It takes every ounce of what little strength I have to say, “Max Lane.”
“Max Lane? The Max Lane?” he asks.
I manage a nod and the man says, “Call it in, we found him.”
They have been looking. I thought no one cared. I thought no one was looking for me.
A wet cloth touches my face and the paramedic says, “We have to get you looking a little more presentable, Mr. Lane. There is sure to be media at the hospital. We’ve all been looking for you for days. Is there anyone special you’d like us to inform of your recovery before it goes public?”
I shake my head weakly and find I can easily open my eyes and finally I see the face of the angel I’ve been hearing. She’s gorgeous. Long, red hair hangs around a porcelain face with huge green eyes and pink lips. My eyes roam down to as far as they can while strapped to this thing, and there they are, long legs.
Yes!
I hope she’s not taken. I smile a little at her and wonder what she thinks of me. She looks at me and smiles back. “You will be better soon, my prince.”
Her prince, how sweet. I had a princess once, and she ran from me. Maybe this one won’t. “Kate, right?” I ask.
She nods and winks at me. “And you are Max. It’s nice to meet you.”
Yeah, my name sounds good coming off her lips. “You’ll stay with me, right, Kate?”
“I will,” she says. “Until you tell me to go. I will watch over you until you are cared for properly.”
“That’s nice of you,” I say.
“I was sent to you, Max.” Her eyes go a little glassy. “This morning I awoke with an urgent need to go for a ride on our yacht. Daddy did not want to go, but I insisted. So you see I was sent to find you, and I will stay with you until you no longer wish me to.”
“You’re my angel,” I say and close my eyes, because the knowledge she is watching over me leaves me relieved and I can finally rest peacefully.
The ambulance pulls to a stop, and the paramedic says, “There are already a lot of reporters here, Mr. Lane. Don’t attempt to speak or they’ll never quit asking you questions and we need to get you into the emergency room. Okay?”
I nod and they move me out. My angel stays with me, walking close by my head. She leans in close and says, “Do not be afraid, Max. I will be by your side the whole time.”
I gaze at her in awe until a flash from a camera blinds me momentarily. There are reporters everywhere and the paramedics push through them as they shout questions at me. I don’t answer any like I was instructed to and my angel keeps her eyes locked on mine until we get inside. “You are doing well, Max,” she says.
It occurs to me this whole thing may have been a blessing in disguise. Lexi doesn’t want me, so why care anymore. Maybe this is my real soulmate, stranger things have been known to happen.
Alexis
My eyes open, I must’ve fallen asleep. The room is pitch black and I grab the television remote off the night stand and turn the television on for some light. I blink and grab my glasses off the table as well. Putting them on I see the news is on and take the remote to change the channel.
“News broke earlier this evening on the rescue of Max Lane,” the anchorman says and I sit up not believing what I’m hearing. A picture of Max gazing at some red headed woman fills the screen. “Max Lane has been found alive and is in an undisclosed hospital in Florida. Doctors have issued a statement telling us he’s in stable condition and no permanent damage was done. He should be home by next week, Houston.”
The anchorwoman next to him says, “I wonder who the mystery beauty is he’s looking at so lovingly?”
“So do I,” I mumble to myself.
My body feels numb with a weird emotional whiplash. Max is alive! I move like lightning to find my computer and try to find out what hospital he’s in. Then it occurs to me that Hilda may be a better source than that. He had to have informed her.
I grab my keys and head out to the mansion. My heart is beating like a drum in my chest and I find I’m giddy.
Max is alive!
Who was that woman? I can’t help thinking about how he was looking at her. But after days in the ocean, he had to be happy to see anyone. Right?
Before I know it I’ve made it to the gate and I push the button. Hilda answers, “Hello?”
“Hilda, it’s me, Lexi, can I come talk to you?”
The gates open and I drive in. I park and rush to the door, where she’s already waiting. “He’s alive!” I shout.
She holds her arms out to me and we hug and cry. “He is!” she says. “Miho is alive!”
She takes my hand and pulls me inside. “He’ll be home in a few days, he told me earlier.”
I follow her into the kitchen where she sits me on a barstool. She pours us both a glass of Champagne and we clank our long stemmed glasses. “To Max’s speedy recovery,” I say.
We each take a drink and then I see a frown on her face. “I should tell you something.”
“What?” I ask as I place my glass on the bar.
“Max is bringing a woman home with him,” she says and my world falls apart again.
I sit in stunned silence. He’s alive, but he’s already found another woman. “Do you know who she is?”
Hilda takes another drink. “She is the one who recused him. Her family is from France and she made them take the yacht out this morning. She felt compelled to go out and when they found Max she saw it as her duty to stay with him and make sure he’s taken care of.”
“But he’s bringing her back here?” I pick up my glass and chug it.
Hilda refills it as she says, “He calls her his angel and I dare say I heard love in his voice, dear.”
“Who wouldn’t immediately fall in love with a beautiful woman who saved their lives, right?” She shrugs and I take another drink then say, “The important thing is that he’s alive and will be well soon.” I look at her. “Right? That’s the most important thing?”
With a nod she says, “Your leaving him again turned him into a dark person, you should know that.” The stool next to mine she takes. “So many cases of Jack Daniels he drank. He thought he hid it from us well, but he didn’t. The night he took the helicopter I ran out to the pad as soon as I heard it, to try to stop him.”
“So he was drunk?” I ask.
“Yes, very drunk. He took off before I could reach him. I called his cell phone to try to get him to come back, but he never answered it. Then he never came home, and I called the police.”
“My leaving had everything to do with that then,” I say as I gaze at the bubbles in my drink. “I was right.”
“Don’t blame yourself, sweetheart,” Hilda says as she pats my back. “He didn’t have to take it so damn hard.”
“But he did.” I look at her. “Did he date at all after I left?” Her head shakes and my heart breaks into a thousand pieces as I realize he didn’t go right out and find himself another woman to play with in his bed like I thought he would.
“I am sorry you ran from him. He’s a good man, Lexi. This woman who saved him, he may be bringing her home, but if you showed up, I bet he would fall right back in love with you.”
“I almost killed him, Hilda. I don’t think I’m good for him,” I say as it hits me that I am not the right one for him.
He has the ability to tear me in half with one photo and I have the ability to kill him, our relationship is not a healthy one. I smile at Hilda and get up. She looks at me with a sad expression. “You will come see him when he gets home, won’t you?” she asks.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I walk away and turn back. “I do want you to let him know I cared enough to come here and if it wouldn’t hurt us both so much I would come visit him.”
Tears cloud my vision as I walk out of the mansion, leaving it behind me for the third time. The ride back to my apartment seems to take forever and as I pull into my parking spot I notice Logan’s car and he’s sitting behind the steering wheel.
> Max
Finally, I’m on my way home. I hired a private jet to take Kate and her mother and father back to Houston with me. My angel sits next to me, holding my hand in hers. She’s twenty-three and her family is beyond rich. Her father has more money than I do.
This girl is sweet though. Not like those other rich bitches. Though young, she has more class than any of the others, and she looks at me like she adores me. Already she adores me and eagerly answered yes when I asked her and her family to join me at my place for a week.
They’re on an extended vacation. She’s already asked me to go back to France with them to visit their home, which I have said yes to. That seems to be all we say to each other is yes.
The jet is landing and my heart is pounding. I never thought I’d see my home again. In about an hour I’ll be back and I may kiss the front door I longed to see again.
A car waits for us on the tarmac so I don’t have to see any reporters. My face was plastered all over the papers and I’m sure my ex’s have all seen my angel and how I was staring at her. The last thing I need is for any of them to know I’m home and make life miserable for us.
Except Lexi, she’d never do that. I wonder how she took the news about me.
Kate’s family takes pictures out the window as we drive home and seem excited about seeing Texas. I’m going to take them to check out all which is cool about this state. I had Hilda get us tickets to a Dallas Mavericks game in two days. I bet they’ll flip over the tall players.
My gate comes into view and I am home. I smile at Kate and she squeezes my hand. “My prince is home again. I am so happy for you,” she says.
I tweak her tiny nose and smile. “Thank you for saving me, angel.”
As we pull up I see Hilda waiting, and now she’s jumping up and down and running out to me.
She seems to be happy I made it!
Alexis
Logan talked me into coming back to Dallas with him. He made me give up my apartment so I have nowhere to run to anymore. He said if I have an escape I’ll use it and it’s self-destructive.
Now that I realize how bad Max and I are for each other I can really move on and make things work with Logan. He’s a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have him.
To be sure I wasn’t pregnant I took one of those early pregnancy tests and it came back negative. I told Logan I’m really not ready to rush into getting pregnant after all. It was dumb of me to do that in the first place. While we haven’t had sex again, we have slept in the same bed.
I feel really fragile with all the Max stuff and think I need to give myself a lot more time to make decisions about anything. Logan just got home and I meet him at the door with a glass of iced tea. He hands me his keys, I drop them in the basket and hand him his drink then kiss his cheek. It’s a nice little ritual we have.
“How was your day?” he asks me.
“Fine, and yours,” I ask. Another little ritual of ours.
“Fine,” he answers. “What’s for dinner?”
“I made roasted chicken and potatoes,” I say and make my way to the kitchen to see how it’s coming as he sits down to watch the evening news.
I can barely hear the television as I pull the chicken out of the oven. A man’s voice says, “Billionaire, Max Lane, has made it home to Houston. In tow was the woman who found him and her parents. Seems like Mr. Lane found him an angel through his ordeal. How can one man be so lucky?”
I peek around the corner to glimpse a picture someone snapped of them getting into a black limo. Max’s arm is tight around the red-head as they both smile like crazy people.
I left him! I ran from him! And I almost made him die!
I turn back to stab a fork into the potatoes to see if they’re done. Logan’s cell phone rings. “Hello,” he says. “Um, okay. Hang on a sec.”
Logan comes into the kitchen and holds the phone out to me. “It’s for me?” I ask. “Is it Mom?”
With a shake of his head, he says, “It’s Max.”
My heart stops and my knees give out. I sit down at the table and hyperventilate. Logan touches my shoulder and I look at him. “What should I do?”
“Talk to him, Alex. What do you think?”
He places the phone in my shaking hand and I say, “Max?”
“Hi, Lexi,” his voice is soft and sweet and makes me melt in an instant.
“Hi,” I say as tears fill my eyes. “I’m glad to see you made it. I was devastated when I thought you were…” I stop, I can’t say the word.
“Yeah, I figured you’d be,” he says. “I found my cell and saw you’d called the same night I took off in the chopper. Weird huh?”
“Yeah, weird.” My heart is in my throat and I’m having the hardest time even thinking.
“Hilda told me you came over the night I was found. Thanks for doing that, Lex, it was nice of you,” he says then he clears his throat. “Who’s the guy who answered the phone?”
“You noticed that, did you?” I ask with a smile.
“I did,” he says. “So you’ve really moved on then?”
I hesitate because while it seems like I have I’m just not all the way sure. “I think it is best we both do. I saw a picture of you and that demonic lady and it hurt me so bad.” I pause. “Then you fell into a drunken stupor and nearly killed yourself over me.”
“So you think we’re bad for each other?” he asks.
My heart pounds and my mouth goes dry. It seems like he’s giving me the chance to try it out with him again. He has that woman there, but still he asks me this. “Yeah, Max, I think we have the ability to hurt each other to a degree that’s unhealthy.”
“If I asked you to come back, would you?” he asks, and now I know he would dump that chic for me and it makes me think I might be crazy for turning away from him again.
“Don’t you care for that girl?” I ask.
“Well, yeah, but I need to be sure you and I don’t have a shot in Hell before I take that step. I haven’t yet, if that makes any difference to you, Lexi. I haven’t kissed her or asked her to be with me or anything like that.”
“What if I told you I have been with this guy, Logan is his name by the way, like that, Max?” I say. “I mean I promised you I’d never let anyone else have me like you did and I didn’t keep that promise. Does that change how you feel?”
Moments of silence go by before he says, “I can’t say I’m not hurt, because I am. It took you twenty-six years to let someone that close to you. I thought what we had was special, and you ran off and jumped into bed with another man. Why’d you do that, Lex?”
“After I saw the picture of you doing to that girl what you had just done to me I felt used. I felt like what we had just done was ugly and you did it with that whack job so it wasn’t special to you at all,” I say then feel terrible for telling him that. “Was I really special to you, Max?”
“I’m sorry you saw that. I wish I had never done that. Truth be told I wish I had never laid my hands on another woman before you. When I made love to you it was like the first time. It’s never been that special, I promise you.”
“Thank you, that makes me feel somewhat better,” I say. “But you never answered my question, does that change how you feel about me?”
“No, I can live with that,” he says and my heart wants to say that I will go back to him, but my mind says we have too much power over each other’s lives to do that. “That’s nice to hear, it really is. We just have too much power to hurt one another, Max, so my answer is no. Move forward with that girl. She’s not a crazy whacko who’s mean is she?”
“No, she’s really sweet. I’m sure you’d like her,” he says. “Lexi, are you sure about your answer?”
A pain fills my heart and if this much pain can come from a conversation over the phone then what other kinds of pain can he put me through?
“I’m sure, Max,” I should go now. “I’m really happy you’re alive and well. If this is the girl for you I wish you both all the best
.”
“Good luck with your guy, too, Lexi. I wish you all the best too.” He pauses then says, “Hey, just so you know. I was going to put out a search for your ass. I’m not just calling because I found your missed call or Hilda said you came over. I was going to find you no matter what and see if you wanted to give this thing a shot again.”
Wow! Am I insane?
I glance back to see if Logan is anywhere near me, but thankfully he’s giving me privacy, he’s a doll like that. “Max, that’s good to hear, and if we weren’t so dangerous for each other I’d say yes in a heartbeat, but we are. I still love you though, so don’t ever think I don’t.”
“I love you too, Lexi. Are you sure about this?” he asks again.
“You’re trying to wear me down aren’t you?” I ask with a giggle.
“Maybe,” he says. “It’s damn good to hear your voice. Do me a favor and stammer something for me, I miss that. Or maybe you could say some of those funny words for me, you know something like smancy?”
I laugh and say, “Um.. I .. don’t.. know.. Something like that, you silly goose?”
“It’s pretty close,” he says. “Hey, I have to know because it’s something I thought a lot about when I was drifting in the ocean. What kind of crazy job do you have now?”
Suddenly I realize I don’t really have one, but I say, “I clean houses.”
“So you’re not a professional catfish noodler? Man I got that one wrong,” he says with a laugh.
“What in the cornbread heck is that, Max?” I ask.
“Cornbread heck? Good one, Lexi.” He laughs. “Man I miss you, girl!”
I miss him too and how much fun we had. I find myself peeking back over my shoulder to be sure Logan is nowhere around. “Maybe we could still be friends. You know just talk to each other every now and again.”
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