I hadn’t been looking forward to Monday. For the last month I’d had a reason to look forward to going into the office. And now that Christie knew about me—about what I’d hired her into—I knew the chances of her being in my office when I got there were slim to none. I spent the last hour of my party attempting to get in contact with her. Embarrassing myself with the amount of calls I pushed through to her phone. I felt like an idiot, and probably looked like one to her. And when I tried to call her Sunday afternoon, her phone went straight to her voicemail.

It hadn’t even bothered to ring.

A large part of me hoped I’d walk in and see her sitting there, typing away at her keyboard. A massive part of me hoped I would see her glance over her computer and smile at me with those gorgeous lips. I’d be able to bring her coffee and we could talk. I could lay a cookie on her desk after lunch and watch her wrap her mouth around it. Watch her tongue dart out to catch the stray crumbs it left behind upon her skin.

But when I got there my office, it was dark. I turned on the lights, feeling wounded at the empty space of my office. I stood there for a moment, taking it all in. Feeling the absence of someone was odd for me. I didn’t get attached to people. My line of work didn’t afford the luxury. I was attached to my brother because I was raised with him and I was attached to my mother because I came from her. That was it, though. Those were the only risks I allowed myself to take. Stepping into that empty office, however, forced a complicated realization to the forefront of my mind.

I had attached myself to someone else.

I tried to shake it off throughout the morning. I tried to distract myself. And even though I had become accustomed to the lonely life I led, Christie had come in and given me a stark comparison to what my life could’ve been. Sitting in my empty office without her laughter or her smile set a standard that made me painfully aware of how lonely my life had become. She had managed to fill every empty space I didn’t understand to exist in my office. In my world. In my life. My phone buzzed and I picked it up quickly, hoping it was something to get this shit off my mind.

Hoping it was Christie.

I saw it was Sebastian and I almost ignored it. I wasn’t in the mood for his antics. For his questions. For the gossip Scarlet surely had for him that morning. But the second I opened his text, I was glad I hadn’t ignored it.

Scarlet just told me about Christie’s mother. Is she all right?

I furrowed my brow at the message as my finger flew across the screen.

That explains her absence. Care to rope me in on why she’s gone?

I sat there, waiting impatiently for Sebastian’s response.

She didn’t leave you notice? It doesn’t shock me, but I figured she would call once she landed. Apparently, Christie’s mother has been in a bad car accident.

Wait, would Christie have been in the office otherwise?

Fuck, that was selfish. Was her mother okay?

What hospital? In Louisiana?

I stood at the edge of my desk, unable to make myself sit down in my chair for the day as I awaited Sebastian’s response.

Got a busy day ahead of me. I’ll have Scarlet call you soon.

I tried racking my brain, hoping to come up with the answers to the questions I had surging in my mind. But it only served to prove how very little I knew about the woman that had entranced me. Then again, it made sense—my lack of knowledge of her life. How could I have expected her to share herself with me when I didn’t open myself up to her in return?

I tossed my phone onto my desk and groaned. My heart rushed as I thought about all that was at stake for Christie. I couldn’t imagine life without my mother. After how much she had done for me and my brother. After all she’d given up so she could raise us on our own. On her singular income in a world where women were still paid half as much as men. My mother was the only family Sebastian and I had left. One of the only reasons my brother and I were still so close. That woman picked up everything my father left and did whatever she needed in order to care for us.

I owed her so much more than I could ever repay her.

But the buzzing of my phone on my desk caught my attention, and I picked it up without a second thought.

“Hi, Maximus,” Scarlet said. “I know I’m calling from Sebastian’s phone, but—"

“What town is her mom from?” I asked.

I wasn’t wasting any time picking her brain for information I needed.

“Her mother moved back to Boulder to be closer to her family once Christie left for college, so I imagine that’s where her mother is right now,” she said. “The doctors don’t think it looks good, and that was before she flew out Saturday night.”

“Has Christie called you since then?” I asked.

“I haven’t heard from her, no. But I’m also trying not to bother her. Her mother’s all she’s got. If something happens to that woman, she has no one. I’m trying to learn how to walk a fine line I didn’t see coming for a long time.”

It stung that Christie hadn’t contacted me about any of this. I wanted to be useful to her. To be there for her in her time of need.

Maybe this was my chance at showing her I wasn’t the man she thought I was.

“Thanks. I’ll figure it out from here,” I said.

Then I hung up the phone and got to work.

If her mother was already gone and she had to go through that alone, I’d never forgive myself. For what I put her through leading up to it. For the lies I’d poured on her desk every damn day, putting her at risk. But if Scarlet hadn’t heard anything from her, then it meant there was a chance her mother had made it through the weekend. I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts, dialing a number I only ever dialed when I needed someone found for a host of other reasons. I explained I needed Christie found, but not contacted. Then I needed that information sent to me.

I’d use any resource I had to make this moment easier for her.

The second my tracker called me with the hospital her and her mother were at, I shut down my office. I threw open the private closet I had concealed behind one of my bookcases and grabbed the seasonal summer bag I kept packed for impromptu trips. I locked my office door, slammed it behind me, and ran straight for the elevator with my bag in my hand. I called my pilot and had him gas up my private jet, then told him to set his sights for Boulder, Colorado. I contacted one of the nicest hotels in the area and nailed down a Presidential suite to stay in, then arranged for a rental car to be ready for me the second the wheels of my transportation hit the tarmac.

Then, I turned my mind to the only thing that mattered as I climbed the steps into my private aircraft.

I needed to get to Christie. Because she sure as hell wasn’t going to do any of this alone.