Grand Passion

draw back to the safe place within herself.
    She could draw back and wait .
    Wait for what? she wondered. There would be no other man like Max. He was the man in the mirror.
    But she had created the mirror, she reminded herself. The only things she saw in the glass were the things she, herself, projected into it.
    The truth was that when she looked into the mirror of her mind and heart, she never saw a clear reflection of the man for whom she waited. Yet she was sure that Max was that man.
    Earlier this afternoon she had confronted the fact that she was very probably in love with him.
    The incident that had triggered the knowledge was a small one, but it had had a devastating impact on Cleo. It had made her realize that she had reached a point of no return.
    It had all come about innocently enough. Sylvia had been busy when the time came to pick Sammy up from kindergarten. Max had offered to fetch him. Cleo had invited herself along for the trip because she had wanted to pick up some things at the drugstore in town.
    She and Max arrived at Sammy's school a few minutes early and sat in the Jaguar in the parking lot, waiting for the children to come pouring out of the gate.
    “One of us is always very careful to be here when Sammy gets out of school,” Cleo had explained. “He gets very anxious if there's no one waiting.”
    “I see,” Max said. He rested one arm on the wheel and watched the school entrance.
    At that moment the door opened, and a dozen screaming kindergarteners dressed in rain coats and hoods raced out onto the sidewalk. Cleo spotted Sammy in his little yellow slicker. The boy was scanning the cluster of waiting vehicles, searching for his mother's car or, perhaps, Cleo's familiar red Toyota. He didn't recognize the green Jaguar immediately. His small face crumpled with alarm.
    “He doesn't see us,” Cleo said. She reached for the door handle.
    “I'll let him know we're here.” Max opened his door and got out.
    Sammy saw him at once and broke into a happy, relieved grin. He dashed toward the Jaguar, heedless of the rain puddles. Max opened the back door.
    “Hi, Max,” Sammy said as he scrambled into the back seat.
    “Hi, Sammy.”
    Sammy looked at Cleo. “Hi, Cleo.”
    “Hi, kid.” Cleo turned in the front seat to smile at him. “How was school?”
    “It was okay.” Sammy opened a folder. “We made pictures. I did one for you, Max. Here.” He removed a crayon drawing and held it out to Max.
    Cleo realized that she was holding her breath. She knew in a moment of stunning clarity that if Max failed to properly appreciate Sammy's picture, he was the wrong man for her. It was that simple.
    Max eased himself slowly back behind the wheel and closed his door. He took the crayon drawing without comment and examined it for a long moment.
    Silence filled the Jaguar.
    Then Max looked up, his gaze gravely serious. He turned in the seat to face Sammy. “This is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen, Sammy. Thank you.”
    Sammy glowed. “Are you going to put it on the wall in your room?”
    “Yes. Just as soon as we get home,” Max said.
    Cleo let out the breath she had been holding. She knew then that her fate was probably sealed. She had fallen in love with Max Fortune.
    Cleo felt another presence in the meditation room at the same moment that a shadow fell on the yellow crystal. She pulled her mind back to the present and waited.
    “Andromeda said I would find you here.” Max's cane thudded softly on the hardwood floor.
    Cleo looked up at him. His eyes held the same shimmering intensity that she had seen in them when he had examined Sammy's drawing that afternoon. He held a single red rose in his right hand.
    “Hello, Max.” Cleo did not dare look at the rose. “What are you doing here?”
    “I came to give you this.” He dropped the rose lightly into her lap.
    Cleo picked it up as if it might explode in her hands. Chapter five, she thought. The man had, indeed, been studying The Mirror .
    The red rose in chapter five had symbolized seduction. Cleo wondered what Max would think when he got to the last chapter in the book. That chapter featured a white rose as a symbol of love.
    Cleo wondered if Max could only go as far as the red rose.
    “I don't know what to say,” she whispered.
    Max smiled. “You don't have to say anything.”
    Her eyes met his, and she knew that he spoke the truth. There was no need to say anything, because Max knew exactly how close she was to