When I Fall in Love(81)

At least Grace had gotten home okay. He’d called to check on her flight. But he should have at least texted her. Wow, he’d turned into a grade-A, first-class jerk.

Or maybe he’d always been that.

The elevator opened and he took his time dragging himself down the hall to Jace’s door. He still couldn’t figure out why he’d agreed to come. But Jace’s voice in his message, his insistence that Max come over for dinner . . . it sounded less an invitation than a command.

Although, maybe that was just Jace. Bossy. Always the enforcer.

When he leaned on the bell, the door opened almost immediately. Jace stood there, a mountain of darkness as he glared at Max.

Huh? “Hi?”

“Get in here.” Jace practically hauled him in by his shirt, and it took everything inside Max not to swing at him.

“What—?”

Then he saw her. Standing in the kitchen, her arms wrapped around herself. Looking fragile and beautiful, she took his breath away just as surely as if Jace had hit him. He closed his mouth and swallowed. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she said.

He looked at Jace, keeping his voice low. “I didn’t realize—I mean, you didn’t mention—”

“That Grace was going to be here? Yeah. I was going to surprise you, dude. After what I saw on the Internet, it seemed like you wanted to be together.” He held out his hands. “You can imagine my surprise when I heard that you ditched her in Hawaii.”

Max ground his jaw and looked at Grace quickly before turning back to Jace. “I . . . I’m sorry.” He glanced at Grace again. “I’m sorry.”

And he had nothing more than that. He couldn’t be here with her. Even as he glanced at her a final time—just one more glimpse of her before he walked out of her life—he was shaking his head, heading toward the door.

Jace blocked him as if he’d spent a decade playing lineman for the Vikings.

“What?”

“That’s not a good enough apology, Max.”

He agreed with Jace, but he stood there, shoulders rising and falling, trying to find words and failing.

Any more apology might also need an explanation. What would he say? I abandoned you in Hawaii because I sabotaged our contest so I didn’t have to tell you that I’d led you on for three weeks? Because, baby, even though I love you, I can’t marry you.

Even with the thought, his eyes burned and he looked away.

Oh, he wanted to tell her. The thought bubbled up, filled his chest. He wanted to tell her everything, to lean into the wild hope she’d stirred in him, and to believe that yes, they could—

“I don’t need an apology.”

Grace’s soft voice, closer than he could bear, slid over him.

She was smiling, something gentle in her eyes—warmth, even compassion. “I understand why you left.”

“You . . .” His face twitched. “You do?”

She touched his arm, slid her hand to grip his, and squeezed, her eyes so kind he might really start to cry. “I know about Owen.”

Owen. Owen?

Oh—she knew about Owen. His breath nearly left him. “You . . . What . . . ?” He looked at Jace.

Jace’s mouth made a tight, grim line. “Sorry. I told her. It was an accident, but they needed to know.”

Max turned to Grace, looked at her hand in his. “I should have told you.” As he spoke the words, he felt the cool relief of telling her the story. “I was—am—still horrified at what happened that night. I shouldn’t have jumped into the fight. Shouldn’t have been out there in the first place. I relive that moment over and over and—”

“And when you thought you’d lost us the competition, it only added to that moment,” she said.

Coward that he was, he nodded.

He gave her a soft smile but extricated his hand from hers. See, this was just another reason why he couldn’t be with her. Why he didn’t deserve her. Because—

“If it helps, I forgive you, Max, for walking out on me. And for . . . well, for Owen, even though it’s not my place to forgive.”

Because she just might be the kind of woman crazy and loving enough to be with a guy who had no future. He didn’t know what to say, so he just met her eyes. “Thanks.”

“I forgive you too, Max,” Eden said, although he thought he could still see that night in her eyes. Sometimes the phone call he’d placed to Eden to tell her that he and her brother had brawled with another team still played in his mind. He still heard that quick, horrible intake of breath when she realized everything they’d worked for had died.

Max moved toward the door. “I gotta go.”

But Jace didn’t budge. “Dude. Shake it off. So you made a mistake. You gotta stop living in the past or it’s going to eat you alive. Trust me on this.” He clamped Max on the shoulder. “In fact, I have a brilliant idea. You and Grace are a great team—everyone watching that competition saw it. And I need help, buddy. Eden and I are getting married before training camp starts, and Grace is catering for us.”