The Good Father

Chapter Fifteen

“What?” Okay, now Max was sure he’d dropped down a rabbit hole. Was this some new ploy?

“Just give me a sales job. Straight commission is fine. I have contacts. I can get you some great accounts.”

Max didn’t doubt that was true, but…“Why, Eddie?”

“The situation at the company has become intolerable. Your contribution to the marketing department was grossly undervalued, and nobody seems to be able to take up the slack. Things are in chaos-and I’ve become the whipping boy in your absence. I think Dad figured if he bought you out, then pulled the plug, you’d be forced to come back.

“I can’t work in that kind of atmosphere anymore,” Eddie concluded. “I like it here. This place feels good.”

“But you’re gonna be a vice president someday,” Max argued. “You’d be giving up literally millions of dollars. What does Rhonda say? What about the kids?”

“The kids’ college funds are taken care of. As for Rhonda, she wants out of New York. She doesn’t need much, never did. She would love it here.”

Max could hardly believe his good fortune. Eddie was one of the best salespeople Max had ever met, in any industry. “When can you start?”

They worked out a few details and shook hands on it, after which Max was eager to share the news. Jane was the first person he wanted to tell. But when he checked her office, it was empty.

He checked the break room; she wasn’t there, either. Maybe she was talking to Carol. But when he entered the reception room he didn’t see Jane. Just Carol, looking fidgety and worried.

“Oh, there you are.”

“Where’s Jane?”

“She wanted to wait for you to get out of your meeting, but in the end she couldn’t. She made some excuse…in fact, I think she said something about packing. If you two are taking another business trip, you might want to let me know.”

Packing? That didn’t sound good.

“Did I not tell you?” Eddie said. “It’s too late.”

Max’s blood pounded in his ears. It couldn’t be. She wouldn’t accept another job. Of course she had to think about what was best for herself and Kaylee, but…no. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions until he’d talked to her.

“She didn’t look happy,” Carol said. “You didn’t do something to upset her, did you?”

As usual, Carol said exactly what was on her mind. “Not that I know of.” Everything had been fine this morning, although Kaylee’s untimely interruption hadn’t sat well with Jane.

“Carol, Eddie’s our new account executive. Give him all the appropriate paperwork, would you?” It wasn’t how he wanted to make the announcement. But suddenly his priorities had shifted. “I have to make some calls.” Or rather, one call. What had Jane wanted to talk about?

He stepped into his office and dialed Jane, first her cell, then her home phone. She didn’t answer either.

Hell, Port Clara wasn’t that big. He would just go find her. And he would make damn sure she wasn’t tempted to sell out to the first fast-talking headhunter who crossed her path.

JANE SNIFFED BACK TEARS as she packed up her kitchen into cardboard boxes. She’d been putting this off. Since she wasn’t fit to focus on artwork, and she couldn’t possibly talk to Max while his brother was here, she’d decided it would be a good time to pack.

One nice thing about living on a boat-packing didn’t take long. Most of her possessions-those few things Scott hadn’t claimed-were already in storage.

The tears weren’t because she was leaving the Princess II for good. She mourned the loss of a relationship that hadn’t even really gotten started. The time simply wasn’t right for her and Max.

His priority was his business. And hers was her daughter. When Kaylee was older and could understand more, then Jane might try dating again. But now, it wasn’t working. Kaylee had formed such a strong attachment, and so quickly…Jane had made a mistake, and it was time to undo it. Clearly she wasn’t ready for a relationship. She needed to be just Jane for a while, so she could be sure she wasn’t grabbing on to the first available man because she wanted security, as she’d done with Scott.

Max didn’t represent security anyway. He’d told her flat out not to count on commitment from him. He’d just escaped from a job and a family that were constricting him. Why would he jump into another situation where he would feel obligated to put other people’s needs ahead of his own?

Anyway, his last serious relationship had ended when the woman wanted permanence and Max didn’t.

An emphatic knock at her door made her drop a frying pan she was about to pack, which barely missed her foot. She whirled around and saw a very anxious face peering through the window.

Max. Oh dear. She wasn’t ready to face him, but he’d caught her playing hooky from work, so she hurried to unlock the hatch and let him in.

At first he just stood there, and they stared at each other mutely. The bewildered look on his face made her heart ache, and she wanted to shrink away from it.

Surely when she explained, he would understand.

“Come in, Max,” she finally managed.

He walked down the three steps, all the while taking in her, the salon, the half-filled boxes and bubble wrap. “You’re moving?”

She wanted to touch him, to make some connection with him, but the urge was inappropriate just now. “Well, yes.”

He stared at her and she looked away. How in the world was she going to explain this to him?

“Did something go wrong with your divorce settlement? I swear, if Scott swindled you-”

“No, it has nothing to do with him.”

“Then what’s going on? You said this morning you needed to talk to me. So talk.”

“I was upset, and your brother was visiting and I wasn’t sure if I could hold it together in front of him. I know it’s important to you to make a good impression on Eddie-”

“To hell with Eddie. Why are you upset? If you got a better job offer, why didn’t you tell me? I know I’m the one who said I didn’t want to hold you back, but we can talk about a raise-”

“What? Max, I would never walk out because I got a better job offer.”

“Are you walking out, though?”

She hesitated, not wanting to just blurt it out this way. If there was any way she could stay on…“I’ll stay until you find someone to replace me. I won’t leave you in the lurch, I promise.”

“Jane, you better tell me what’s going on.”

She was perilously close to losing it again. It would be so much better if she could explain things calmly and rationally. But her emotions were too close to the surface, and Max was agitated.

Max squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Is it another man? Oh, God, you’re not going back to Scott, are you?”

“Max! That you could even think I would do that-” She almost growled in frustration, turning away and stomping to the kitchen to continue her packing. He had to know her better than that.

She chucked a couple more pans into the box, not even bothering to cushion them with paper. They made loud, satisfying clunks as they hit. But out of the corner of her eye, she also watched Max.

He walked to one of the chairs, moved a half-filled box to the floor, and sat down. Then he reached for a roll of brown packing tape, ripped off a few inches, and slapped it over his mouth.

The gesture brought a smile to her face, and her anger evaporated. In that moment she realized she loved him. Loved him and was in love with him. A man who could admit he was wrong, one with a sense of humor even in a crisis-how often did she run across one of those?

But her being in love wasn’t enough fix everything.

Jane abandoned her packing and cleared a place for herself on the coffee table across from him. They were close, but not touching.

“The problem is Kaylee.”

Max’s eyes filled with panic, and he ripped the tape off his mouth. “Oh, God, she’s not sick, is she?”

“No. But this morning, after she saw us…well, she’s ready for you to move in permanently and be her daddy.”

Jane expected some sort of panic reaction from Max, but instead his face softened. “Oh.”

“I tried to explain the situation, but you can’t reason with an almost-four-year-old.”

“What happened? Did she throw a tantrum or what?”

“I could have handled that. But it was worse. She was…bereft. That’s the only word I can use to explain it. She cried, but quietly. It was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed, worse than seeing her fall and scrape her knee. Even worse than watching Scott walk away from her in that restaurant like she meant nothing to him.”

Max looked almost bereft himself. “We’re breaking up?”

“I don’t want to, believe me. But-”

“So is the answer that you just won’t have a social life?”

“I can have a social life,” she argued.

“Sure. Of course. And maybe you can date men that Kaylee doesn’t like so well, ones who ignore her and consider her a pest, so she won’t get attached.”

“Max, please. You’re not making this any easier.”

“I don’t intend to make it easy. I intend to make it damn difficult for you to walk out of my life. Have you really thought about what you’re doing?”

“I’ve thought of nothing else. I don’t see any other choice.”

Max stood up and headed for the door. But he didn’t leave. He opened the hatch, took a couple of deep breaths. Jane just sat there helplessly.

Finally he closed the hatch and turned to face her again. “Look, if you really feel you don’t want to see me outside of work, that’s one thing, but you don’t have to leave the Remington Agency. I promised you our seeing each other wouldn’t interfere with your job, and it won’t.”

“Yes, it will,” she said, her voice ringing with resignation. “You know it will. I don’t think I could see you day in and day out and just pretend to be friends. We can’t go backward.”

Jane’s eyes filled with tears, and she buried her face in her hands.

Max closed the distance between them with two steps, and she prayed he wouldn’t try to comfort her. But apparently comfort wasn’t what he had in mind.

“Jane Selwyn, I never took you for a quitter. One of the reasons I hired you was because of your gumption. The way you attack problems and just go for what you want-it’s a rare quality. It’s also one of the reasons I fell in love with you.”

Jane’s world tilted on its axis for a brief moment. She was so startled her tears stopped abruptly and she peeked through her fingers up at Max. Had he really just said what she thought he said?

But yes, she could see it there in his eyes, the love shining through.

He sat back down in the chair across from her. “There’s an easy solution to this whole thing, and I can’t believe you didn’t see it. We’ll get married.”

“What?”

“It’s perfect. Kaylee wants me to be her daddy, I’ll be her daddy.”

“But…but…” Oh, my God. Jane sprang up from her chair. She needed to move, to pace, but every direction she stepped there was another box or piece of furniture. Boat cabins were no good for pacing.

“You have a problem with this?” he asked, as if he’d just brought her a coffee with too much cream rather than confidently declaring they should spend the rest of their lives together.

“You can’t just go around marrying someone because their kid wants you as a daddy!” she exploded. “There are a million reasons we can’t get married. I just got divorced. You’re my boss. You’re a confirmed bachelor-”

“Who says?”

“You. At the Hotel Alexander. You said you didn’t like dating single moms angling for marriage. Then you said it again, after we made love the first time. You told me you weren’t ready to settle down.”

“I was in denial. I was scared by how deeply I was starting to care for you. None of it was true.”

“But, Max…marriage? What about all those women?”

He looked puzzled. “What women?”

“Your little black book is bulging with them. You’re going to give that up?”

He reached into his jacket, extracting the worn leather address book. “This? You want to know how much all those other women mean to me? I’ll show you.” He got up and headed outdoors.

Jane followed. “Max, what are you doing?”

He walked all the way to the Princess II’s stern, then wound up like a baseball pitcher and hurled the book into the bay.

“Max! You had business contacts in there, too.”

He turned and smiled at her as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “The important ones are on computer.” But then he turned serious. “There would be only one reason in the world why we shouldn’t get married, and that’s if you don’t love me. Do you love me, Jane?”

She nodded, afraid to speak.

“Then, seriously, will you marry me? ’Cause I’m not kidding around here. We are good together. All of us-you, me, Kaylee. I’ll try to be the best husband and father I know how to be. And since I know you don’t like the idea of marrying the boss, I have a solution for that, too.”

“You’re firing me?”

Max slapped a hand to his forehead. “Jane, for God’s sake, I’m not going to fire you. I actually came over here with a very different proposal in mind, a business proposal. I want to make you a partner in the agency. An equal, 50-50 partner. I want to change the name to Remington & Selwyn. You’ve already invested a significant amount of money in the-Oh.”

Jane was suddenly dizzy, and she sank onto one of the padded benches. “What?”

“I just realized where the money came from. You sold your boat. Damn it, Jane, you just march right back in there and unpack. We’ll buy it back.”

“With what? Max, it’s a done deal. I wanted to sell the Princess II. I believe in you and the Remington Agency. It was a sound investment.”

Finally he smiled at her. “See, you’re already thinking like a partner. You’ve been functioning like one almost since the beginning. You’re involved in decision-making and key meetings. Frankly, I’m not sure we can survive without you. So what do you think?”

Jane pursed her lips, appearing to give it serious thought. “I think it would be too expensive to change the name of the agency. That would mean a new logo, new legal papers to file, all new stationery…”

Max looked at her quizzically.

“I think,” Jane continued, “it would just be easier if I changed my name to Remington.”

Max smiled again, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. “Cheeky. That’s what I thought of you the day you tried to guilt me into a job. Cheeky girl.” But when he swept her into his arms, there was nothing amusing about his kiss. He kissed her long and hard until Jane was so limp she could have melted over the side of the boat.

When they were both in danger of fainting from oxygen deprivation, he pulled back just enough so he could look her in the eye. “I want to hear you say it.”

She knew immediately what he meant. “I love you, Max, and I enthusiastically accept all proposals.”