She laughed. “Good. I don’t want them to think of me as a girl.”
“Sorry, but tonight there is no chance of them making that mistake.”
“You look handsome too, by the way. I like that suit on you.”
“We know how to scrub up when we want to.”
“We sure do.”
We made our way to the policemen’s ball, and just as I suspected everyone came rushing up to Madison to tell her how beautiful she looked. I could see that everyone was looking her way and I felt so proud that I was the one that had her on my arm. She walked off to talk to someone, and one of the guys from the team came up to me.
“I actually forgot how beautiful Madison was. I mean, I know she is, but I see her every day, and I guess I just forgot. But wow, you’re one lucky son of a gun.”
I chuckled. “Tell me about it. She’s incredible.”
“You do realize that everyone is looking at her, right? Nobody is going to see her in the same way again.”
“That’s what I told her. It’s hard to forget. But hey, where is your girlfriend?”
He sighed. “We broke up. I brought my sister with me tonight. She’s a sweetheart, and I figured it was better than coming alone. But damn, looking at Madison, I wish I had someone like that with me tonight. Any chance you want to swap dates?”
“I think I’ll stick with Madison.”
I watched as she walked from table to table, saying hello to everyone. She had always been a lot more sociable than me, and I was sometimes surprised at how well the two of us got along because of this. She spoke to people with ease, while I was told that my resting face was a grumpy one. On Team Maverick, there was no denying which one of us was the better one. But, naturally, I’d keep that information to myself. She saw me watching and came back over to me. Just then a waiter walked past with a tray of champagne glasses, and we both took one.
“I need this,” I said as I took a sip.
“It’s delicious. But why do you need it? Are you nervous?”
I nodded. I was getting an award that night, and I would have to go up and say thank you for it. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do a long speech, but I was always terrified when it came to being up in front of the public. It didn’t come naturally to me.
“I’m nervous. Also, I’m still not sure that I deserve this award. It feels so strange.”
“Trust me, Max. I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you if it wasn’t for the sacrifice you made for me. You put me before yourself, and I will never forget what you did. You deserve that reward, and you don’t need to feel nervous. Everyone here loves you.”
“Thanks, Madi. I just want to sit and enjoy the food.”
She laughed. “Award first, then food.”
“Isn’t it champagne first?” I said and took a sip.
“Champagne first, then award, then food, then more champagne.”
“I like the way you think.”
We made our way to our seat, a table near the front, and another round of drinks was brought out, which I took gratefully. I looked towards the stage and saw that the chief had just walked on. Madison looked at me and winked. “You’ll be fine,” she said.
I nodded and listened as the chief walked up to the microphone and began talking. He had told me that the evening was going to start off with me and I was glad. I wanted to get this part over with so that I could sit back and relax.
“Of course, as you all know, one of the main awards of the evening is going to go a man that has been through more than any of us could imagine this year. But, before he comes up to collect his award, I want to first introduce you to his incredible partner, Miss Madison Hayes.”
I was just about to stand up when I realized that the chief had called up Madison instead of me. I had no idea that she was going to go up but by the way she was sauntering up the stage, I knew that it wasn’t a surprise to her. A few people whistled as she walked up, and I felt another pang of pride watching her. She looked out over the crowd and then winked at me.
“Hi, everyone. As most of you know, I’m one half of a team. Some would say the better half, of course, but I’m not sure that I can agree,” she said, and the audience chuckled. “I asked the chief if I could be the one to hand over the award today because I still don’t know how to let this man know how grateful I am for what he did. Max Aarons saved my life. Twice. The first time he shot the man that was holding me captive, knowing full well that it would mean someone shooting him straight back. He did that without any hesitation. The second time he literally threw himself in front of me in order to take the bullet from a man we thought we could trust. Again, he did it without hesitation. After that he didn’t save my life, he changed it, although that might be one and the same thing. This time, there were no bullets, no dangerous man in front of us. It was when he asked me to become his girlfriend.” She paused because the entire room had broken into applause. The man next to me slapped me on the back and told me how lucky I was.
“Max Aarons, you’re my hero, and I’m so honored to be in your life, both professionally and romantically. I know that it’s hard for you to accept compliments, but you really and truly deserve all this recognition. Now, if you could please come up on stage, I’d like to present you with this award.”
I stood up with shaking legs while everyone clapped, and took the award from Madison. I also leaned in to kiss her and chuckled as everyone hooted and hollered for us.
“Thank you so much for this award. I don’t feel like I deserve it, but I am most definitely honored to accept it.”
I spoke a little more about how happy I was to be part of such a great team, and how emotional the past few months had been for me. I told them how I would have done anything to save Madison, and that no matter how difficult things were, in a way it had pushed me to realize how much I loved her.
“I learned a lot about myself over those few months. With a lot of my memory missing, I had to rediscover who I was, and the process was something I will never truly forget. One thing I learned about myself is that I’m a complete idiot—I mean, who works with a woman like this for so many years without making a move?” I said, and everyone laughed. I turned to Madison and saw that her cheeks had gone pink. “Thank you all for making my job so much easier, and of course, a special thank you to Madi for turning such a tough job into something worthwhile.”
We stepped down together and went back to the table. I leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“You were amazing up there. Thank you for what you said. It really meant a lot to me.”
“I only said those things because I want to get you into bed later,” she whispered back, and we both chuckled.
Now that the speech was over, and the award was in my hand, I felt like I could relax. I had been dreading that moment, although it had gone a lot better than I thought it would. The food was great, the rest of the speeches were interesting, and the champagne was flowing. It was definitely the best ball that I had attended. People kept coming up to thank me for my service, and even though I still didn’t feel like I deserved it, I couldn’t help but feel a warm glow from all the kind words. I wasn’t used to being the center of attention like this.
Afterwards, we sat in my living room, drinking coffee and reminiscing over the past year. So much had happened in such a short space of time, and even though we’d only officially been dating for two months, it felt like we had been together for years. This was most definitely a year that I would never forget. I had placed the award in my living room so that I would see it as a daily reminder of just how lucky I was every single day that I woke up alive.
“You saved my life too, you know,” I said to her.
“I did?”
“Yeah. You deserve an award too.”
“Oh, I have one,” she said and smiled at me.
Epilogue
Two years later
Madison
The night before I’d asked Max if I could sleep over at his house. He told me that
he was busy and that he’d contact me the following day. In the two years that we had been together, he had never once told me that I couldn’t stay over. In fact, I spent more time at his place than I did at my own. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want me there, and I started to worry that perhaps he was getting sick of me. I felt dejected and downtrodden and had immediately called my sister for some advice. Naturally, she’d told me that I worried too much, and that Max was not sick of me. She made me promise not to worry and to wait for him to get in touch with me. Easy for you to say, I had thought, Dalton can’t get enough of you. I didn’t say it out loud, though. And even though she’d told me not to worry, I couldn’t help myself. He hadn’t even sent me a good night message, and I fell into bed that night feeling very sorry for myself.
All the fears went away the moment I woke up. A message was waiting for me telling me to be ready by nine that morning. I jumped out of bed when I saw that it was already eight thirty and hurried to get ready. I had battled to fall asleep and had then slept in way longer than I usually did. Max was at my door at exactly nine, as promised.
He grinned when he saw me and handed me a bunch of flowers.
“Happy anniversary, Madi.”
I took the flowers from him and smiled. We hadn’t even spoken about the fact that our anniversary was coming up. I had no idea that he had remembered. The flowers were a beautiful arrangement of different colors, and they smelled heavenly.
“Oh, Max. I thought you forgot.”
“You did? Why did you think that?”
“Because you didn’t want me to sleep over last night.”
He shook his head. “Well, I had plans. Come on; I’m taking you somewhere.”
I put the flowers in a vase and headed out with him, wondering what was going on. Max refused to tell me anything, and I was even more confused when we simply ended up back at his place.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
He smiled but didn’t say anything. I followed him inside he told me to wait in the living room for a little while. He ran upstairs, and a few minutes later he called out and asked me to join him. I wondered if he was going to be waiting for me naked on the bed, but I gasped when I saw what he had done. The entire room was lit with tiny candles. He handed me a bathrobe and slippers and told me to get changed into them. He grabbed one for himself and did the same. They were those big bathrobes that you usually get when you go to a spa. I’d told him once how much I loved wearing them, how they made me feel safe and warm, and he must’ve remembered.
He pulled back the covers of the bed and told me to climb in.
“Climb into bed?”
“Why yes, this is your breakfast table this morning. It’s our anniversary, and I figured there was nothing better than breakfast in bed.”
I giggled and climbed into bed. Max told me that he would be back in a few minutes and I heard him run downstairs. He came back moments later with a tray of croissants, muffins, and coffee. I immediately reached out for the coffee and took a sip.
“Whoa. This stuff is amazing.”
“It’s Italian,” he said.
“It tastes just like the coffee from our Italian café,” I said and took another sip. It was so good.
He smiled. “That’s because it is.”
“What do you mean? That café is way far away.”
He smiled. “Yeah, I convinced them to deliver. Obviously, I had to heat up the coffee now. But I made sure to order us two cups each, so we can have another one after this. The man told me that this was the furthest he had ever driven to drop off coffee.”
“I can’t believe this, Max. This is absolutely amazing. You went through so much effort. And there I was thinking that you had gotten bored with me and that’s why you didn’t want me to sleep over.”
He laughed. “You think too much.”
We spent the rest of the morning in bed together, eating, drinking coffee, and making love. We only got out of the bed to go to the bathroom, but other than that we stayed there until midday. It was wonderful, and possibly the most romantic thing that anyone had ever done for me.
“Thank you for the best anniversary ever,” I said to Max as I cuddled against his warm body.
“Oh, it’s not over. Not even close,” he said.
“It’s not?”
“We’re going out tonight too. I’m kicking you out later so that you can go home and get ready. I’ll pick you up at seven.”
I chuckled. “You’re amazing. I had no idea you would end up being so romantic. All those years with you as a partner, and I could’ve had this.”
“You see, you should’ve made your move long ago, Madi. I always told you that I was a good catch, but you just refused to believe it.”
“I really had no idea what I was missing out on. Although, I used to sit in that van and undress you with my eyes. You just didn’t know it.”
He laughed. “That’s not true. I used to drive you nuts.”
“You still drive me nuts.”
Later that day, Max really did kick me out. He dropped me off back at home and told me that he’d be by later. I quickly called Lyndsey to inform her about my morning, and she burst out laughing.
“I told you there was nothing to worry about. The guy is crazy about you.”
I smiled. “I know. But sometimes it just feels too good to be true.”
“That’s what it’s supposed to feel like. That’s how I feel too. Breakfast in bed on your anniversary surrounded by candles? I must say, Madi, I had no idea that Max was so romantic.”
“He doesn’t let anyone see that side of him but me, that’s why. He’s not nearly as macho and serious as he makes himself out to be. I kind of like the fact that only I get to see that part of him, though.”
“Yeah, that makes it so much more special. So, what does he have planned for tonight?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Later that evening, I put on the same black dress that I had worn two years ago. I had actually forgotten about the dress and had since bought a few more to wear over the years. I hadn’t worn it since that night, and I was excited to come across it again. I put it on, and I was transported back to the beginning of my relationship with Max, when everything was still so new and uncertain. I would never have guessed that I’d be putting the same dress back on to celebrate my two-year anniversary with him.
When Max picked me up, he smiled.
“It’s my favorite dress!” he said. “You look beautiful, Madi, and you chose the best day to wear that.”
As it turned out, Max was taking me back to Quatre, the same place I had worn the dress to the last time. The whole thing just felt so incredibly serendipitous. I was excited to go back. We had spoken about going again since the last time, but we’d just never gotten around to it. It also didn’t help that the place was even more popular before and that the waiting list was so long. We walked into Quatre, and I frowned. Everything was the same as it had been the last time, the warm glow, the low lighting, the soft music. But there was nobody in sight. Not one person occupying any of the tables.
“Where is everyone?” I asked. “This is so strange. Are you sure you have the right date?”
Max smiled. “I have the right date. Tonight, it’s just you and I.”
“What do you mean?”
“I hired out the place for our anniversary,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“You did? I didn’t even know that was possible,” I gasped. I couldn’t even imagine what hoops he had to jump through to make something like this happen. He took me to the same table that he had taken me to the last time, and a bottle of my favorite wine was sitting in the middle. They were small details that hadn’t gone unnoticed by me. He poured us both a glass and handed me one.
“Max, this is incredible,” I said as I took a sip. “I cannot believe we have the whole place to ourselves,” I said. “Is there anyone here at all?” I asked. I still had not seen one
person. Not even a waiter.
He shook his head. “Nope. The food has all been prepared, and I just have to get it when we are ready. The manager will be in a bit later and will lock up after us, but for now, it’s just you and me. I didn’t to share our special day with anyone. And it really is a special day. Two years of absolute happiness.”
“Max . . .” I started, but I couldn’t find the words. Nobody had ever gone to so much trouble to please me before. What had I done to deserve someone like him? I felt myself choking up. I tried to talk again, but I was feeling too emotional to find my words.
“Madi, I know you think I saved your life, but it’s you who saved mine. You showed me what true happiness was all about. You are everything to me. You’re incredible at your job, and you put most of the men there to shame with what you are capable of. Everyone admires you, and for a good reason. When you set your mind to something, you do it, and you do it well. You somehow manage to be in control at work while still allowing everyone to like you. You were there for me when I was at my worst, and you’ve been there for me now at my best. But most of all, Madi, you get me the way nobody else can. We’ve always been a team, you and me. Even before we got together like this, it was us against the world. I used to hate working with other people because they just didn’t get me the way that you did. I love you, Madison, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” I watched in shock as Max pulled out a little box and opened it up to reveal a beautiful diamond ring. “Madison Hayes, will you marry me and make me the happiest man alive.”
Tears were streaming down my face. “Of course, I will. Yes! Yes! Yes!” I said. He handed me the ring and held it to the side in the candle light.
“It has a message on it,” he said.
I leaned in to read it clearly and laughed when I saw the words ‘Team Maverick’ etched inside. He put the ring on my finger and smiled at me. “I love you, Madison.”
“I love you, Max. I love you so much. This is the best night of my life,” I said. Then I remembered what he had done that morning. “No, actually this has been the best day of my life.”
Dirty Maverick (The Maxwell Family) Page 23