Landlord Wars(75)

Max patted the couch beside him. “Maybe you should sit for this next part.”

I lumbered over and sank beside him, my exhausted body falling into his side, where I snuggled up because he was warm and cozy, and he smelled delicious.

He draped his arm around my shoulders. “Turns out your mom had an original Picasso ceramic worth about thirty thousand dollars.”

I sprang forward, and he tried to pull me back. “What?”

“The jar with the green nose.”

I squinted like I was farsighted. “No way. That’s just some weird jar my mom kept in the living room. The only reason Elise and I didn’t break it playing indoor beach ball is because my mom put it on the top of a bookshelf.”

“It’s real. They authenticated it.”

“There was actually something worth money in that house?” I twisted my mouth, considering why this was the first I’d heard about it. “I’m assuming my mom didn’t tell me because she was afraid I’d get rid of it.”

“According to my mom,” Max said, “they had a bit of fun sneaking back into the place, and your mom didn’t want to get caught. But since I’d threatened serious consequences if my mom failed to share things with me ever again, she fessed up.”

I nodded, mentally putting things into perspective. “This is actually not terrible news. She controlled herself and kept it to one item. And bonus, it has monetary value.”

Max smoothed down my frazzled hair. It got that way toward the end of the day, and I liked it when he petted me because he didn’t seem to know he was doing it. “Thirty thousand dollars’ worth of good news, if you ask me.”

“Agreed,” Jack chimed in while aiming his ping-pong ball at another mug. “I’ll take the ugly jar if your mom doesn’t want it.”

Max frowned. “Stop pretending to be hard up. Your net worth is bigger than mine.”

What was that? I never took Jack to be strapped for money, but he lived in a heavily subsidized apartment and ate my food. How could he have more than Max?

Something to probe Max about later.

“You know,” I said, poking Max’s chest lightly, “I won’t need to move in with you if you’re always here.” I was prodding him because if we spent more time at his place, he’d be forced to supply me with chocolate instead of the other way around.

His face brightened. “You finally agreed?” He stood and moved toward the bedroom hallway. “My mom kidnapped yours for a dinner date, so they won’t be back for a couple hours. Let’s start packing now, and you can be up there tonight.”

I’d already decided to move in with Max, despite the chocolate thievery, because he made me happy, and he fed me. And I was in love with him. But I liked it when he got excited over the little things, like packing up my room.

Max stopped abruptly in the hallway and pulled his phone from his pants pocket. “Huh,” he said after a long moment.

I helped myself to the popcorn the guys had set out and made my way to his side. “What is it?”

“My phone is blowing up. There’s a Flash News article about me.”

The reporter! My shoulders tensed, and I stopped breathing. Crap! “What does it say?” My voice came out shaky, but I was trying to play it cool.

He looked up. “It’s about Cityscape.”

That was insanely fast. How did the reporter post it so quickly? And why? There had to be any number of tawdry stories more interesting than this one.

I held up my hands. “Okay, look, I can explain. The reporter outside—”

Max glanced at his phone again, and his brows rose. “Cityscape is back on.”

“What?” I reached for the smartphone.



Samuel Thompson: Max, this is Samuel. Cityscape is greenlit.





My jaw dropped. “Holy shit.”

He slid the phone back into his pocket. “You were saying?”

“Uh, well, you see, I might have mentioned Cityscape to a reporter. In my defense, I didn’t think he’d care about the project. And you said yourself that Cityscape was dead.”

He nodded slowly, an intense look in his eyes. “So you complained to the reporter about the assholes in the planning department, and you got my project back on track.”

My lips parted. “Maybe?”

He bent and grabbed the back of my thighs, hiking me over his shoulder.

A rush of air left my mouth on a gah.

“We’re out, Jack,” Max said, speed-walking past the living room. “Gotta show my girlfriend my appreciation for her tenacity. With my tongue.”

I looked up at Jack, horrified. “No!” I smacked Max’s back. His tongue had been added to the list of my favorite things after he did some acrobatics with it in bed last night, but still! “He didn’t mean that!”

“Yes, I did,” Max said.

Jack’s laughter filled the air as Max climbed the flight of stairs to his apartment faster than any human should be able to with another person on their back.





Epilogue





Sophia





“Really?” Max said as he moved my last boxes into his apartment. “You called me Landlord Devil?”