What Maxi Needs (Leave Your Shoes On 3)

He said, “Because I was thinking the same thing on my end.”

“Ryan!” Staci declared with shocked disbelief in her tone. “Whatever Maxi saw in your office couldn’t have been exactly what she saw. That’s not the kind of person you are. You’d never—”

“She did see me and Elizabeth together.”

“Ryan!” Now Staci wailed her disappointment.

Maxi stood on slightly quivering legs. Partly because the mere sight of the sexy PhD made her knees knock together. The other part was born of pure devastation.

She mustered the strength to say, “Look. It doesn’t matter, okay? Nothing matters except the work that we all have to do.” She snatched another tissue and swiped her cheeks.

Why the hell did he have to walk in when she was losing it?

Forcing a steadier inflection—or at least hoping to—Maxi said, “I should have just stuck to my plan of concentrating solely on my job. This is much too cr

itical a time for us to drop the ball, so it’s better that this all fell apart now and we can just shove it under the rug, pretend it never happened, and get back to what we really need to do—work.”

It was a bitch to make that proclamation, because Maxi really did burn for a confrontation, an explanation from Ryan. But she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, determined not to let the emotional damage show further. To brush it aside. To prove she was tough and that she was, indeed, his boss.

All of which became the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.

She spared a glance at Staci, hoping her friend would back her up. Interestingly, Staci appeared as wrecked as Maxi felt.

The redhead said, “I can’t believe you’d go back to Elizabeth, Ryan. I mean, I was there.” Pain and accusation edged her voice. “That night she pitched a snit-fit the likes of which I’ve never seen, because you expressed interest in helping me here, rather than taking another government consulting job. We were in a ballroom full of people. All of your friends and associates were in attendance, as well as hers. And she just shredded you, with no concern for your feelings or mine. Or how uncomfortable it made everyone else. So…what?” she boldly demanded. “You’re just going to forgive and forget?”

“I do forgive her,” Ryan said, his expression contrite, though somewhat perplexed. “She was under a lot of pressure, trying to land a promotion at the hospital.”

“And that’s a reasonable excuse?” Staci asked, aghast. “Did you give her back the ring you’d insisted she return that evening, following her volatile eruption?”

“I forgave her,” Ryan repeated, solidly standing his ground, “because she finally showed her true colors that night and it broke whatever spell I was under. It liberated me from whatever it was about Dr. Elizabeth Sherman that turned me into someone docile and complacent, when that’s not the person I’ve ever been. Not the person I want to ever be. Not the person I’ve been with Maxi—in just a short period of time. Everything has changed for me.”

“Please,” Maxi said between clenched teeth. “Both of you…just…stop. I don’t want to hear another word about Ryan and Elizabeth, all right? I don’t care. So let’s just move on!”

“But you do care,” Staci asserted. “I can tell you’re holding back some serious waterworks, my friend. So fight for him!”

“He cheated on me!” Maxi yelled.

“I most certainly did not!” Ryan fervently countered.

Their gazes locked. Sparks instantly flew.

Maxi couldn’t escape them with this man.

How the hell was she going to work with him after everything that had happened—everything she still felt for him? To the depths of her soul…

Ryan said, “I would never betray you like that. I’d never do that to anyone. But I most certainly would not intentionally hurt you, Maxi. That’s why I’m here. I realized when you started avoiding me that you saw something completely different than what really happened in my office with Elizabeth.”

“But you just said—” Staci tried to interject.

“Staci,” he cut her off. “I’m trying to win back the woman I’ve just lost. Be on my side here, the way I was that night I defended your honor and your company in front of six hundred people.”

Her mouth snapped shut.

“Now wait a second,” Maxi said. “Staci is my friend.”

“She’s both of our friends,” Ryan contended, “and can be on both of our sides. If you’ll just let me explain everything you missed before and after you were in my office, I think you might concede that there’s been a huge misunderstanding.”

Maxi could see he was getting a little hot under the collar. His jaw set. His muscles were rigid. His eyes deepened in color so that they were almost black.