We both smiled. He looked so young, for a moment I wondered if he was my age.
“I’m twenty-five,” he said, as if reading my mind. He ducked his head, his cheeks pinking. “It’s just that everyone asks, because I look kinda young. I’m a former SEAL. You’re in good hands.”
“Oh, uhm, I wasn’t doubting your abilities.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “Are you gonna live here, too?” I blurted out, making my way to the kitchen to make both of us smoothies.
Maybe if Max and I got along well, Ransom would take the back seat and give him more shifts and I could have some of my freedom back.
He shook his head in my periphery. “Ran will be with you most of the time. I’m just going to be on standby. But I’ll be on call no matter what.”
My heart sank.
Max sat on a stool in front of me, watching as I shoved a banana, kiwi, strawberries, crushed ice, and coconut milk into my smoothie machine. I poured the finished product into tall glasses and glided one his way across the kitchen island.
He raised his glass in a toast. “Been a second since I’ve had one of these.”
“A smoothie?” I asked.
He nodded. “I used to live in Oceanside. Jamba Juice was like my second home during high school. Quit the healthy habit when I got deployed, though.”
I smiled in understanding. “I’m like that, too. I change my habits, depending on where I live. When I was in New York, I was all about the Sicilian pizza and cosmos.”
“Sicilian pizza is asin. Pizza dough needs to be like a condom—thin, airy, without any unnecessary extras,” Max said.
“Well, sin isdelicious.” I shrugged, laughing.
“So is your smoothie. Thanks for that.” Max grinned around the reusable straw I’d put in his drink.
There was a beat of silence as we both took a breath.
“You’re really different, you know,” he said finally. His smile immediately dropped.
I knew what he meant. Ransom had painted him a different picture of me. Difficult, unruly, and rude. I didn’t know how anyone could take Ransom’s word at anything. He seemed to have such a cynical, gloomy outlook on life.
“How so?” I asked gently. I didn’t want to scare Max away. He had the potential to become an ally.
He took a sip from his smoothie to buy time. I waited patiently.
“I don’t know. I just imagined…”
“Someone unbearable?” I quirked an eyebrow, propping my elbows on the surface between us.
“Pretty much.” His ears turned tomato-red.
“Did Ransom have anything to do with this image by any chance?” I tilted my head sideways. I knew I was treading dangerous waters. Ransom was his boss. The security company they worked for had his last name. But I needed to feel validated.
Max frowned, looking genuinely confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Did Ransom tell you that I’m a nightmare?”
“No. Ransom only discusses the technical stuff. That’s why they call him The Robot.” Max’s entire body went into rigor mortis, stiffening. He knew he shouldn’t have said that. My ears perked.
“They call him The Robot?” I asked.
“Well…yeah.”
“Who’s they?”