"Advice?" I sat at one end of the sofa and curled my feet under my legs so we didn't actually touch. Immature though it might seem, I couldn't get past what we'd almost done.

He nodded, his body posture as rigid and withdrawn as mine. "About Bella."

For a moment, I was confused. "I don't think she's going to have any lasting medical implications, if that's what you mean. Though she is a werewolf, and I can't claim to have a lot of experience treating them."

"No, nothing like that." Max looked around the room as if Bella were going to jump from behind a potted plant or something, and take us by surprise. "She's acting weird. You know. Like a woman."

I rolled my eyes. "Perish the thought."

Max didn't quite get my sarcasm. "It's making me crazy. One minute she acts like she wants to be with me and I' in the one rejecting her. The next, she's got this barbed wire fence and barking dogs around her, like I can't even ask her the simplest questions."

"And here I was assuming you didn't care about her."

Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he groaned. "I don't!"

"And you make it perfectly clear." Men. Idiots. "Did you ever think maybe she has had a change of heart, but she's afraid of your rejection?"

"I told her I wouldn't reject her!" He lowered his voice with obvious difficulty. Clearly, he wanted to scream the house down. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," And I didn't. If I were the relationship guru, I wouldn't have spent the last four months stumbling through an equally bad situation. "Bella obviously doesn't have much experience communicating with the opposite sex. You don't have much experience communicating with the opposite sex without talking dirty. Maybe this trip will be good for both of you."

"Yeah, until I die of lack of oxygen to the brain caused by a permanent hard-on." He stood and paced. "What's taking them so long?"

"Maybe they're screwing in the back of the van," I suggested drolly.

"That's not funny!"

"No, but you are. You're completely out of your mind over her, you want her to be out of her mind over you and she probably is, but neither of you wants to make a move. It's so junior high, Max!" I stood and stalked to the door. "How do I get out of here?"

"Are you pissed at me?" Disbelief filled his voice, as if the idea was completely unfathomable.

"No. I'm just tired of watching you run in circles over someone when you're not committed enough to tell her how you feel." The second I said it, I realized how painfully his actions mirrored Nathan's. "Never mind."

But it was too late to take it back. He shut down immediately. "Listen, I'll call you from the road. If anything comes up. If you can be bothered to listen."