To the Max by Elle Aycart Read Free Book Online

daughter.”
    It hadn’t gone exactly like that. Max had been helping Mrs. Bromberg with the upkeep for a long time, and when she decided to move in with her daughter, he’d offered her a hefty price for the house, more than she would have ever gotten on the open market.
    “I’d always known I wanted to live by the lake,” he continued. “But I’d rather stay in the old part, where the houses have strong personalities. It puts me a bit farther away from where Cole and James live but still within walking distance.”
    Suddenly she noticed a weird, high-pitched racket. Dreading the response, she asked, “What’s that squeaking?”
    “Tango and Cash. You want to meet them?” Max walked toward the open patio doors. “I keep them outside during the day. They like it.”
    She followed him but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the big, bilevel cage.
    Oh. My. God.
    “Rats?” she choked out. “You want me to take care of rats?”
    Max chuckled. “They aren’t rats. They’re long-haired guinea pigs.”
    Duh . “Rats with hair.”
    “And don’t call them rats when they can hear you. They’ll be traumatized.”
    Right. The one being traumatized was her.
    By now Tango and Cash were standing and squeaking like crazy, their front claws grabbing the bars.
    “They’re extremely social and expect treats,” he explained, moving closer and opening the door. “Do you want to hold one?”
    Did she look like she did? Because if so, then her body language was failing her. Miserably.
    “They don’t bite,” Max reassured her. “They haven’t bitten me yet. They’re very nice. Think of them as rabbits.”
    He picked up a three-colored lump with fluffy long hair, only one black eye visible from under the fur, and tried handing it to Annie. She backed away a step. “This is Tango. Go ahead,” he said, extending the animal toward her. “You can’t catch anything from them. You’re more likely to infect them with the flu, for example. That’s why they’re used in labs. They don’t pass illnesses to humans; it’s the other way around.”
    She moved a trembling hand to the animal and, with the tip of her index finger, touched its back. Tango was extremely soft. And it did look like a rabbit, except for the creepy rat’s paws.
    Cash, a white one with red eyes, squeaked very loud and suddenly hopped, scaring the living wits out of her.
    “What the hell?”
    “Popcorning,” Max explained while he put Tango inside the cage and petted the albino rat.
    “What?”
    “That’s what they call it. When guinea pigs get excited, they buck.”
    O-kay. She was so in over her head here.
    Now both were popcorning and running around. “As you can see, they’re a bit hyperactive.”
    No shit . “Where did you get them?”
    “Mike bought a couple of males for his nieces and took them to Arizona. When he went back, his sister presented him with a bunch of guinea pigs.”
    “Oh God.”
    “Yep. Apparently Mike didn’t get two males, one slightly fatter, as he was told, but a male and an already pregnant female. They started reproducing, and the whole thing got out of control quickly. The owners tried separating them, but they had only two cages. They didn’t get it right, and the litters continued. Lisa was freaking out, animals appearing faster than they could give them away, so Mike took them. He managed to adopt them all out except these two females. He had to go out of town for several days, and I pet sat them. They’ve been here ever since. I got attached.”
    “Females?” At his nod, Annie let out a chuckle. “Why did you name them Tango and Cash?”
    “They looked like guys to me. By the time we found out, the names had stuck.”
    At least now she understood why they hadn’t bitten him. There wasn’t a female on this earth, regardless of the species, who wouldn’t melt at the sight of him.
    Max opened the door on the second floor and tapped on the towels carpeting the surface. “Come up here, guys. It’s