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Max chuckled as she grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her. “Don’t worry, we’ll show ourselves out.”
* * *
Later that week,Max sat as his desk looking over some reports, and attempted to ignore the worry clawing at his stomach. He gave up the pretense of work and relaxed back into his chair. Running his hand over his abdomen, Max tried to rub away the feeling. But just like the last few days, it didn’t work.
He’d like to live in denial, but it was no use. He was too much of a realist. There was something definitely wrong with Anna lately. Oh, she’d been as loving as usual, as playful as he’d come to expect, but…something was missing. She no longer had that little sparkle in her eye she used to have when she teased him.
They’d practically been living at each other’s houses for the past few weeks. The nights they’d spent together had come to mean more to him than getting to work on time. And he didn’t need anyone to tell him how out of character that was for him. It had never happened before. On top of that, he’d canceled two business trips, and a much-needed board meeting. To others it may seem tame, but to Max, rescheduling trips and meetings was just not done.
He propped his feet on the desk. Max hadn’t told Anna he loved her. Not yet. She’d flip out if he told her, and he didn’t want anything disturbing her. His plan was working, except for one small thing. Anna was already pulling away from him. Little by little over the past few weeks, she’d erected a wall. Not in the bedroom, never there. Anna gave herself willingly when it came to sex. But the intimacy he wanted—hell, he craved—wasn’t there. The knot in his gut tightened. She kept trying to find ways to keep from being seen together in public. Like she didn’t want anyone to know they were involved.
Without knocking, Jeanine walked in. “Well, must be nice to be the boss. Taken to long afternoon breaks, have we?”
He dropped his feet on the floor and straightened. “What did you need?”
She eyed him, her soft blue eyes showing her concern. “I need your signature on these forms.”
He shook his head to clear it of his morbid thoughts and took the papers to sign.
“You’ve been a bit preoccupied lately.” Her tone was conversational, but he could hear the motherly concern beneath it.
“A bit?”
When she didn’t say anything, he looked up. She offered him a small smile. “Okay, a lot. And I was glad to see it.”
“Sick of having the boss around?”
All humor disappeared from her features. “Seriously, Max, you were working just like your father.”
“I thought you liked working for him.”
“Yeah, I did. It would have been wonderful to work for him longer, but I didn’t get that choice.”
He shifted his weight in the chair, uncomfortable with the conversation. Max didn’t like remembering that time. Scared out of his mind his father would die. Scared he would send the company down the drain, losing thousands of jobs.
Trying to push away the memories, Max joked, “If you don’t like me, I know you have a lot of money in your 401K.”
Jeanine gave him a stony stare and settled in one of the seats in front of his desk. “Max, I’m trying to be serious here. Your father almost worked himself into an early grave. You were headed in the same direction.”
He frowned. “I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were,” Jeanine said, shaking her head. He opened his mouth to argue with her, but she didn’t give him a chance. “Tell me, Max. When was the last time you took a vacation?”
“I went to New York just a couple of months ago.”
She sighed. “That was work and you made my point. Until Cynthia broke up with you, you didn’t leave in the middle of the day. You never showed up late, that’s for sure.”
“What difference does that make?”
“Max, your father never showed any stress, just like you. He never had a problem working long hours, he thrived at it. But he almost killed himself. Until a few weeks ago, I was sure you were headed in the same direction.”
Before Cynthia dumped him, before Anna.
She rose, her smile returning. “I’ll leave it at that, for now. If you even think of going back to the other Max, I’ll say something.”
He signed the forms and handed them back to her. “You never hesitate.”
“I mean it, Maxwell. I really like you better this way. You’re happy. Now, I am off to Orlando for the weekend.”
