I watched his eyes dart to me and then at the wall in front of him as he listened to the person on the other line. “Nah, that’s okay. No worries.”
He took a step backwards and leaned against the counter. He listened for a minute and then laughed. “That doesn’t surprise me. Just do what you can and we’ll see how things go. Don’t lose a lot of sleep over it.” His grin grew wider as he listened. “Alright. See you in the morning.”
He ended the call and looked at me.
“Who was that?” I asked, knowing good and well it wasn’t Cane. He was nicer than he would’ve been with him. No curse words were exchanged, no questions about Jada. And his tone was just a touch more...intimate.
“Samantha,” he said warily.
I didn’t say anything, trying to figure out why she would be calling him at nine o’clock at night.
“She started work today,” he began. “Apparently Norm thinks she is meant to work in accounting.”
“That didn’t take long,” I muttered and turned to walk upstairs. I was tired and cranky and didn’t want to discuss her.
Max closed the distance between us quickly, wrapping his right arm around my chest. “Hey, now. What’s this about?”
“What’s what about?”
“Don’t play games with me, Kar. Why are you annoyed about her working for me? You said it was fine, otherwise I wouldn’t have hired her.”
I sighed and leaned my back against his chest. “She just had to call you at home on her first night to tell you that? Is this going to be a‘thing’—her calling and bleeding into our life?”
“She’s probably just nervous and wanted a little affirmation that she did a good job today.”
“She couldn’t have called HR? Or Cane?”
Max’s chest bounced up and down as he laughed. “Cane hates her.”
“That makes two of us,” I muttered, walking towards the stairs.
“You don’t know her well enough to hate her.”
“You’re right, I don’t.” I said, grabbing the banister and looking at him. “I’m just tired and pissy.”
“And jealous?” Max asked, his lips quirking up in the corners.
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “No, I’m not jealous.”
“That’s good. Wanna know why?” He took two wide steps towards me, his face full of amusement. “Because there’s nothing for you to be jealous of.”
“I hope not.”
“Kari,” he said, drawing out my name in that southern way of his, “you know how I feel about you.”
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “I do. But I’m still a girl and we get nervous about stuff. I can’t help it. I get that you want to do something nice for her. But her working for you doesn’t mean you’re going to have to talk to her all the time, right?”
“Nope,” he said, doing that thing with his eyes that I couldn’t resist. “I’ll make it clear to her that she doesn’t need to call me after work. My after-work hours are set aside for a Ms. Kari Stanley.” He kissed my forehead. “Unless Ms. Stanley would like to change that last name of hers sometime.”
I laughed, pulling his head down to meet my lips. “Oh, Max.”
ELEVEN
KARI
I glanced at the clock while I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. It was still relatively early, although I knew Max had been in the office for a while. He’d woken me up by accident when he was getting ready, but I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy the show. Watching him walk into the room, damp from his shower, smelling all fresh and clean with a touch of the woodsiness from his cologne was intoxicating.
There was something inherently sexy about a man getting dressed. The routine of it all, the care of their appearance. The way his muscles rippled as he moved, the shy smiles he gave me when he caught me watching.
