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“I’m on a flight to New York tonight, and then I’ll get a car.”
“Are you sure you ought to drive all that way?”
“No, but it’ll get me to him faster than waiting for a flight in the morning. I’ll be fine. Just let me know if you hear anything more.”
“I will. Be safe, Max.”
“Take care of my boy.”
“We will.”
Max ended the call and handed the phone to Lexi. “I got a text while I was talking to him.”
“It’s from Patrick Murphy. He’s making his chopper available to get you from New York to Burlington.”
“Oh wow. That’s amazing.”
“Is he the billionaire?”
Max nodded. “Cameron’s dad.”
“Oh. I see. I had no idea.”
“You’d never know it. She’s as normal as can be.”
“I’ll cancel the rental car, then.”
“Thanks.” Max felt bad about discouraging her from coming with him, but he needed to be completely focused on Caden, and he knew his son wouldn’t want her there. Not yet, anyway. Someday, maybe, but not now.
“We’re going to George Bush Intercontinental,” Lexi said, pointing to a sign.
Max pressed the accelerator, the need to get to his son more powerful than anything he’d ever experienced, even the love he felt for her. If he had to choose, Caden would win every time. In his right mind, he would’ve been sad to leave Lexi this way, but in his panic-stricken mind, he didn’t care about anything other than Caden.
He never should’ve left him. If he hadn’t, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Or he would’ve been there, too, and might’ve been closer to them, or a million other possibilities. Max would never leave him again after this.
At the curb outside Departures, Max left the car running and grabbed his bag out of the trunk. “I’m sorry about this,” he said to Lexi when she met him at the back of the car.
“Don’t be. Just let me know that you got there and how he is, okay?”
“I will.” Max gave her a quick kiss and a quicker hug and then took off running toward the doors.
ChapterEighteen
“Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman giving all your love to just one man.”—Tammy Wynette
Lexi drove home from the airport feeling lost, set adrift and uncertain of what would happen next. They’d been so happy just a few short hours ago, and now she wondered if or when she’d ever see him again. Her heart was with him, Caden and Chase as well as their entire family, and she wouldn’t relax until she knew the boys were on the road to recovery. That was the most important thing.
But… The way he’d cast her aside and taken off without looking back had hurt her.
She didn’t want to be hurt by it, because she knew he was panicked over his son, but she was hurt, nonetheless.
After pulling into the driveway at home, Lexi sat for a minute, trying to find her game face so she wouldn’t upset her family. The game face wasn’t happening, she realized after ten minutes. She got out of the car, retrieved her bag from the trunk and went inside, surprising her mother when she appeared in the kitchen two days earlier than planned.
“What are you doing here?” her mom asked, coming to greet her with a hug and kiss.
“Max’s son was hurt in a skiing accident in Vermont. He’s on his way home.”
“Oh no! Not serious, I hope?”
