by K. A. Linde
“Okay, I have to go. I have lunch plans. Bye, Jack.”
“See ya, Lex. Also, uh…thank you.”
She swallowed and nodded even though he couldn’t see her. She hung up the phone and placed it back into her purse. This was going to be interesting.
Lexi walked the remaining distance to Brandon’s office and knocked. She heard muffled voices from the room and then laughed. He never ceased to amaze her.
“Brandon,” she called, wondering who the lucky lady was that he was entertaining.
“Just a minute,” he said.
A minute later, the door opened, and a familiar brunette walked past Lexi.
“See you soon, Kace,” Brandon said as she walked out.
“Go to hell, Calloway,” Kace said, straightening her skirt.
“Why does she still fight you?” Lexi asked. She shut the door behind her as she entered the office.
“She likes to put on a show. I don’t mind role-playing,” Brandon said, cocking an eyebrow. “You interested, honey?”
“Now, now, Pookie. You know I’m taken, by one of your bosses no less.”
“That changes daily.”
Lexi rolled her eyes and jabbed him in the side. “Don’t be an ass.”
“Now, there’s a thought,” he said with a wicked glimmer in his eyes.
“Oh my God,” Lexi said, a blush creeping up on her cheeks.
He chuckled deep in his chest and ran his hand back through his dark hair. “I’ve missed you, Lexi. It’s nice to have you back in the city.”
“Are we going to get lunch? Or are you going to be ridiculous?”
“I can’t promise you that I won’t be ridiculous, but I think I choose lunch.”
“Great. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
They left the office and walked out to the elevator. Brandon pressed the button and started firing off questions about her time when she had returned to New York, the new job, moving in with Ramsey.
She laughed at his string of questions and tried to begin answering them, but he seemed to have another question already poised on his tongue before she could elaborate. She would be talking nonstop during lunch.
The elevator dinged open, and Lexi followed Brandon inside. When she took the last step inside the elevator, she realized that Jack was standing in front of her. She stopped laughing at Brandon, her face going blank.
“Lexi,” Jack said, surprised.
“Um…hey.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I said I had lunch plans,” she said, sticking her thumb out at Brandon.
“Oh, hey, man,” Jack said.
He extended his hand out to Brandon, and the guys shook.
Jack turned his attention back to Lexi. “If I’d known you were in the building, I would have just talked to you in person.”
“Well, this is for the better then,” Lexi said, doing everything she could to keep her hands at her side. All she wanted to do was furiously push her hair behind her ears.
His blue eyes landed on her brown ones, and he smiled that Jack smile. She swallowed, but didn’t look away.
“Well, I hope you go to the concert. The seats are pretty good.”
Lexi shrugged. “We’ll see. I should be able to make it as long as…everything works out,” she said vaguely.
The elevator dropped to the bottom floor, and the doors dinged open.
“Have fun at lunch then. Brandon.” Jack nodded his head at him. “Talk to you later, Lex.”
Jack walked away, and Lexi sagged slightly as he disappeared into the Bridges lobby.
Stupid bad luck!
Brandon and Lexi moved forward in silence until they made it out to the parking garage and almost all the way to Brandon’s truck. Then, he couldn’t seem to hold it in any longer, and he started laughing.
“You’re going to a concert with Jack?” Brandon asked.
“Yeah,” Lexi said with a shrug. “I guess.”
“You do know he got married, right?”
“Yes, I know he got married,” she snapped a little too harshly.
She took a deep breath. It was still too fresh, too early. She shouldn’t go to the concert. It was stupid, but the offer was too hard to resist. It certainly had nothing to do with Jack because she still wanted to pummel him.
“But this isn’t about Jack. This is about Kellan Kyle.”
Brandon continued laughing at her as he hopped into his truck. He was still laughing almost the entire way to the sushi restaurant.
“Knowing what I know about you, Lexi, I feel like I should tell you that this is probably a bad idea.”
“It’ll be fine,” she said, convincing herself.
“You like me because I don’t shoot shit. I tell you how it is, like I always have. Like, I want to fuck you and see how that gymnast body bends.”
“Brandon,” she groaned.
“Yes, I want to hear you scream out my name, too, but that’s beyond the point, Lexi. Keep your mind out of the gutter.”
“Insufferable,” she grumbled under her breath.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that before, when you screwed up royally in the past, it wasn’t that bad because, while you were dating other people, neither of you were married.”
“I know that!”
“Well then, I’ll just remind you. Coming from someone who got the shit beat out of him for sleeping with a married woman, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“You get the shit beat out of you a lot, don’t you?” she asked, remembering the time Brandon had told her about Ramsey punching him because Brandon had started dating Parker. That all felt so long ago.
Brandon smirked. “Hardly. This guy had an unfair advantage.”
“Which was?”
“A car.”
“Oh Jesus,” Lexi cried.
“Anyway, I don’t like to talk about serious shit. So, don’t do anything stupid.”
“You mean, don’t act like you?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Even I’m not stupid enough to push Bekah Bridges’s buttons. You have a few more degrees than me,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Use them.”
Lexi shrugged and looked out the window. She had no intention whatsoever of doing anything with Jack. She had been avoiding him ever since the wedding and really the entire year before that. She might want to push Bekah off a cliff, but that didn’t mean she was going to do anything that would bring her closer with the Bitch at a more normal occasion.
Lexi tried not to think about it anymore. She would have to talk to Ramsey when she got home, and that, in itself, was not going to be a fun conversation, but it was one she needed to have. If she could yell at him about not holding back any more secrets, then she had to be willing to be more forthcoming about her own life.
Lunch was refreshing, to say the least. Without Chyna, Lexi desperately felt the loss of close friends. She knew her old friend, Krista, still lived in the city, and Lexi might drop her a line. Maybe they could go visit the gym together. It had been too long since she had done gymnastics. Lexi was excited to get back into some kind of state of normality for her life.
Brandon had kept her entertained through lunch, getting her mind off of the concert and what she knew lay before her when she got home. He had known her mind wasn’t fully on their lunch, but he hadn’t made any further comments about it. She loved him for that. They had promised to meet up for lunch again, at least biweekly, and then Brandon had dropped her back off at her car.
She drove home in silence. She had never been good at this kind of thing. Hiding had always been a big part of her life, and just thinking about telling Ramsey made her anxiety pick up. It wasn’t even that she had anything to hide, but it was an old, familiar feeling. She wished it wasn’t that way. She wished she had made some better choices in her life, but this was who she was. Now, she had to fight herself to make it right again.
Lexi parked her car in the garage and took the stairs up
to the apartment she now shared with Ramsey. When she walked in, Ramsey was on the phone in the living room, pacing back and forth as he talked. He smiled at her and gave her a small wave before diving back into the conversation.
“No, I agree. I think we should work on that tomorrow. We’ll have to solidify it by next week, so we can start breaking ground,” Ramsey said into the phone.
Her stomach knotted as he talked about the medical wing.
It was all for Lexi. That’s why he was doing this. She just repeated the mantra over and over in her head. It was how she remained sane.
She didn’t like the idea of the project at all. Not that she didn’t support a new hospital facility in downtown Atlanta or even Ramsey following his dreams, but a lot of the time, it felt more like he was giving in to his father’s demands. She had never wanted Ramsey to change for her. She had just wanted the lying to stop. It was this fragile balance, and she wasn’t sure how far would be too far before it tipped.
“Okay. Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Parker,” Ramsey said before hanging up. He turned back to face Lexi. “Sorry about that. Work.” He shrugged.
“That’s all right,” Lexi said even though Parker’s name had made her wince. “Everything working out with the initial concepts?”
“So far, so good. Jessica says we’re right on track, but I have no idea how we could be with only a year to get everything done. There’s a lot to do.”
His shoulders tensed, and she could see all the plans circling in his mind. He was taking on a huge endeavor. Who was she to judge him for doing what he wanted?
“Anyway, nothing much to report. How was lunch with Brandon?” Ramsey asked.
Ramsey didn’t like Brandon—not after he had dated Parker briefly. Ramsey tolerated it though because, thus far, absolutely nothing had happened—and nothing ever would happen with Brandon. She liked him but just as a friend. As a pseudo-replacement for Chyna—although, certainly no one could replace Chyna.
“Good. Uneventful.”
“Sushi?” Ramsey asked knowingly.
“Yep,” Lexi said, wringing her hands in front of her. “I’m not good at this, Ramsey.”
“At what?” he asked cautiously.
“Nothing bad,” she said quickly. “But Jack called me today and asked me to go to the Sienna Sexton and D-Bags concert with him. Bekah got him tickets, but since they canceled at the wedding, she doesn’t want to go. The D-Bags are my favorite band, and it’s a sold-out show, and, um…”
“And you want to go,” Ramsey finished for her.
“I don’t have to if you don’t want me to.”
“Lexi, I don’t want you to feel like you have to ask me for permission,” he said, sinking back into the couch.
“I know. I just…I know I can go if I want, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. It’s not permission as much as taking your feelings into consideration.”
Ramsey smiled at that and beckoned her over. She crawled onto his lap and rested her head against chest. He was warm and comfortable and smelled like peppermints. She just wanted to breathe him in and remember this moment. He was accepting her for who she was, even through her ridiculous mini panic attacks.
“I’m not comfortable with Jack,” Ramsey admitted. “But I’m comfortable with you. If you want to go to the show and you think everything will be all right, then I’ll be all right, too. I might wait up all night for you to get back. And I can’t promise I won’t kill him if he touches you.”
Lexi giggled softly. She believed him, too.
“But I trust you, Lexi.”
PRESENT
“You signed a prenup?” Lexi asked.
She was having trouble keeping her cool. All she wanted to do was yell at Jack. She knew that from Bekah’s standpoint, it was a good idea to get a prenup drawn up. Bekah had insane assets, and anyone with money or who owned a business should get one signed. Not to mention, if either party had a history of cheating. Infidelity clauses weren’t all that common anymore because of how often they were thrown out in court, but Lexi highly doubted Bekah would push for adultery in a divorce case without knowing what she was up against.
“What?” Jack asked.
“You signed a fucking prenup. You know, that legal document that says if I cheat on my spouse, she gets everything!”
Jack sighed into the phone. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“How? How can that sound like a good idea to you, Jack? You’ve cheated on Bekah with me, if not with other people—”
“No one else,” he stated firmly.
Christ, she wanted to believe him. If he wasn’t telling the truth, he could end up losing a large chunk of money and the house and everything else.
“Did you have a lawyer present? Were there witnesses? Did she coerce you in any way to sign that document? How long ago did you sign? Was it rushed at all?” Lexi fired off a series of questions.
She shouldn’t be asking him about this. She should find someone to work his case, and then she should back far, far away. There was no way she could take on this case. She didn’t work in family law, and she definitely had a conflict of interest.
“Jesus, Lex. Slow down. Let me try to answer all your questions. I had a lawyer present, and other people were there. I signed it in January before we got married.”
She mentally calculated the time frame—right around seven months. That would hold in court.
Lexi brushed a hand back through her hair and sat down heavily on the couch in the study. Ramsey had converted Jason’s old room into a study for her shortly after she had moved in. She didn’t spend as much time there as she wanted, but she did consider it her space, which was nice. It was sparsely decorated and immaculate with a mahogany wooden desk and chair, her diplomas framed on the walls, a blue-green-and-white patterned area rug, and a plant sitting on a stand. Ramsey had insisted that the room needed a bit of life, so she had obliged him.
“What else did you ask me?” Jack said.
Lexi closed her eyes and shook her head. This was such a bad situation. She curled her legs up on the couch and lay down. She knew that she didn’t need to help Jack with this. He’d had a lawyer present when he signed the prenup. He could find his own. But she felt bad for him.
The thought of him getting taken advantage of made her chest ache and her stomach twist. Marrying Bekah had been a mistake, but it didn’t have to ruin his life. And Lexi had this terrible feeling that Bekah intended to do precisely that.
Though Lexi couldn’t figure out why. Bekah had won. She and Jack had gotten married. They lived in a house together just outside of the Atlanta proper. She was living her fairy tale. Bekah had known Jack had cheated on her before the wedding, and she hadn’t cared about it then. So, what was the motivation behind the divorce?
Lexi knew that if she got the answer to that question, she would finally be able to figure out Bekah. Until she knew, she would treat Bekah like an active volcano waiting to erupt.
“Coercion,” Lexi reminded him. “Did you feel an obligation to sign? Was there ever any talk of the fact that you had to sign? Anything like that at all that you remember?”
“No, uh…I don’t think so. It was a long time ago.”
“Three years is not that long to remember if someone forced you to sign away your livelihood if you cheat on her,” she quipped.
“I didn’t cheat on her.”
“Yeah,” Lexi said.
She had never considered Jack a liar. He had always sworn that he would tell her the truth in everything, but with their history, it did make it difficult to take this seriously, especially with Bekah claiming she had hard evidence against him.
“So, what should I do? I can’t use the same lawyer as last time. He works for Bridges now.”
Lexi narrowed her eyes. “Did he work for Bridges at the time?”
“No, he got hired about a year ago.”
Lexi cursed under her breath. A million-and-a-half scenarios ran through her
head all at once. She was just going off of the information she had learned from the family law classes she had taken in law school, but those were two or three years ago at this point. He would need someone else—but who? She racked her brain to think of someone who would be good enough. She would have to ask around at work tomorrow.
“I’ll see if I can find someone, and then you probably need to make a pretty convincing case against her, Jack. I’d tell you to settle this in mediation and just get it over with, but I have a feeling that Bekah will take this to court,” Lexi told him.
“Okay,” he said with a heavy sigh. “This is so fucking frustrating, Lex.”
“I know,” she whispered.
She knew how he felt about divorces, especially after his parents’ rough break while he had been in high school. A part of her felt bad for him for having to go through this, and then the other half wondered, as she always did, why he had gotten married in the first place.
“I did everything right once we got married. I so desperately didn’t want to be my parents, and I still can’t seem to get it straight. She’s still divorcing me, tearing us apart for no reason—a fake reason,” he said.
She could hear the anger and desperation in his voice, and it made her want to go over there and hug him even if he was talking about Bekah.
Lexi steeled herself for what she was about to do. “Have you tried…talking to her about it?” She wanted to gag at the thought of urging him to talk to Bekah about it…to even hint at encouraging him to convince her not to go through with it, but she needed to be a friend right now.
“Of course I’ve tried to talk to her. She won’t see me. I had to move out. I’m staying with Seth and feel so…so…I don’t even know.”
She could almost see him in that moment—his eyes closed, his hands fisted into his dark brown hair, the look of pain on his face. It made her want to do something, anything to take it away. Despite everything they had gone through, she could never make herself stop caring. It was Jack.
“What did she say when she gave you the papers?”
He gave a stilted laugh. “I want a divorce. Then, she handed me the papers and told me to get out.”
