Passion » Max Regnery

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Blake watched from the distance as her mother introduced Max to the family and then led him toward her baby sister. Alex was newly single, thanks to the lawyers her parents had hired, and she had a strange feeling she knew exactly what her mother was doing.

Although Blake couldn't hear what was being said from where she stood, she could tell from the look on Max's face, it had been about Alex's time at Pine Hollow.

Satisfied with her work, Mrs. Whitmore left the pair to continue her conversation with her sister-in-law, this time about Alex.

Blake listened with a twinge of jealousy, as both her aunt and mother discussed their newfound plan to get Alex and Max together. Little did they know, Max was already dating a Whitmore, just not the one they hoped for.

But even if they had come out about their relationship to her family, it wouldn't matter. Her mother would stoop even lower to securing a match between and Max and Alex and Blake hated to think just what the vile woman would do.

And then it occurred to Blake, she would have to find some way, any way, to help Max get back the half he sold to her parents. Just exactly how?

"Everything alright, love?" Max had appeared at her side, a look of concern on his aged face.

"Yeah," she lied. He instantly saw through her lie.

"Let's go home," he said softly, jerking his head toward the front door. "I'm certain Valeera is waiting for us to return, together."

"Mm," she shook her head lazily. "Not tonight."

Max sighed, a quick wave of irritation lining his features as he stared down at Blake. "Let's go home, Blake," he said, this time more as an order rather than a suggestion.

Blake quickly glanced up at him, her face showing that she was now angry. "No," she replied, her arms crossing over her chest.

"Blake," this time Max made sure to keep his tone calm.

"I'm not returning home tonight, I told you I wouldn't. You have work to do anyway, just go home. I don't even know why you bothered to come."

Max opened his mouth to respond but Mrs. Whitmore, curious as she always was, rounded the corner to meet the pair.

"Everything alright?" She asked Max in a sweet voice. "Blake isn't being a nuisance is she?"

"No," he replied, clearly irritated. "Blake is never a nuisance."

"Oh, well I am glad to hear," though her tone indicated she wasn't. "Come, you must hear about Alex's time in England. She has wonderful stories to tell."

"No thank you," he replied, this time making sure that his tone didn't give away how he currently felt. "We were just leaving."

"We?" Her brows furrowed.

"Yes, Blake and I."

Blake felt her heart drop. If Max lost Pine Hollow, how could she live with herself now?

"Max, I told you I can't."

"Is it something to do at Pine Hollow?" Her mother questioned, ignoring Blake. "Can't it wait till tomorrow?"

Max stood up straight, his blue eyes on the elder woman. He had started to open his mouth when Blake moved forward to discreetly grip his wrist. He then closed his mouth and looked down at her.

"Blake and I are together," he stated, ignoring her discreet plea to not mention that little fact.

"What?" At first her mother was having a hard time registering the fact, but then she started to laugh hysterically as if someone had just told her the butt of a really good joke.

Max then sighed, "Blake and I have been living together for some time now. Surely, when your daughter failed to return home and her dog was missing, you had to have assumed she was living somewhere. That somewhere is with me."

The whole room fell quiet. Blake felt her cheeks growing hot and tears pricking her eyes. She was wondering if he'd soon regret this, regret all of this.

"Actually," he continued on, "my real reason for coming here tonight was to have Blake collect the rest of her things and officially move into my house with me."

"Blake?" He father appeared into view behind Max. "Is this true?"

"She wasn't aware I'd be coming tonight," Max quickly stepped in. Then turning back to Blake, he said, "Go and pack what you want to take with you."

Blake slowly backed away, she didn't really want to go pack her things, but it had been the perfect excuse to leave the spotlight. Perhaps it was the same spotlight that she wanted to leave that drove her to actually packing her things.

"Max," she said when they were in his truck and on the road. "You know my family will do everything they can to break us up, right? They will take Pine Hollow"

"Remember when you walked into my office earlier today and found me shuffling through papers?" He was smiling. "Turns out, your parents failed to properly sign the documents, nor did they ever distribute the money the claimed they did. Actually," he gripped the wheel and his smile faded. "I'm a little deeper than I was before."

"You're going to lose Pine Hollow anyway?" She bit her bottom lip.

"No."

That confused her. If he was deeper in debt with Pine Hollow than before, how was he not going to lose the stables?

"I've sold a few horses, ones that we didn't exactly need. Also got rid of that old rusty trailer. It also turns out, Red and Carole have been saving up some money as well as others, to buy out the half of Pine Hollow that we thought your parents owned."

"Amazing," Blake shook her head and smiled, but then it faded as she thought about the horses. "Which horses?"

"Well," there was a look on his face that told her she wouldn't like what he was about to say. "Patch, for starters."

"Patch?" She exclaimed. "Max, I learned-"

"I know, everyone at Pine Hollow did," he took a deep breath and removed one hand from the wheel to grasp her own. "But he was old and what can I do with an old horse? I need the money. Don't worry, I made sure he went to a good home where he can live out the rest of his days happy."