Logan seemed stunned. “I don’t think you ever said that to me before.”
“It was always too hard. I wanted to. Maybe I didn’t figure I needed to, until now. But... looking for you, finding you... now I know how important it is. To say it.”
He touched her cheek, briefly. “You know that I love you, don’t you?... God, Max, it’s nice to be able to just feel my fingers on your skin... Are we all right?”
She glanced at him. “I won’t lie to you.”
“I won’t lie to you either!”
She smiled a little, then returned her eyes to her driving. “I can’t say that this business with Seth doesn’t still bother me...”
“He was your brother. It’ll always bother you. It should always bother you.” An edge came into his voice. “Just know, I would never do that to you again.”
As good as it had been to hear him say he loved her, hearing this pledge felt even better.
They rode in silence for a while.
Then...
“Sounds like you’re getting ready for a road trip,” he said. “You and Lydecker, going to find your mother?”
She smirked humorlessly. “She could be across town, or on another continent. We have to talk to the colonel... and you know Lydecker.”
“Reliability is not his middle name... And if your mother is halfway across the world?”
“I need to find her.”
“I understand. Room for one more?”
Max smiled at him. “I don’t know. Let’s get you cleaned up, and see if I still can stand being seen with you.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Have you seen yourself lately?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That sprinkler system wasn’t kind to your hair.”
“Is that right? Well, you can take a look at me, after I have a nice long hot bath. I may just sleep until Christmas, then let everything sort itself out.”
“This is Christmas, Max.”
“So it is.”
They rode in silence for a while — a sweet, comfortable silence. Finally, maybe halfway home, with Logan asleep in the passenger seat, she pulled off the road and into the lot of a small roadside motel at the edge of a little town. She checked in, unlocked the room’s door, then came out to the car and opened the door on his side. He was lolled back on the seat. She touched his arm.
“Come on,” she said.
He awoke slowly. “Where... are we?”
“Middle of nowhere. Motel.”
He said nothing, getting out of the car cautiously, as if he didn’t trust his muscles to work — or the exoskeleton, for that matter.
“You can have a shower or bath,” she said, “which I’m gonna do, too... but what we really need is rest.”
They were to the door now, and she had her arm around his waist, helping him walk inside the motel room.
He allowed her to take her bath, and when she had freshened up, and stood in the open bathroom doorway, using the motel’s drier on her hair, she found herself alone. She was just about to get concerned when he stepped back into the room, and explained that he’d just run across the highway to a convenience store, where he’d picked up a few toiletries, including a shaver.
He showered and emerged in twenty minutes, the scruffy beard gone, his shirt off, drying his hair.
“You hungry?” Logan asked. “Or should we just go to bed?”
She was already under the covers.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she said, and raised the sheet for him.