The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  Ramsey held the door open for Lexi and she pushed her way past him. Even though the walk back to the beach house was only a couple minutes, Ramsey clearly didn’t want to waste any time. He hailed a waiting cab and allowed her to enter first. When he sat down, he said, “You don’t have to apologize, Lexi. Are you going to fly into New York tonight?”

  “Yeah, I think I probably should.”

  “You’re a really good friend.”

  “I know.” She smiled and nuzzled into Ramsey’s shoulder. For the minute ride, she sat there perfectly content in his arms. All her earlier worries were gone, and it felt right again. Just the two of them together. But it didn’t last and soon they were back at the condo. Ramsey tossed a bill at the cabbie and exited behind her.

  Throwing her clothes quickly in her bag, Lexi rushed to get everything together. “Don’t worry about the rest. I can bring it back with me.”

  Lexi nodded her head looking around to make sure she had everything of importance, and then grabbed her rolling suitcase. Ramsey took it from her hand and veered her away from the entrance to the house. She narrowed her eyes, but let him lead her through a door they hadn’t entered before. “What’s this?” she asked. As she walked through, she realized that they were entering a garage. She hadn’t even known that they had a garage for the place. They had taken a cab from the airport and hadn’t needed to drive anywhere the entire trip.

  She looked at the shiny silver Mercedes sitting in one of the slots. It looked very similar to Ramsey’s car in Atlanta. This was just a slightly older model from the look of it. “Is this yours?” she asked surprised. Somehow she had been here nearly a week and never realized that he had a car waiting for them.

  Ramsey popped the trunk and deposited her bag. “Yeah. I keep her here since I got the new one,” he said snapping the door closed and coming around to the side of the machine.

  “You keep her here? But why do the owners of the beach house let you keep it here?” she asked unable to put two and two together.

  He stared at her over the roof of the Mercedes and sighed. “This is my house, Lexi,” he mumbled. “I wanted to tell you. I did. I just wasn’t sure how you’d react.” He was stammering like the first time she had met him. Sometimes she couldn’t help but feel that he was more adorable when he was like this. “You get all funny when I display...well...when I show that I have money. I didn’t want you to think that I was cheating you out of a promised vacation by not really paying for us to come out here.”

  “Ramsey.”

  “I would have paid for us to go somewhere else, but I was more worried of taking you out of the country. I just wanted you to feel like I was taking care of you, and I thought this was the best way.”

  “Ramsey.”

  “So I didn’t mean to keep it from you. I didn’t want to...”

  “Ramsey, would you shut up,” Lexi cried finally getting a word in. He snapped his mouth closed, staring at her intently. “I don’t care about the house. Why didn’t you just tell me? It would have been fine.” She opened the door and slid onto the cream leather seats. She actually found it a bit funny, and not all that surprising, that he owned a beach house since. It had been one of the first things she had ever thought about him with his beautifully tanned skin.

  He sat down next to her. “I didn’t know how you would react.”

  “Perhaps next time, you can let me react before making assumptions,” she said with a shrug.

  After a second, he said, “You’re right.” He backed out of the driveway and made his way out toward the highway.

  “Thanks for taking me,” she murmured to break the silence.

  “Of course. I know how much Chyna means to you.”

  “Ramsey,” she stammered out, “can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure. What’s up?” he asked merging into traffic.

  “Were you and Parker ever...uh...together?” she asked turning to face him in the car. “I mean, I know you said that you never had a girlfriend, but you guys looked...comfortable together. And Jessie said...”

  “Jessie?” he snapped. “What did Jessie say?”

  Lexi paused gauging his reaction. “She didn’t say anything. Just that you two were cute together.”

  “Are you sure that’s all?” he asked clenching the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

  “Should she have said more?” she asked staring at him intently.

  “No,” he said taking a deep breath and releasing his firm grip on the wheel. “She has a tendency to blab fallacies with the turn of the wind.”

  “She didn’t say anything to me. But told me to ask you and trust whatever you told me,” she said eager to get the truth out of him.

  Ramsey shrugged. “All of that was a long time ago.”

  “All of what?” she asked curiously.

  “Parker and I weren’t together...not like we are at least.”

  Lexi gulped thinking of her relationship with Jack. Had he had something like that going on? She hadn’t thought it possible for someone else to have a relationship anything like theirs, but anything was possible after all.

  “You remember that time I told you about the dare at the bonfire after prom?” he asked.

  Of course, she remembered it very clearly. It wasn’t everyday that someone told you they slept with someone in front of a group of people after prom. She had filed that piece of information away in her mind.

  “Well...Parker is that girl.”

  Lexi’s mouth dropped open. “What?!?” she cried, jumping in her seat.

  He sighed and glanced into her brown eyes. “I told you it was a long time ago.”

  “Yeah, but Ramsey, you slept with her...in front of all of those people?” she asked, unsure as to why she needed an answer, but realizing she did.

  “A long time ago, Lexi. It’s been forever since I’ve even seen her. We were only actually together...like that,” he told her.

  “But she looks like me,” she sputtered.

  He cringed at the admittance. “Yeah, I guess she kind of does.”

  “Did you only like me because I look like her?” she asked her eyes narrowed.

  “No! Lexi, come on. I wouldn’t do that. Sure, I saw the resemblance, but y’all are completely different people. I would never think of comparing you, Lexi...with anyone. You can’t be compared. I’ve known Parker for a long time, and we ended up in bed together a lot. Nothing more. Nothing less,” he said grasping for her hand to reassure her.

  She let him lace his fingers through her own. His thumb came up and rubbed light circles into her skin. She let her breathing slow, and her heart return to a normal speed. She knew that whatever had been with Parker wasn’t happening now. But still she had to be sure. She couldn’t keep wondering. “Promise?” she finally asked after a long pause.

  He smiled down at her. “Yes, Lexi. I promise.”

  PRESENT

  Lexi swore she wasn’t going to go. She had told Ramsey she wasn’t going to go. She had even worked up the nerve to call Bekah and tell her personally that she would have to decline the invitation to fill in at the bachelorette party. There was absolutely no way she would get dragged into another stupid night out. Bekah had an agenda. She always had a motive behind her actions. She didn’t just invite Lexi to a bachelorette party for no good reason. Lexi was sure there was something more to the event. She just needed to know what her angle was

  But then it had happened.

  It all changed.

  Lexi had wanted to reach through the phone and throttle Bekah. She had been terrified when she had walked out of that bathroom to find Bekah waiting for her. She had smiled too sweetly. She had been too nice. How had Lexi not realized that she had been eavesdropping on her conversation?

  “I know you weren’t talking to Chyna,” Bekah said slyly into the phone.

  Lexi paused, her stomach dropping out. Shit. What could she have heard? It was too incriminating for her to even consider. Maybe she just knew that sh
e hadn’t been talking to Chyna. Simple as that. But how would she know if she hadn’t heard any of the conversation. “What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t have to play dumb with me. I heard your conversation.”

  Silence.

  “And I’d hate for my brother to have to hear about this. He’s been so stressed out lately.”

  “What do you want, Bekah?” Lexi snapped.

  “I want you to come spend some quality time with me and the girls. Is that too much to ask?” she said with a cold, stilted laugh.

  “Why?” Lexi asked.

  “Can’t a girl just have a good time?”

  “No,” Lexi stated flatly.

  “Look, do you want me to tell Ramsey or not?”

  The little bitch.

  She was fucking blackmailing her.

  She couldn’t believe Bekah had even been able to overhear her conversation. She hadn’t been that loud when talking to him in the Bridges mansion. But Bekah’s snooty voice asking who she was going to be seeing when she got back to New York should have been enough to make her realize she had heard too much. Now this conversation proved she had heard even more than Lexi had realized. And Bekah couldn’t tell Ramsey. Bekah didn’t even know what had happened between her and her Mystery Man, but she had inferred the worst, and Lexi wasn’t ready for Ramsey to find out.

  And that’s how she was basically blackmailed into going with Bekah and her three stooges for a bachelorette party she had wanted no part in. The only up side was that the festivities would take place only an hour away at her alma mater. She hadn’t been there since she moved to New York.

  A limo pulled up outside of Ramsey’s apartment shortly after she got off the phone with Bekah. Her skin crawled as she slid onto the leather interior. The Fearsome Four sat around the limo, champagne flutes already filled to the brim. Lexi refused to give Bekah the satisfaction of seeing her squirm though. She could handle herself.

  The girls had chatted the entire way there about random meaningless stuff that Lexi had no interest in. She didn’t have time for reality TV, care about women fighting over wedding dresses, or have an interest in the new bitch at the Country Club. She stared out across the countryside tuning out the conversations as they chattered away. They hadn’t found the need to include her in the conversation, and she was a thankful that she didn’t have to make small talk. She didn’t particularly want to try to make meaningless conversation with any of these people. She clearly wasn’t going to stay friends with them after this weekend. The effort she would have to put in to make conversation was just too much to deal with.

  The limo driver rolled into the overhang outside of the Hilton downtown. Their bags were swiftly deposited into their rooms, and then the girls convened in Bekah’s suite.

  “I went to the trouble of getting you all matching bachelorette outfits,” Bekah squealed reaching into one of her bags and pulling out grey pleated miniskirts, black v-cut halter tops, and knee high socks. Lexi’s mouth dropped open. Was this girl serious? “You all brought black heels, I’m sure.”

  The other girls hopped up and down like they were actually excited to parade around in those outfits. Lexi couldn’t figure it out. Why would anyone want to look like that?

  “Amber, this one is yours,” Bekah said handing over an outfit to the tallest one in the bunch. At least something of worth was coming from these stupid costumes. Lexi would finally know all their names. She had never been formally introduced, and she had never put in the effort to figure out who was who.

  “Kersey, here is yours,” she said handing it over to the mousy blonde. The girl did seem to be excited about the prospect of dressing up, but Lexi could see that she didn’t approve of the scandalous outfit. Her lip pouted out, and snatched the outfit out of Bekah’s hand regretfully.

  “Hey, Bekah,” Kersey chimed in as she held the miniscule skirt to her body. “Are you sure this isn’t missing some material?”

  “Shut it, Kers,” Bekah snapped. “I don’t want any of your bible thumping conservatism tonight. I’m your best friend, put on the outfit.”

  Lexi’s eyes opened wide at the confrontation. It seemed to have been had many times before. Kersey’s face remained stoic as she pushed past Bekah into the bathroom to change. Amber was already stripping down naked in front of everyone.

  “Maddie, here is yours,” Bekah said tossing the outfit into the waiting girls arms.

  “Thanks, B,” Maddie said shrugging her shoulders. “You sure do like to reminisce about high school.”

  “I thought we looked hot as school girls,” Bekah told her with a shrug.

  “You were the only one,” Amber drawled shimmying the halter over her head.

  “These are pretty close to our school uniforms,” Bekah said to Lexi who was looking at her dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe the absurdity. Was she the only one who didn’t miss high school? “We went to an all-girls Catholic private school.”

  “Oh,” Lexi said putting the pieces together. No wonder Bekah was so catty. “Are you Catholic?”

  Bekah and Amber both broke into giggles. “No,” she said shaking her head. “Just the best school in the city.”

  “Right,” Lexi murmured feeling the strong desire to punch her again.

  “Here is yours. I hope it fits,” Bekah said handing it to Lexi. “I think it’s your size.”

  “When did you find time to get this in my size?” Lexi asked looking into the skirt to check the sizing. Surprisingly, it was exactly the right size.

  “I didn’t. It was Parker’s,” Bekah said simply cocking her head to the side as she looked at Lexi with the sweetest smile on her lips.

  “What?” Lexi asked dropping the skirt on the hotel room floor. Her mouth hung wide as she stared into Bekah’s face. She bent over to retrieve the garment feeling slightly nauseous at the prospect. She couldn’t wear what Parker was supposed to wear, and she hated that they were the same size. They were too similar in appearance already. It just felt wrong…dirty.

  Bekah’s smile widened as Lexi straightened from the ground. “The outfit was for Parker. You guys are so similar in…well,” she said looking her up and down, “...size that I just figured you would fit.”

  “What?” Lexi gasped a second time. She gulped hard, staring down Bekah. With everything she knew about Parker, with everything she knew about Parker’s relationship with Ramsey, Lexi didn’t think she could do it. And why did Parker have an outfit anyway. She knew that Parker had been close with Bekah, but she didn’t think they were still close.

  She hated these surprises. Is this why Bekah had invited her? Is this what the whole determination to get her here—to blackmail her into coming—had been about?

  “Well, she’s my fourth bridesmaid, but she’s too busy working at the hospital. They wouldn’t give her the time off to make the trip,” Bekah told her simply. Her head was cocked to the side as her eyes bore into Lexi studying her every feature.

  “Bridesmaid?” Lexi asked. She hated how surprised she sounded. Why hadn’t she seen it from the beginning? Why hadn’t she been able to put the pieces together?

  “I thought someone would have told you.” Her tone was charming, but Lexi knew too well now that it was dripping with venom. And her implications were clear—shouldn’t Ramsey have told her?

  Even if he should have, and he should have, how had she not figured it out first? When Ramsey had told her that Parker was going to be at the wedding, had he been warning her? If so, it was a pretty shitty warning. Couldn’t he have saved her the surprise by letting her know ahead of time? She might not have wanted to know, but she needed to know!

  “Is something wrong?” Bekah asked batting her eyelashes as if she were innocent.

  Lexi sighed quietly to herself. The truth was that everything was wrong with this picture. The idea of her wearing Parker’s clothes was very wrong. She couldn’t even begin to explain how wrong it felt.

  But she also knew that Bekah had done all of this o
n purpose. It was somehow part of her agenda. She had planned this from the minute she had invited Lexi to the bachelorette party in front of her father. He couldn’t refuse her anything, and no one refused him. That had been step one, and she had resorted to step two after Lexi’s own refusal.

  Now, Bekah was baiting her. She had throw out the line and was just bidding her time to jut a hook through Lexi’s lip. And it was just playing into her hand that no one had brought up Parker’s involvement in the wedding—her bridesmaid status.

  And why would they? It was an awkward enough situation without Ramsey bringing her up all the time. He had made his point by telling her that Parker was going to be there. She only wished he had told her everything.

  But she couldn’t let Bekah win. She might have gotten Jack in the end, but Lexi wouldn’t give her the pleasure of hurting her ever again. “No…no, nothing’s wrong. There’s no problem at all,” Lexi said holding the skirt to her waist and examining the skimpy clothing. She would rather burn it in a fire than wear it, but she smiled through her anger.

  “Oh, good,” Bekah said a smirk appearing on her lips.

  “I’m really glad you didn’t have to go to anymore trouble for me,” Lexi muttered eyeing her carefully.

  “Yes, it was convenient,” Bekah told her.

  “I mean, you already knew my measurements since you got me that beautiful red dress for Jack’s birthday…and I got so much use out of it.” Lexi smiled brightly. Or all the use she got out of him.

  Sure, she knew it was catty to bring up the hallway sex she had with Jack on his birthday, but she had to say something to ward off Bekah’s evil behavior. It didn’t matter that Bekah, as far as she knew, still didn’t know that she had slept with Jack that night. It was something Lexi could hang over her head without Bekah ever knowing quite what it was. Now she would always just wonder about it. Perhaps it was petty, but the look on Bekah’s face as she tried to make out the meaning behind her words was priceless. Totally worth it.

  Kersey walked out of the bathroom looking none-too-pleased about the scandalous outfit. “When do we start this game?” Kersey grumbled in her mousy tone.