Free Perfect Timing by Brenda Jackson Page B

that well, especially someone who hadn’t seen him in ten years. “You don’t know me, Maxi. For all you know I may not be the same person. I could be a rapist, an axe-murderer, a con-man, or a—”
    â€œI asked if you were wanted by the police didn’t I?” she asked, spitting mad as her brown eyes flared with mesmerizing intensity.
    Christopher’s jaw twitched in anger. Totally frustrated, he dragged his hand across his face. Did she actually believe he would have admitted to having a criminal record even if he had one? He then shook his head. “Are you this trusting with everyone?”
    â€œOnly with people I know,” she responded easily.
    His eyes narrowed. “And you think you know me?”
    Hers narrowed right back. “Yes.”
    His gaze held hers. She was right. She did know him. Even after ten years she could still see beyond his outward appearance and look deep within, right into his very soul. That was something no one else had ever done or had ever tried doing. In their senior year of high school, she had discovered more about him than people who’d known him all his life, because she hadn’t been judge, jury, and hangman. Instead she had offered him something no one else had—friendship. Whether she knew it or not, during the time they had spent working close together, she’d become the closest thing to a best friend he’d had before Gabe. And that was the main reason he’d left Savannah. He had wanted more than just her friendship and had known he hadn’t deserved to even think of anything more.
    â€œTen years is a long time,” he finally said. “I could have changed, Maxi.”
    She refused to buckle to the intensity of his stare. “You have changed, Christopher. Everyone changes with time. But with some things we remain the same. You haven’t changed in the ways I believe count the most.”
    â€œHow can you be so sure?”
    A part of Maxi was getting fed up with his line of questioning. Although she knew he wasn’t the same person she had fallen hard for in their senior year of high school, like she’d told him, there were certain things about him that were the same. “For one reason, because of the way you handled me earlier, when I was sick. You could have been rude to me but you weren’t. And I know the only reason you weren’t was because even after ten years you still consider me a friend. Right?”
    Christopher knew that he could tell her she was wrong and end her goody-goody-two-shoes beliefs about him then and there. But what good would that do when she was right? In fact she didn’t know just how right she was. He would never, ever hurt one single strand of hair on Maxine Chandler’s head and he wouldn’t stand by and let someone else do it either.
    â€œRight, Christopher?” Maxi repeated.
    He crossed his arms over his chest and gazed down at her. “I’m not sure. Are you married?”
    She lifted a brow. “No.”
    â€œEngaged?”
    He knew he had asked the wrong question when faint lines of pain appeared around her eyes and mouth. “Not anymore. Jason was killed by a drunk driver a week before our wedding,” she said softly.
    He said nothing for a few moments because frankly he didn’t know what to say. The man she had planned to marry had died a week before doing so. For that reason, and that reason alone he didn’t really feel bad because a part of him was still possessive where Maxi was concerned. But then again, by losing the man she intended to marry evidently set her back with having the family she’d always wanted. And because he knew just how much having a husband and children meant to her, for that reason alone he was sorry for her loss. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard on you.”
    â€œYes, it was,” she said softly. “But it happened four years ago. Jason was a very special person.