by K. A. Linde
“Um…” She glanced over at Ramsey. She thought his undivided attention was on Jessica, but it was clear that he was watching her. “Let me see if we have time. I have a flight to catch tonight.”
“Ah, right…you’re going back to New York,” John said.
“I thought you were going to be in the city when I got back,” she said quietly.
“I was, but this was a last-minute job. I heard about it on Friday, and I just got the to come down here yesterday afternoon. We’ve been working on our proposal all night. Otherwise, I likely would have found the time to let you know I would be in town,” John said. Leaning in a bit closer than he should have under the circumstances, he spoke softly, “Just give me five minutes, Lexi. I want more, but I can wait. I’m patient.”
Lexi swallowed and stepped back. She pushed her hair behind her ear and then dropped her hand, remembering that it was her tell. “Sure. Hold on.”
Five minutes would be okay. She would totally be fine in that amount of time. She would just tell John the truth and break things off, and then everything would be peachy keen. Because that was how simple everything was in her life…
“Sorry for interrupting,” Lexi told Jessica. “Ramsey, are we okay on time still? I’m going to talk to John for a couple of minutes.”
Ramsey’s green eyes searchingly bore into hers. She knew he was trying to trust her, like he wanted to. She knew he was trying to let it all slide off of him with ease, but it couldn’t be easy. He had only found out about John yesterday.
“Yeah, we should be fine,” Ramsey said, bending down. He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her full on the lips.
Lexi came back blushing when he released her. Since when was Ramsey the type to stake his claim so publicly?
Maybe since she ha left him, and he ha found out that she had slept with Jack before his engagement and John when she returned to New York…
“I’ll, uh…be quick,” she murmured. She turned and walked back to John.
He still looked calm despite the display Ramsey had just put on.
“Five minutes,” she told John.
They walked out into the parking lot and away from prying eyes and ears. John storde over to a black BMW and leaned back against one of the doors.
“Is this your rental car?” she asked, making small talk.
“You’re dating Ramsey Bridges?” John asked incredulously.
“Uh…yeah. Kind of.”
“Well, that’s inconvenient. I’m pretty sure you weren’t yelling his name when we were together,” he mused.
Lexi laughed, which she immediately turned into a cough, as she glanced away from him. This was not the territory she wanted to venture into.
A little over two weeks ago, she had slept with the irresistibly handsome man in front of her. When she had returned to New York after breaking up with Ramsey, she had been distraught from another failed relationship, another lie, another heartbreak. Chyna had been in Milan, and her roommate, Rachelle, had been away, working as a law associate for the summer. Adam had been the only one around who she had wanted to hang out with. He had been the only one who could understand since he and Chyna had broken up before she left.
Hanging out with Adam meant being around John, who Chyna despised for an instance that had occurred earlier that year when John had come on to her. But with Chyna gone, Lexi had found that she got along easily with John. She had let herself hang out with him without Adam, and then that had moved on to a couple of dates, which then moved on to the bedroom. To be honest, she had just liked not having to think or act or tiptoe or anything else. She hadn’t cared that it was a rebound. It had felt comfortable, and that had been what she needed. She wasn’t going to apologize to Ramsey about what had happened, but she couldn’t let it continue either.
“So, how long have you been together?” John asked casually.
She could tell he wasn’t as casual as he sounded though. His eyes were vigilant, and he seemed to be assessing her in a way she wasn’t used to from him. He was usually so relaxed and in control. This must have thrown him off-balance.
“We were together for almost a year, but I broke up with him and moved back to New York at the end of June,” she confessed. “I came back to Atlanta for a, uh…mutual friend’s wedding, and we decided to try to work it out.”
“And you were going to tell me…”
“When I got back,” Lexi said.
“Why are you getting back together with his guy?” he asked.
She shifted her feet uncomfortably and chanced a glance back into his hazel eyes. He seemed legitimately interested, and she wasn’t sure how to answer.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you broke up with him, moved back to New York, and started your life over. You don’t seem like the type of person who just runs back to a guy who hurt her. He did hurt you, right?”
She nodded softly.
“So, what made you change your mind?”
“Why does it matter?” Lexi asked, sidestepping.
“I want to know, so I can figure out how to change it back.”
Lexi’s mouth dropped open before she had a chance to realize what she was doing. She had not been expecting that. She had been planning to let him down easy, hoping that they could keep their relationship civil while he was working on the Bridges medical wing. She hadn’t thought he would want to continue seeing her.
“I, uh…”
“Go out to dinner with me,” he said, reaching out for her hand and pulling her a little closer to him.
Lexi stumbled forward a step, but she quickly dropped his hand. She was too close, and this was a really, really bad idea. She was used to bad ideas, but this—well, this was even worse.
“I can’t. Sorry.”
“Come on, you were going to tell me you were dating someone else when you got back to New York anyway. Go out to dinner with me when I get back. Then, you can tell me if your relationship is still perfect, and you have no doubts in your mind,” he said in an almost mocking tone.
“John,” she warned.
“If your relationship is perfect, then what does one dinner between friends hurt?” He smirked at her in a way that made it clear he thought he had her backed into a corner.
“No.” Lexi shook her head and took a step backward. “I should probably get back. I hope this doesn’t interfere with your job, and you’ll still work on the Bridges project.”
She turned and began to walk back up to the restaurant.
“Hey,” John said, jogging to catch up with her, “does he know?”
“Know what? That we slept together?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“He knows.”
“Then, you have insurance against it not happening again,” he said, his voice dipping lower for her ears only. “Unless you want it to.”
Lexi shook her head again as she kept walking.
John reached out and grabbed her arm. “Go to dinner with me, Lexi. One dinner. It was just this week that you said you couldn’t wait to get home to me, that you wanted to go to my cabin in Connecticut with me, that you were sexting me.”
He hadn’t lowered his voice this time, and Lexi’s eyes bulged.
“Jesus, keep it down,” she growled, swatting him on the arm.
“I want what I want, and I’m not ashamed of it. I’m not asking for those things—yet. I’m just asking for dinner. After dinner, if you never want to see me again, we can try to forget. We won’t even call it a date. It’s not a date,” he repeated for good measure. “Dinner.”
“Why are you being so persistent?” Why did she attract such persistent guys? That would have been a better question.
“I don’t like to see people make terrible mistakes.”
“You don’t even know—”
“I do. It’s just dinner, Lexi. Don’t make me beg.” He winked.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Daniel restaurant. Do you like French food? Gorgeous. You’d love it.�
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Lexi arched her eyebrows. Chyna had told her about Daniel before. It was over a hundred dollars a plate. They had five hundred dollar caviar. That was outrageous.
John smiled at her response. “I think Daniel will be perfect. Saturday?”
“John,” she groaned.
“I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”
PRESENT
Lexi had been staring at the glittering diamond ring on her finger for what felt like an eternity. She was just sitting there and staring.
She was engaged. Holy shit! She was seriously, legitimately, one hundred percent engaged to Ramsey Bridges.
Why this shocked her so much, she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She knew he was going to propose eventually. She didn’t date someone for that long without the knowledge that someday she was probably going to get married. That was what people did. It was totally a normal thing to do. People got engaged all the time. How many of her friends were married now? Pretty much all of them.
But still, she was shocked.
Maybe because it was this ring.
Maybe because it was this guy.
Maybe because she hadn’t told anyone yet.
In movies, she knew that the first thing people did when they got engaged, after they finished screaming or crying, was call everyone that they knew. They started with their parents and went down the list. Now, people posted it online as soon as it happened.
But she hadn’t done that.
Last night, Ramsey had asked her who she was going to call first. She had told him it was too late, and they could make calls tomorrow. Well, now, it was tomorrow, and she still hadn’t made any calls…or posted it online…or anything.
She needed to tell her parents, and she needed to call Chyna. Those were the most important ones. Her parents would be happy that their little girl was getting married, but Chyna would flip her shit and likely fly down to Atlanta as soon as she heard. Lexi wasn’t quite ready for that much enthusiasm.
Lexi hadn’t left her office all day because she was still working on that big case, so no one had even seen the damn thing. She had even ordered lunch in.
Now, she was back home, waiting for Ramsey to get home, before she went to see Jack, and she felt like an idiot. What was wrong with her? A gorgeous, successful man wanted to marry her and live out the rest of his days with her in his life.
That was the dream—someone’s dream.
Ugh! She stood and stormed upstairs. That was her biggest problem…her biggest setback. She had never been the kind of girl who prioritized marriage. Sure, she wanted to get married—someday. But she was only twenty-seven years old, and she had so much else that she wanted to do and so many more places she wanted to go.
See…now, she was being irrational. She could do all of those things with a man at her side, with Ramsey at her side, but it just felt different. Marriage had never been her end game. She wasn’t Bekah Bridges, for Christ’s sake!
Just as she made it upstairs, determined to call Chyna and set this all right, she heard the front door open.
“Lexi!” Ramsey called.
“Up here,” she yelled back.
Great. Now, she couldn’t even hide the fact that she hadn’t told anyone. This was going to be good.
“Hey!” he said, a big smile plastered on his face. “Look at my gorgeous fiancée.”
Ramsey bent down and kissed her lips, the taste of peppermint lingering on his tongue. Lexi smiled against his mouth as he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up.
“So,” he murmured against her lips, “how did your parents take the news? Are they excited?”
“Well…”
Ramsey placed her gently back down on her feet and looked at her with a stern expression. “You did tell them, right?”
“I was super swamped at work today, and I just got home a bit ago.”
“So, you haven’t told them?”
Lexi shook her head. “No. I was about to call Chyna before you got home.”
“Chyna before your parents?” he asked.
She didn’t know why that was a bad thing. She loved her parents, and they got along, but Chyna was her family, too. They had gone to hell and back together the last couple of years.
And maybe she wanted to hear Chyna’s opinion before telling everyone else. That wasn’t weird or anything.
“Have you told your parents?” she asked, ignoring the question.
“I wanted to tell them together.”
Lexi blew out the breath she had been holding. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous about them knowing. It had nothing to do with Jack. At all. Not even a little bit. They were friends. Just friends for two years now.
“When did you want to tell them?”
“What about brunch on Sunday? The place where it all started,” he said with a smile.
“Well, it all started in a club in New York.”
“Where it all started over then. Is Sunday okay?”
Lexi tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She couldn’t even help it. She was nervous. Ramsey’s parents made her nervous. The possibility of seeing Bekah made her nervous. Lexi did what she could to avoid his sister at all costs. But she had said yes to Ramsey last night when it counted. It would be silly not to say yes to tell his parents two days from now.
“Of course.”
“Great. I’ll let them know we’ll be there.” He walked toward the bedroom door.
“I’m still meeting up with Jack tonight,” she told him.
“Oh, right. I forgot about that.” Ramsey stopped in the doorway and turned to face her.
She saw that he had a question at the tip of his tongue. She could generally read him pretty easily. Whatever his question was though, she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.
“I was just waiting to leave until after you got home.” Lexi grabbed her jacket.
It was only October, and it was already too brisk to go without.
“You’re leaving now? Should I make us dinner?”
“Oh, I don’t know how long I’ll be. Do you want me to just text you?” she asked.
“Sure, Lexi.”
Ramsey opened his mouth like he was going to ask a question, but she averted her gaze and slid into her jacket.
“Have you seen my purple scarf?” She couldn’t help but change the subject.
“Hey, you,” Ramsey said, drawing her attention. “Come here.” He pointed to the ground in front of him.
Lexi shuffled forward and stood before him.
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Are you okay with all of this?”
“With all of what?” she asked like she had no clue what he was talking about.
“The engagement, Lexi—telling everyone, getting married, being mine forever,” he said before dropping a kiss on her forehead. “I know how you feel about marriage, and we can wait, if that’s what you want. I just thought you were ready.”
“Ramsey Bridges, are you trying to talk me out of it?” Lexi asked.
“I’m not joking with you. I’m not trying to talk you into or out of anything. I just want you to be mine.”
Lexi opened her mouth to tell him that she already was, but he kept speaking before she could say anything.
“I want you to be mine, Lexi. Mine. I want you to take my name. When people call you Mrs. Bridges, I don’t want you to have to correct them. That’s what I want. But mostly, I just want you to be happy. Are you happy?”
“Of course, I’m happy.”
“Good.” Ramsey’s smile returned with her answer, and he drew her into him. “So, you’re going to be okay with telling people…everyone?”
“Yeah,” she said softly. With her hands wound around his neck, she couldn’t think of how she couldn’t be.
Are we still meeting? Are you hungry?
The message from Jack came as soon as she got into her car. She had thought that she was meeting Jack at the office, but it seemed like he had something else on his mind.
> Yeah. Did you want to get dinner?
Well, there went her plans to be back to have dinner with Ramsey. She would have to text him and let him know that wasn’t going to happen. Whatever was going on in Jack’s head was a mystery to her. Though…hadn’t it always been?
Thai 5.
Huh. Fast-food Thai wouldn’t have been her first choice for dinner, but it did kind of sound good.
Lexi maneuvered her car out onto the interstate toward the Thai restaurant. She had been there only a couple of times. Once, she had gone with her friend Brandon for sushi, but they had found another place they liked, so they had stopped going to Thai 5. It was pretty close to her office, but lately, she was so often in court that she would eat around there or at the Bridges offices.
Fifteen minutes later, she pulled up in front of the restaurant. Jack was idling in his car, but he hopped out as soon as he saw her car park. He had been working really late days recently, so Lexi had thought that he would be coming straight from the office, but he wasn’t wearing a suit. Instead, he had on a pair of dark jeans and a half-zipped, long-sleeved, dark blue pullover. She smiled when she saw the Chuck Taylors on his feet. So Jack.
“Hey, Lex,” he said with a bright smile as he jogged up to meet her.
“Hey.”
She watched him as he approached, knowing that something was wrong. Dark circles were beginning to appear under his captivating blue eyes, and his hair was rumpled. Though it still looked good. Plus, the Chucks were a dead giveaway. They were like a security blanket.
“You look nice.”
“Really?” she asked, considering her outfit.
She was wearing a loose, cream button-up tucked into a flowing coral skirt with her black jacket. She still hadn’t been able to find her scarf. At least, it wasn’t cool enough yet for it to be necessary, but she had thought it would go well together. Nothing fancy though.
“Really.” Jack nodded and pushed her toward the entrance to the restaurant.
He grabbed the door handle before she could reach for it, and then he opened the door for her.
“Thanks,” she murmured, walking through the door.
“Anytime.”
The pair got into line behind another couple, and they waited to order. Lexi already knew what she wanted, but she was really more concerned with what was going on with Jack.