What Maxi Needs (Leave Your Shoes On 3)

“Where are you going?” Cal asked.

“I have to see someone,” she mumbled, her stomach sinking lower with every step she took. This was a disaster! “I need algebraic equations, Gantt charts, and a goddamn laser pointer that will show us that this is all going to be okay!”

She rushed from her office. Avril called out, “What can I do to help?”

“Pray.”

Maxi stalked across the Operations division and down the short corridor to Ryan’s office, breezing past Anne Phelps.

Maxi barged in on her director and blurted, “We have no place to store all the shoes we’re producing, and that means they’re not getting shipped out!”

She drew up short, her extreme panic instantly replaced with completely different emotions. Her heart launched into her throat. Her blood ran cold.

Ryan stood behind his desk, his glasses off. While some tiny, Tinker Bell blonde loosened his tie.

Maxi gaped.

What the hell had she just walked in on?

Chapter Nine

Ryan said, “Maxi Shayne, meet Dr. Elizabeth Sherman.”

“I—you’re—urgh!” Maxi gaped again. Her chest pulled so tight it was a wonder she could breathe. This was the absolute last thing she’d expected to find—Ryan and his former fiancée in a compromising position.

And it was a compromising position, with Elizabeth’s slender fingers wrapped around the knot of Ryan’s tie. Worse, Maxi knew the man only removed his glasses during the day for one thing.

“This is just…so unbelievable,” she muttered, the pain of betrayal lancing through her.

How could this be happening? Again?

How many times was Maxi going to stumble upon a scene such as this? Lord knew she was pushing a half dozen, with Kev adding a few too many instances to the shitty track record. Each betrayal had shredded her, because Maxi didn’t believe in infidelity.

She didn’t believe in deceiving or intentionally hurting someone you supposedly cared about.

This moment was even more horrific, because she’d really and truly thought she’d broken her pattern, had escaped her past full of cheaters.

She’d trusted Ryan.

Yet here he was…with Elizabeth. His ex.

Ryan said to Maxi, “Give me just a couple of minutes to pull myself together, and I’ll meet you in your office.”

How the hell could he be so blasé about this?

She was at a loss for words. Though only momentarily. She irrationally said, “Don’t bother. I don’t need you.”

Maxi spun around and stormed off. She returned to her office. Slammed the door behind her. And screamed.

She fought the sting of tears threatening her eyes. Tried to accept the logic in the situation. Ryan’s split from Elizabeth was still fresh. If Tinker Bell wanted him back, now was a great time to make a play for him. While he cooled down from whatever argument they’d had to tear them apart in the first place, and before he got seriously involved with another woman.

But…come on!

Maxi’s heart wrenched.

She thought that Ryan was getting seriously involved with another woman. With her.

The signs had been there, visible and easy to read. All the things he’d said to her, the way he was always fixated on her—and no other woman. Even Avril’s batted lashes had had no effect on the man. Only Maxi had seemed to captivate him.