“Something happen?”
“Not the way you’re thinking. Flo doesn’t like it. I have to tie her up to stop her following me, and last year she got so mad she pulled the fence down.”
Jed could believe that. The collie was endearingly protective of Max, her instincts razor sharp. If she didn’t want Max to swim in the lake, he was inclined to believe she had a good reason. “Maybe she doesn’t want you to swim on your own.”
“Maybe. We can test your theory out this summer, if you’re still here.”
Max said the last part quietly and averted his gaze. Jed wanted to promise he’d be there to see the summer with him. After all, where else was he gonna go? But he didn’t, and the moment passed.
Max threw a stick into the water. Jed watched, amused, as Flo charged after it and repeated the trick over and over. After a little while he chanced a glance at Max.
Max caught him and grinned. “Okay?”
Jed nodded. The heat of Max’s body a few inches away was enough to keep the chill of the evening air from seeping into his bones. And there was something exhilarating about knowing the lingering ache in his muscles was there of his own volition. It was familiar, like an old friend, and he felt content. “I never gave you your present.”
Max snorted in a way that told Jed he was definitely slightly drunk. “Yougot me a present? Or did Carla get me the same preppy button-down shirt you gave Nick?”
“Is that what I got him?” Jed had lost track of the perfectly wrapped gifts Carla had presented him with a few days before.
“Yep. No offense, but if that’s what you got me, you might as well return it and save your money.”
Jed maneuvered himself to a standing position, pleasantly surprised at his steady sense of equilibrium. “Dude, I didn’t buy you a shirt. In fact, I didn’t buy you anything. Come on, I’ll show you.”
He held out his hand to pull Max up from the jetty. Max hesitated a moment before he ignored it and sprung to his feet. Jed rolled his eyes. “You think I can’t take your weight?”
“No, I just don’t need you to, at least, not today. I let you carry me in from the workshop, didn’t I?”
He had a point. Jed let it go and led him away from the water to the back of the cabin where Max grew his vegetables. It took him a moment to search out the brightly painted plant pot. He’d asked Belle to hide it—a task she’d taken very seriously.
Max eyed the young sapling with interest. “You got me a plant?”
“Not any plant. It’s an apple tree, or at least it will be in about a hundred years.”
“Yougrewit for me?”
Jed grinned. “Eventually. I wasn’t sure it was going to work at first. It only sprouted a week ago. Belle painted the pot for me.”
“Huh,” Max said thoughtfully. “I wondered what you two were doing out here. She’s the best partner in crime, isn’t she? She never breathes a word.” He turned the pot around in his hands, admiring the tiny sapling from every angle. “Green apples, right?”
Jed didn’t bother to answer. His aversion to red fruit amused Max to no end. He saw no need to encourage it.
Max set the pot back in its sheltered place behind the dilapidated greenhouse. “Thank you. I love it. Are you ready for your present?”
“Not another scarf is it?” Over the last few days, Jed had somehow managed to accumulate a collection of knitted scarves he’d never,ever, wear.
Max chuckled. “Not quite. Come inside.”
Jed followed Max into the cabin, watching curiously as he retrieved a small, plain black box from a drawer in his nightstand before beckoning him into Jed’s room. Jed unzipped his hooded sweatshirt and tossed it onto his bed. Max held out the box to him. Jed took it, cocking his head at the intriguing rattle.
“Sorry, I forgot to wrap it,andI don’t know when your birthday is to save the right newspaper. Open it.”
“July 6.” Jed said the words with a slightly bitter taste in his mouth—he’d turned thirty-two a few days after he’d learned the news that a simple stomach virus had left him a write-off—but was quickly distracted by the bright green pins he found in the tiny black box.
“I want to see where you’ve been,” Max said by way of explanation. He gestured to the huge map of the world on Jed’s bedroom wall.
Jed raised an eyebrow. “How’s that a present for me?”
Max shrugged. “My mum always used to say you couldn’t see where you were going until you’d come to terms with where you’d been.”