“Oh, hey, man,” Jack said.
He extended his hand out to Brandon, and the guys shook.
Jack turned his attention back to Lexi. “If I’d known you were in the building, I would have just talked to you in person.”
“Well, this is for the better then,” Lexi said, doing everything she could to keep her hands at her side. All she wanted to do was furiously push her hair behind her ears.
His blue eyes landed on her brown ones, and he smiled that Jack smile. She swallowed, but didn’t look away.
“Well, I hope you go to the concert. The seats are pretty good.”
Lexi shrugged. “We’ll see. I should be able to make it as long as…everything works out,” she said vaguely.
The elevator dropped to the bottom floor, and the doors dinged open.
“Have fun at lunch then. Brandon.” Jack nodded his head at him. “Talk to you later, Lex.”
Jack walked away, and Lexi sagged slightly as he disappeared into the Bridges lobby.
Stupid bad luck!
Brandon and Lexi moved forward in silence until they made it out to the parking garage and almost all the way to Brandon’s truck. Then, he couldn’t seem to hold it in any longer, and he started laughing.
“You’re going to a concert with Jack?” Brandon asked.
“Yeah,” Lexi said with a shrug. “I guess.”
“You do know he got married, right?”
“Yes, I know he got married,” she snapped a little too harshly.
She took a deep breath. It was still too fresh, too early. She shouldn’t go to the concert. It was stupid, but the offer was too hard to resist. It certainly had nothing to do with Jack because she still wanted to pummel him.
“But this isn’t about Jack. This is about Kellan Kyle.”
Brandon continued laughing at her as he hopped into his truck. He was still laughing almost the entire way to the sushi restaurant.
“Knowing what I know about you, Lexi, I feel like I should tell you that this is probably a bad idea.”
“It’ll be fine,” she said, convincing herself.
“You like me because I don’t shoot shit. I tell you how it is, like I always have. Like, I want to fuck you and see how that gymnast body bends.”
“Brandon,” she groaned.
“Yes, I want to hear you scream out my name, too, but that’s beyond the point, Lexi. Keep your mind out of the gutter.”
“Insufferable,” she grumbled under her breath.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that before, when you screwed up royally in the past, it wasn’t that bad because, while you were dating other people, neither of you were married.”
“I know that!”
“Well then, I’ll just remind you. Coming from someone who got the shit beat out of him for sleeping with a married woman, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“You get the shit beat out of you a lot, don’t you?” she asked, remembering the time Brandon had told her about Ramsey punching him because Brandon had started dating Parker. That all felt so long ago.
Brandon smirked. “Hardly. This guy had an unfair advantage.”
“Which was?”
“A car.”
“Oh Jesus,” Lexi cried.
“Anyway, I don’t like to talk about serious shit. So, don’t do anything stupid.”
“You mean, don’t act like you?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Even I’m not stupid enough to push Bekah Bridges’s buttons. You have a few more degrees than me,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Use them.”
Lexi shrugged and looked out the window. She had no intention whatsoever of doing anything with Jack. She had been avoiding him ever since the wedding and really the entire year before that. She might want to push Bekah off a cliff, but that didn’t mean she was going to do anything that would bring her closer with the Bitch at a more normal occasion.
Lexi tried not to think about it anymore. She would have to talk to Ramsey when she got home, and that, in itself, was not going to be a fun conversation, but it was one she needed to have. If she could yell at him about not holding back any more secrets, then she had to be willing to be more forthcoming about her own life.
Lunch was refreshing, to say the least. Without Chyna, Lexi desperately felt the loss of close friends. She knew her old friend, Krista, still lived in the city, and Lexi might drop her a line. Maybe they could go visit the gym together. It had been too long since she had done gymnastics. Lexi was excited to get back into some kind of state of normality for her life.
Brandon had kept her entertained through lunch, getting her mind off of the concert and what she knew lay before her when she got home. He had known her mind wasn’t fully on their lunch, but he hadn’t made any further comments about it. She loved him for that. They had promised to meet up for lunch again, at least biweekly, and then Brandon had dropped her back off at her car.
She drove home in silence. She had never been good at this kind of thing. Hiding had always been a big part of her life, and just thinking about telling Ramsey made her anxiety pick up. It wasn’t even that she had anything to hide, but it was an old, familiar feeling. She wished it wasn’t that way. She wished she had made some better choices in her life, but this was who she was. Now, she had to fight herself to make it right again.
Lexi parked her car in the garage and took the stairs up to the apartment she now shared with Ramsey. When she walked in, Ramsey was on the phone in the living room, pacing back and forth as he talked. He smiled at her and gave her a small wave before diving back into the conversation.
“No, I agree. I think we should work on that tomorrow. We’ll have to solidify it by next week, so we can start breaking ground,” Ramsey said into the phone.
Her stomach knotted as he talked about the medical wing.
It was all for Lexi. That’s why he was doing this. She just repeated the mantra over and over in her head. It was how she remained sane.
She didn’t like the idea of the project at all. Not that she didn’t support a new hospital facility in downtown Atlanta or even Ramsey following his dreams, but a lot of the time, it felt more like he was giving in to his father’s demands. She had never wanted Ramsey to change for her. She had just wanted the lying to stop. It was this fragile balance, and she wasn’t sure how far would be too far before it tipped.
“Okay. Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Parker,” Ramsey said before hanging up. He turned back to face Lexi. “Sorry about that. Work.” He shrugged.
“That’s all right,” Lexi said even though Parker’s name had made her wince. “Everything working out with the initial concepts?”
“So far, so good. Jessica says we’re right on track, but I have no idea how we could be with only a year to get everything done. There’s a lot to do.”
His shoulders tensed, and she could see all the plans circling in his mind. He was taking on a huge endeavor. Who was she to judge him for doing what he wanted?
“Anyway, nothing much to report. How was lunch with Brandon?” Ramsey asked.
Ramsey didn’t like Brandon—not after he had dated Parker briefly. Ramsey tolerated it though because, thus far, absolutely nothing had happened—and nothing ever would happen with Brandon. She liked him but just as a friend. As a pseudo-replacement for Chyna—although, certainly no one could replace Chyna.
“Good. Uneventful.”
“Sushi?” Ramsey asked knowingly.
“Yep,” Lexi said, wringing her hands in front of her. “I’m not good at this, Ramsey.”
“At what?” he asked cautiously.
“Nothing bad,” she said quickly. “But Jack called me today and asked me to go to the Sienna Sexton and D-Bags concert with him. Bekah got him tickets, but since they canceled at the wedding, she doesn’t want to go. The D-Bags are my favorite band, and it’s a sold-out show, and, um…”
“And you want to go,” Ramsey finished for her.