Page 87 of Landlord Wars
My emotional reserves were tapped, but I couldn’t back down. His family… I couldn’t forget how they’d treated me. I did not deserve it. Not ever again. I’d promised myself that Paul would be the last man who rejected me as unworthy. In this case, it was Max’s family, but was there a difference?
The only problem was, I loved Max, and though I’d cared deeply for Paul, I realized now that I was never in love with him.
Maybe Paul had known I didn’t love him the way he’d loved me, and he’d used my mother as an excuse. I didn’t know. Either way, the situation with Max was different, and even I could admit that.
“I spoke to my parents and Gwen,” he said. “Gwen agreed to tell her friends there is no engagement.” His mouth twisted as though he were frustrated. “She wanted to say it had been called off, but I refused, and she agreed to explain there was never any engagement.”
He’d shown up at the hospital that night and said as much. “Does it matter? No one will believe you’re dating me. I ran into my ex at the ball, and even he didn’t believe it.”
The skin around Max’s eyes tightened. “I don’t care what your douchebag ex-boyfriend thinks. I also don’t care what my parents and their social circles think. I care whatyouthink, and the rest of them can hang.”
He stepped closer, but he didn’t reach for me. “Family is important, but I won’t stand for disrespect toward my friends, and especially not toward the woman I love.”
He reached for my hand, and I let him hold it in his warm, firm grip. Mostly because I longed for his touch.
“Please forgive me,” he said. “I should have told my parents about you as soon as I knew I was serious. I also should have cut off all contact with Gwen after she dumped me over my parents’ lost fortune.”
I shook my head. “Wait—that’swhy you broke up?”
He exhaled heavily. “I’d been thinking about ending things long before that, but the financial debacle was the impetus. Gwen recently had a change of heart, however, which I suspect had more to do with my parents’ influence in town. As far as I was concerned, whatever we had was long over.”
Paul had broken up with me because my mother didn’t fit in his world, and now Max was telling me he’d been dumped because his family name would be tarnished. What the hell was wrong with people? Had they no integrity?
Maybe it wasn’t that I didn’t fit in Max’s world, but that he didn’t fit in his world either. And if he didn’t fit in his world…then he was inmy world.
I took the flowers out of his hand. “You should know, I’m in love with you too.”
His shoulders sank and he pulled me to his chest. “I’m an idiot, but I promise to be a better idiot.”
My chest grew lighter as my heart broke out of its protective shell. I leaned back. “What every woman wants to hear.”
He grinned and kissed me on the lips, quickly, sneaking it in before I could protest. “Those flowers are for your mother, by the way.”
I frowned, but he wouldn’t let me pull away. “Where is my token?”
Holding me around the waist with one arm, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a red box. “It’s not La Fleur au Truffe. That place is high maintenance, with its two-week ordering.”
My eyes widened at the pretty red packaging.“You got this in Noe Valley, didn’t you? It’s a good backup.” I opened the box and popped the chocolate in my mouth as fast as I could. “This close,” I said, chewing, “I don’t trust you not to steal it.”
He wrapped his arms around me, lightly smashing the flowers, and held my head to his chest. I breathed in the clean Max scent that felt like home. “God, Sophia, these were the worst days of my life. Don’t ever leave me.”
We stood there for a minute until he said, “You know, if you moved in with me, your mom could live in your old room while her house is being cleaned. She’d be close, and Jack would love it. He misses having a mom.”
I tilted my head back and studied his eyes. He was dead serious. “My mom is a hoarder who’s going into therapy for her problems, and you want her to move inalonewith your best friend?”
He shrugged. “Jack is adaptable. I’m telling you, he’d love it. Or she could move in with us.”
I actually could see my mom enjoying being Jack’s roommate. She used to love having people over before my dad died.
I blinked several times. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“What’s this about moving?” a cultured voice rang out.
Max looked over my head and frowned, and I turned.
Max’s mother was standing in the hallway in a lavender skirt suit, with her hand on her hip.
ChapterThirty-Four
