The Avoiding Series Boxset

by K. A. Linde

  Nope.

  “I still can’t do it,” she murmured. “Whether I love him or not, doesn’t change the fact that I just don’t like your sister, Ramsey. I think she’s manipulative and deceitful, and if she loves Jack at all, I would be very surprised.”

  “You don’t get to make that decision though,” Ramsey told her. “You don’t get to choose whether she loves him or not…if he loves her. They’re going to get married.”

  “Yet, I have to convince him, when I think it is completely idiotic?” she responded raising her voice.

  “We just need you to calm him down, because he refuses to listen to anyone else. You’ve known him the longest.”

  “No, Seth has,” she jumped in.

  Ramsey didn’t even seem to listen to what she had said. “And he trusts you. He will listen to you. You don’t have to convince him to get married. If you can calm him down enough, he will figure it out on his own.”

  Lexi wasn’t too sure about that. Ramsey did not know Jack like she did. If she went down there to “calm him down,” all hell could break loose. “You don’t know that.”

  “Well, there aren’t really any other options, since he refuses to speak to anyone else.”

  “Does Bekah know?” Lexi asked.

  “Fuck no!” Ramsey cried standing in frustration. “If this never gets to Bekah it would be too soon. She does not need to know that Jack is freaking out. This is normal, and the bride doesn’t need to be involved in this.”

  “Will she ever know that I went to see him?” she asked, curious how this scenario would actually play out.

  “Never,” he said instantly. Bekah would be furious with everyone involved for all of eternity if she knew that Jack had been with Lexi alone prior to his wedding. No one wanted to deal with that wrath.

  Lexi nodded. “I still won’t do it.”

  Ramsey sighed and walked across the room to her. He pulled her into a hug releasing all the tension they had both been carrying in this argument. He pulled back and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. “Okay. If you won’t do it, then I can’t force you. But if you can find a way to do it…for me, I would appreciate it more than anything I’ve ever asked of you. I want us to work more than anything. Could you imagine having to deal with Bekah in our relationship if she doesn’t get married today?” he whispered almost as a side note.

  Lexi froze in his arms. That thought really chilled her to the core. If she didn’t marry Jack, then Bekah would be even more involved in trying to break them up. Lexi never wanted to deal with Bekah again. Not that her marrying Jack was the ideal situation, but she didn’t want her involved in their relationship either.

  “That would be…awful.”

  “I know.”

  “Ramsey, I don’t want to talk to him today,” she groaned, sinking into his arms again.

  “I know, baby,” he said stroking her long hair. “Can you just do it for me?”

  Lexi hated this with every ounce of her being. She was standing her ground. She wasn’t going to talk to him. She was finally over him, and then Ramsey had to pull that line. She wouldn’t have done it for anyone else. She could have turned down anyone else, but Ramsey seemed so desperate. He needed her to do this, and what else had he really asked of her?

  “Fine,” she mumbled disheartened. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  “Thank you so much,” he said, giving her another kiss on the cheek before releasing her and reminding her how to get to the groom’s rooms.

  Lexi left the room a few seconds later. She sighed as she moved throughout the hotel, unable to believe that she was actually going to do this. After everything that had happened with Ramsey, the last thing she wanted to do was be alone with Jack. She had been alone with him under that weeping willow earlier in the week, and that had almost been catastrophic. Here she was finally happy, and Jack insisted on interfering.

  Maybe she was being too pessimistic about the situation. If Jack wanted to be with Lexi, he’d had more than a million opportunities for that to happen. And it hadn’t, so she had to accept the fact that they just weren’t ever going to be together. Wasn’t that the whole reason she was at this wedding? Wasn’t that the whole reason she had flown down to Atlanta last year? She had wanted closure.

  If anything, Ramsey had helped bring her that closure. No matter how much her heart told her that she wanted to be with Jack, she didn’t honestly want to be with him. They were a train wreck together…as good as a train wreck could get, but still a train wreck.

  Not that she would be surprised if Jack was freaking out. She would be freaked out in his position. But he couldn’t have his cake and eat it too. He was getting married in a few short hours. They had their chance, and he had chosen that evil wench over her. She didn’t understand his decision, but it was still the decision he had made and he had to stick with it.

  Lexi was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice her surroundings, and she nearly ran into someone directly in front of her. “Sorry,” she said not even glancing up as she tried to side step the person.

  “Lexi?” the man asked.

  When he said her name, her head snapped up at the familiar voice. “Clark? What are you doing here?” Lexi was utterly stunned. This seemed like the last person that Jack would invite to his wedding, and also the last wedding that Clark would attend. As far as she knew, Clark still hated Jack. They had once been good friends, but Clark had never forgiven him for cheating with Lexi.

  “I was invited. What are you doing here?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the direction she had been headed.

  “I…I…” She was so stunned she couldn’t even gather an answer for him. There were too many reasons as to why she was here, and knowing Clark, he would be able to deduce a few easily. He was too intuitive for his own good and always had been. She could already see the pieces falling together in his head.

  “Please don’t tell me you are here for Jack,” he demanded, his jaw clenching at the very thought.

  “Uh…well, kind of.”

  “Lexi, seriously? On his wedding day?” Clark asked furrowing his brow and shaking his head in disbelief.

  “No, not like that!” she cried, hating that she even had to defend herself against this. “I’m dating one of the groomsmen.” God, that didn’t sound good either. She was sure that it looked like she was just involved with one of the groomsmen to get to Jack. Ugh, why was Clark even here?

  “Right…you’re dating one of his friends. That doesn’t sound familiar,” he grumbled under his breath.

  “Jesus, Clark, I don’t have time for this. What are you actually doing here?”

  “I couldn’t believe he was marrying someone other than you. I wanted to see it first hand,” he said with an easy shrug.

  Lexi rolled her eyes dramatically. “If you came here to taunt us about our past, then get over yourself. What happened was years ago, Clark.”

  “Oh, yeah, where were you headed so intently?” he asked arching his eyebrows.

  “I have to go talk to Jack,” she admitted slowly. Clark looked at her pointedly. “Just butt out all right! I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

  “I’m sure,” he said with a devilish smirk.

  “I don’t know why every meeting we have has to be like this.”

  “Probably because it always has something to do with Jack,” he said. “No one thought he would marry anyone other than you...me included. So, you being here is a little too perfect.”

  Lexi rolled her eyes again. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “I don’t have time for this. I’m kind of in a hurry. Enjoy the wedding. Hopefully, the next time we talk it won’t have to be about Jack.”

  “Not likely, but I’ll keep hoping.” Lexi groaned as she began to stomp in the opposite direction. “Oh, and Lexi?” She spun around giving him a sinister look. “You look good.”

  She pivoted on her foot, her hair flying out around her as she stormed away from him. Oh, the nerve of that one!
She knew she had done him wrong. She knew that she had been a terrible person to him. If anyone knew, Lexi knew. She had felt terrible about it for years. She swore she would never be that person again, and she hadn’t cheated on anyone since then. There was no need to rub their past indiscretions in her face. She didn’t care if he hadn’t been expecting her to be in attendance…or maybe he had, she wasn’t even sure. She was just furious that he had made her day deteriorate even further. She was pretty certain that it could only continue to go downhill from here.

  Lexi stopped before she reached the door to the groom’s dressing rooms. She took a deep breath and entered. The space was a near match of the one she had left, but two or three times the size with a fireplace and grand piano. Seth, Luke, and Hunter were sitting in chairs in the common room. Seth was drinking straight from a handle of Jack Daniels. They must have thought it would be funny…ironic. Seth passed the bottle to Luke when he noticed her.

  “Don’t tell Sandy,” he said standing quickly as she approached.

  Lexi couldn’t help but smile at him. At least someone really seemed to care about their significant other. “No worries there. I’m here to see Jack.”

  Seth, Luke, and Hunter sent each other a knowing look. She could have read that look from a mile away. They didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go in to see him. And to be honest, she agreed with them on so many levels. Being alone with Jack right before his wedding was not the brightest idea in the world, but then again, it hadn’t been her idea.

  “Can we talk about this, Lex?” Seth asked, freely using Jack’s nickname.

  “Look, I’m only here are the request of the groom and the insistence of one of the groomsmen—my boyfriend,” she tossed out the description for reassurance. Though she doubted it gave them any. She had known all of these guys a long time. They had all been there when the Clark/Kate fiasco had gone down…and even before that, with Danielle.

  “I think that maybe you should stay out of it,” Seth proceeded forward.

  “I couldn’t agree with you more,” she said.

  “Well, then what are you doing here?” Luke asked, tossing back a shot of the whiskey and handing it to Hunter.

  “There really isn’t time for this, guys. You know as well as I do that Jack is a philandering ass. You’ve always known, and you never cared until this moment. Why? Because now he’s getting married?” she asked waving her hands in the air belittling the statement. “For some reason a piece of paper changes your mind about his behavior? Sounds kind of like bullshit, to be honest. So just do the same thing you did for the last seven years and turn a blind eye to the fact that I am going into his room. Okay?”

  She knew that none of them would believe her if she had said that nothing was going to happen. She didn’t want anything to happen, but the only way to get their attention would be to throw it back in their face. They had stood idly by all those years and let things happen. There was no legitimate reason now to get all high and mighty.

  All the guys ducked their chins, admitting their involvement as an accomplice to Jack’s actions. They knew, as well as anyone, just what they had witnessed and overlooked it all that time. And though they felt bad about it at the moment, they weren’t going to stop her. And anyway, she wasn’t planning on anything happening with Jack.

  Lexi threw them a fake smile before sauntering toward the French double doors. She opened them without knocking and quickly closed them in the faces of the three guilty guys behind her.

  “Lex,” Jack murmured in an almost desperate tone.

  “Hey, Jack,” she said tentatively. She couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous he looked in his tux. She wondered if they had chosen blue to match his eyes, because she could see how much they stood out from across the room.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said as he cleared the distance between them.

  Before Lexi even knew what was going on, Jack grabbed her hips firmly in his hands and pressed her back against the door. Lexi gasped as she thudded against the wood. As she was recovering from the fact that her back had shaken the doorframe, she realized in that split second that Jack’s body was pressing against her. His hand threaded into her hair, and his face moved closer toward her.

  Lexi’s mouth opened slightly in surprise. Was he about to kiss her?

  Just when the thought connected in her mind, his mouth dropped down and met her lips.

  PRESENT

  Lexi froze, momentarily taken in by the delicious feel of his lips pressed against her. She recognized something distinctly reckless in his demeanor, and in that instant…utterly reckless. It was like he didn’t care what he was doing or what kind of damage he was causing, he just wanted Lexi. Jack wanted her with a primal instinct he had never been able to tame. She was his escape, and on a different day, she would have wanted to escape with him.

  But today, she could not believe he had the nerve to kiss her.

  She didn’t care if he was having doubts or if he wanted to bow out of the wedding, that didn’t suddenly make it okay for him to kiss her. Even Lexi, with her loose morals when it came to Jack Howard, knew that this was 100% not okay…not on his wedding day.

  She placed both of her hands on his chest and attempted to separate herself from Jack. He didn’t even seem to notice or acknowledge her efforts. His hands resting on her hips held her more firmly in place. She couldn’t believe this. He wouldn’t even budge an inch. “Jack,” she groaned still trying to shove him away, but he wasn’t listening. He was a man possessed.

  Jack hadn’t had his lips on her in over a year, and she had wanted to keep it that way. After what had happened the last time, she hadn’t wanted to be put in this position again. Somehow she always found herself kissing him. But she wasn’t a confused girl this time around, she knew better than to let this continue. She couldn’t believe what she was considering doing, but he wasn’t exactly leaving her with any other option.

  Almost out of instinct, Lexi’s knee hitched up and connected cleanly with his groin. Lexi had never kicked a guy in the balls before, but apparently she had executed it properly.

  Jack immediately broke free of her and doubled over in pain. “Fuck,” he cried gasping for breath. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” His face turned beat red and contorted into agony. She just stood there over him and watched him hold himself as tears came to his eyes.

  For some reason, that was ridiculously satisfying. He certainly didn’t need to be using those things for anything in the near future, and he had been sexually harassing her.

  “What the fuck was that, Lexi?” Jack cried out as he put his head between his knees to ease the pain.

  “What the fuck was that?” she asked him. “Are you joking? You were molesting me on the day of your wedding!”

  “No need to knee me in my balls. Fuck,” he cried out again, relenting to sit helplessly on the floor.

  “Oh, you don’t think so? What gives you the right to kiss me? You completely lost all privileges in that department when you proposed to Bekah. What kind of person kisses someone else on their wedding day?” she asked throwing her arms in the air. “Are you a fucking moron, Jack? Do you know nothing of fidelity or loyalty or honesty or commitment? I think you have no concept of those things. You are the exact same person you were when I first met you. You haven’t changed at all.”

  “You liked that person,” he grumbled painfully.

  “Oh, don’t even get me started! You lied to me. You were dating someone else, and you never even bothered to tell me. How could I ever have been fooled into thinking you would like and respect me after that, let alone think you could ever love me? You are too selfish to see anyone or anything else,” Lexi spat at him.

  “You weren’t much better. You cheated on Clark,” he mumbled taking deep breaths.

  “It is my greatest shame, my biggest regret. You…you don’t even know what those words mean. You never felt bad…never. You never wanted me to be first. Bekah was right about one thing, as much as I hate to
admit that, but I always was second best to you. You never wanted me for me. You wanted me for the easy sex you got when we were talking. We had so many shots, and you just blew it. You knocked it out of the park.” Lexi crossed her arms angrily, thinking about how fucked up their relationship had been for so long. She didn’t care if she loved him or if she wanted to be around him or that they had this immediate attraction. She needed more than that, and it was something Jack was never able to provide.

  “I did want us to be together,” he said, glancing back up at her finally.

  Lexi bent down to look at him at eye level. She couldn’t believe how gorgeous his eyes still looked even though they were teared up and slightly red. But he would need more than the beautiful blue eyes she had always fallen for to get out of this conversation. “It took me a long time to realize how much of a liar you are.”

  “I’m not a liar, Lex. I always said I would tell you the truth,” he whined.

  Lexi shook her head. “You always said the words, but you only spoke the truth when it benefited you. And in that sense, Jack, you have never changed.”

  “When did I lie to you?” he demanded. He doubled back over as he clutched himself. She had really done a number on him.

  “When?” she asked with a cynical laugh. “You want me to make a list for you?”

  Jack nodded. “When did I honestly lie to you, Lexi?”

  “I think your most telling moment, Jack, was when you told me that you wanted to be with me and then proposed to Bekah. If that isn’t the biggest lie you’ve ever told, then I don’t know what is,” she spoke bitterly. He had been everything she had ever wanted, and he had thrown it aside.

  Jack raised his head and let his sad blue eyes rest back on her. “I did want us to work, Lexi.”