The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  Lexi awoke the next morning to her phone buzzing noisily in her ear. Fuck! Where had she placed that goddamn thing? She looked around, bleary-eyed for a second, before she realized that it was actually under her pillow.

  Stifling a yawn, she pressed the Talk button. “Hello?”

  “Lexi,” Ramsey said into the phone.

  “Hey, baby,” she mumbled, yawning big.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “Yeah, but it’s okay. Just let me wake up,” she said, falling out of bed and stretching.

  After a minute of stretching, she remembered everything that had happened last night. Dinner, the club, Marco, John telling her about the Bridges party, the proposal—what a night!

  “You still there?”

  “Yeah, sorry. How are you?” What she wanted to ask was why he hadn’t told her about the party.

  “I had an interesting night.”

  “Me, too. Adam proposed.”

  “What? Wow. Well, that’s wonderful. I’m assuming Chyna said yes.”

  “She did. I wish you had been here.”

  “I wish I had been with you, too. Much more than dealing with what I just walked into,” he said, sounding beaten down.

  “What happened? Was this at the company party you didn’t tell me about?” Lexi asked.

  She hadn’t thought she was going to bring it up, but it had eaten at her all last night. He had probably been out with Parker instead of with her. Lexi’s imagination had gotten the best of her, and she hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything else.

  “What do you mean, I didn’t tell you? I told you a couple of weeks ago, but you were set on going to New York,” Ramsey said defensively.

  “I don’t remember you telling me,” Lexi said sheepishly. Had he told her?

  “Then how did you know about it?” he asked.

  Lexi bit her lip. Great. There was always a possibility she would run into John when hanging out with Chyna, but she and Ramsey just hadn’t really talked about it.

  “John told me.”

  “Ah, I knew he was invited, but I didn’t know his reason for not showing,” he said gruffly.

  “He was here for the proposal.”

  “Right.” He didn’t sound like he believed her.

  “Doesn’t change the fact that I don’t remember you ever telling me about this event. Didn’t you think that I would want to go?”

  “I did tell you about this, Lexi. You’ve kind of been absent recently.”

  “I’ve been around more than you have.”

  “I meant mentally…you’ve been out of it a lot. I don’t know if it’s stress, but that’s really neither here nor there. I need you to come home,” he said abruptly.

  “Home? Why? I’m supposed to be in New York for two more days.” She did not want to give up her vacation.

  “I just…need you here.”

  “Ramsey, what the hell is going on?” Lexi asked, confused.

  With the medical wing right now, he didn’t normally need her around, period. Why would he need her to fly back to Atlanta on the weekend she had off?

  “I’m going to book you a flight. Make sure you make it, all right? I’d ask Chyna for the private jet, but I think that might be overdoing it. I’m not sure though. Do you think she would care? She probably wouldn’t, but I hate to impose,” he said, rambling on to himself.

  “Ramsey!” she snapped. “What is this all about?”

  He breathed out heavily on the phone. She could almost hear his brain working, trying to find a way out of telling her. Something had happened. She didn’t know what it was, but she had a feeling that it was bad. Everything about this felt wrong, and she reached out for the footboard on the bed in Chyna’s guest room.

  “What is it?” she whispered again.

  “Are you sitting down?”

  “No.”

  “Then…then, I think you should sit down first,” he said softly.

  Lexi walked over to the chaise lounge in the bedroom and sat down heavily. Her stomach was in knots, and she couldn’t keep from automatically pushing her hair back behind her ear. She was ready for her heart to shatter. She was ready for her world to tilt. She was ready for whatever he was going to dish out to her. She could take it. She had been through worse than anything he could say right now. Right?

  God, she didn’t even want to know. In that moment, the last thing she wanted was to hear something that was going to tear her apart. Hadn’t she had enough? Couldn’t she live through someone else’s perfect life for once?

  Lexi braced herself on the armrest and sighed. “I’m seated.”

  “I’m really sorry that I have to tell you this…that any of this is being brought up. I really hate that you have to hear this over the phone when I can’t see your reaction, reassure you, hold you in my arms. I’m just…I’m sorry about a lot of things.”

  The way he spoke to her was like his heart was breaking. She could almost picture him sitting in their apartment, disheveled and unkempt, still wearing last night’s clothes.

  She clenched the phone harder in her hand. She didn’t think she could prepare any more for what he was about to say to her.

  “I’ve had a sexual harassment suit come up against me from a previous employee. It was a girl, Elisa, who worked at one of the clubs I managed.”

  Lexi’s mouth dropped open. She had thought she was prepared for it…but she wasn’t. She couldn’t have prepared herself for that. Sexual harassment…when had that happened?

  “She claims that we…had sex,” he said, his voice strained. “And that when she got pregnant, she was forced out. She has a son, not quite one year old. She claims that he’s mine.”

  Her vision swam. A baby boy. AThe club whore had a baby boy with her boyfriend.

  Oh my God!

  No.

  It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be.

  Ramsey couldn’t have a kid with someone else. He had avoided the scandal with Parker. The clubs had just been a distraction. Ramsey would never sleep with employees. He would never force out pregnant women. He would never have a son that he didn’t know about.

  Wait—not yet one year old!

  That would mean…the baby would have had to be conceived when they were dating. It meant that Ramsey would have had to cheat on her.

  She didn’t even have words in that moment. What could she possibly say to that?

  Ramsey continued quickly, “It’s not true. None of it is true. Elisa is a bitch. I never, ever would have done any of the things that she said. There’s no way that she can prove it. She’s trying to capitalize on the publicity and success of the medical wing. She wants her fifteen minutes.”

  “She’s fucking with my life for her fifteen minutes,” Lexi growled.

  He sighed heavily. “I know. I wish none of this had ever happened. I wish she had picked someone else for this bullshit. It’s not fair to you or the company. I wish she wasn’t trying to drag us all through the mud to get a little bit of money.” He paused. “It’s going to hit the news tonight…tomorrow at the latest. I wanted you here with me before it broke.”

  Lexi ground her teeth. Just what she wanted to deal with. “What are you going to do about it?”

  “We’ve already asked for a paternity test, which we’re scheduling as soon as possible,” he told her.

  “Are you lawyering up?”

  “Of course. We’ll have an attorney working on the logistics. We really just want this to go away with as little damage as possible.”

  “But you’re going to prove her wrong, right?” Lexi asked. She knew that she had an inherently jaded view on the legal system, but still, she wanted the person crashing a train into her life to see justice. “If you are innocent, you’ll be able to prove it.”

  “We’re minimizing the damage,” he said softly. “The company doesn’t care if it’s true or not…just as long as it’s swept under the rug and doesn’t impact the medical wing.”

  “But I care if it’s true or
not.”

  “And you have my word, Lexi, that it’s not true,” he said earnestly.

  And all she could think about with the realization that she would likely never know what had really happened was that…Ramsey’s word had never really meant that much.

  PRESENT

  Christmas had been about as awkward as Lexi had ever experienced with the Bridges family.

  She and Ramsey had decided that they were going to do their own thing on Christmas Eve morning, hang out with his parents that night, and then go to her parents’ house in the morning to celebrate with them. They had spent less time with her family since they lived farther away and thought it would be nice to spend a little more time with them for the holiday. Her mother wanted to help with the engagement preparations, and it would be a good excuse to talk to her about it.

  That should have worked. It should have been okay—except his parents had decided that they were going to throw the country club holiday party on Christmas Eve after church, and Ramsey’s mother was hosting this year. So, Ramsey and Lexi wouldn’t be able to do any kind of celebrations with his family that night. Lexi had compromised and said they could go to her parents’ house on Christmas Eve even though she wouldn’t have as much time with them, and then they would spend time with his family on the big day.

  But, of course, Ramsey had been expected to be at the party on Christmas Eve as well. A big part of her had wanted Ramsey to be the rebellious man she had fallen for. She had wanted him to tell his parents no, and she had just wanted she and Ramsey to do their own thing. Christ, she would have been happy to just skip all of it, sit around in their living room, and open presents without anyone else around. They could have eaten cinnamon rolls and watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

  Ramsey just wasn’t that person anymore. He had signed his soul over to the devil when he had agreed to work for his father. Expectations came with that, and even if Ramsey hated the club, he wouldn’t do anything to risk the business he had created and now loved.

  They had spent Christmas Eve at the Bridges country club party. It hadn’t been too bad. Parker hadn’t shown up, and Bekah had actually left Lexi alone. She had been too busy receiving all of the sympathies for the terrible circumstances behind her divorce. Lexi had tried to avoid rolling her eyes.

  They had stayed the night at his parents’ house and opened presents with them in the morning. It had been completely different than what she was used to. An interior designer had decorated everything, and all of the packages had been perfectly put together under the tree. Her parents usually used whatever wrapping paper was around that year and hand-wrapped the packages. They liked to overdo it, too, and they would get a ton of small presents to fill the tree past capacity.

  Lexi and Ramsey hadn’t been able to escape the country club until well into the afternoon, and by the time they had arrived at her parents’ house, they had already eaten, thinking she wasn’t going to show up. Overall, it had been more stressful than it needed to be.

  Next year, she was determined to do better. Though, her mother had told her about how difficult it had been to accommodate everyone’s schedules when they first got married, and sometimes it was just better to do her own thing and see people when she can.

  Lexi had smiled and agreed. Next year.

  New Year’s had been uneventful.

  Lexi had gotten the flu and couldn’t leave the house. She had been pretty bummed because they had been planning to spend the weekend in Florida at his beach house, away from the rest of the world. Needless to say, Lexi hadn’t been able to make the trip, so they had just cozied up in front of the fireplace and watched the ball drop in the comfort of their own living room.

  Once she had gotten over her sickness, they had taken engagement pictures at a local plantation. Lexi thought they were kind of cheesy, but the wedding planner had insisted because they needed something for the save-the-date cards.

  It all seemed to be happening so fast. One day, Ramsey had proposed, and five months later, they had picked a date at the end of October. Now, they were sending out save-the-dates to their guests.

  It all felt a bit surreal.

  Lexi wandered into the small Mexican restaurant in Buckhead and took a seat in the back corner. Her new client actually wasn’t the worst thing she had ever suffered through, so she was back on a normal schedule where she actually…ate. What a luxury!

  “Hey, Lex,” Jack said as he approached the table. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “I just got here.”

  A waiter came over and brought them drinks before disappearing just as quickly.

  “How is work?” Jack asked.

  “Fine. Nothing to complain about.”

  Lexi always felt the weight of her engagement ring during these encounters. He didn’t even have to say anything. He could just look at her with those big blue eyes and know…

  “How is the apartment shopping going?” she asked, just so he would stop looking at her like that.

  “I found a place a couple days ago. It’s not as nice as what I had before…but I don’t really need much. I’ve always been more of a minimalist.”

  “Says the man who drives a BMW,” she joked.

  “You have to at Bridges.” He just shrugged, defeated.

  He didn’t even like saying the name right now. She didn’t ask him about work anymore. It was clear that it was not an ideal situation. He was pretty miserable there, dealing with Bekah.

  “I suppose so.”

  “It’s kind of strange, having my own place again. Really…quiet,” he said.

  Lexi nodded. She had never had her own place before. All through college and graduate school, she’d had roommates, and now, she lived with Ramsey. She could imagine a world without other people being very quiet, especially after living with someone like Bekah.

  “You should come see it sometime.”

  “Yeah, sure,” she said because, God, did she feel bad for him.

  This was not a feeling she was used to. Jack was supposed to be in control. She had a hard time grasping the person in front of her.

  And then, his eyes met hers, and she remembered. He was still Jack.

  “How are the divorce proceedings?” Lexi asked about the elephant in the room.

  Jack shrugged again. “Richard says that things are going smoothly. He got them to agree to mediation.”

  “That’s great! If you can settle this out of court, it will be better.”

  “I guess. That’s what he keeps telling me.”

  “When does that begin?”

  Jack laughed sardonically. “This afternoon actually. I’m supposed to meet Richard after this to go over our case and how they want to handle proceedings. Then, we’re heading straight into mediation.”

  “Well, good luck. What kind of outcome does he want?”

  “Fifty-fifty split,” he told her.

  But something in his posture showed her that he was thinking something else. She just wanted to reach out to him, but she didn’t dare move.

  “What do you want?” she whispered.

  “I thought I wanted my wife back,” Jack answered honestly.

  Lexi couldn’t help but cringe. Bekah and the word wife had never sat well with Lexi. It certainly didn’t now when the Bitch was working so hard against him.

  “You thought?”

  “I feel kind of like an idiot that I didn’t see it before.”

  “What?” Lexi asked.

  “Bekah is kind of a bitch.”

  “Kind of?” Lexi asked, laughing.

  “Am I late to the game on that one?” he asked sheepishly.

  “Way late.”

  “I’m not sure how I missed it. When we were dating…” Jack trailed off, shaking his head. “You probably don’t want to hear this.”

  Lexi sighed softly. Jack needed her. He didn’t have anyone else, and if he needed to rant about Bekah, Lexi could oblige him. She didn’t even like to think about Bekah. At least if she got to add a jab
in there every now and again, then it might be worth it.

  She forced herself to continue. “You can talk to me.”

  “You know that you’re something wonderful, right?” he asked, staring up at her, from across the table.

  Her heart jumped out of her chest, and she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Looking at her like that should be outlawed. It wasn’t fair that he still had that much control over her body.

  “Um…thanks.”

  “You and your obsession with your hair…”

  “It has a calming effect!”

  Jack laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I like it. It tells me what you’re thinking without having to ask.”

  “You know what I’m thinking anyway.” At least, it always felt like that.

  “I’m pretty sure if I knew what you were thinking without asking, I wouldn’t have been such a fuck-up,” he said.

  Silence lingered between them as Lexi stared back at him. He was not making this easy. Part of being around Jack was so easy. He just got her. They had been around each other so long that she didn’t have to explain herself. In the past, he had known exactly when and where to touch her. He had known her. But then, there were things about Jack that were so difficult, such as his need to always pick someone else, the heavy weight of their history, the hint of desire that always sprang up between them, unbidden, at the most inopportune moments. So much was there between them, swirling around, that at times, it felt suffocating. And Lexi just wished she could see past those emotions.

  The waiter interrupted them by dropping off drinks and taking their orders. Lexi wasn’t that hungry to begin with, and the turn of the conversation didn’t seem to help.

  When the waiter disappeared, Jack started talking again. “We got off track. What I was saying before is that when Bekah and I were dating, she was a really different person, to me at least. She was sweet and sincere and acted like she loved me. We were together all the time. I was hesitant about marrying her. I was worried that she was into me a bit more than I was into her.”