The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  “Easy for you to say,” Lexi said, glancing away from Lola.

  “Of course it is, but I spend a good deal of time with him, and I know,” Lola said raising her eyebrows and widening her large blue eyes. “I know it when I see it, and he has it…for you.”

  “And…” Lexi began.

  “And no one else,” Lola finished for her.

  “We’ll see.”

  “No,” Lola said shaking her head firmly. “You’ll see.”

  Lexi couldn’t listen to her reasoning. Well actually, there wasn’t much reasoning to it. Lola thought she knew everything, and regardless of how much time she spent with Ramsey, she couldn’t know whether or not they were going to work out. She could say all day that Lexi should trust her judgment, but that didn’t mean she was going to. There was too much still unknown hanging in the balance for Lexi to just trust anyone right now.

  She had been ten seconds away from having sex with Ramsey only fifteen minutes ago. Now she was sitting on his couch with the woman who had seen her nearly nude, while his apartment was transformed, and he sat on a phone call. Her life was so strange.

  “Sorry about that,” Ramsey said sheepishly as he entered the room.

  Lexi could immediately tell something was different about him. His demeanor had shifted from when he had last been in the room.

  “It’s all right,” Lexi stated hesitantly.

  Lola took that as her cue and stood. “Well, darling, the preparations are nearly complete. You’re not going to break my heart by canceling, are you?” she asked pouting her bottom lip.

  “No,” he stated firmly. “A party is fine.”

  Knowing better than to argue when his mind was set, Lexi allowed the remainder of the preparations to continue without a hitch. She wasn’t too pleased with the fact that she was going to have to endure a party atmosphere her first night back in town, but there was no turning back now. All she wanted to do was corner Ramsey and find out what his phone call had been about, but so far he had successfully evaded her.

  She could tell it was purposive. For some reason, he didn’t want her to know about his conversation. A million different scenarios played over in her head. She kept turning back to Jack, but why would he call back? And what would be the point? Ramsey would surely have told him the same things as before. Ramsey hadn’t acted this strange when Jack had been waiting for them outside of his apartment. He had been calm and resolute when they had first arrived, and only slightly hesitant afterwards. He hadn’t attempted to avoid her, which just left her more confused.

  The usual suspects started pouring into Ramsey’s apartment, as the final touches were complete. Lexi was greeted with a warm welcome from Ramsey’s now former roommates. She had to fend off their advances and couldn’t keep from giggling as Brad’s hands traveled lower and lower in their friendly embrace. She smacked him hard on the shoulder and turned toward Jason who wasn’t much help.

  “So, you guys moved out?” she asked hopping out of arms reach.

  “Yeah, we got a new place nearby,” Jason told her.

  “Bachelor pad. Nice,” Lexi said smiling.

  “Yeah, it’s too bad you moved out right when you did,” Brad began, “since Ramsey was…” Jason smacked Brad’s shoulder, silencing him.

  Lexi glanced between the two guys. Both looked as if they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Ramsey was doing what?”

  “Nothing,” they both muttered in unison.

  Lexi narrowed her eyes and let them dart between Brad and Jason. “Now listen here. What are you two hiding from me?”

  Brad looked at Jason at the same time as Jason looked Brad, and then they both shrugged. “Hiding?” Jason asked a smirk crossing his face.

  “Are you hiding something?” Brad asked Jason.

  “I’m not. Are you?”

  “Nope,” Brad said popping the last syllable.

  “You think you’re fooling me, but you’re not,” Lexi told them over the music.

  “Lexi, Lexi, Lexi,” Brad said draping an arm over her shoulders, “we would never think of trying to fool you.”

  “Then what was Ramsey doing?” Lexi persisted.

  “I have no idea to what you are referring,” Brad muttered looking for Jason for reassurance.

  “Yeah, you lost me,” Jason chimed in.

  Lexi let out a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you guys honestly doing this right now?”

  Jason and Brad gave each other a meaningful look before venturing forward. “Look we don’t want to ruin anything between you two,” Jason began.

  “Too late,” Lexi mumbled.

  “It’s not,” Brad added.

  “Anyway,” Jason said shooting daggers at Brad, “we want you to relax and have a good time. Ramsey’s changed since he’s been with you, and we can all tell that it’s for the better. Honestly, Lexi, whatever he had planned—whatever you may not have known about—it’s only good from here on out.”

  “Why do people keep saying that?” Lexi grumbled. “There’s no way for you to know that.”

  “We know Ramsey, which is good enough for us,” Brad told her.

  “Either way, anything you need to know, Ramsey will tell you.”

  “Yes, because that’s worked out so well for us in the past,” she stated sarcastically.

  “We can’t change what happened in the past, and neither can you. I’d just look to the future,” Jason told her before following Brad out to the dance floor.

  Lexi sighed knowing that they were right. Either way, she wanted to know what Brad had been about to tell her. Everyone kept telling her that Ramsey had changed and that the future was going to be different, but she couldn’t be sure whether or not to believe them. Too much was at stake this week to not be fully aware of everything that was going on.

  Keeping her thoughts set on the horizon, Lexi exited through the back door and onto the porch where she had shared her first kiss with Ramsey. Lexi breathed in the humid summer air and pushed her curls off of her forehead. The weather was as sticky as ever for a Georgia summer night, and she could feel a light beading of sweat across her hairline and the back of her neck. She missed the warmth and familiarity of the place she called home. Nostalgia washed over her as she leaned back against the wooden railing and stared up into the night sky. The stars were barely visible due to the lighted backdrop of the city, but it still comforted her to look out into space.

  “There you are,” Ramsey said shutting out the noise of his apartment as he drew closer to her.

  “Oh, so you aren’t avoiding me?” she asked the bitterness from earlier gone from her voice.

  “No, I was,” he admitted sheepishly. Lexi smiled at his honesty, but refrained from commenting. “Things aren’t going exactly as planned.”

  “They never do,” she muttered, her head still hanging backward and looking up into the darkness. She felt his hands lightly grip her waist when he drew closer to her.

  “Sorry about the party.” Lexi shrugged. “And about avoiding you.”

  “Please stop apologizing,” she murmured.

  “I’m sorry I keep apologizing,” he said causing her to finally look at him with a smirk. His green eyes softened at the sight of her.

  The way he was looking at her was beginning to make her thoughts hazy. She sometimes felt as if he could erase everything from her mind when he looked at her the way he was in that moment. Blinking a few times to break the spell, Lexi returned to the thoughts that were milling around in her mind.

  She wanted answers to so many questions. Everyone kept telling her that he had changed, but she had no idea how they could know that or what that even meant. She liked who he was for the most part. If he had changed, would that affect the way that she felt about him?

  Deciding against asking all the other questions swirling in her mind, she settled with “Who was on the phone?” It seemed at the time the most pressing issue, or perhaps just the least complicated. Though with Lex
i, it seemed, everything was complicated.

  Ramsey broke eye contact with her and cleared his throat. “Just uh…”

  “Please don’t lie to me,” she said observing him closely.

  “I wasn’t going to,” he told her defensively. She didn’t tell him that his demeanor made it clear that he had been about to lie to her. That something about the way he had reacted to the question had triggered her.

  “Just…don’t get worked up, okay?” Lexi nodded, anticipation blossoming in her stomach. A list of names filled her mind, and though she feared he wouldn’t list anyone on the short list, deep down she knew that he would.

  “Parker called.”

  She had been right.

  Lexi swallowed hard trying not to get worked up over the answer. She knew there had been a reason for him to avoid her, but she hadn’t wanted to think about why. Parker was a whole new world of complications that Lexi wished she had never had to deal with. Jack was bad enough, but to have to consider both issues in one day was almost too much for her. She knew that eventually she would have to face everything that had happened, but she didn’t want that to be today.

  Taking a few steadying breaths, Lexi finally felt calm enough to reply. “And what did Parker want?”

  “Just to talk about the wedding,” he stated. “There are a lot of details that go into it that I don’t care about, and I keep getting phone calls about it.”

  “Right,” Lexi said not wanting to feel as queasy as she did. “Parker’s going to be at the wedding.”

  Ramsey had told her that Parker was going to be there, but she had tried not to put too much thought into it. The fact that it was Jack’s wedding had been enough to think about without the idea of Parker on the backburner. So she had tried to put the unfortunate news that Parker would be somehow involved in the wedding out of her mind. She hadn’t been very successful.

  “So you’ve been spending a lot of time talking to Parker then?” Lexi asked choosing her words carefully and trying to keep the bite out of her voice.

  “Lexi,” Ramsey said comfortingly, “please don’t let this get to you. It is one week, and that’s all.”

  “I know. I know,” Lexi muttered, though she sounded disbelieving.

  “I don’t have to see Parker again after this if it makes you happy. You are the only thing that is important to me,” he told her staring longingly in her eyes.

  Lexi wanted to believe him. After all, she had come to Atlanta in hopes of believing just that. But only time would tell if everything he was saying was true.

  DECEMBER—EIGHT MONTHS EARLIER

  “Slow down. Slow down. Slow down,” Lexi cried repeatedly as she tried to pry Ramsey’s hands off of her. “Chyna is going to know if we fooled around beforehand.”

  “Yeah, probably,” he said pushing her dress further up her legs.

  “I can’t go all flustered.”

  “Why not?” he asked smiling devilishly as he captured her lips briefly.

  Lexi pulled back from his eager advances and shot him a dirty look. “This is an important occasion for Chyna. She isn’t going to want me to have just had sex while she’s dealing with all this bullshit.”

  “Are you still talking about Chyna?” he asked letting his thumb rub circles on her inner thighs.

  “Ye…yes,” she stammered trying not to get too distracted by the proximity of his hands.

  “She’s hardly going to care.”

  “You don’t know that. This is really important to her,” Lexi contradicted him.

  “Really? We’re talking about Chyna, the girl who gets laid practically every night. She’s not going to care. In fact,” he began thinking better of the subject, “she’s going to be happy about it…proud even.” He resumed his earlier removal of her clothing.

  “Chyna is not,” Lexi began before Ramsey covered her mouth with his own. “Ramsey,” she all but moaned against his lips.

  Briefly breaking contact, he hoisted her up from where she was sitting on the couch, carried her into her bedroom, and then tossed her effortlessly backward on her bed. Lexi giggled taken in by his enthusiasm as he crawled onto the bed after her. “You’re going to ruin your suit,” was all she managed to get out as he towered over her.

  He smirked at her obviously amused by the statement. “This is why I like you so much,” he murmured softly.

  “What? What am I doing?” she asked giggling, obviously mystified by how her reactions affected him.

  “Nothing, which is exactly what makes you so damn irresistible,” he told her capturing her lips in a searing kiss.

  Lexi giggled again throwing her head back against the pillows to break off their kiss. “Wait, wait, what made you say that?”

  “Oh Lexi, my Alexa, how can you not see yourself through my eyes?” he whispered softly laying down next to her and beginning to stroke her brown locks. Lexi just looked back up at him, waiting for him to continue. “You seem to make even the most ridiculous statements sound adorable.”

  “Ridiculous statements?” Lexi gasped. “Nothing I said was ridiculous.”

  “You’re concerned about Chyna not being okay with us fooling around before a wedding she doesn’t even want to attend, and my suit getting wrinkled. Those are both pretty ridiculous,” he said staring at her tenderly.

  Lexi sat up on her elbows to get a better look at him. “Well, for one, Chyna might be upset about this. And two, your suit is already wrinkled,” she said pointing out where the suit had bunched up around him.

  “I’m still sticking to the fact that Chyna would never be upset about this. Since we first met, she wanted you to go home with me. And do you think this is the only suit I have with me?” he asked raising one eyebrow and looking at her hungrily.

  “That was a totally different scenario. I was drunk and we were out clubbing. I wasn’t responsible for my actions,” she said stubbornly. “And about that suit, as far as I’m concerned it is the only one you own,” she told him watching his face contort incredulously and then burst into laughter.

  “You really are something,” he murmured as he began to kiss from her throat to her navel. A moan escaped her lips giving away just how much she really wanted him to stop. He paused at the hem of her dress raising his head to make eye contact with her, “And as far as you’re concerned, I don’t need any suits.”

  “Why is that?” she asked breathily, his eyes captivating her.

  “Because we can just stay up here in your room until the New Year,” he murmured against her stomach.

  Lexi’s head fell back against the pillow as Ramsey’s fingers slid under her dress. She couldn’t argue that point, and she didn’t really want to. She would be perfectly content forgoing their plans for the remainder of the evening, and staying in her apartment the rest of the night.

  But she couldn’t do that to Chyna. Her father was getting married that evening, and Chyna had been corralled into assisting the beast he was calling his fiancé. She needed moral support. And beyond that, Lexi had helped plan the big New Year’s party for tonight. She didn’t want to miss that!

  Lexi twisted sideways out of the reach of his hands as they lightly grazed her silky underwear and slid off of the bed. “No!” she exclaimed boldly. Ramsey’s smirk only widened. “I know you don’t hear that from me often.”

  “Often?” he asked chuckling to himself.

  Lexi rolled her big brown eyes. “Ever,” she conceded. “But we have places to be tonight. You didn’t ditch work on one of the busiest nights of the year just so that we could stay in and have sex all night.”

  “Are you somehow proving a point? I’d ditch work for that any day.”

  Lexi let out a short breath and shook her head at him. She tried to keep from smiling. “On any other day then,” she told him wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

  “I’m taking you up on that,” he said standing and straightening out his suit. He reached out for her as she passed by him. She wrapped her arms up around his neck and let him hold
her close.

  “Don’t get all riled up again,” she warned him as she ducked under his arm and walked to her dresser.

  “Pointless request when I’m around you.”

  Lexi smiled brightly to herself as she put the finishing touches on her already perfect makeup. She then slid on a pair of heeled, knee-high, black boots and zipped them up feeling especially like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Ramsey snatched up her black pea coat from the hook near the door and eased her into the warm material.

  To say traffic was a nightmare would have been an understatement. New York traffic was always a force to reckon with, but on New Year’s Eve it was a disaster. The couple inched through the streets hoping to arrive at their destination early enough, but as time dragged on they were just hoping to make it there at all.

  “Is there any way that you could drive a little faster?” Lexi politely asked the cabbie leaning forward in the yellow car.

  The man didn’t even have the decency to answer. He looked back at her through the rearview mirror as if she were an idiot. Obviously they were in wall-to-wall traffic on one of the busiest days of the year. There was literally nowhere to go to avoid the mess.

  Lexi slumped back against the seats. “Great. What are we going to do? We’re going to be late.”

  Ramsey wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Can you walk in those things?” he asked nodding at her shoes.

  “Sure,” she mumbled. “Just not across town.”

  “Right,” he said nodding to himself. “Hey buddy, what are the chances you’re getting us to the Plaza in the next twenty minutes?” The cabbie again looked at him as if he was not only dumb but also blind, and refrained from answering. “I know that you understand what I’m saying, so an answer would be appreciated.”

  The guy glared at Ramsey through the mirror and muttered, “No chance.”

  “How about I give you an extra hundred bucks if you get us there in twenty minutes?” Ramsey volunteered. Lexi swiveled in place staring at Ramsey. She couldn’t believe that he was actually bribing this guy.

  “A hundred?” the guy asked, obviously in disbelief as well.