Be Mine at Christmas(40)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Your job is to help me win.”

“Without this, you’ll lose. You’re giving her every advantage!”

Maxim threw up his hands. “Then so be it!”

Shaking his head, Harvey kicked the miniature Christmas tree to the other side of the room. “I’m out of here. Why sully my reputation with a loss that we could easily avoid?”

Clenching his jaw in an attempt to control his temper, Maxim carefully modulated his voice. “Harvey, it’s Christmastime. Don’t you have family somewhere? Can’t you just…take a few days off?”

Harvey propped his hands on his hips. “Do you think you might change your mind if I do?”

Maxim imagined Adelaide hearing about her late husband’s g*y affair and knew changing his mind was out of the question. “No.”

“Then why bother?”

“We might be able to strategize other ways to succeed.”

“No. I don’t pull punches, even if my opponent is a woman. I’m not that sexist,” he said with a sneer. “And I can’t stay if you won’t use the advantage I’m giving you.”

Maxim shoved a hand through his hair. Harvey was giving him an ultimatum? “Innocent people will be hurt, Harvey.”

“The blame for that lies with Fairfax, not me.” He reached for the file he’d dropped on Maxim’s desk but Maxim snatched it up before he could touch it.

“No way are you taking this.”

With a curse, Harvey turned on his heel and marched out.

“You’d better keep what you’ve found on Fairfax to yourself,” Maxim called after him, but Harvey made no commitment one way or the other. He collected his briefcase and slammed his office door as he left.

Maxim sank into his chair. Would he read about Mark Fairfax and the intern in the paper tomorrow? Harvey had to have some way—favorable to himself, of course—of explaining why he was no longer heading up the Donahue campaign.

So where did that leave Adelaide?

ADELAIDE SPENT MONDAY morning shopping, which was what she’d done during the weekend, too. She was filling Sub-for-Santa orders for a local charity. She still had some difficulty getting around on her injured leg, but at least it was merely bruised and not broken. Shopping gave her something to do. After being stranded in the mountains with Maxim, she didn’t feel like going right back to work. She’d decided to take two weeks to focus on the holidays, to allow her mind a rest from the campaign and the confusion she felt now that she knew Maxim better. Before the crash, winning that senate seat had meant everything to her. It’d given her a reason to go on. Now she wasn’t even sure she wanted to stay in the race. But with so many people counting on her, she couldn’t withdraw and lay off all her employees, especially at Christmas. Besides, she didn’t know what she’d do with herself if she didn’t spend the next months campaigning. She’d already bowed out of her solar business, put Rhonda Cummings, who’d worked with her for years, in charge, and Rhonda was doing a fine job.

Maybe she’d continue—but at a less frantic pace. If she didn’t win the primary in June, she wouldn’t be disappointed. She actually preferred Maxim to win. Now that she knew him and liked him, it was easier to forgive the comments he’d made about Mark’s lackluster performance. He’d misjudged Mark. He didn’t know him that well.

So would she go back to the solar business? That seemed the logical choice, but the idea didn’t excite her and certainly wouldn’t make Rhonda happy.

Maybe it was time to do some traveling. She’d always wanted to see Europe, Australia, Alaska. She’d pictured Mark at her side, but maybe Ruby, her former neighbor and closest friend, would want to go.

No, Ruby had just opened a dress boutique downtown. She couldn’t leave it.

Once again, Adelaide seemed to find herself in no-man’s-land….

Her cell phone rang as she was standing in line to buy a video game system. Setting her bags on the floor so she could reach her purse, she fished out her phone and checked caller ID.

She didn’t recognize the number but answered, anyway. “Hello?”

“Adelaide?”

Maxim. She would’ve known his voice anywhere. “Yes?”

“How are you?”

“Better. You?” She tightened her grip on the phone. Crazy as it was, she’d missed him. He hadn’t contacted her since they’d been home.

“I’m okay, I guess. Listen, do you have plans for tonight?”

She might’ve thought he was asking her out. She’d been yearning to hear from him. But the reluctance in his voice made her leery of assuming too much. She sensed that he didn’t want to be making this call. “Is this where you try to convince me to drop out of the race?” she teased.

The question seemed to take him by surprise, as if it hadn’t occurred to him. “Are you open to that?”

“Probably not.”

He sighed. “Too bad.”

“So this isn’t about the primary.”

“No.”

Then he was worrying that she might be pregnant. She’d bought an over-the-counter test that boasted almost immediate detection, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to use it. It was more comfortable to live in denial, at least until she’d adjusted to the possibility.

But maybe there was a reason he needed to know now. Maybe he was going to ask the tall blonde he sometimes brought to political events to marry him….

Adelaide cringed at the jealousy that thought evoked. The fantasies she’d had of Maxim during the week she’d been home told her she’d developed a crush on him, but she trusted it wasn’t more than that. “I’m free. Where would you like to meet?”

“Would you mind if I came over after dinner?”

After dinner. He wasn’t trying to parlay this into any type of date. She interpreted that to mean he regretted what had happened between them and hoped she wasn’t pregnant.

She felt her shoulders slump. “No. I-I wouldn’t mind.” They had to face reality sometime, didn’t they?

There was a brief pause. “Will we be able to speak privately?”

How would he react if she was pregnant? Let’s wait until we’re sure we have something to worry about before we start making difficult decisions gave her no indication. He knew she’d want to keep the baby; she’d already told him as much. Would he pressure her to get an abortion instead?