by K. A. Linde
“What about everyone else? The invitations already went out weeks ago,” she reminded him.
“I got it all taken care of.”
“Oh.”
“You’re not happy,” Ramsey said softly.
Lola sighed. “I will have people start bringing things in. If you choose to reschedule again, please let me know before we carry in the speakers. They’re heavy.”
She eyed Lexi dramatically before exiting.
“I just…I don’t mind that we’re having it here, but it’s this…” She sighed. How many times had they had this conversation? “When were you going to tell me?”
“I had planned on it before Lola got here. She was early,” he said, scratching the back of his head.
Lexi reminded herself that he was doing this for her, trying to make this the best it could be for her. She was not going to blow up at him. She was definitely not going to blow up at him. The last thing she wanted was an argument right before their engagement party.
“But…why didn’t you even ask me? It’s my engagement, too, you know?” she said, aiming for a level voice.
When Ramsey winced, she knew that she hadn’t achieved it.
“I know you hate surprises, so I was going to break it to you, but in a surprise kind of way…not by Lola showing up at our front step with massive speakers and too much lipstick,” he said.
“Okay.”
There wasn’t anything else to say. It was too late to change it back to the restaurant they had booked together weeks ago. And it wouldn’t do any good to be angry with Ramsey for trying once again to make her happy.
“Lexi…”
“I’m going to go get ready. Tell Lola to bring the speakers in,” she said, turning to walk up the stairs.
“Hey,” he said, catching her and drawing her into him. “I love you. I thought you would like this.”
Lexi smiled faintly. “I do like this. It’s thoughtful. It’ll be nice to have everyone at the house.”
“But you’re not happy.”
“I’m fine.”
“Fine means you’re pissed,” Ramsey observed.
“I’m…frustrated. It’s okay. It’ll pass. I should just go get ready,” she said.
Ramsey didn’t let go of her though. He pulled her tight to him and kissed her on the mouth softly. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered against his lips.
“What are you wearing tonight?” he asked.
“It’s a surprise.” She gave him a devilish smirk before breaking out of his embrace and rushing up the stairs.
At least upstairs, away from his watchful eye, she could allow herself to be angry and frustrated, and she would be able to punch something. She didn’t think it was that hard to consult with her on things. Wasn’t the wedding supposed to be the girl’s thing? Not that she was a girlie-girl or anything. Not that she hadn’t freaked out at the meeting with the wedding planner. Not that Ramsey couldn’t see through her bravado from a mile off. Still, even if she wasn’t doing all the work or didn’t know what was needed to do all the work for the wedding, that didn’t mean she couldn’t be clued in.
Lexi plopped back onto the bed and closed her eyes. She really needed to start getting ready, but all she could think about was Lola sauntering into the apartment and Lexi feeling like an idiot for not knowing what was going on…again. She couldn’t have that talk another time about wanting to know everything that was going on. She had lost count on how many times it had already happened.
Ramsey still told her what he thought was important. He wasn’t hiding big secrets as far as she knew, but sometimes, even the smallest, teeny, tiniest omission felt massive. It gave her a headache.
Two hours later, guests began arriving.
Lexi was pretty frantic at this point. Her anger had turned into exhaustion, and she had accidentally fallen asleep on the bed.
Planning this event only a week and a half before Christmas really wasn’t the best idea. She had thankfully closed out the Bryant case, but her boss had promptly assigned her a new doozy to work on. Plus, she had Christmas shopping to get done and meetings with the wedding planner to finalize their fucking color palettes and shit. On top of all of that, Jack was getting divorced.
But she couldn’t think about everything else as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. She had chosen soft colors to accent her naturally tan skin and dark hair. Her eyes were lined in black with thick mascara, and she added some gold shimmer powder to her eyelids with a faint touch of lip gloss to her lips. Her dark hair was down, nearly to her waist, in soft curls. Her bangs were swept off to the side, and when she turned, they fell down into her eyes seductively.
The dress she had chosen was virginal white, the most ironic color in her closet. Lexi practically never wore white. She thought she stood out more in deep purples and luscious reds and even bombshell blacks. But well…she figured if there was ever a year for her to wear white, it was this year.
The body-hugging material clung to her in all the right places, stopping at the tops of her thighs. The straps were thick as they wound over her shoulders and into an X, low across her back before tying off into a bow. While the neckline wasn’t as revealing as a lot of her outfits, it still warranted a double take in the sweetheart style. She paired it with a string of pearls and a pair of blue heels.
She couldn’t wait for everyone to see how she looked. She wished Chyna were here for it…but Lexi wouldn’t dwell on it. She just needed to hurry her ass up, so she could greet her guests.
Lexi took a deep breath and then took the stairs to the first floor. When she hit the landing, she stared in shock at her apartment. They hadn’t had a party at their house in the two years that they had lived together—not since Ramsey had given up the clubs.
It felt like a lifetime ago that this had been her life. She hadn’t realized how much would change after she got out of law school. Now, she had a full-time job, and Ramsey had the medical wing. She came home exhausted, and she only had more work to do. At least, she still had Chyna to force her to come visit and party, reminding her that she was only twenty-seven.
That was what made the transformation of their apartment all the more interesting. It had been two years, yet the place still looked the same—the lights, the DJ, the bar. And at the same time, it was clear that Ramsey had instructed them to change it up. It was more low-key. Guests could actually carry on a conversation. There wasn’t an insanely large group of people she had never seen before grinding in their living room. It was mostly Ramsey’s friends from work, the club, school, but intermixed were a few of her friends who had already shown up.
She knew that Ramsey was just trying to make her happy. And if he had suggested having the party at their place earlier, then maybe she wouldn’t be so frustrated.
“Honey, you look way too fuckable to be thinking that hard,” Brandon said as he slid his arm around her waist and drew her in for a hug.
“Pookie! It’s so good to see you.” Lexi pulled back to smack him on the shoulder. “I don’t look fuckable!”
“Lexi, Lexi, Lexi…” Brandon said, shaking his head. “You’re just testing my patience. You think I won’t throw you over my shoulder and prove my point?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I think! Ramsey would follow you upstairs, and we both know how that ends.”
“Ah…I suppose I am still recovering from when I decided to sleep with Parker.”
Lexi wouldn’t cringe. All of the men in her life were connected in one way or another. Jack was married, erm…currently divorcing Ramsey’s sister. John worked with Ramsey on the Bridges medical wing. Brandon had dated Ramsey’s ex-girlfriend. At least, there were a few degrees of separation between Jack and John, but Christ…she didn’t believe in coincidence anymore.
“Brandon, you’re touching my girl,” Ramsey observed as he strode toward them.
Brandon made no move to let her go. Lexi just shook her head. Ramsey knew by now that Brandon
stood no chance whatsoever with her, but he still didn’t like Brandon. And he probably never would.
She stepped out of Brandon’s embrace and took a step toward her fiancé. “You didn’t change,” she murmured.
He still looked delicious in a pair of dark jeans and a black sweater.
“When would I have had the time? You were upstairs the whole time.”
“Oh, right. I accidentally fell asleep.”
He laughed. “And here I thought, you were unhappy with me.”
She had been, but he looked visibly relieved that she hadn’t been upstairs, ignoring him this whole time. She didn’t want to break him out of a good mood even if she was still unsatisfied with how the day had progressed.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” she chastised lightly.
He smiled down at her with a knowing look. “I never am with you.”
Shit! She knew it was supposed to be sexual, but still, she felt bad. She had always been a forgive-and-forget kind of person, but since the blowup at Jack’s wedding, she had been holding on to her past tighter and tighter. Ramsey seemed to always be at the center of that. And his reminder of that, even if it was accidental, didn’t help matters.
And then, the party started.
Lexi was swept around the room, introduced to an array of people from Ramsey’s life. She smiled and laughed and joked, and somewhere in there, she breathed. She knew that an engagement party was supposed to be more low-key than the wedding itself, but it still scared her. This felt anything but low-key, and maybe that was because Chyna wasn’t here, and a lot of her friends from college and law school lived out of town. She couldn’t expect them to come into town twice.
Ramsey’s old roommates, Jason and Brad, were making jabs at him, and Lexi was deep in conversation with her old gymnastics captain, Krista, who lived in the metro-Atlanta area. She was pregnant with twins and already showing. It was crazy to see the small athletic woman who had barely any fat on her body to have a little baby bump. Lexi had thought it strange when Krista’s hair had been all one color, and now, she was having kids! At least, her hair was red with blonde underneath it now.
“I just can’t believe you’re marrying Ramsey Bridges,” Krista said, staring down at Lexi’s ring again.
Lexi laughed. “Yeah.”
“I mean, I seriously always thought that you and Jack…” Krista trailed off, glancing up to make sure Ramsey wasn’t looking over here. “And you mean that you and Jack are literally just friends?”
Lexi always forgot that Krista and Jack had been friends in college and that Krista was the person Jack had gone to when he had gotten Lexi on the gymnastics team after she had stopped talking to him.
“Just friends,” Lexi confirmed.
“Crazy. I mean, I guess no one expected me to end up with my college boyfriend. If I had, then I never would have met Matt, who I love something hard.”
“Exactly,” Lexi said, her gaze shifting to Ramsey.
Then, the front door opened.
Lexi wasn’t sure why she even noticed it over the noise of the party and the DJ playing party music, but it drew her attention. She felt like she was watching Gone with the Wind when Scarlett walked into the party wearing the iconic red dress after having been caught with Ashley. Her eyes landed on Parker at the front door, and Lexi held her breath. Of course Ramsey would invite her. They were business partners, but still…
Parker was dressed in a long-sleeved, cowl-necked sweater dress in a deep burgundy color and black boots. Her hair was piled high on her head, like she had been in a rush. Who was Lexi kidding? Parker was always in a rush. She was wringing her hands together as she sought out Ramsey in the crowd. Lexi knew that was what Parker was doing before they even locked eyes across the room.
“Who’s that?” Krista asked. “She kind of looks like you.”
Lexi breathed out through her nose. Of course she did. “That’s Parker. She runs the medical wing with Ramsey,” Lexi explained.
“Weird. You do know she looks like you, right?”
“Yes,” Lexi said as she watched Parker veer through the crowd right toward Ramsey. “I know.”
“Strange coincidence.”
Coincidence. Ha!
“Something like that,” Lexi said softly.
“Fuck, I would kill for a drink right now,” Krista said, eyeing the bar sadly. “And my husband won’t stop drinking. If I have to drive home, I might kill him before these babies pop out.”
“You will not,” Lexi said, laughing.
“I love him, but I want to kill him daily. You’ll understand when you get married,” Krista said, patting her shoulder.
Lexi glanced over at Ramsey and cocked her head to the side. “I’m pretty sure I already get it.”
“Lexi,” Ramsey said, motioning her over.
She took a deep breath and walked toward them. “Hey, Parker.”
“Hey,” she said shyly. “I, uh…brought you this.” She shoved a bottle of wine and a flat rectangular box into Lexi’s hand.
“Oh,” Lexi said, embarrassed. “Thank you.”
She hadn’t expected gifts. The engagement party Ramsey’s parents were planning was where she anticipated small gifts but not at the party they were throwing for their friends.
“It’s not much. I wasn’t sure what y’all wanted since you aren’t registered yet, but I kind of felt like I should bring something,” Parker said softly.
“Well, wow, um…thanks. We didn’t get any other presents.”
Parker’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Oh…really? I thought…isn’t that etiquette?”
Lexi shrugged.
Ramsey jumped in. “It is. Thank you,” he said with a smile, taking the wine out of Lexi’s hand.
“You can open it now, if you want. It’s not much, but I thought you could…I don’t know. It’s up to you,” Parker said.
“Go ahead, Lexi,” Ramsey said encouragingly.
“All right,” she said.
She untied the silver ribbon, tore back the white and silver paper, and popped the lid on the box. Inside was a wedding planner with individual tabs for each thing she would need to accomplish, and the front read, Lexi and Ramsey’s Wedding, in a swirly silver font.
Lexi smiled up at Parker, feeling completely genuine about it for the first time. The planner was truly a nice gift. “Thank you,” Lexi said graciously.
“I know that you hired Sherri, but I thought it’s never a bad idea to have your own planner. I didn’t know if you already had one.”
“I don’t. This will be a big help.”
“Well…well, good.”
They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, the knowledge of how close Parker had come to being in Lexi’s shoes weighing them down.
Ramsey shifted from one foot to the other. “I think I’ll go put this away,” he said, hefting up the bottle of wine.
The two girls watched him walk away, and silence fell between them like a brick wall. What did she have to say to Parker that Parker didn’t already know? It wasn’t that Parker was an inherently bad person. Lexi just couldn’t be around her without seeing Ramsey all over her. The man he had been, the things he had sacrificed, the desperation had shown to make things right—it made her heart ache.
“So, um…what do you think about the divorce?” Parker asked.
Oh, for fuck’s sake!
“About Bekah and Jack?”
“Yeah…it’s kind of weird, right?”
Lexi eyed her suspiciously. “Why do you think so?”
“I just know that, growing up, Bekah was in love with weddings, and she always said that once she got married, that was it. I’m surprised to see her breaking it off so soon just because he cheated on her. I mean…he’s done that before,” Parker said, biting her lip and looking away.
“How do you know that he cheated on her?” Lexi asked.
She filed away the information about Bekah. It made her want to gag, and she would look at it another tim
e when she could process.
“Oh…well, I don’t know. I’m just going off what she said.”
“He didn’t do it,” Lexi said.
She wasn’t sure why she had to defend him in that moment. For a while, she herself had been debating whether or not it was the truth, but with the words tumbling out of Parker’s mouth, Lexi just couldn’t let her think that about Jack. He hadn’t done anything with Lexi when he’d had chances…so she highly doubted he had with anyone else. She hoped she was right.
“Well…if he didn’t, then it’s even stranger,” Parker admitted.
“She hasn’t told you why?” Lexi asked, arching an eyebrow.
Parker shrugged. “I know a lot of people don’t like Bekah, but she’s not all bad.”
“You mean, her heart is black. It’s not missing?”
Parker actually cracked up laughing at that. When she did, Lexi could almost see the girl who Ramsey used to love. It was a strange feeling in that moment. She had seen Parker laugh before. It was like her guard was down for a split second. She didn’t look so tired, overworked, and disheveled.
“Bekah and I aren’t as close as we once were, but I don’t think she would divorce Jack if he hadn’t actually done something. So, if he didn’t cheat on her, then what did he do?”
Then, what did he do? That was a good question. Lexi had a few theories herself about that situation, but she wasn’t sure if Parker was the best person to try them out on.
“I don’t know,” Lexi answered with a shrug.
Parker looked off in the other direction, like she was thinking about something else, when Brandon snuck up behind Parker and grabbed her around the middle.
“Hey, you!” he cried.
Parker jumped and turned around in surprise. Her smile dropped marginally when she saw who it was, but then she recovered and smiled slightly up at him again. “Hey, Brandon.”
“Oh, aren’t you just excited to see me?” he said dryly.
“It’s good to see you.”
Brandon glanced at Lexi and gave her a look that said, She’s fucking lying. “What were y’all lovely ladies just discussing anyway?”
