Chapter Sixteen
Revelations
Max frowned overhearing the words, "I don't want to be anywhere near Max," that had been preceded by a sound of disgust.
She turned to Logan who had his hand up attempting to hide his smile.
"I haven't seen my feet in three months…The only reason I know I'm wearing matching shoes is because I saw you carry them over."
Max finally turned towards Marianne's voice and caught sight of Bennett's wife looking well…exceptionally large. Marianne's stomach had not only grown in the two months since they had last seen her, but everything else had too.
"Sorry," Bennett apologized and tried not to laugh, laughing at her always turned out to be a bad move, "the baby was supposed to be here eight days ago."
"Hi Max," she said with growing frustration because the last thing she wanted was to be here at a party full of pretty slim people and her ever present husband, "You look lovely."
"So do you," Max lied as convincingly as she could, Marianne had been glowing the last time Max had seen her, now was a different story, she was smiling honestly though as the words 'stubborn' and 'Cale' echoed through her mind.
Marianne glowered.
"Should you be out?" Logan asked in fear of seeing the newest edition of the Cales begin their journey in life in the parlor.
Finally a Cale with brains! Another scowl towards her husband, "This one can't say no to Mommy dearest."
"Okay honey," Bennett said trying to placate his wife, "remember what Mom said about nothing causing any scenes?"
She turned to her husband and gave her brightest angry smile, "I hope my water breaks all over that damn Persian rug she's always talking about."
"Speaking of Margo," Logan said suddenly taking Max's hand, "we've got to go find her, say hello."
"Okay you were right," Max said a few steps into their hasty retreat.
His head tilted towards her.
"I have no idea why people have children."
Logan hoped Marianne and Bennett were out of their hearing range as he attempted to suppress a laugh.
ooOoo
"We read "Sanctuary" in my Pulse literature class when I was a freshman." Sabrina, Chester's oldest daughter said after exchanging pleasantries with Logan.
He looked puzzled for a moment.
"Your short story?"
"Uh yea," he said suddenly flustered, "I remember it. Wow, I feel old."
She laughed, "I think you were just young when you wrote it. The little blurb said you wrote it when you were an intern."
He nodded, "Yea I was basically this guy's gopher, he found it, took it to his editor; next thing I knew I was on staff."
"That's impressive," she nodded, causing the highlighted blonde flips to bounce on her shoulders.
Another puzzled look.
"Your daddy didn't get you your job."
"Uh no," he smiled, "actually my Uncle Jonas did everything in his power to keep me from getting an internship. Actually the editor of the paper hated my uncle, I think that's part of the reason I got it, spite," he smiled.
"Still impressive," she smiled, "not to mention I think you totally helped my grade."
"And how exactly did I do that?"
"I had my sister scan and email a bunch of pictures, since you didn't have a photograph in the back. I think my teacher developed a crush on you, next thing I knew I was in front of the class telling stories about you."
"Really?"
"Yea something about who you were before the pulse versus the guy you were after."
He looked puzzled again.
"My cousin, Meredith," she supplied.
"Ah," he nodded.
"Forgot you dated her?"
He shook his head, "Not at all."
"Mmmhmm," she murmured with a smile and went back to more ego stroking.
ooOoo
Bitsy chuckled to herself, before returning her full attention to Max. The young girl was obviously trying not to pay any attention to the fact that Logan was talking to Sabrina; Logan who was suddenly looking decidedly uncomfortable.
Max was ignoring all of the voices in her head trash talking the girl, a blonde no less, who was hitting on Logan with reckless abandon, which she of course knew because try as she might she couldn't stop herself from listening to Bits with one ear and Logan and Sabrina with another, short story? Since when did Logan write short stories? Sure, it fell into the middle ground of the articles and exposés he wrote and the poetry he hid, but the point was why didn't she know about it.
"I think he wants us to save him," Bitsy said in regards to her younger cousin's occasional looks over to the two women, despite the fact that Max's eyes seemed to avoid him every single time.
"He's fine," Max said and went back to the conversation at hand.
"Max," Margo approached and placed a hand upon her back, "you haven't met Sabrina yet have you?"
Before Max could respond that single hand was forcibly moving her across the room towards Logan and Sabrina whose flirtations would make even Kendra envious, that girl went after what she wanted.
"Sabrina, darling, you remember Max from Bennett's wedding don't you," Margo said interrupting the conversation, much to the dismay of Sabrina and relief of Logan.
"I remember you were wearing that stunning Raphael Banks." She gave a stunning phony smile, "That dress is gorgeous too, though I don't recognize the designer."
"Thanks," Max said in regards to the burgundy dress that fell mid-calf, the material being somewhere in between a satin and a matte, the perfect dress to go from afternoon to evening.
"Wow," he said as she finally emerged from his bathroom after having barricaded herself in there almost an hour ago. He'd heard the blow-dryer running for quite some time, accompanied by a few curses. She'd left her now straightened her down and only pulled a few pieces back, the burgundy dress reminded him of the one she'd worn to Bennett's wedding, he hadn't thought Max would wear anything resembling a holiday color. He was pretty damn glad she did though, that color was always the perfect color to highlight her features….Not to mention it was strapless and he'd never seen a more delicate collarbone than he had on her.
She'd smiled back, until it settled into a frown and that frown was directly focused on his chest. He looked down expecting to see some unknown stain, but instead was greeted with the tie he'd put on a half an hour earlier and had forgotten all about once he saw her. "Great minds think alike?" He said with a smile as a hand went up to loosen the tie almost the exact same shade as her dress, matching was not an option.
"So who's the designer?" Sabrina asked straight out sizing up her competition.
"Antoinette Kim," Max said the name of the tailor/dressmaker Break had sent her too after forcing the fabric on her.
"I'm not familiar with her," she slightly shook her head.
"Neither am I, but that is an exquisite dress Max," Margo said further trying to separate her nephew and her hopefully soon to be daughter in law, she'd learned the hard way what happened when this generation of Cale men interacted with anyone she knew.
"Jon's finally arrived," Logan almost sighed with relief seeing his cousin and his wife make their entrance into the room.
"Oh come along Sabrina, I want to introduce you," Margo said now placing her hand on Sabrina's back to force her to move.
"Am I going to be making out any sizable checks to this Antoinette Kim?" Logan whispered softly down to her.
Max laughed, she hadn't stolen/borrowed anything in quite sometime, "Uh no…I got the fabric from Break."
"That guy that-"
She nodded before he could say her friend from prison, "He has a tailor friend."
"Ah," he nodded then tacked on, "not that it wouldn't have been worth it."
She laughed, "At least I got two uses out of the other one."
They both smiled remembering its second use…
"Logan stop checking everyone out," she ordered with her cheek resting against the black of his tux as many of the other couples on the dance floor where doing.
"I'm trying to figure out what Santiago is doing," he murmured down.
"You're looking obvious," she said raising a hand up to his cheek to turn his attention back downward as his eyes once more went to follow the man in question. He opened his mouth to object, but she silenced it by placing a finger upon his lips, "Trust me, I was made for this, he won't go anywhere without me knowing. Just dance."
He smiled and mostly returned his attention to the woman in his arms.
ooOoo
Max found herself settled on a couch or maybe it was a settee, that seemed like the snooty term to describe it. The point was she was on it with Logan who once more had Brittany in his lap, that little girl just seemed to adore him much to his dismay. Jon and Bitsy were on chairs to each side of them, Bennett leaning up against his sister's chair, they'd all moved off to their own corners after dinner.
"Mom told me yesterday she's going to keep the house," Bennett imparted this information softly.
"Thank god, don't want to imagine how many hours it would take for you to pack up all of your Star Trek-" Bitsy began.
"Star Wars," he corrected firmly, annoyed especially because he knew she knew the correct term.
"War, Trek," she said with a wave of her hand, dismissing any importance.
"At least I don't have a box of Backstreet Boys things hidden in the corner of my closet," he said in retaliation.
Jon chuckled to himself, "Backdoor Boys, I'd forgotten about them."
"Oh shut up," she said suddenly sounding like the teenager she had been the last time they had all lived together. "Better than a stash of Playboys and Hustlers."
"Hey, it was Playboy and Maxim; I've got a little class," he said with a smile, "not to mention I took those with me when I moved."
"He really did," Logan nodded, not looking all too pleased.
"Oh that's right," Bennett said with a laugh, "He knocked into you in the lobby of his new building and they went everywhere."
"It was an accident I swear," Jon grinned. "What the hell do you have hidden in your room?"
"He's got nothing," Bitsy said about the room she'd most often looked in for blackmail since he was the only one who could manage to break into her computer despite everything she'd tried to keep him and her brother's prying eyes out, "Most Logan's got is a box full of trophies in his closet."
"Those would have been gone if Bennett had just brought me the box like I asked," Logan pointed out.
Max continued to sit there just being a passive observer in this family bickering.
"You wanted to burn them Logan," Bennett said remembering one of Logan's dark days in the hospital as he hadn't felt like putting on a show for anyone anymore.
"Seemed like a good use for them," he shrugged his shoulders.
"In his defense all the big ones are downstairs." Jon pointed out knowing they were keeping his own company.
"The little gold men?" Brittany asked looking up, "Mommy won't let me break them off."
Logan smiled, "Ignore Mommy next time."
" Logan" Bitsy shot a look over at her cousin, why did they do this to her? She couldn't wait until they all had kids; Logan had done more damage with Brittany in a matter of months than anyone else had done in years.
"The ones in my room," he corrected, "Your Mom was right about the ones downstairs. You can have the ones in my room though."
Max finally let out a laugh.
Bitsy turned to her with a smile, "You have no idea what it was like growing up in this house with 4 of them."
Max inadvertently frowned, confused by Bitsy's words, "How long did you live here?" She knew that Logan's mother had died when he was in high school and his father when he was in college, but up until today she didn't think he'd ever had anything to do with this house aside from minimal contacts. Margo had referred to the 4 male cousins as 'the boys' when talking about their childhoods, which was obvious it was more for show than actual knowledge of the time. But everything being said was definitely making her rethink her original assumption.
Logan's mouth had barely had a chance to open before Bitsy cut him off, "What since you were like 11 or 12 right?"
He nodded, "Yea that sounds about right," he could have given her the exact date, down to the exact minute that this house had become his primary residence as his parents had left him as they sought out doctors to beat his mother's second bout with cancer, doctors his father had never found.
Max made a puzzled face, 11, 12? That made no sense with anything she knew.
"My father traveled a lot, especially after my mother died. Most of the time it was just easier for me to stay here rather than troop back and forth."
"Oh," she said softly as she listened to his rationalization, her heart suddenly ached for that little kid, she could tell those words been frequently said.
"Max wanna go see Bambi?" Brittany said breaking the melancholy mood that had fallen over the previously jovial group.
"Bambi?" she asked
Bitsy made a face; she really wished they all learned to watch what they were saying around the youngster.
"Wouldn't Bambi's mother be more appropriate?" Jon asked.
"Shut up," Bitsy said firmly, "If she ever actually sees the movie, she'll hate you and Logan."
"Why-" Brittany began.
"Never mind honey, let's go show Max Bambi."
ooOoo
Once he realized Max was missing he knew where she was, this was Max if asked she could describe in perfect detail what was in the third drawer of his bathroom counter, the curiosity and the cat factor. He paused in his doorway seeing Max in his hideout, his sanctuary, her suddenly in this memory of his childhood, so out of place yet…
He suddenly thought about all the different females that had been present in this room. In the light oak creation that was his room, probably the simplest of the bedrooms, he hadn't plastered it with posters as his cousins had, no flowery chintzes like Bitsy's, no unpleasant plaids like Bennett's, no sports themes like Jon's, no overly designed room like his youngest cousin's, Jeremy's. Simple solid furniture, a beige comforter, even his desk chair matched since his aunt had been horrified by its predecessor, a large black desk chair and her designer had been put to the task of finding one that was comfortable and kept the room in harmony. The rooms had all remained virtually unchanged, he'd often wondered about that whether if it had actually been in deference in them or simply the fact that changing them was unnecessary since there were 2 perfectly designed guest rooms and there were no outright flaws with the rooms that couldn't be fixed with a few small changes if need be.
"You really were a kid once," she said with a small smile on her lips as she continued to look down to the book in her hands.
He chuckled walking into the room, she always knew when he was around, when anyone was approaching, she never startled like he did, not even in sleep could he sneak up on her. An eye would open…a smile would form…sometimes it would just be the difference of her breaths in the near silent apartment, no only when she would crash after a seizure was she oblivious to his movements. "Max even Manticore couldn't have figured out how to skip that stage of development." He was caught in between moving to the desk chair which would be the adult behavior and flopping down on his bed, every person's first instinct when returning to their childhood room. Every holiday, every long weekend, every summer break bags would fall to the floor and he'd collapse onto that bed. The instinct to comply with his habits overrode any manners or logic.
She finally looked as he was stretching out across his bed, back leaning up with pillows that had long since replaced the ones he'd slept on, "Comfy?" she asked with an emerging smile as she watched his back shifting the pillows into place.
"Childhood bed Max," was all he said.
"Keep in mind what mine was like, when I actually had one that is."
"Hmm," he nodded, "there's nothing like it."
"This place was your sanctuary," she said instead of asked. The hundreds of books that lined the shelves, the faint scratches and impressions marring the desk.
"You needed one in this family."
"Can't believe I didn't know you lived with the old bunny hopper."
He looked puzzled for a moment, until he realized she was referring back to his joke almost a year ago, "Made sense," he nodded, "my father wasn't a big fan of our house after my mother died."
She nodded sensing the fact that it wasn't a topic over which he wanted to linger, "You were popular," she said looking down at the yearbook open to one of the back pages where she'd been trying to figure out the inside jokes that were throughout the book.
"I had a decent amount of friends."
"Quite a few were female," she smiled teasingly.
He just shook his head slightly amused.
"And you were a jock."
"Manly pursuits Max."
"A jock and you hunted," her head bobbed with the words.
"As I said earlier the hunting was not by choice."
She nodded again as she closed the book and moved her attention back to the rest of his room, her eyes had already scanned all the pictures once, the various shots of friends and vacations, but only one of his family. It was an odd shot to have, especially for a male, she had no idea his exact age, but he was small, a young child, maybe around Brittany's age. She picked it up off the dressed and turned with it, smiling as she wondered if the plaid they were all wearing meant they were at the cabin or it was just from the time period.
"My mom gave that to me the first time she went away with him and left me here," he explained.
"So why is it still here?" she asked. His lack of pictures in the apartment had always puzzled her; it wasn't as if he didn't have any because he had cds full, just no hard copies, nothing on display.
"I don't know," he shook his head, "I guess this is just where it's always been."
Logan's cousin, Jon appeared in the doorway, short glass of whiskey in his hand as it had been all night, "So this is where you've been hiding."
"How many of those have you had?" Logan asked suddenly worrying his cousin was taking over his uncle's old pastime.
He looked down and sighed, "Not enough and this is my last one. How many lectures can that woman give on not embarrassing her?" His eyes immediately focused across the room and he moved towards the desk with a smile, picking up one of the pictures Max had viewed earlier, Logan and Jon with a bunch of other teenagers at the beach. He turned to Logan smiling, "Tienes un rubio y alto chico?"
Logan laughed, "Want me to correct that for you?"
"Who has a tall blonde boy?" Max asked as the two were chuckling from the memory.
"Jon likes them that way, don't tell Madison." Logan joked.
"No this cousin of mine-"
"Please don't," was all Logan said.
His cousin gave him a look and Max was amazed with the interplay between the two, the familiarity that existed between him and Jon more than with anyone else in the family.
"There was a pact."
His eyes narrowed on his cousin, "What are you going to go do? Find Julie Anderson and tell her what," he paused, "who I did that week?"
Logan turned to Max, "That was his girlfriend at the time."
Guys/dogs/pigs not too surprising, especially not from Jon, "So are either of you explaining the tall blonde boy comment?"
Logan knew there was no point in trying to fight it, he just sighed in resignation.
Jon put down his drink and leaned up against the desk, "Okay so it's our first night in Cancun, spring break. An event for which Bennett has never forgiven this family."
Max simply looked puzzled.
"Bennett's older than Logan and didn't get to go."
"Bennett's older than you?" she turned to Logan puzzled, exactly how many family secrets was she going to uncover today?
"Like three months," he said with a shake.
"So anyway, Logan's senior year, Bennett was a junior; I was a freshman at Stanford. Logan wants to go on Spring Break, he's only 16 though-"
Max once more turned to Logan, effectively stopping the story.
"My mom tried to make sure I'd be ready for kindergarten since I was younger. She did a little too well of a job, I already knew everything they were teaching."
Max nodded.
"So long story short, I take off school and Bennett hates everyone. Our first night there, I lose Logan."
"You didn't lose me."
Jon shot his younger cousin a look to shut up, after all this was his story, "We went out in a large group and we separated, so I didn't really think anything of it. Till the next morning when I wake up and my 16 year old cousin is still not in the room."
Max gave a look over to Logan knowing exactly where this story was going.
He simply sat there stoically and tried to avoid looking embarrassed, funny his actions had never bothered him up until this moment.
"So I'm banging on everyone's door thinking he just fell asleep in one of the other rooms, but of course no one's seen Logan. I'm trying to figure out exactly how to tell my dad and my uncle that my little cousin, who was under my protection was lying dead in a ditch somewhere. He comes strolling in as I'm on the phone with the local hospital…and you know of course Logan was the only one in the room that could actually understand Spanish. All smiles asking why weren't at the beach already."
Logan simply gave an apologetic shrug when Max looked at him.
"Couldn't figure out if I was proud of him or I was going to murder him," Jon said with a shake of his head, "God she was hot though. Where are your pictures?"
"Not here," he said looking dead ahead.
Jon chuckled as his cousin lied and moved straight towards the bookcase and the brown leather photo albums, "That accent," he sighed, "where was she from Kentucky?"
" Georgia," he answered.
"Oh god," Max said allowing her mouth to drop, "don't tell me, Southern, big boobs, blonde hair, blue eyes."
Logan suddenly looked sheepish being caught in such a stereotypical male fantasy.
"What the hell is it with a southern accent?"
"Honestly?" Jon asked pausing in his pursuit of her picture.
"No lie to me Jon," Max said with a shake of her head.
"Can we just move past?" Logan asked.
Jon looked up distracted, "Where are the good pictures?" he asked having found the trip in question, but none of the pictures he remembered.
Logan glared.
"Good pictures?" Max asked
"She doesn't need to see those."
"Oh come on, we'll show her the mangina pictures."
"The what pictures?" She asked.
"God I pity you kids," Jon said with a shake of his head directed at Max, once upon a time every high school senior, kid in college had experienced spring break, hell he'd had six. "Mangina, when a guy-"
"There are no pictures of that, I went to go bail Cameron out of jail once it started."
Jon laughed, "Oh that's right, he had wanted to enter so we left him in there."
"One of your friends was arrested?" Max asked suddenly wondering what exactly happened to the upper-class when on vacation, she'd broken into a few places that proved they were pretty kinky behind closed doors, but this…
"Roid rage," Jon explained with a shake of his head, "kid would just lose it. He started head butting people for their Mardis Gra beads."
"Really we were a lot better behaved than this is sounding," Logan said aware of the fact that they were coming off pretty poorly.
Jon chuckled, "Wanna know where I found Logan our last morning there?"
"Why don't you tell her some stories about yourself?" God he hated his family.
Jon looked at Logan, "Max doesn't want to hear stories about me," he turned to her, "do you?"
"No no, definitely would rather know, what Logan was doing his last morning there."
He smiled as he began yet another story, "So once more I wake up and Logan isn't in the room, I know he's not with the Georgia chick because she'd left the day before and I was pretty sure we'd been on the same bus back together. So I'm knocking on everyone's doors and finally I get told he's next door with Danielle. Would you like to know whose ex-boyfriend was Danielle's?"
"I'm guessing it's roid rage boy," Max smirked with a nod, she was suddenly liking Logan's cousin more and more. It was a little unnerving being confronted with Logan Cale as the all American teenager, yet it was kind of reassuring.
"Oh she's smart one," he said to Logan. He turned back to Max, "Yea I finally bang on the door enough and I get Logan answering the door wrapped in a sheet and Cameron's coming down the hall. You had to have seen me shoving him back into the room, banging on the adjoining door throwing Logan and his clothing in there as I pulled other people into her room. He almost died."
"You slept with roid rages girlfriend?"
"It appears that way." He slowly nodded.
"It appears?"
"No memory of it whatsoever, I remember getting pizza and that's it."
"Danielle remembers otherwise." Jon added.
"I was 16," he suddenly pointed out.
Max looked at him, she'd been 16 how long ago?
"Different circumstances."
Suddenly they all heard faint clapping.
"What the hell?" Jon asked
"Maybe the mistletoe worked?" Logan suggested.
"Oh let's hope so," Jon replied with a shake of his head and returned to his attempts at convincing Logan to tell him where the photographs were hidden.
A few minutes later, Brittany appeared at the door thankfully putting an end to Logan being badgered by Max and Jon, "Uncle Ches is gonna marry Grandma."
"Let's go congratulate them," Logan said with a nod to Max, never so thankful in his life to have to rejoin his family, his sanctuary having been completely decimated.