TANGLED PLANS

36

For the last dinner of the summer, we all met at my dad's restaurant. Since his rastruant got a new location right by the beach, we thought it was fitting.

"My favorite part of the summer..." Brayden draws out slowly, even though we all know what he is going to say based on the way he was staring at Vanessa the entire time. "Getting to spend time with you."

"Hm," Vanessa says, obviously flattered as she giggles in response. I smile at her cuteness and at my brother's romantic gesture. Vanessa smiles afterward and says, "My favorite part of the summer was all the free time I got. Even though I worked almost every single day, I felt that I got a lot of downtime."

"...to spend with me," Brayden says with a large grin, and Vanessa nods, extending her hand toward his. Okay, now they were too much for my liking. After their romantic moment in silence, Vanessa turns to me. "So, Daisy, how about yours?"

"Oh," I say as I sit up in my spot. I didn't think that she would ask me anything, considering I've never been one to join in on conversations. But both of them only gave me a smile, so I nodded. I think back to this summer, my mind flashing with all the things I've done. I start speaking, "My favorite thing this summer was—"

I'm cut off when the eyes of my brother and his girlfriend move away from mine and toward the front door. Considering we were sitting at the back, I didn't think that they were craning their heads to look at the door for no reason. Following their gaze, I found that there was a very familiar person walking into the room.

"Hi, Jimmy," his voice calls out as soon as he is inside the place. My dad, who is busy talking to a few employees, turns around, and his eyes widen. "Max!" he shouts as he politely puts a pause on his conversation and heads over to the teenager.

Max walks over to him as well and puts an arm over my dad's shoulder. "You have a good summer, Jim?"

My dad is started by the question, rather by the soft look in Max's eyes. After a panicked look, he says, "Yeah, well, you know time goes by quick."

"I'm sorry," Max says, and then opts to just hug him again. My dad is delighted by his comfort and only hugs him back. Max pulls away with a slap on my dad's back, which shocks all of us. My dad included, who jumped back from the shock. Max flashed his usual grin and said, "Come join us for dinner soon."

"I don't know, I'm busy tonight," my dad apologizes, and Max waves it off.

"Just say hi," Max says, and then bids goodbye to him. He turns around and heads over to our table. His eyes roam around the questioning ones of all of ours, and he sighs as he takes a seat on the chair across from mine. I have yet to make eye contact with him, and with him being so close to me, I was nervous. I didn't want to see him.

Max puts a hand around the back of Brayden's chair and says, "So why is everyone looking at me like I'm crazy?"

Brayden ignores the question and inspects his friend for a moment. His eyes take in his appearance, and he isn't subtle with it when he goes to smell him. I cringe as he does that because I didn't want to know if he was drinking right now as well. The energy he had with my dad there wasn't unfamiliar, but it was considering how he had stormed out of our home earlier today.

"You done?" Max says with a roll of his eyes after a beat. Brayden gives him a look and says, "Yeah."

"What did you find?" Max asks with a humorous look.

Brayden gives him a long sigh and says, "Can you stop, Max? I was just trying to see if you came in here drunk."

"Come drunk around Jim? I have more respect for him than for him than you know, Brayden, " Max says with something edged on in his voice. He then dismisses the conversation and turns his head toward us. Vanessa was sitting right by me, but it didn't take a genius to know who he was looking at.