“Thanks a lot, cowboy,” Kat says, a bit sarcastically. “We can’t very well argue with her now that you’ve been clapping. It makes the rest of us look bad.”
I wink at her in return. She points two fingers at her eyes, then at me, then back at her eyes again, and one more time at me. I get it, she’s watching me. I chuckle to myself, I like Lexie’s friends.
“Okay, Cole, we may go now,” Mavis says to me.
“Can you ladies give me just a minute to help clean up and I will drive you home?” I ask Babs and Mavis.
“Oy, we have people for that,” Mavis says. “Come, my bones are weary. I sleep now.”
“Bubbe, we don’t have people for that,” Lexie scolds.
“People,” Mavis points at Kat and Remi. “See?”
“It’s cool, cowboy, we’ll help her clean up,” Kat says.
“No one has to help me do anything. I’m fine taking care of this on my own,” Lexie says. “I could probably use the time alone anyway.”
“Then we are definitely not leaving,” Remi says. “You get too far in your little head and we’ll never get you back out.”
“It’s like a black hole up in there,” Kat says.
“Shut up,” Lexie laughs.
“Leave the trash by the door,” I tell the girls. “I will come by in the morning and take it all out to the dumpster.”
“Deal!” Remi says.
“You just want an excuse to come and see Lexie,” Kat teases.
“Always, darlin’.” I smile. I look at Lexie, she’s looking down at the bar top she’s wiping clean, but I can see a small blush on her cheeks. That blush that I’m starting to yearn for. I walk over to her. “You gonna be okay, sweetness?”
“Of course,” she says.
I nod at her, then walk over to Mavis and Babs and offer an arm to each so I can escort them out to the truck and on home. When we get to the parking lot I notice there’s still a car in the lot that I know isn’t mine, I don’t think is Lexie’s, and I’m sure isn’t the one her friends arrived in. And as we walk past, I also see a child sleeping in a car seat in the back.
Aw, fuck.
“Ladies, if I’m not mistaken, that there is Paisley. And her momma is off having another baby and her daddy is with her momma.”
Both Mavis and Babs have a few choice and rather coarse words to say as we make our way back to the winery. Lexie looks up and smiles when we walk back in.
“That was fast. Or is it tomorrow already?”
“We got a small problem, sweetness,” I start.
“The putz left his bebe in the car,” Mavis says.
“What’s the problem?” Lexie asks.
“Paisley is in Trevor’s car. Asleep in the backseat,” I explain.
“Ohmigod,” Kat says. “Did you try the doors, is it locked?”
“I didn’t try,” I tell them. “I’ll go do that now.” I jog back out to the car and try the door handle. It’s locked. I try another just to be sure, also locked. Which in turn sets off the car alarm. Which then wakes Paisley, who starts crying. I try to soothe her through the windows, but it’s not working. Not that I blame her. She’s in the car, alone, at night. Some strange guy is making faces at her through the window. I’d be crying too.
The girls come out to see what’s going on. Lexie goes to the window to also try and soothe Paisley. Paisley calls her the bad woman and starts to scream even louder.
“I can pick the lock,” Remi says. We all look at her, Kat and Lexie with more surprise than me. She goes to her car and returns with something that looks like what the cops would use to unlock a car from the outside. We get the doors open, which only serves to refuel Paisley’s terror. I pop the hood and pull the wires for the electrical so that the alarm stops screeching. Which just leaves us with Paisley’s sobbing.
Remi crouches by the open rear passenger door. “Paisley, hi, my name is Remi. Do you remember me from earlier tonight?”
Paisley shakes her head no, her cries subsiding.
“I was inside. I know your mommy and your daddy. And do you want to know something amazing?”
Paisley nods.
“Your mommy is having your baby brother or sister right now at the hospital.”
“It’s my brother. He’s going to be little and I have to be careful.”
“Would you like to go see them?”
She nods again.
Remi’s phone rings, she stands to take it, turning away from us. She turns back to us when she disconnects, “I’ve got to get back to Chance. He’s been texting. He’s having a rough night. I’m so sorry. Can I turn this over to you guys?”
“Of course,” Lexie says.
“Whatever you need,” I tell her. “The three of us can handle this.” I gesture to Kat and Lexie beside me.
“Oh, wow, me too, huh? I mean, that kid seems fun and all,” Kat says. “But Remi is my ride. Lex, I swear I’ll come back tomorrow and clean everything up if you don’t make me deal with this. Okay? Please and thank you. You can’t be mad at me. I have terminal cancer.” And with that she and Remi all but run back to Remi’s car and leave.
Lexie turns to me. “You don’t have to help me with this. My ex, my mess.”
“Are you kidding me? Of course, I’ll help you.” I turn to face her, putting my hands on her upper arms. “I’m here, Lexie. I’ll take any opportunity I can to spend time with you. But also, whenever there is anything that I can do to make your life easier, you’d better be damned I’m gonna do it. This here? This is easy.” Tears flood her eyes as she looks at me.
“That’s right,” I say. “You’ve still got your period and all those pesky hormones making you cry.” She laugh-sobs, and then steps in the hug me. I take her in my arms, trying to memorize the feeling just in case it never happens again. I kiss the top of her head lightly, she backs away and looks up at me. “Thank you,” she says.
“My pleasure,” I tell her.
“Are you going to take me to my mommy?” Paisley asks, she sounds tired.
“Is it okay if I do?” Lexie asks her.
“You’re the bad lady,” Paisley says.
Lexie nods and puts a finger on her nose, as though thinking. “Well,” she says. “Do you remember when I gave you juice and crayons earlier?”
“Yes,” Paisley says. “I colored a horse picture, it’s right there.” She points to the seat next to her. Lexie leans in and looks.
“Oh, I like that,” Lexie says to Paisley. “You’re good at coloring, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Paisley nods. “I’m going to teach my baby brother, because he won’t know when he comes out of Mommy’s tummy.”
“That’s very nice of you to do,” Lexie says with a slight wince.
“I know,” Paisley says.
It’s got to still bother Lexie a bit, this whole charade Trevor had going on. I’m still amazed that he pulled it off as long as he did.
“Did I seem like the bad lady when I gave you crayons and juice and your mommy and I were talking?” Lexie asks.
“No,” Paisley says.
“So, maybe you’ll let me take you to your mommy and daddy?” Lexie asks.
“Do you have a car seat?” Paisley asks.
“No.”
“Well, I guess we’ll have to take mine then. We can’t start the car unless I’m in the seat and all buckled.”
“Okay,” Lexie says. “Let’s get you unbuckled, and we’ll get your seat into my car and get you to your parents. Sound good?”
“Yeah!” Paisley says.
Not sure how much experience Lexie has with kids or car seats, I lean in and unbuckle Paisley. “What’s your name,” she asks me.
“My name is Cole. You’re Paisley, right?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I know lots of things,” I tease.
“Really? What else do you know?”
I start to ramble off various things as I unhook Paisley’s car seat from Trevor’s car and get it into Lexi
e’s.
“How do you know how to do that?” Lexie asks, her eyes narrow and her face tense.
“Lots of nieces and nephews,” I tell her. Her face softens and her shoulders sag. I reach out to touch her on the shoulder. “Did I have you worried?” I ask.
“Well, I can’t be too sure any more, now can I?”
“Why, Miss Lexie. I’m starting to think you might just like me,” I tell her.
“You might be right,” she says coyly.
My stomach flips just a bit when she says that. It’s one thing to know you’ve found your lightning bolt, but it’s a whole other ball game, when they start to realize the same. I like it.
“Okay, Miss Paisley, what do you say we get you buckled in the car seat?” I ask the girl.
She climbs in and situates herself, then waits for me to buckle the harness. She pulls on them slightly to make sure they are secure. “All set,” she announces. “We can start the car.”
“Let me just go tell Mavis and Babs what we’re doing,” Lexie says.
I open the passenger door and wait for Lexie to return. It may be her car, but I’m still driving. And before you get the wrong idea, it’s not a chauvinistic thing, it’s a chivalrous thing. There’s a difference.
She comes back a moment later. “They are going to crash in the guest room at my house.”
“That saves me another trip to town later,” I say. She gets in the car and I shut the door after her then move around and get in on the other side.
“Thank you for driving,” Lexie says. “I just don’t know if I can handle it right now. In fact, and I mean this, I don’t know what I would have done without you tonight.” I peek in the rear-view mirror and see that Paisley has already shut her eyes again and her head is lolling to the right side.
“I’m glad you didn’t have to find out then. That guy, you’re done with him, right?”
“Ohmigod. SO done. More than done.” She lowers her voice then turns around to peek at Paisley.
“She’s out,” I tell her.
“I can’t believe I was so stupid where Trevor was concerned. I mean, who doesn’t realize their boyfriend is married?”
“Lots of people,” I tell her.
“I feel like you have to say that because you’re my main cheerleader right now.”
I laugh at her. “Make no mistake, sweetness. I don’t have to ever say anything. Especially not something I don’t mean or something I don’t want to say. If I tell you something, it’s cause it’s true. And I will be your main cheerleader for as long as you’ll allow it.”
“Sorry. I don’t mean to doubt you. It’s just been a rough week. Everything with Remi and her boyfriend, and then Trevor coming back and helping with that, my dog getting hurt, more Trevor, throwing myself at you and you rejecting me, finding out Trevor is—”
“Whoa, hold on a minute.” I put my hand on her leg to get her attention. And find I kind like it there. I also like how she jolted when I did it.
This ain’t no one-sided lightning bolt.
“Let’s get one thing extremely clear,” I say. “I did not reject you.”
“Uh, I tried to kiss you, you turned me down,” she says.
“That was not a rejection. It was a postponement. A rescheduling, if you will.”
“A what?” she laughs.
“A rescheduling. Where it’s still gonna happen, just at a different time.”
“You think so?” she asks.
“I know so,” I say. She places her hand on top of mine, still on her thigh, and interlocks our fingers.
“Awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“There a reason why I shouldn’t be?”
“No, I suppose not,” she says softly. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“How can you be so certain about you and me? Especially since we’ve never kissed or even dated. You barely know anything about me.”
“You rescue dogs in need?”
“Yeah.”
“You take on a surrogate grandmother who had no one else?”
“She took on me.”
“You spare a woman’s feelings tonight because she was already in pain?”
“I’m still not sure if that was the right thing to do.”
“You her best girlfriend? She gonna listen to you if you say her man is a cheater?”
“Probably not.”
“You got a good heart, Lexie. That’s all I need to know.” I pick up our hands and kiss the back of hers. Then return them to her lap.
“What if I’m a cheater?” she asks.
“Yeah, but you ain’t.”
“I could be a bad person.”
I look at her, until she looks at me and then looks away.
“You’ll find something,” she says. “Something about me that makes you leave.”
“You think so?”
She nods.
“When I prove you wrong, we name our first baby Cole, Jr.”
She laughs. “What if it’s a girl?”
“Don’t matter none to me.”
“You can’t do that to a girl,” she cries as we pull into the hospital parking lot. “That’s mean.”
“Lexie, Jr. then.”
“No,” she giggles. “That’s even worse.”
“Colette,” I say.
“Ohmigod! No.”
“That’s the terms, sweetness.” I find parking, turn off the car, and turn to look at her. “I’m gonna admit something to you that I’m sure I will probably regret.” I pause.
She nods. “Okay.”
“Members of my family believe in love at first sight.” She gasps when I say that, but I keep going anyway. “They liken it to a lightning bolt hittin’ them square in the chest. A feeling like no other, lettin’ ‘em know they’ve met their match.”
Lexie swallows, but still holds my gaze.
“I felt my lightning bolt not too long ago,” I say.
She looks away, down at her lap. Her hands fidget slightly. I have a feeling, even with everything else I’ve said, she still doesn’t realize that I’m talking about her.
“She was out to dinner with another woman, wearin’ a pale green dress that tied around her neck and left her whole back bare. There wasn’t a guy in that place who didn’t want to run his hands along her smooth skin. She had her hair up, with little bits and pieces fallin’ down around her face. The most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. She started choking on her wine when she saw me, and I had to make sure she was okay.” Lexie finally looks back up at me. Her eyes filled with hope, surprise, tears, and something else I can’t quite identify. Gratitude?
“I touched her back, and that was it. I’d been struck by lightnin’, and I’ll be damned if nothing was ever gonna be the same again and if that didn’t just dill my pickle.”
She laughs. “Dill your pickle?”
“Don’t laugh, it means I’m happy.”
“I think that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“That why you had tears in your eyes when I was telling you?”
“Nah. That’s just ‘cause someone was dilling my pickle.”
“That’s not how you say it.”
“It’s my pickle, I can say it however I want to.” She giggles.
“Mommy?”
We hear the little voice of Paisley from the back seat. I’d almost forgotten about her.
“If you can get her out, I’ll undo the car seat, and carry both in.”
“I can carry her,” Lexie says. I look at her. She holds her hands up in concession. “Okay, you carry both.” I nod and move to undo the seat.
I get Paisley situated, grab the seat with my other hand, and we head into the hospital.
“Maternity?” I say to the person at the front desk.
She gives us the floor number and we head up. Lexie tells the nurses station in the maternity ward who she is and who Paisley is; we find out that Elise is in surgery, and Trevor left a while ago to retri
eve Paisley from the car. Lexie tries to call Trevor, but he still has her number blocked. She asks the nurse to call him and let him know we have Paisley. Then we sit down to wait. Paisley has long since fallen asleep on my shoulder. Lexie lays her head on my other shoulder, and I smooth her hair with my free hand, feeling her relax a little bit more with each passing minute.
It allows me the opportunity to fantasize about if this was my life. Me and Lexie, with our daughter, waiting for something. Both using me as a pillow. It’s a nice feeling.
One that doesn’t last long because a minute later, Trevor blows into the room.
Chapter 25
Lexie
“I should have you arrested for kidnapping!” Trevor yells.
“You want to take it down a notch, Trevor?” Cole says.
“You want to not tell me what to do, asshole?” Trevor retorts taking a step toward him.
“Hey, the language is not necessary, and I’ve got your daughter sleeping on my shoulder, cool it,” Cole grits outs.
“Give me my daughter,” Trevor says.
Cole moves to gently transfer Paisley without waking her up. Trevor snatches her from him, not caring whether she stays asleep or not.
“You stole my daughter from my car!” Trevor says. “I’m gonna have you charged with breaking and entering AND kidnapping. Not to mention the damage to the car from when you vandalized the electrical system.”
“Are you even listening to yourself right now?” I ask Trevor. “And how completely crazy you sound.”
“How crazy I sound?” he says.
“Trevor, come on,” I say. “You don’t have an audience now, your wife isn’t here, just stop the theatrics.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? No charges pressed, you can get away scot free doing whatever you please.”
“We didn’t kidnap Paisley and you know it,” I say. “You left her in a locked car, by herself. You want to talk about being arrested, I’m pretty sure that’s child endangerment.” The nurses have started to gather behind the nurse’s station and are obviously enjoying the show. I don’t know how Trevor manages it, but he gets an audience when he wants one. He turns and lays Paisley down on the pair of chairs recently vacated by me and Cole.
Love Unforgettable: Love in San Soloman - Book Three Page 15