And then, as if things weren’t already complicated enough, Max felt guilty about what happened with Maria. Earlier that evening he hadn’t thought that he could possibly regret that kiss anymore than he did. He’d been wrong. Max had looked into Liz’s sweet face tonight and wanted so badly to kiss her, to make love to her but felt completely unworthy to do so. Max felt trapped between his conscious and his pride. He leaned his head back against the wood frame of the door. He was in agony….

Which was why, at nearly four o’clock in the morning, instead of laying on the sofa headed for dreamland, he was upstairs outside his bedroom, yearning for his wife… I am really one pathetic mess, Max thought to himself. He sat there for a few moments longer and then pushed himself to his feet. However, just when he was about to turn his back and head back downstairs the bedroom door opened.

“Max?” Max froze and turned back around slowly. “What are you doing?”

“It’s cold. I wanted to check to see if you had enough blankets,” Max lied. It didn’t escape his notice that she stood there in one of his pajama tops. Though the shirt was way too big for her it stopped mid-thigh affording Max when an eyeful of her shapely legs.

Liz smiled at him self-consciously, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear then realizing it wasn’t there to tuck. “We…uh…have an electric blanket, remember?”

“Right,” Max said, feeling like an idiot.

Liz stood there expectantly, as if she were waiting for him to say more and when he didn’t she sighed her disappointment. “Well, if that’s all…” she said, starting to close the door.

“The sofa’s bad on my back!” Max burst out suddenly.

“What?”

Oh well, he thought, you’ve started it now, Evans, why not just go the full distance? “I thought maybe we could share the bed,” Max clarified shakily.

Liz looked mildly amused by his suggestion. She bit her lip to keep from smirking. “What’s wrong with Claudia’s bed?”

“My feet dangle over the edge,” Max supplied quickly.

She wasn’t buying it, Max could tell. However, she stepped aside and opened the door wider to let him through. “Is that all you’re sleeping in?” she asked as he passed her. She was referring to the blue boxers he wore, leaving his chest and muscled legs naked to her view.

He stood so close that they were just barely touching. “You know how hot I get at night,” he breathed softly.

The statement had double meaning and they both knew it. Liz lowered her head and ducked around him. “Hmm, okay. I’ll just take the left side…and you take the right.”

Max nodded. A few moments later they were settled into bed. Liz lay with her back to him and held her body ironing board straight, teetering on the edge of the bed in her effort to put as much distance between them as possible. Max knew what she was doing and to be irksome spread himself wide across the bed. So that every time he moved closer to her body Liz would inch closer to the edge. Finally Max said, “You know if you keep doing that you’re going to fall out the bed and when you hit the floor I’m gonna laugh.”

Liz threw him an irate glare over her shoulder. “Well, quit trying to touch me, then!”

“I’m not trying to touch you,” Max denied cockily, “I’m trying to get comfortable. Not everyone can sleep like they have a stick rammed up their ass.”

“Screw you, Max,” Liz muttered, jerking the blanket from him and wrapping it more securely around her.

“You wish!” Max retorted, yanking the blanket back.

“Just go to sleep,” Liz ordered in irritation, yanking the blanket again, “And don’t touch me!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Max grumbled, turning over to his side so that they lay back to back.

He fell asleep throbbing. At that moment he’d never wanted her more.

************************************

“Wake up. I’m ready to go see Claudia.”

Max opened up one eye and groaned. He had not had a good night’s sleep. All night long he’d been plagued by erotic dreams of he and Liz. Twice during the night he’d awakened with the intense and insatiable desire to touch her. And in fact, he did. He’d run his hand along the curve of her hip where her nightshirt had ridden up. Her skin had been so soft and smooth and warm. But it was when he had dared to kiss her there that she stirred and he jerked away from her. Afterwards he’d gone out to stand in the snow….in his underwear. And now she stood above him, perky and pink, not looking at all like she’d spent the sleepless night he had.

Max frowned up at her, slowly taking into account that she was fully dressed. “What time is it?” he croaked.

“11:30. Way past time for you to be out of bed,” Liz admonished briskly.

Max groaned again and closed his eyes. “Just ten more minutes…that’s all I ask.”

Liz gave Max’s shoulder a gentle nudge. “Max, please…I’m really anxious to see her.” Max looked up into her pleading brown eyes and found himself unable to refuse.

Anxious to see Claudia was an understatement. They had barely cleared the driveway of Alex and Isabel’s house before Liz was out of the car and running for the front door. Once she and Claudia caught sight of one another they made a beeline towards each other. Watching them hug and laugh, Max felt tears blur his eyes. Liz rained kisses all over Claudia’s face, stroking her hair, telling her over and over just how much “mommy” had missed her. And Claudia, in turn, insisted on showing Liz every picture she’d drawn in her absence. Alex and Isabel lovingly kept their distance, allowing mother and daughter to become reacquainted, recognizing their long awaited reunion would come later.

However, while Liz played tea party with Claudia in A.J.’s nursery Isabel took her brother aside and asked in an excited underbreath, “When did she get back? Did you go and get her?”

“Actually, she was waiting on the front porch when I left here last night.”

“Really?” Isabel said speculatively, “They did release her, right?”

Max chuckled softly. “She’s out free and clear.”

Isabel nodded. “And things between the two of you?”

“What about it?”

“Max, don’t be dense! Are things…better?” The way she said the word “better” Max knew she was hinting at whether he and Liz had reconciled in a physical sense.

“We talked, yes, but that is all we did,” he said, emphasizing the “all,” “Things are still very complicated. Isabel.”

“Ahh,” Isabel surmised, astutely picking up on just where the “complications” were arising, “you could eliminate a lot of that, Max, if you just forgive and forget. It’s the making up that’s the best part anyway.” She slid a gentle look across the room at Alex as she said that.

“Really?” Max asked, giving his sister a wry look, “Is that all it takes?”