby aspirin should do the trick. Oh and watch for dizziness. Other than that, he should be fine."
"What about Maxie?" Jason asked when it appeared the doctor wasn't going to continue.
"Maxie? Oh well, she's got a temporary cast. She broke her wrist. The swelling will go down over the next forty eight hours and then we'll put on a permanent cast. She's to see me at my office over on Ulmerton Wednesday afternoon to have the permanent cast put on. One of the nurses here is setting up the appointment with my office."
"Your office?" Jason asked scratching an eyebrow and looking up at the doctor who was just a shade taller than the former enforcer.
"Uh yes, I'm actually an orthopedist. I happened to be in the hospital today because it was my shift for hospital rounds in my practice. Oh but don't worry, I had a neurosurgeon and a pediatric doctor look at Jake's chart. I did the stitching because he was comfortable with me by then but my diagnosis of his CT scan was read by the other two specialists and we all came to the same conclusion. Jake's fine. Don't worry Mr. Johnson."
"I'll decide what to worry about." Jason barked and the medical specialist was taken aback and even did take a step back to get out of arms length. "Now what about Maxie's knee?"
"Oh that…she scraped it up pretty bad but it didn't need stitches or anything. I cleaned it real good and wrapped it. It might swell but as long as she keeps it clean and uses antibiotic ointment on it, she'll be good as new. Now the jeans I think are probably ready for the trash though recently that torn jeans look is coming back." He laughed at his own joke and Jason rolled his eyes when he heard Maxie and then Jake laugh as well.
He knew Jake didn't know why he was laughing, only that Maxie was laughing and for some reason that seemed to be enough for Jake. When he looked back a thought struck him.
"How did you bandage her knee through that little hole in her jeans?" Jason looked straight into Maxie's eyes and when she lowered her gaze to the floor and blushed, suddenly fury built up in him.
"Well…uh…" The young man stammered and then cleared his own throat. He started shuffling his feet and Jason felt his fists clench and unclench.
"Maxie taked her blue jeans off Daddy. That's how. DUH" Jake piped up.
Jason looked at his son then at Maxie who was head to toe blushing red. He now had a full head of steam at the thoughts of her undressed in front of this ass wipe with a medical degree.
"And you had on a gown right?" Jason stood, hands to hips glaring at Maxie. "Tell me you had on a DAMN hospital gown Maxie!"
"Of course she did Mister Johnson." a nurse walked up behind the doctor. "Miss Webster, I made your appointment and here's your paperwork. You all can go now. Mrs. Freidman said that Dr. Freidman would have an opening at four. That way your sales girl will have time to get to your boutique. Mrs. Freidman knows of your boutique by the way, she said she bought a purse from there. She said to tell you she loves the store and can't wait to meet its owner."
Jason visibly relaxed. He could have picked up the small bleached blond nurses assistant with the dogs all over her navy blue scrubs. He could have picked her up and kissed her for telling him in one fell swoop, and Maxie, that the doctor standing before them was married.
Jason could not have been more relieved.
Just then Denny and Dale came bursting through the emergency room doors. Jason turned to see their neighbors and suddenly felt like his gut had been ripped from his stomach. Maxie had called them. Sure the hospital called him and he was here but Maxie had called the neighbors.
All the breath left him and suddenly he was disappointed at the reminder that Maxie didn't want to have anything to do with him.
~%~%~%~%~%~
"So did you take her to get her permanent cast on?" Billy asked as he sunk the four ball into the side pocket.
Jason shot a look over at Dale and walked away toward the garage to get a beer.
"What was that about?" Billy asked his future Grandfather in law.
"Son, one day you'll realize that not all men wear their heart on their sleeve like you do." The older man said matter of factly. He then pointed at the table prodding the man who was betrothed to his only granddaughter to play his next shot.
"What? Jason?..." Billy laughed out loud and shook his head. "Jason's not..." he looked up and watched Jason walking out the door.
"Billy, you really do not pay attention. I know Jason is a quiet man but surely his feelings for Maxie haven't escaped your notice.
Then Jason walked back in the door with three beers. "You're in love with Maxie?"
"What?...NO" Jason looked away. He didn't lie but he didn't tell the truth.
Truth is, he had loved Maxie for years now. It was only now that his feelings were changing from their weird kind of friendship to a more romantic type of feeling. However he hadn't labeled it that type of LOVE yet.
Dale shook his head. "And here I thought you were the most honest man I knew."
"Hey!" Billy feigned being hurt.
"You lied the first time I met you boy."
"But that was because I was applying for a job"
"A lie is a lie." he turned back to Jason. "But a lie to ones self is worse than any lie you could tell another person."
Both younger men turned and sat down on the stools next to the wall. Dale was a man of few words. Very similar to Jason. Yet on occasion he would decide to impart some of his wisdom on his two younger counterparts. Usually how to deal with women, kids, marriage, trouble at work.
And both Jason and Billy would hang on every word.
"If you never tell a person exactly how you feel, you are essentially lying to yourself."
"What if you don't know exactly how you feel?" Jason asked tipping his beer bottle up to his lips.
"Then you tell them that. The point is, if you keep everything inside, you aren't being fair to you or the other person. No one is a mind reader."
"You can read Mrs Watson's mind pretty well." Billy interjected frowning when the six ball bounced off the rail instead of going into the corner pocket.
"I don't read her mind. We've been married for fifty two years. Fifty three next January. You get to know a person so well in that amount of time. It may seem like I am reading her mind but I'm not."
"So you are saying that even though Maxie isn't even speaking to me, I need to tell her what I'm thinking."
"You need to find a way so that she'll listen."
"I've been trying."
"Jason, flowers and special dinners is not actually telling her. And it's not a way to make her open up..." Dale took his first shot and sunk the ten and the thirteen on a rail shot. "You know...I shouldn't tell you guys this but one time, I had to practically tie up Mrs. Watson to get her to listen to me. We had just gotten married and she was upset when she found out her parents and little sister were moving down south. We were still up in Pennsylvania. She wanted to move down with them but I wasn't ready. She hated me and wouldn't talk to me for a week. I locked her in our bathroom and yelled through the door until she finally listened to me."
"Why didn't you want to go?" Billy asked as he watched Dale sink the fourteen in the side pocket.
"I wanted for us to have a life on our own away from her family. Her father was a little overbearing and her mother was always at our apartment."
Jason listened to Dale's story as he was deep in his own thoughts. Finally he said, "So you just forced her to listen to you. I get that...but how do I make Maxie talk to me."
Dale just laughed. "Boy I don't know anyone who likes to talk more that Maxie Webster. You stick around long enough and just keep talking, she'll give in."
"But what about the old saying of...um...something like letting the butterfly run away and if he returns he's yours." Billy said taking a long pull of his beer then wiping his mouth with his shirtsleeve.
Jason looked at Billy, he knew the saying and that was not quite the saying but he understood the jest of it. And Jason was having no part of that. He'd be damned before he let Maxie go. He'd been that route before and all it got him was wasted time.
But Dale...Dale gave him an idea.
~%~%~%~%~
"Jason what are you doing?" Maxie screamed.
"Finally, I got a full sentence out of you."
"GET OUT!"
"Keep yelling and you'll wake Cameron. He's got school tomorrow."
"You are not supposed to be in here."
"Well, you know what Maxie, I've tried to talk to you for a month. I've tried to apologize and tell you that..."
"Oh shut up! You know what...I got to thinking...you keep apologizing and for what? You didn't do anything wrong. We were...well I was tipsy on champagne. I was just a warm body and you hadn't been around a woman..."
"Maxie don't. Don't do that. Not to me and not to yourself."
"Do what?"
"Don't make light of it. I...I don't know what it is between us but...I...I miss you. Fuck Maxie, I see you every day and usually you are the most annoying person that crawls under my skin but that's the whole point...You crawl under my skin. Most people don't get to me...but you do. And you know what's insane that I realized today? I fucking miss you nagging at me and I miss you bitching about the food and the furniture and the ho hum blue collar life you are being forced to live with me and the kids."
"Well this is the most retarded apology I've ever heard. You know when you apologize you aren't supposed to insult the person you wronged Jason. Is that not in the Neanderthal book of how to win friends and influence people?"
"See that right there! I miss it."
"What?"
"You called me a Neanderthal. You always used to tell me how unfeeling and stone like I am and that I'm a beast and a creep. I miss that Maxie. I miss you. The real you. And I'm not going to keep apologizing. I think the other day taught us that we need each other. At least it taught me. When I got the call that you and Jake were at the ER...my heart...my heart was in my throat. But not just because Jake was in the hospital hurt...because YOU were in the hospital and hurt."
"Really?"
"Really...and when that doctor was talking to us...I could have sworn he was hitting on you."
"So what if he was?"
"I didn't like it. God help me...I wanted to rip his head off with my bare hands. And when that nurse came out and talked about his wife...all I felt was relief."
"Maybe Mrs. Freidman is his mother."
"She's not."
"How do you know?"
"I know."
"You checked?"
"I checked."
"Oh my...you really checked?"
"I checked. Now can we not focus on that?"
"No I think I want to focus on that a little longer. So you were jealous?"
"Yes."
"And you don't want to share me?"
"Nope"
"Then how do you think I felt when you came home with that...that...that other skank's stench and claw marks and bite marks all over you."
"I don't know Maxie...that's the problem. This is all new...to both of us. But I know I fucked up. And I know I regret every moment from the time I drove away from you to the time I walked back in the door and saw you come running at me down the hallway."
"You do?"
"I do."
"So what does this mean?"
"I don't know."
"Well I don't want to be second choice."
"I can't promise you anything."
"I'm not asking for promises. I know how this works. I'm not twenty one and annoying you about making Spinelli forgive me for something I did. Or asking you to bail me out of one of my many many schemes. Or paying someone to act like my stalker or to set up the other girl to be embarrassed. I've been trying really hard over the past few years...especially the past few months. I mean I haven't even done anything mean to ruin my relationship with Hannah. That's like a record for me. I mean seriously...And I just can't get the thought or the image of that hickey out of my mind. I'm trying to be an adult about this but...my instincts...."
"I'm not asking you to forgive me for...slee...for...what happened that night. I'm just asking that we start over. That we just get back to where we were."
"I don't know if we can Jason. You know you really hurt me that night. I tried calling you to tell you that there was nothing between me and Spinelli anymore."
"I know."
"I left messages but I guess you were busy. I just don't know if I can..."
"I'm not asking you to...I'm just asking that me, you, Cam and Jake get back to being the family that we were."
"You think of us as a family?"
"Maxie...we ARE a family."
"I feel that way too. I've felt that way for so long now. I mean sure Mac and Robin and Georgie were my family but us...we're like a real family. It's healthy for me and I think for you and the boys too."
"So from here we'll just play things as they come. That's all I'm asking."
"But you said you were jealous."
"I was."
"So that means..."
"I am...and I don't know exactly what that means."
"What? Wait...you are what?"
"Just...just give me a chance Maxie."
"I can't trust you."
"You can."
"You really hurt me."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't do it again."
"I promise."
"Is this settled?"
"I don't know...is it?"
"Well it needs to be...the water turned cold and if I don't get out of the shower I'm probably going to freeze to death."
"I'll leave then but you have to promise me something."
"What?"
"When you get dressed you'll come talk to me...really talk to me."
"I promise."
At that, he stood from where he was sitting on the toilet seat next to the shower and took one last look at the perfectly curved body he had been watching through the nearly sheer shower curtain and left the master bathroom. Watching her the whole time had affected parts of his body and he didn't know how much more he was going to be able to take without losing all self control and just ripping his clothes off and climbing into the shower with her.
As he walked down the hallway he smiled. They still had a lot to figure out but Dale's advice had worked. She was talking to him. And now all he had to do was keep that open line of communication.
And not screw it up.