Only Yours (Fool's Gold #5)(73)

“We encourage participation here in town. You should see them at Christmas.”

Max glanced at her. “Christmas?”

“They do holiday cheers as a fundraiser so they can go to cheerleader camp in the summer. You hire them to go cheer at someone’s house. They appear at business events, as well. The tourists love them.”

“Fool’s Gold has gotten weirder in the past few years.”

“It’s wonderful. Don’t be such a cynic.”

They walked next to each other, each with a service dog. Buddy walked next to Montana. This time his primary function was to show Cupcake how it was done. Along with her unfortunate name, Cupcake had a bit of Border collie in her. She was one of the smartest dogs they had, but a bit prone to getting into trouble. Max wasn’t sure if she would make it through the program.

“You’re happier today,” he said. “Win the fight?”

“There wasn’t a fight and there wasn’t a win. You were right—he didn’t ask me to the fundraiser for reasons that had nothing to do with me. He was being nice. In a weird, twisted guy way.”

“Gotta take the good with the bad. But you still won.”

She groaned. “No. If you want to win, then someone inevitably loses. That’s not the way to have a good relationship. Both parties have to feel good at the end of the day, or what’s the point?”

“Very wise, little grasshopper.”

She laughed. “Not yet, but I’m getting there.”

For once the streets were quiet. Hardly any tourists and only a few residents were out. They’d passed the cheerleaders, and stillness filled the air.

“Max, did you used to know my mom?”

He kept his attention on Cupcake. “Why do you ask?”

“She has the name Max tattooed on her hip and I wondered if that was you.”

He was quiet for a long time, then came to a stop and faced her. “You should ask your mother.”

She felt her mouth drop open. “That means yes.”

Montana knew what Nevada had told her, what her sister believed, but she’d dismissed the possibility. There was no way her mother had ever dated Max Thurman. But it looked like Montana was wrong.

“You guys went out. You were involved! What happened? Why did you leave town? Was it because of my dad? Were you there first or was he?”

Her mind swirled with possibilities. “Were you in love with her?”

“Kid, I’m not answering any of your questions. Like I said, if you want to know more, ask your mother. It’s her business.”

“And yours?”

He raised his eyebrows as if asking her if she really thought he was that stupid, then continued walking Cupcake. Montana moved with him.

“You’re not going to say anything else?” she asked.

“On that topic? No.”

“So I should change the subject?”

“That would be my suggestion.”

MONTANA SPRAWLED IN A CHAIR in Dakota’s living room while Hannah played on a quilt on the floor. Nevada and Kent were digging chips into salsa. Dakota sat on the sofa, her feet propped up.

“Ethan said we’re making too much out of nothing,” Nevada announced after she’d chewed and swallowed. “Sometimes he’s really a pain in the—” She glanced at Hannah. “A-s-s,” she spelled, then rolled her eyes. “I think he’s too happy with Liz and all their kids. It’s making him sanctimonious.”

“I know,” Montana said. “He was all about us leaving this alone. I can’t. It’s too weird.”

“Mom didn’t just fall to earth, fully formed, the day she married Dad,” Dakota said reasonably, then she leaned her head against the back of the sofa. “Who am I kidding? I’m totally freaked by this. I don’t want her to have had a life before Dad. It’s not right. I always knew about the tattoo, but tried to tell myself it was a very strange birthmark.”

Kent sat on the floor with Hannah and pulled the baby onto his lap. “I remember years ago, when I was Reese’s age, seeing one of my teachers on a date, at the movies. It was the strangest thing. Until then, I’d never thought about teachers having lives outside of school. I guess I thought they were shut down and put in a box until it was time for class.”

“This is bigger than seeing a teacher eating buttered popcorn,” Nevada told them. “This is Mom and Max Thurman. The tattoo is a big deal. Back when she was what, nineteen or twenty, nice girls didn’t get tattoos. It’s not like it is now. So there was something going on between them.”

Montana had a feeling that something was a lot of hot monkey sex. “Whatever it is, it ended and she married Dad. Isn’t that what’s important?”

“Why did it end?” Dakota asked.

Montana completely understood the significance of the question. It was one thing if their mother had met Ralph, fallen madly in love, then dumped Max. The story had a very different flavor if Max had been the one to end things, or if somehow he had stolen her away from their dad. But that wasn’t right, because she’d married Ralph and not Max.

“We could ask her,” Nevada said tentatively. “You could ask her,” Montana said. She drew in a breath. “I’m trying to tell myself I’m making too big a deal out of this. So she had a boyfriend.” Except she couldn’t reconcile the word boyfriend with the reality of her middle-aged mother with a tattoo.