The Perception Read online

  “I’m glad you finally agreed to live with me,” he whispered, the sparkle back in his eyes, gold flecks catching the light.

  My heart swelled, burst, and pooled at my feet. “Me, too.”

  “You know I love you, right?”

  “I do,” I said breathily. “I love you, too.”

  “Marry me?” he asked, grinning from ear-to-ear.

  “Not today.”

  MAX

  I entered Alexander Industries from the side door outside my office. I tossed my briefcase and the plans I should’ve been working on the night before onto my desk.

  I tried to wipe the smile off my face, but I couldn’t. I knew I was going to be as useful as a bucket without a bottom all day.

  I leaned against my desk and recalled Kari placing her things around the house. A picture of her parents next to the one of mine on the mantle above the fireplace. Her necklaces draped off the mirror in the bathroom. Her jewelry boxes on the dresser in the bedroom. Her things mingled together with mine settled something inside me, soothed a part of me I didn’t know was raw. It just felt natural. Complete.

  I smiled wider as I checked my email and voice messages.

  “Max. Dan. If you don’t get my last check sorted out today, I’m going to come in there and raise hell. I’ve left Hilah a couple of messages and I’m not fucking waiting anymore.”

  What a way to start the day.

  I shot Hilah an email and cc’d Cane, asking her what was going on with it. A reply came back right away that she took care of it and that Dan was coming by later that morning to sign off. She also asked a few questions about our new hire, Ms. Samantha West.

  As soon as I read the last word, my email pinged again. This time from Cane.

  To: Max Quinn

  From: Cane Alexander

  Re: Seriously?

  Tell me there’s a huge fucking mistake somewhere. I know I didn’t just read that right.

  I grabbed the back of my neck and heaved out a breath.

  This might be harder than I expected.

  I pushed away from my desk and started towards Cane’s office.

  Might as well grab the bull by the horns.

  I saw Sam’s blonde curls through the glass doors separating the offices from the front desk. She caught my eye and flashed me a wide smile and a small wave. Figuring I should say something to her before Cane, I walked up the hallway and pushed through the glass.

  “Good morning, Max,” she said happily.

  “Hi, Sam. Are ya settled in?”

  She was poised behind the marble-topped front desk, mailing labels shooting out of the printer beside her.

  “Yes. Hilah met me up here when I arrived. She showed me around.” Sam glanced around the front desk and shrugged. “I have everything organized already and was kinda bored, actually. I’m helping Norm in accounting with some invoices now.”

  See? This will work out just fine.

  “Great. If you need anything, just let me or Hilah know.”

  “I do need one thing, actually,” she said. “Lucy seems to have taken her keys with her and I don’t have a key to the plan or supply closets. Hilah said she’d make me a copy this afternoon, which is fine, but I need to grab some printer paper now and she’s with a guy named Dan.”

  I looked through the other glass door to Hilah’s office. “Dan came in?”

  She nodded. “He was pretty upset. I’m not sure what’s going on, but Cane flew in there right behind him.”

  “If you need anything, just buzz me, okay?” I reached in my pockets and grabbed my keys and tossed them on her desk. “Those are my keys. You can copy all the ones with a blue ring around them. They’re just the communal keys for the office and should be everything you need.”

  “I’ll use them now and then get them copied at lunch, if that’ll work.”

  “That’s fine.”

  The phone rang and Sam picked it up. “Alexander Industries,” she said cheerfully.

  Hilah’s door opened and Cane stormed out, heading straight for me. He swung open the glass forcefully, his face marred in frustration. He looked down at Sam and scowled and nodded to me and towards my office.

  I sighed and turned towards the hallway.

  “Good morning, Mr. Alexander,” Sam said to Cane’s back as he followed me out. Cane ignored her.

  We were silent as we marched down the hall. It was never good when Cane was riled up first thing in the morning. It just made for a long ass day.

  I took my seat in my office and Cane shut the door behind him.

  “What the fuck is that sitting at the front desk?” Cane asked, his hand on my filing cabinet.

  “Sam needed a job—”

  “Good for her. Why is she here?”

  “She’s filling in for Lucy.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No.”

  Cane blew out a breath and sat across from me. “You know she’s certi-fucking-fiable, right?”

  “Cane . . .”

  He propped one ankle on the other knee and scratched at his chin. He eyed me curiously. “There are seven different personality types of women. Every woman will fall into one of those seven if you pay enough attention to figure it out. Apparently with Sam, you can’t do that, so I’m gonna break it down for you. She, my friend, falls into the category of Crazy As Hell.”

  “She’s not crazy.”

  “Oh, she certainly is. I know you don’t see it because of all that shit that happened, but she’s nuts. Do you know how many times I could’ve tapped that over the years? Hundreds, Max. But I didn’t and you know me—there were times in my life where I fucked anything and everything.” He leaned forward. “But I never fucked her.”

  “No one is asking you to do anything to her. We had a job opening and she needed a job. It’s the nice thing to do.”

  Cane dipped his chin and looked sternly at me. “You do realize that you don’t owe her jack shit, right?”

  I rolled my eyes. “This has nothing to do with that.”

  “The fuck it doesn’t. You still think you need to help her put her life back together. She’s a fuckin’ head case, Quinn, and that has nothing to do with you. It never has had anything to do with you.”

  “Cane—”

  “Nope. Not done,” he cut me off. “Most of what that girl says is garbage. I know she has you wrapped around her little finger and I get that. I do. You’re a nice guy and you always try to do the right thing. But it makes you a sitting duck to people who want to manipulate you. And she wrote the book on that.”

  “I know you don’t like her. I get it. But it’s just a job. What can it hurt?”

  “It better not hurt anything. I don’t have the time or the energy to deal with anything that crazy bitch comes up with. Between Jada and Dan, I have a full plate.”

  I rested my elbows on my desk, exhausted before eight in the morning. “I heard he was in this morning. How’d that go?”

  “I didn’t kill him.”

  “That’s a point in your favor.”

  “Yeah, well, he had a little fit about not getting paid but Hilah was right. She deducted the balance he owed us back for the advance he took when he got married that you approved. Danny Boy forgot about that, conveniently. He tossed a few threats and more than a few profanities, but I think he got the picture.”

  Cane stood quickly and walked past my desk to the window, looking across the parking lot. We watched Dan get into his green Chevy and speed out of the parking lot.

  “There’s one crazy down.” He looked at me and shook his head. “One to go.”

  KARI

  Maybe it’s a full moon.

  I gathered my things after a longer-than-expected shift at the hospital. The ER had been full and wild with everything from the flu to gunshots to a finger dangling by an inch of skin. Everyone’s craziness, plus the call-offs by a couple of nurses, equaled a very long shift for me.

  Regardless, the ER was what I loved. It was fast-paced, ever-
changing, and you had to stay on your toes. I had been thinking about Dr. Manning’s job offer. It would give me predictability in my schedule and an easier patient base. But when I imagined myself working in an office from nine-to-five, dealing with routine flu shots and diabetes checks, I was bored out of my mind. I knew I couldn’t take the offer. I just had to tell him.

  I picked up my bag and walked out of the nurse’s locker room and into the lounge we shared with the doctors. Connor walked in right after me. His face looked heavy, bags under his eyes.

  “Hi, Dr. Manning,” I said, stepping out of his way.

  “Hi, Kari. Your shift ending?”

  “A couple of hours later than it was supposed to, but yeah, I’m heading out.” I swallowed. “When can we talk about . . . what we talked about the other day?” There was no one else in the room, but it still felt wrong to discuss it openly.

  He closed his eyes briefly. “Whenever you would like. Did you decide?”

  “I did. I’m honored that you would trust me enough to ask me to work with you, but I really can’t. The ER is where I belong. My heart and soul is here.”

  “I understand. I want you to know that if you ever change your mind, the offer stands.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “I don’t mean to pry, but are you okay, Dr. Manning? You seem exhausted.”

  He forced a smile. “I am exhausted, actually. My mother was just diagnosed with lupus. I’m heading back to Salt Lake City for a couple of days to make sure her care is in order. I leave tomorrow.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “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

  I glanced at the clock while I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. It was still relatively early, although I knew Max had been in the office for a while. He’d woken me up by accident when he was getting ready, but I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy the show. Watching him walk into the room, damp from his shower, smelling all fresh and clean with a touch of the woodsiness from his cologne was intoxicating.

  There was something inherently sexy about a man getting dressed. The routine of it all, the care of their appearance. The way his muscles rippled as he moved, the shy smiles he gave me when he caught me watching.

  Wishing he had stayed home instead of going into work, I grabbed my phone off the kitchen counter and opened my Gmail.

  To: Max

  From: Kari

  Re: Buenos Dias

  Getting ready to run to my house and pick up a few more things. Just wanted to tell you that I miss you and packing and carrying all of those heavy boxes won’t be nearly as fun without getting to watch your muscles while I do it. :( I’m probably going to need a full-body rub down when you get home. Just saying.

  I waited a minute to see if he’d respond and he did.

  To: Kari
<
br />   From: Max

  Re: Sounds like a buenos noches, too.

  Maybe we make it a buenos . . . well, I don’t know how to say weekend in Spanish. I was talking to Cane this morning and told him I’d like to take you to his cabin in Payson. We can relax, fish, maybe do a little horseback riding? Sound fun? Oh—just pack the boxes. I’ll move them, sweetheart.

  Horseback riding? Who does he think I am?

  To: Max

  From: Kari

  Re: This is me you’re talking to . . .

  And I’m not a country person. I’m all about the relaxing part, but you lost me at fishing. And the only thing I’m going to be riding is you. ;)

  Within seconds a response came.

  To: Kari

  From: Max

  Re: This is me you’re gonna be riding . . .

  Sweetheart, I have a shit ton of things to do today and I can’t concentrate when I’m thinking about you on my cock. You’ve simultaneously ruined me and energized me, you little troublemaker.

  I laughed and closed my email. I grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator, noticing a new sticky note from Max stuck to the front.

  I grabbed the Sharpie out of the drawer next to the refrigerator and peeled off a new sticky. I stuck it next to his and wrote:

  I grabbed my things and jumped in the car, heading towards my house. Florida-Georgia Line blared through my speakers, making me laugh when I realized I was singing along. It was just another way Max had rubbed off on me. I turned the volume down, the music interfering with my thoughts.

  Max had changed my life. He filled some sort of emptiness I didn’t really even realize was there. I had lived feeling alone for so long, I didn’t even realize it. It just became who I was, a part of me. Max changed all that. He filled the vacancy with laughs, smiles, and warmth. My life had been dull and now it was vibrant, bursting with red cups, multi-colored sticky notes, and the most beautiful green eyes I’d ever seen.

  My smile faded as I realized the pain I would feel when it was over. It would, without a doubt, be worse than any pain I’d ever felt before. It wasn’t so much that I had chosen Max, it was that he had chosen me. He endured my mood swings and just kept coming back when I pushed him away. Hell, he didn’t budge when I’d shoved him back. He’d just smirk, his dimple sinking into his cheek, and wait for me to realize he wasn’t leaving.