Trust Me (28 page)

Max set down his coffee cup. “I’ll get the check.” “Thank you, but I wasn’t referring to our dinner, darling. I do think that
you’ve just answered my question, though.”

The lobby was busy, though not as crowded as it should have been on a Friday night. The lounge was half-full, and the sound
of live piano music mixed with the clinking of glassware and the background murmur of voices. Nina linked her arm through
Max’s as they walked, making bright conversation. Any casual observer would have thought that they were on the best of terms,
and for all Max knew, they still were. Nina had a veneer of poise so well tempered that it would take more than the blow he
had delivered to crack it.

She was telling him an anecdote about a well-known photographer, and he was listening politely, his eyes roaming over the
crowd as they walked together toward the entranceway. He didn’t know which happened first: the slowing of Nina’s stride or
his own sudden shock of recognition. He stopped in his tracks, with Nina still clinging to his arm.

“Who is that?” Nina asked, but Max barely heard her. The stream of anonymous faces continued to flow past, but he saw nothing
but Carly. She was standing just inside the entrance, looking from him, to Nina, to him again, her expressive face marked
with surprise and pain.

C
arly was as easy to read as a tabloid newspaper. Max heard Nina chuckle softly, telling him that she had guessed the basics
of what was happening. Nina had a great love of dramatic scenes and obviously foresaw a good one, but Max had no intention
of allowing either himself or Carly to be anyone’s entertainment for the evening.

Carly stepped forward. “Hello, Max,” she said, with simple dignity. He could hear a slight tremor in her voice. She turned
to Nina and extended her hand. “Hello. I’m Carly Martin.”

Nina smiled and offered Carly her fingers, elegantly limp, as if she were more accustomed to having her hand kissed than shaken.
“Nina Blackwell.”

Carly nodded. “Yes, I know. Welcome to San Francisco.”

“Why, thank you,” Nina said. “Max is such a wonderful host. I suppose we should have gone out for dinner, but staying in the
hotel was so much easier.” She looked Carly up and down, her eyebrows slightly raised. “And how did you say that you know
Max?”

“I’m his grandfather’s veterinarian,” Carly said.

“Pardon me?” Nina looked blank. Max had never said a word to her—or to anyone else in New York—about Henry Tremayne.

“A veterinarian is a doctor who takes care of animals,” Carly said coolly.

“Yes,” Nina said, irritated. “I know that. Max, did she say something about your grandfather? I thought that you didn’t have
any family.”

“I do now,” Max said.

“Why, that’s such good news,” Nina exclaimed. “He lives here, in San Francisco? And you’ve become close?” She looked at Carly.
“He must be very old. What a comfort for him to have Max here.”

“I hope so,” Carly said. “He’s in the hospital.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Nina put her hand back on Max’s arm. “Darling, what a stressful time for you. We should have picked a
better night to talk about marriage and children.” She tossed a smile at Carly. “It would be a mistake to rush into a decision
about something so important, don’t you agree?”

“Hold it,” Max said sharply, “We were not—”

But Carly interrupted him. “I absolutely agree,” she said in a strange, tense voice. “Decisions about marriage and children
are the most important ones that you’ll ever make. So I’ll let you two get on with it. Good luck.”

She turned and fled before Max could react. He had a glimpse of her disappearing through the front door of the hotel, into
a throng of tourists who had just disembarked from an airport shuttle van.

“Dammit,” he said, incensed, and went after her. The tourists, and their luggage, were clogging the entrance. He pushed his
way through the doors, ignoring the exclamations of protest. He stopped on the pavement outside, looking left and right. The
half circle of driveway was filled with cars, valets, bellmen, and luggage carts, but there was no sign of Carly and no indication
of where she had gone.

The doorman noticed him. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Giordano?”

“There was a woman here just a minute ago. Reddish hair, wearing a dark… something.” Max didn’t know what she had been wearing.
He only remembered her face. The doorman shook his head and apologized. Too many people. He had been dealing with luggage
and hadn’t seen anyone of Carly’s description.

“Have someone get my car,” Max said.

“Right away, sir. Two minutes to bring it around.”

Nina was waiting for him when he walked back into the lobby. “Aren’t you chivalrous?” she said brightly. “Did you find her?”

“No.”

“Too bad. That girl—poor thing—is absolutely in love with you, can you imagine? I suppose you’ve noticed. And now I’ve probably
made her cry. I know I shouldn’t have teased her like that, but—”

“Drop it,” Max said sharply.

“Excuse me?” She stared at him, comprehension dawning on her face. “Well,” she said slowly. “This is very interesting. I did
wonder for a moment if you could possibly… but then I thought, no. Max and a
veterinarian
?”

He clenched his hands at his sides. “Get your car, Nina. Go home.”

She began to laugh. “I don’t believe this! This is too funny.
This
is why you won’t move back to New York? This is why you broke up with me? For her? The girl wears her hair in a braid, for
God’s sake. Who does she think she is, Holly Hobbie?”

Max said nothing, but the look on his face must have warned her that she had gone too far. She opened her purse and pulled
out her valet ticket. “All right,” she said. “I’m leaving. If you ever come to your senses, you know where to find me, but
I think you might be a lost cause. You look at that girl like an alcoholic looks at a bottle of gin.”

“What?” He stared at her.

“You heard me. It’s pathetic, Max. I never thought that you of all people would get caught like this. Do you
need
her?”

“No,” Max said, but he felt a sudden chill, deep in his gut.

The doorman entered the lobby. “Your car is out front, Mr. Giordano.”

“Oh, this is priceless,” Nina exclaimed. “You’re rushing out to find her. You’re so contemptuous of anyone that you consider
weak; but you’re not very strong yourself, are you? You’re the one who told me that love is just another kind of addiction,
and now here you are, hooked.”

Max turned to leave, and she caught his arm. “This is why we’re so good together,” she insisted. “You don’t need me, and I
don’t need you. Be realistic, Max. I can give you everything that you ever wanted.”

He shook off her clinging fingers. “Not everything,” he said, and left her standing there in the crowded lobby.

“Carly! Are you all right? What happened?”

Carly hadn’t looked in a mirror since she left her apartment to find Max at the Ritz, almost two hours ago. From the horrified
expression on her sister’s face, she guessed that she didn’t look good. After she had fled the hotel, she had locked herself
in her car, parked just around the corner, and cried for half an hour, with the uncontrolled belly-deep sobs of a small child.
When she was too exhausted to cry any more, she had driven to Jeannie’s house in Berkeley. It was almost ten o’clock, and
her sister was wearing her bathrobe, her hair up in a clip and her face shiny with moisturizer.

Jeannie fumbled at the latch on the screen door, opened it, and enfolded Carly in a night-cream-scented hug. Then she pulled
away, held Carly at arm’s length, and looked her over.

“You’re a mess,” she said. “You’ve been crying. Your mascara is all over your cheeks, and your face is swollen up like a muffin.
Did Richard do something? I’m going to call Dad and Josh. And Mom, too, God help him—”

Carly burst into a fresh flood of tears. “Not Richard.”

“Not Richard? Then who…” Jeannie stopped, dismayed. “Carly! You aren’t crying about… Max? Are you?”

“Max Giordano is a horrible person,” Carly sobbed. “I hate him.”

“Oh, this is not good,” Jeannie exclaimed. “This is very bad. Are you sure?”

Carly stopped crying and looked suspiciously at Jeannie. “Am I sure about what?”

Jeannie waved her hands in agitation. “I don’t know. Are you sure that he did whatever you think he did? Maybe there was a
misunderstanding.”

“Jeannie, you don’t even know what happened!”

“You’d better tell me right away. There has to be some kind of mistake. Maybe we can work it out before it gets any worse.”

“I can’t believe this,” Carly said. “I’m your sister, I show up at your door crying, and you’re defending Max?”

“We all liked Max. We were hoping that he would come back.”

Carly scowled at her. “There used to be loyalty within our family.”

Jeannie sighed. “Honey, come inside and tell me everything. Do you want some cocoa?”

“Yes,” Carly said, and followed her sister into the house. It didn’t take her long to go through the whole story, although
she was slightly put out by Jeannie’s reaction. Instead of clucking with the appropriate amounts of sympathy and outrage,
her sister listened quietly and intently, frowning in concentration like a Supreme Court judge.

“How do you know that they were talking about getting married and having children?” Jeannie asked. “You weren’t there during
dinner. Who told you that?”

“She did. She was very smug.”

“Maybe she was trying to intimidate you. What did Max say?”

“I don’t remember the details. I was upset, and now it’s all a blur. But I don’t think that he said anything.”

“Hmm,” Jeannie muttered. “This is very strange.”

“She said that it was a very serious decision, getting married and having children. He seemed angry with her. I think he must
have been asking her to marry him over dinner, and she turned him down. I remember him telling me that she didn’t want to
live out here in California.”

“Oh, dear.” Jeannie was beginning to look less confident, which set Carly off again.

“I should never have gone there to see him,” she sobbed. “No, I take that back. I’m glad that I did. I would never have known,
otherwise. He slept with me, then, the next night, asked her to marry him! Am I that bad in bed?”

“I hope not,” Jeannie said, and handed Carly a tissue.

“Very funny,” Carly said, and blew her nose. “Well, fine. He can go ahead and love that horrible woman for all I care—he deserves
her. I hope they do get married and have lots of horrible children.” She buried her head in her arms.

“Oh, dear,” Jeannie said again, anxiously. She got up and came around the table to rub Carly’s back.

“Why am I so stupid about men?” Carly asked, her voice muffled. “I don’t understand why this keeps happening to me. I think
I need a psychiatrist.”

“No, you don’t,” Jeannie said soothingly. “You’re fine. Well, some of your choices have been a little off, but… hush, Carly,
never mind. Forget I said that. This time, who knew? We all thought Max was… in fact, I still just can’t believe… You should
at least talk to him.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You have to. At least give him a chance to tell you what happened tonight. You deserve that much, and so does he.”

“I’m not going looking for him,” Carly said stubbornly. “Ever again.”

“Well, you can’t avoid him, either. Not unless you’re planning to abandon Henry’s animals and hide in your apartment. Just
don’t do anything crazy. It’s possible that your feelings about Max may be making it hard for you to see the situation clearly.”

“But what if I am seeing it clearly?”

Jeannie sighed. “Well, then, don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember Dad’s motto.”

“Which one?” Carly asked. Their father had Latin mottos for most occasions. “
In vino veritas
?”

“No, no. You know the one I mean, the one he always quotes when things like this happen. Remember? ‘Even a god finds it hard
to love and be wise at the same time.’ ”

When Max arrived at the Tremayne house on Saturday morning, he was greeted by the sight of a pack of sleeping dogs, scattered
around the floor of the solarium and kitchen like lumpy bags of laundry. It was only 8
A.M.
, too early for them to have finished their breakfasts, but their dozy disinterest in him was a sure sign that they had already
been fed. Pauline confirmed it: Carly had come and gone.

“She’s supposed to be here at eight,” Max said, annoyed. “She’s always here at eight.”

“Well, Mr. Max, it was as much a surprise to me as it is to you. When I woke up, I was expecting to have a chance to drink
my tea in peace before the kitchen was filled with dogs, but she was just finishing when I came downstairs, and she barely
bothered to say hello before she ran off again.”

“I see,” Max said.

“She was acting
very strangely
, in my opinion,” Pauline continued. “She looked nervous. She nearly jumped out of her skin when I came into the kitchen and
found her there. And then she said something that made no sense.”