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I walk past him and head back toward the window. “So you could tell me I’m an asshole in my own home?”
“I never said you were an asshole,” he says, sighing through the words as if he’s all out of fight. But it’s hard to believe, because Max has never been known to run short of that particular commodity.
“Might as well have.” I hear myself sound like a sulky child. It’s like I’m ten again and he’s fourteen and we’re having a stupid argument that’s pointless and annoying, but neither of us will give in.
It was always me who caved in the end, for a quiet life. But this time I have a reason to win. And giving in isn’t an option.
“Can we sit down for a minute?” Max asks.
Not if he’s planning to patronize me and tell me what a naughty little boy I am and that I just need to do what my wise big brother wants because he’s always right.
But when I turn and look at him, he doesn’t look like he’s ready for a confrontation. He looks softer and, frankly, a bit tired.
“Sure.” I sit on his sofa and cross an ankle over my knee.
He sits in the chair opposite and leans toward me, elbows on his knees. “I was coming to see you to tell you I’ve reconsidered everything.”
Max? Reconsider? As in, his first instinct might have been wrong? And he’s prepared to admit it? I try to hide my shock at the prospect. “Go on.”
“It’s obvious that you’ve been staying away from the office for the last few weeks. Or rather away from me. Or more likely Charlotte. Or…”
“…both,” we say at the same time.
At least that cracks a smile for both of us.
“You’ve obviously liked Charlotte very much for a long time. And I’d never considered she might be interested in you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“What I mean is, because it had never crossed my mind that it would ever be even remotely in the cards, it made me even more shocked when I saw…” He draws circles in the air to finish the sentence.
I stay silent, leaving him to fester in his own discomfort of the tree incident.
“Anyway.” He straightens. “What I’m saying is, when I reacted in that moment, I was reacting in shock. And it’s taken me a bit of time to get over all that”—he circles his hand again—“shock.”
I drum my fingers on the sofa, the tables turned now—me the one who’s confident and in control, Max the one on the defensive and fumbling. And I can’t say I don’t like how this feels.
“And now you’re over it?” I push my glasses up my nose.
“Four weeks is a long time for you to barely come into work,” he says. “She must mean a lot to you. Which you’ve now proved further by telling me, extremely clearly, that you’d rather lose me than her.”
I fold my arms across my chest and nod.
“Well, I don’t want to lose you, Elliot. But even before you told me that, I was on my way to tell you I was wrong.”
Good God. Have I just passed out and awakened in another world where the sky is green, the grass is blue, and Max is prepared to admit he’s wrong?
“Wrong about what?” After all I’ve been through these last few weeks, I’m going to make him work for this.
“I was really shaken up when Dad told that story about the bus crash. It wasn’t long after Walker and Tom’s mom and dad had died. These things stick with you when you’re a kid. And then when Connor was an ass with Anna and I was left without an assistant…” He rubs the back of his neck. “But I’m not a kid anymore. And you’re not Connor. Hell, even Connor isn’t Connor anymore.”
I nod slowly and smile. “Yup. These women change us. Make us better.”
“They do. And Polly’s made me better. And she’d have me on goat-mucking duty till the end of time if she thought I was standing between two people who belong together just as clearly as she and I do.”
He leans on the arm of his chair and looks me right in the eyes. “So yes. I was wrong to say that you shouldn’t be with Charlotte just because she works for me. And I’m sorry.”
Christ, not only an admission of being wrong, but also an apology. I can’t fold now, though. I need to stay strong and be clear about the rest of it. “And if we’re together—which, by the way, I have no idea if we ever will be because your ultimatum might have killed any chance I have—if there’s any slight glimmer of hope she might still be interested, you won’t hold back her career because of it?”
