“Me, too.” His face fell. “I’ll let you get out of here. I just came in to check on a few patients and then I’m off as well.”
I nodded, unsure what to say and made my way out to my car. The trip home was uneventful and faster than normal. The sky was dark. The city seemed peaceful and I tried to let the peace settle into my system. I always used the car ride home from work to detox from the events of the day, to try to rationalize the things I saw, the feelings I couldn’t allow myself to feel while on the clock.
I pulled into the driveway and next to Max’s truck. I walked in through the garage and into the kitchen. Max was standing over the sink, washing a plate.
“Hey,” I said, closing the door behind me.
He turned to look at me, the corners of his lips meeting his eyes. “There’s my girl. How was work?”
I tossed my bags on the table. “Crazy. This guy came in tonight with a steel ring around his penis.”
He dried off his hands on a towel as he walked towards me. “You’re kiddin’ me?”
“Could I make this up? Apparently he saw something about cock rings and thought he’d do one better.”
Max laughed. “How’d you get that off?”
“I didn’t. I had to tend to the gunshot wounds in the next room. I’ve never been more excited to stop someone’s bleeding,” I laughed, shaking my head.
Max wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. “Hungry? I made you a chicken breast on the grill and stuck it in the fridge.”
“That sounds really good. But what I really want is a shower and to go to bed.”
He leaned down, his breath hot on my cheek. “I want to do both of those things with you.”
“Let’s go,” I whispered back.
Max opened his mouth to respond, but his ringing cell phone caught his attention. “Let me grab that. It’s probably Cane. He’s been wild all day. I can’t wait for Jada to have this baby so he can settle the hell down.”
Max held the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
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.”
KARI