Shawn snapped his fingers and Max straightened before returning his full attention to his assistant.
It was the break I needed to get up and fix my second cup of coffee. I kept my back to his office and suspected his eyes were on me again. I could feel the heat of his stare. I could practically hear his thoughts mingling with my own as he whispered in my mind what he was going to do to me when we got home tonight.
“I’ll let you do anything you want,” I whispered to my empty office.
By some miracle, I managed to get a lot of work done that morning. Unfortunately, I was interrupted by a business meeting scheduled in the conference room, where I found a seat on Max’s right. He sat at the head of the table and several other people filed into the conference room. In the middle of the table were bagels as well as individual packets of butter, cream cheese, and jam. I reached for a blueberry bagel and a packet of cream cheese as the meeting got underway.
Max led the meeting with effortless smoothness.
When we first started dating the first go around, I knew he was an impressive businessman but I never grasped how impressive he was because I never had a chance to see him in action. Sure, I’d been exposed to my fair share of bigwigs, like Jackson Lee, but none of them held a candle to Max. He was an inspirer of people and a leader. He made every person in the room smile and he supported them rather than intimidated them into doing good work. People hung on his every word and so did I.
Maybe it wasn’t entirely because of how good of a leader he was.
Maybe there were other factors, like how for the first time in a long time it finally felt like the pieces of my life were falling into place. When I’d called Piper yesterday and brought her up to speed on everything that had been happening with me and Max, she’d been delighted. She shrieked shrilly into the phone with excitement. Wyatt, who’d been somewhere in another room in the ranch house, had come running to make sure she was okay. Both of them had started giggling at the other.
It felt so good that I had that now too.
Piper said as much. She’d told me how happy she was that I found someone—and that someone was a good stand-up man like Max. She and Wyatt had invited us to come spend a weekend with them when our work schedule permitted. At first, I’d wondered if Max would think it kind of strange to crash at his ex-girlfriend’s house but he had shaken his head and insisted we go. Piper was my best friend, after all. And he could do with a weekend getaway.
It wouldn’t hurt that Wyatt would be waiting on him.
After being in the meeting for almost an hour and a half, Max dismissed everyone. Shawn chattered over Max’s shoulder, stealing the moment I wanted for myself as we all left the conference room and made for our offices. Shawn hovered over Max’s shoulder, going over details about tomorrow’s schedule while I passed the break room and swerved to grab my third coffee of the day.
I opted for decaf to play it safe.
While I was there, I grabbed one for Max, too. Maybe I could sneak into his office and get rid of Shawn just for fifteen minutes or so to give Max a break.
When I got back to Max’s office, however, Shawn wasn’t there.
Max’s eyes were glued to his computer screen as he clicked through several pages. I let myself into his office. He didn’t notice. Intrigued by what was consuming so much of his attention, I crept deeper into his office until the toe of my shoe caught on the corner of his rug.
I yelped.
Max looked up and quickly clicked away from whatever was on his computer screen. He shot out of his chair like a teenager caught looking at something too sexy for his own good and blinked at me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I held up one of the coffees. “I thought you might want one.”
“Oh.”
“What are you up to in here? You look like you’re being naughty.”
“Not as naughty as you were last—”
“Ha ha.” I stuck my tongue out at him and walked around his desk. The only thing on his monitor was his screensaver. An Apple logo slowly bounced up and down on a black background. I peered up at him, not buying it. “What were you looking at?”
“Work stuff.”
I handed his coffee to him. “You’ve always been a bad liar.”
“That’s not true.”
I put my coffee down on the corner of his desk and turned around to pretend that I was going to sit in one of his comfy chairs. Max stepped away from his computer and made to follow.
In a mad dash, I swerved in the opposite direction. A cry of dismay left him as I rushed around the other side of his desk, beating him to his mouse. I let out a shout of victory as I wiggled the mouse and the screensaver broke, revealing a website with cream and purple accent colors.
And pictures of engagement rings.
Max leapt in front of the monitor and tried to hide it with his body.
But I’d already seen the truth. He was looking at engagement rings.
My eyes felt so big they were going to pop out of my head. I looked up at him, my heart racing, stomach fluttering, skin burning. “Max…” I breathed as I pushed past him and leaned over so I could study the gorgeous diamond ring on the screen. It had diamonds all around the band as well as a massive teardrop-shaped stone in the middle. Nestled against the main stone were two tiny sapphires. It was stunning.
I turned around.
Max was behind me but he was no longer standing. He’d dropped to one knee, and even though one eyebrow was arched in a way that suggested he was annoyed I’d spoiled the surprise, he was smiling. It was a radiant smile.
“This isn’t what I had in mind when I thought of proposing,” he said. “But you’re always beating me to the punch, so here we are.”
Proposing?
“Max, is this real?”
“It’s real. It’s very real.” He reached out and took my hand. His thumb traced a slow pattern over my knuckles as he gazed up at me. “I pictured this happening somewhere else. Maybe on my balcony during a sunset or on Wyatt’s ranch with Piper there. But this works too.”
I covered my mouth with one hand as the tears started to flow.
Max pulled me a little closer to him. “Janie, I’ve been in love with you since the first night you kissed me.”
“You kissed me,” I corrected him.
“Oh yeah.”
I wiped away fresh tears and laughed.
Max grinned at me. “You keep me on my toes. You challenge me. You put me first. I haven’t experienced a whole lot of that in my life outside my family. I was a fool to let you go the first time. I never thought I’d get lucky enough to have a second chance with you and I’m not going to blow it again. You deserve the world, Janie. If you’ll have me, I want to spend the rest of our lives reminding you how special you are and treating you the way you deserve. I want to make you happy. I want to take care of you. I want to marry you.”
He stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out an imaginary ring box. I sobbed and laughed as he pretended to pop it open and hold it out to me.
“Will you marry me?”
I nodded furiously. He pulled my hand closer and pretended to slide the ring on my ring finger. I held it up in front of my face and gasped as he got to his feet and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“It’s stunning,” I exclaimed.