Читать книгу The Complete Boardroom Collection - Джанис Мейнард, Yvonne Lindsay - Страница 44

Rachel hid a yawn behind her hand as Max turned the corner and arrived on her street. With her work schedule, she was accustomed to sleeping less than eight hours a night. But usually she lazed in bed on Sunday mornings and caught up on her rest. This Sunday morning she’d been in bed, but it hadn’t exactly been lazy or restful.

As they neared her house, she automatically checked for Hailey’s car in the driveway. She didn’t really expect to see it there. Hailey had been spending more and more time with Leo. It wouldn’t be long before they moved in together. Especially now that they were engaged.

Rachel sighed. She was going to miss having her sister around. The years Hailey spent at college were different. Then, Rachel had acted as parent. She’d shouldered financial responsibility for her sister’s schooling, worried about how her studies were going, and planned for the future. Now, Hailey was a capable, accomplished woman in charge of her life. She’d taken charge of her dreams. Soon, she would be making plans with her husband. Rachel’s role had been reduced to that of loving sister and nothing more.

It left her feeling a little lost.

Enter Max. Was she using him to fill a void? Being with him certainly filled a place inside her that had been empty for a long, long time.

He swung into her driveway and stopped behind her car. He stared through the windshield in silence for a long moment. “I don’t want to drop you off and go home to an empty house.”

Why did he always know exactly what to say to melt her insides?

“Inviting you in is not an option.” She rushed a shaky hand through her tousled hair. “We’ll just end up …” She flipped her hand in a circular motion. “You know.”

He laughed. Her heart expanded at his relaxed expression and the silver shards that sparkled in his gray eyes. Max happy was like watching the most gorgeous sunrise ever. Just being in proximity to him in his current mood made her feel lighter than air.

“What if I promise to keep my hands off you?”

“You can stay for dinner,” she said. “Although, it might have to be pizza because I don’t know if we have any food in the house.”

“Why don’t you see what’s there. We can always run to the store.”

Rachel got out of the car, amused by the thought of Max in a grocery store. He had a housekeeper to shop, cook and clean for him. She had a hard time picturing him pushing a cart down the pasta aisle and deciding between linguini and bow ties.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded, snaking his hand around her waist as they headed toward the side door that led into her kitchen. He crowded her on the steps, his solid muscles bumping her curves in tender affection.

Her body reacted accordingly, awakening to each cunning brush of hip and shoulder. “The thought of you shopping for groceries.” She dug her keys out of her purse and slid her house key into the lock. It had been acting up lately so she needed to jiggle it a bit to get the tumbler to align properly.

Beside her, Max stiffened. “Someone slit your tires.”

“What?”

Before she could turn around, he was off the steps and prowling around her car like a pride leader who’d had his territory invaded by a stray.

“All four of your tires are flat.” His gaze shot to her. Worry pulled his mouth into a hard line. “You need to call the police.”

“No.” Her mind worked furiously. Brody had sounded more intense than usual during his last phone call, pushing her because the guy he owed money to wasn’t satisfied by a partial payment. Did her slashed tires mean Brody’s debt had become hers?

“What do you mean no?”

Seeing Max’s surprise, she scrambled for an explanation. “I’m sure it’s just neighborhood kids acting up. I’ll call a tow truck and get new tires.”

“This is serious vandalism,” Max persisted. “You need to report it.”

And explain her troubles in front of Max? Not likely. Besides, she didn’t know for sure this had anything to do with Brody and his money problems. “It’s not worth the hassle. The police won’t be able to track down the culprits.”

“You don’t know that.”

“It probably happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep so there won’t be any witnesses. I’ll have the tires replaced. It’s no big deal.”

Max set his hands on his hips. “Has this sort of thing happened in your neighborhood before?”

“Not to me,” she hedged.

“Something’s going on that you’re not telling me. I don’t like it.”

“Nothing is going on. It’s just some stupid vandalism.” Her voice grew more strident as Max continued to press. Rachel gathered a long breath and aimed for calmer speech. “Let’s go inside. I need to find someone who can fix the car or I won’t make it to work on time tomorrow. And you know how difficult my boss is if I’m late.” She tried for humor but it fell flat in the face of Max’s scowl.

He took her by the elbow and walked her into the house. Once the door was shut and locked, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. It turned out to be a friend that owned a repair shop. Rachel retreated to her bedroom while Max arranged to have her car picked up and the tires replaced.

Her heart pounded with vigorous force against her ribs as she dropped her overnight bag on the bed. A quick check told her Max was still on the phone. She shut the door and took her cell into the adjoining bathroom.

“Someone slashed my tires,” she said when Brody answered.

“Yeah, well, I told you this guy plays rough.”

“This is your problem, not mine. Did you tell him where I live?”

“It was that or he was going to beat me up.”

Coward. She let her disgust come through in her tone as she said, “You’re a bastard for making me a part of your problem. Did you explain to him that I don’t have any more money to give you or him?”

“You could ask that rich boyfriend of yours,” Brody responded, sounding so much like a whiney six-year-old that it was all Rachel could do to not hang up on him.

How had Brody found out about Max? And if her ex had told the goon about her, would Brody send him in Max’s direction next? She had to stop that from happening.

“I already asked him,” she lied. “He broke up with me over it, so there’s no money coming from him.”

“Ask again. Do whatever you have to do to convince him to give you the money.”

“He won’t speak to me and I’m done talking to you. If anything else happens, I’m going to the police.”

“You’re a bitch,” Brody snarled, changing tactics. “He won’t stop coming after you.”

“You tell him he’d better.” Or she’d what? Rachel’s hands shook, making the phone bump against her ear. She couldn’t believe this was her talking. But then, she’d never been this mad before, and with Max in the other room, she felt safe. “And if you don’t,” she continued, “he will be the least of your problems. I’ll come after you myself.”

Now, she did hang up. And her knees gave out. She sat on the toilet seat until her hands stopped shaking. Then, she returned to the kitchen where Max stood beside her small breakfast table, feet spread, arms crossed, a determined expression on his face.

She ignored his militant stance and peered into the refrigerator. Hailey had gone shopping at some point during the week. Rachel sighed in relief. She couldn’t face going past her car’s four flat tires right now.

She pulled out two plastic-wrapped packages and turned toward Max. “Steak or pork chops?” she asked with false brightness. Either could be grilled and served with red potatoes and a fresh salad.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not staying here for dinner. Grab some clothes. You’re coming home with me.”

Dismay flooded her. She stuck the pork chops back in the refrigerator, hiding her expression from him. “Steak it is.”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“I heard you, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“You could be in danger.”

“Because my tires were slit?” she scoffed, but very real panic fluttered in her gut.

“Because I don’t think it was a random bit of vandalism.”

“And why is that?”

“Who’d you go into the bathroom to call, Rachel? I heard you talking to someone when I came in to see if you were all right.”

Of course he’d followed her into the bedroom. He was worried about her. Warmth pooled in Rachel’s midsection. No one had worried about her since her father had died. It would be so easy to drop her guard and tell Max all her troubles. He would help her take care of Brody. And then he would walk away because when he found out she was keeping secrets from him about her ex-husband a second time, he would be angry with her all over again.

“I was talking to Hailey.”

“And you had to go into the bathroom and shut the door to do that?” He scowled. “What sort of fool do you take me for?”

Rachel worried the inside of her lower lip. “I can’t talk about this with you.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

She couldn’t face the cold fury in his eyes. Her heart worked hard in her chest as the silence stretched. “Both,” she said at last, her voice catching on a jagged breath. “It’s none of your concern.”

His eyes narrowed. “I care about you. Why don’t you think it’s my concern?”

“Care?” Her heart swelled as hope poured into it. But what did Max’s admission mean?

“You sound surprised.”

“More confused. I don’t know what you expect of me.”

“I don’t expect anything.”

“But you do. You expect me to let you into my life.”

“I want to help with whatever’s going on.”

“I don’t need your help.”

Frustration built inside him like a sneeze. She watched it pull his lips into a tight line and bunch his muscles. He frowned. He glared.

“You’re getting it whether you like it or not. Pack.”

This wasn’t going well. “No.”

“Rachel.”

“Look, this thing between us. It’s supposed to be about hot sex until the passion burns out. You didn’t sign up for providing moral support and I didn’t ask for a white knight to rescue me.”

“That’s what you think I’m doing?”

“Isn’t it? After what happened between us five years ago, you admitted you don’t trust me. Are you saying you’ve changed your mind?”

His stony stare gave away none of his thoughts. “The way you’ve been behaving tonight gives me no reason to.”

She couldn’t let him see how much his admission hurt. “Maybe we should return our relationship to that of boss and assistant without benefits.”

“Is that what you want?” He asked the question in a deadly tone, soft and calm.

Rachel shivered. If she gave him a truthful answer, she’d open her heart up to be hurt. He’d know how much she cared for him, what having him in her life meant to her.

“It might be for the best.” She turned back to the refrigerator, unsure her whopping big lie would stand up to his scrutiny.

Max came up behind her and held the door closed. “Might be?” His breath tickled her nape. The sensation raised the hairs along her arm. “Are you saying you don’t care if I walk out the door and we never see each other again? Because that’s what’s going to happen. And if I go, don’t bother showing up at work tomorrow. Consider your contract terminated.”

“That’s unfair.”

“Maybe, but that’s the way I roll.”

“All because I won’t let you take charge of my problems? That’s ridiculous.”

“No, what’s ridiculous is that you won’t let me help you.”

She turned and put her back against the counter, feeling the bite of the Formica in the small of her back. “I don’t let anyone help me.”

“Not your employees?”

“I pay them to do a job.”

“Hailey?”

Rachel shook her head. Crossing her arms gave her a little breathing room as his chest loomed closer. “I’ve taken care of her all my life.”

“Who takes care of you?”

“I do.” And she was damned proud of that fact.

His voice softened. “Everyone needs help from time to time.”

“Not me.”

“Why?”

“Because, every time I turn to someone for help they take advantage of me.” She slid sideways away from him putting some distance between them.

“You think I’m going to take advantage of you?”

“Maybe.” She didn’t really. Of course, she hadn’t thought Aunt Jesse or Brody would leave her worse off financially than before she’d accepted their help, either.

“You can’t be serious?”

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. She’d be a complete idiot if she got fooled a third time.

“Given my financial situation, you probably think that it’s far more likely that I’d take advantage of you than the other way around.” She hardened her heart against the longing to fling herself into his arms and tell him everything. Once upon a time it had been so easy to trust. But she’d learned the hard way not everyone had her best interests at heart. “But I can’t take that chance.”

“You don’t trust me?”

Instead of answering, she shrugged.

Max blew out his breath. “If anyone in this relationship deserves not to trust, it’s me.”

“I never asked you to trust me,” she reminded him. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you, but I need to do this myself.” She tried a smile. “And what’s wrong with that? You and I both know this thing between us is going to burn out eventually. It’ll be easier to part ways if I don’t owe you anything.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to owe me.”

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking help without being able to pay you back.”

Max wasn’t usually, at a loss for words, but he seemed to be struggling with what to say to her now. Rachel imagined he was sorting through his conflicting impulses. Continue to push into her life and become the guy she could rely on, the one who would be there when things got difficult or uncomfortable. Or just enjoy the physical side of their relationship and be the guy that moved on before things got too complicated.

“Do you want me to find someone to come in for me starting tomorrow?”

The way his eyes widened, he hadn’t expected her to be so matter-of-fact about ending things. He didn’t know how much armor she’d wrapped around her heart or how many times she’d smiled in the face of heartbreak.

“No.” He scrubbed at his unshaven cheek and studied her from beneath long, dark lashes. “Get in when you can. We’re not done with this. Not by a long shot.”

Rachel nodded, her throat too tight to speak as she watched him disappear out her door. For a long time her legs were too unsteady to move. By the time she walked to her large front window and sank to the floor, Max’s car was long gone. She rested her chin on the sill and wished he could hear her silent plea for him to come back, take her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.

A half an hour ticked by before she gave up hope. Max couldn’t help her because she wouldn’t let him. If she was miserable, she had only herself to blame.

Max drove out of Rachel’s neighborhood, his gut on fire. He hadn’t been this mad since Nathan decided to join the family business a year ago. But at least then, his anger made sense. His half brother had been pushing his way into a family where he didn’t belong since their father brought him home twenty years ago.

Max had no real reason to be mad at Rachel. She didn’t want his help. So what? She had an independent streak a mile long. He’d known that about her since they first met.

Did he really think she owed him an explanation about the things going on in her life? What were they to each other? Lovers. Casual ones at that. He’d told her they had no future. He’d given her a clear picture of his boundaries. Now he was upset because she didn’t need him?

Max gunned the engine and pulled out into traffic.

This was for the best. It would be easier in the long run if they didn’t draw out the goodbyes. A clean break. Just like last time.

Only here he was. In deeper than last time. On fire. Singed body and soul by emotions only she aroused. Around every corner, more secrets. More lies. And his need for her showed no sign of abating any time soon.

The next morning he arrived at the office tired and cranky. However, his surly mood brightened slightly at the sight of Rachel at her desk looking just as exhausted. She didn’t greet him as he neared, but her tight expression told him she was acutely aware of his presence. To his dismay, he was relieved to see her. Happy, in fact. The sight of her shouldn’t lift his spirits. He was still mad at her.

“I told you to take your time getting in this morning,” he said, accepting the cup of coffee she held up to him.

“I know. And I appreciate it, but Hailey brought me in.”

“Did you tell her what happened?”

Rachel shook her head. “She saw my car and she was no more happy about it than you were.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

She appeared so miserable it took all his considerable willpower to keep from sweeping her into his arms and kissing away the worry lines between her brows. Instead, he jerked his head toward his office.

“Come in for a second.”

She hesitated. “Is this about work? Because from here on out, that’s all I want to talk to you about.”

“Yes. It’s about work. I have a difficult situation with an employee and I’d like your opinion on how to handle it.”

Once he had her inside his office, he shut the door and gestured her into one of his guest chairs. Then he strode to the window and stood staring out over downtown Houston. Behind him, he heard her soft sighs and the creak of wood as she shifted in the chair, impatient for him to begin.

“Last night you said people had taken advantage of you. What happened?”

“You said you had a situation with an employee.”

“You’re an employee.” Max turned and let his gaze catch on hers. “We have a situation.”

“I’m a contractor working for you.”

“Same difference.”

“And nothing about this situation has to do with our professional relationship.”

“It has everything to do with my ability to concentrate on work.”

“I’ll quit.”

“It won’t change my ability to get my job done. Five years ago, you walked out of my life and never looked back. That’s not going to happen again.”

“What are you saying?”

Yes, what was he saying? “That I want to see where this goes. And I want to start by learning about your past and your present. Maybe that way we can have a future.”

“It will never work between us.”

He snorted. Any other woman he’d ever dated would have been dancing for joy at what he’d just offered. He had to pick the one woman more skittish about commitment than he was. “What makes you so certain of that?”

“The biggest problem is you can’t trust me.”

“And you don’t trust me,” Max countered, still smarting from that revelation. “That puts us on the same page.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re not even in the same bookstore.”

“Let’s see if we can change that. Tell me who took advantage of you that makes you so skittish about accepting help.”

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. A second later, she bit her bottom lip. Max waited while she grappled with what story to tell him and how much to tell. Letting her sort it out without prompting tested his patience, but he kept silent. At last, she seemed to come to some sort of decision. Her breath puffed out.

“Aunt Jesse.” She closed her eyes. “My dad’s sister.”

“What happened?”

Instead of forcing intimacy by sitting in the chair next to her, Max gave her space by keeping his big executive desk between them.

“I was eighteen when my dad died and still in my senior year of high school. Hailey was two years younger. Since our mom left when we were both young, I’d always thought of Hailey as my responsibility. She was diagnosed with asthma when she turned six. The first time she collapsed and turned blue, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my whole life. After that, I watched her like a hawk, making sure she had her inhaler with her at all times. She was my baby sister. I couldn’t lose her, too.”

Too? Max wondered if she knew what she’d given away with that one word. Her mother had disappeared when she was four. Rachel had felt the loss no matter what she was willing to admit to herself. And then her father died. Max suspected protecting herself against loss had become second nature. Pity the man who tried to break down those walls.

“Who took you in after your dad died?”

Rachel stared at her hands. “No one. I dropped out of school and went to work full-time to make ends meet until we received the money from Dad’s insurance policy. He took it out because you can be as careful as anything when you’re out on the gulf, but accidents happen. No one expected he’d be shot during a convenience-store robbery twenty minutes from home.”

“You never graduated?”

She shook her head. “I got my GED. I needed to take care of Hailey. Only it was a lot more expensive than I was expecting. And I was working all the time. By the time we got the insurance money, I was exhausted and worried about how I was going to handle everything. We had no medical insurance and Hailey’s asthma had been flaring up a lot more since Dad died. The medication was expensive. That’s when I called Aunt Jesse.”

“Was she able to help?”

“She told us to come live with her in Biloxi. We’d have a place to stay while Hailey finished high school. I could work and maybe go to a community college. The rest of the money could go toward a real college for Hailey. She was always the smarter one.”

“So, what happened?”

“For a while everything seemed okay. Then one day Aunt Jesse came home and asked if she could borrow Dad’s life insurance money for a couple days.”

“And you gave it to her.”

“It was supposed to be a loan until she got paid at the end of the week. I probably should have said no, but she took us in when we needed help and she was family.” Rachel’s bitter smile said more than her expression. “She took the money and disappeared. We were stuck in Biloxi with no money, no friends and no family.”

Her story would have wrung sympathy out of the most jaded heart.

“Did you call the cops?”

“And tell them what? That I’d lent money to our aunt and she’d disappeared?”

“Did you look for her?”

Rachel shook her head. “For all she was our closest living relative, we knew nothing about her life or her friends. Or, we didn’t until people showed up looking for her. That’s when we found out she was dealing drugs and had some rather scary acquaintances.”

“Did any of them hurt you?”

“No. After the first guy came knocking, we didn’t stick around.”

“What happened?”

“I had a waitressing job. I picked up more hours. We found a small studio apartment in a relatively safe neighborhood and scraped by.” Rachel downplayed what must have been a scary time for her with a single shoulder shrug and a self-deprecating smile.

Max’s admiration for her went up several dozen notches. “I’m sorry you had such a tough time of it.”

Rachel’s eyes hardened into sapphire chips. “It was my fault we were in the mess.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Hailey begged me to stay in Gulf Shores. She wanted to finish high school with her friends. But I was too scared about being solely responsible for her to listen. I wasn’t ready to be an adult. Don’t you get it? I screwed up. If we’d stayed put, Aunt Jesse wouldn’t have stolen the insurance money. It would have been so much easier.”

“You were eighteen. Cut yourself some slack.”

“Life doesn’t cut you slack,” she said. “Life comes at you hard and fast and you either meet it head-on, duck, or get blindsided. I’ve promised myself not to get blindsided again.”

Yet Max had the sense that something had blindsided her recently. Something that wasn’t him. Something she wouldn’t let him help her with.

“You said people helped you.”

“What?”

“Last night. You said people. That’s plural. Who else took advantage of you?”

She offered him a sad smile. “Sorry. I only reveal one major mistake from my past at a time. Tune in next week for the continuing saga of Rachel Lansing’s journey into bad judgment.”

“Don’t shut me out. I want to know everything about you.” Max hated the way she kept deflecting his questions. It created a chasm between them when all he wanted was to get close to her. “You know you can trust me.”

“Of course I do. It’s just that I get depressed when I think about all the mistakes I’ve made. Can’t we talk about something else?”

As much as he wanted to push harder, he recognized the stubborn set of her mouth and knew they would only end up fighting if he bullied her for answers.

He tossed a file across the desk toward her. “Take a look at the Williamsburg numbers in their strat plan. They don’t add up. I didn’t have time to check it over this weekend and I’m supposed to be on a conference call with them at eleven.”

Her relief at being back on professional footing was so palpable she might have stood up and given a double fist pump. Max watched her head out of his office, a slim silhouette in her long pencil skirt and fitted jacket. He wanted to take her in his arms and promise he wouldn’t let her down the way others in her life had. But was that something she’d believe when he wasn’t sure himself if it was something he could deliver?