Max nodded.
“Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Just thinking, I guess.”
He was talking about Gabriel, but I felt a flutter of hope in my belly that maybe, just maybe, he was asking because the flying time to London was about the same as a trip to California.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s almost ten.”
“Oh wow. Is checkout at eleven?”
Max nodded.
“I guess I should get my lazy ass out of bed and shower.”
“I have a better idea.”
“What’s that?”
He slid his hand down my body and dipped between my legs with a grin. “Let’s get you wet. But you can shower later.”
CHAPTER 18
* * *
Georgia
“Alright, that’s it. We’re leaving.” Maggie stood from the guest chair on the other side of my desk.
My forehead wrinkled. “What? Where are we going?”
“To get some answers.”
I laughed. “What are you talking about, crazy lady?”
“We’re going to that cute wine bar two blocks down, the one next to the questionable foot-massage place that only ever has men walk in and the massages are in private rooms.”
“I still have work to do.”
I’d been back in the office for four days but had barely dug out of the backlog of emails to answer, reports to review, and calls to return.
“It will all be here tomorrow. I want to hear about your time with Max.”
“I told you all about my time with Max on Monday morning. Remember, you were in my office waiting for me at six thirty in the morning with coffee you’d spiked with RumChata?”
“Yes, but you told me what you wanted to talk about. Now I want to hear what you don’t want to talk about. And don’t even tell me there’s nothing else on your mind. Because you’re three for three on the Georgia scale of something’s bugging you. Your hair is up in a bun by nine AM. You only do that when you have a problem you can’t solve. You’re checking the time on your phone like you’re waiting for someone to flip the switch on the electric chair, and you have that upward inflection when speaking.”
“What upward inflection?”
“At the end of every sentence you raise your voice like you’re asking a question, when you’re not.”
“There’s no way that I do that?” I covered my mouth. “Oh my God, I just did it.”
Maggie laughed. “You only do those things when you have a problem you can’t solve.”
“Maybe I have a work problem that’s bothering me.”
Maggie folded her arms across her chest. “Okay. What is it?”
“I, uh…” Drawing a complete blank, I shook my head, pulled open my desk drawer, and yanked out my purse. “Fine. But we can’t overdo it. I’ll have to get in extra early tomorrow to make up for all the things I should be doing now.”
Maggie grinned. “Of course.”
? ? ?
“I wasn’t supposed to grow feelings for Max. He was only supposed to be my distraction.” Hiccup.
Maggie smirked. “I knew you were lying when I asked you on Monday if you were falling for him. You oversold the ‘Nah, we’re just having a good time.’ If you had debated my question for thirty-six hours and then answered, I might’ve believed it.”
“But I love Gabriel. I’d decided to marry him.”
“You can love someone but not be in love with them. I love you, but I don’t want to wake up to you every morning.”
“That’s different.”
She shrugged. “Not really. You want to know what I think?”
I pouted. “No.”
“That’s a shame. Because you’re going to hear it anyway. I think you spend so much time analyzing every decision that you’ve forgotten to listen to your heart. Things in your life have changed—and those changes were started by Gabriel. Let’s not forget that.”
I dropped my head into my hands. “I’m so confused. And Max is moving at the end of the summer.”
“So? He’s a professional athlete. He’s probably on the road for most of the hockey season anyway. He has to live near his team to practice and go to work, but why couldn’t he be bicoastal and spend the offseason here, if things worked out? You have a shop in Long Beach, California. You could work out of that, if you wanted, at least for some of the season. You’re self-employed, Georgia. Hell, you could move the entire damn operation to wherever he is.”