Chapter 17 – Lexi
seventeen
Lexi
“I mean there is no harm if you try it out. Maybe you won’t like it. Maybe we won’t like you,” he replies and I just gasp, and then it’s followed with a quick chuckle by both of us. “Or maybe”—he leans in and my stomach literally flutters at his words—“maybe we’re a perfect fit.”
I put my elbows on the armrests of the chair. “I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I barely know what I’m doing with my life. How can I help people change theirs?”
“Well, you aren’t going to be the only one.
” He puts his hand on the armrest and I can see the ink on his wrist. The white button-down shirt goes tight around his biceps when he sits like that.
“We’ll be working as a team. We will have weekly meetings, or monthly, that hasn’t been decided yet, and you’ll work closely with Ms. Hayes.
Basically you’ll help us find where we’re needed the most.”
“That sounds better than just me.” I laugh nervously. “I would just give help to everyone. Like Oprah,” I joke with him. “You get a car.” I point over to the waiter. “You get a car.” I point to the hostess and he laughs.
“So are you going to do it?” he asks me and I shrug. “How about you think about it and let me know?”
“That I can do,” I answer him. The way my heart is beating in my chest, it’s a miracle I can even hear his words.
“And if you have any questions while you are deciding if you are going to do this or not, you can call me or Ms. Hayes,” he offers.
“Fine,” I agree and then he looks over at the waiter.
“We still going to have lunch?” he asks and I just laugh. “We still need to eat.”
“You already lured me here under false pretenses,” I tell him and look at my watch to see I have two hours before I have to meet my mother. “I should have left already.”
“Technically I didn’t.” His blue eyes go lighter.
“You texted me last night after I had already taken the meeting,” I point out and he looks up, probably trying to think of what else to say. “So you knew I had emailed her.”
“I did.” He doesn’t lie to me or try to spin the truth. “But I texted you on a personal level.”
I can’t help the chuckle that comes out of me. “I can’t even argue with you.”
The waiter comes over and we both order a salad. “So on a scale from one to a hundred, how shocked were you when you saw me?” He puts his elbows on the table and I follow his move, entwining my fingers together and resting my chin on them.
“A million,” I answer him and he grins. “Your mission statement on the website was the thing that pulled me in.”
“That was all Ms. Hayes.” He doesn’t take the credit. “You two will work well together.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “I didn’t say yes yet.”
“But you didn’t say no either.” He points at me and the rest of the lunch is spent with us talking about how his back-to-the-ice training is going.
When I push away from the table and stand up, his eyes go down, a full sweep of my outfit, and I’m suddenly happy I chose this outfit.
The white wraparound skirt hits me mid-thigh, shorter than I would ever wear three months ago, but also one I was dying to wear.
I hold my nude-colored purse in both hands as I wait for him to stand up.
He grabs his things, putting his aviator glasses on the top of his head as he extends his hand out for me to walk in front of him.
I walk toward the front door, smiling at the hostess when she tells us to have a nice day.
The wind blows my hair over my face as I step out and wait for him to follow. I look at the black Land Rover on the other side of my white one. “Well,” I say, stopping in the middle of the parking lot, “thank you for meeting with me.”
He extends his hand for me to shake and I reach out, my hand sliding into his. “Thank you for your interest in our foundation,” he replies, so official.
“I guess I’ll be in touch,” I state, our hands still in each other’s, moving up and down.
“I am very much looking forward to that.” His eyes stare into mine. “And for working with you.” I don’t know why but those words make my insides shiver.
“I’m going to need my hand back, if you expect me to be in touch with you,” I joke and he just smirks, squeezing mine once before letting it go.
“Have a good day, Lexi,” he says and waits for me to walk over to my SUV before he walks over to his.
I get in at the same time my phone rings, and I see it’s my mother.
“Hey, Mom,” I answer, looking in my rearview at his ass as he walks to his own vehicle.
The tight black dress pants fitting him perfectly. “Did you land?”
“We just landed,” she says breathlessly. “Do you want to meet us at the first house?”
“Yeah,” I reply with a smile, “I’ll be there in fifteen.” I watch him back out of his parking spot and look over at me. The aviator glasses on his face make him even more hot. I shake my head. “I’m excited.”
“Us too,” she says. My phone rings and I see he’s calling me.
“I’ll see you soon,” I say, hanging up and answering him, “Hello.”
“Everything okay?” he asks me and I turn to look out the back window at him.
“Yeah, why?”
“You haven’t left yet,” he notes and I wonder if he can see me, “just making sure you are okay.”
“All good,” I assure him. “My mother called.”
“Sounds good.” He holds up his hand and waves.
“Talk later,” he adds, right before he disconnects.
I watch him drive out of the parking lot when I add the address of the house in the GPS.
I replay the whole conversation we had at lunch as I follow the directions to the house, stopping when it tells me I’ve reached the destination.
I get out of the SUV and walk toward the house.
Stepping onto the driveway, I see the black double garage door.
I look up at the house and it looks like it’s all concrete.
I look over my shoulder when I hear a car approaching and then smile when I see my mother in the passenger side, waving.
The car comes to a stop and I walk toward them.
My mother gets out and comes to me while my father trails behind her.
“Hey,” she says with a huge smile on her face as she comes to me and gives me a big hug, and we sway side to side.
Letting me go, she then grabs my face in her hands.
“You look so good,” she praises, “even better than the last time we saw you.”
“You see me every day during our FaceTime calls,” I remind her as my father walks around and grabs me in a hug. “Hi, Dad,” I say, putting my head on his chest and listening to the sound of his heart beating.
He rubs his hands up and down my back. “You ready to see this house?” he asks me and I nod my head.
“This is my favorite one,” my mother shares, walking over to the gate and putting in the code. The door unlocks and she steps in. “I like that it’s got a cement wall so you can’t see the front door.” She looks over at me as we step in and I look at the house.
“That’s because if not, you would be able to see right in the house,” I say of the big window in the front.
“Like I see everything.” I smile as she walks up the steps to the door and puts in a code on the lockbox for the key as it pops out.
She opens the door and I step in behind her, seeing a three-piece sofa set facing the door.
The high vaulted ceiling slants down and you see it’s filled with windows, showing you the sky.
My eyes go up past the couch set to what is the upstairs loft area.
The bottom part of the railing is white and the top is a dark-chocolate brown, almost black.
It has a brown sofa pushed up against it.
“This is spacious,” my father observes, walking in behind me and closing the door. I slowly take steps into the house and stop at the staircase that is the same color as the railing upstairs.
Walking more into the house, the ceiling ducks down to a normal height but I stop when I see the back of the house has full floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. “Oh, wow.” I move past a little seating area that faces the family room.
My father walks into the family room and goes up the two steps to the dining room that is just off the kitchen. “This kitchen is the perfect size.” I follow him in there to see the L-shaped counter with two stools at the head.
My eyes go to one side of the wall that is all windows but facing a cement wall with vines all over it. “That’s a bit scary,” I say of the sink that faces the wall. “Imagine you are washing the dishes and a head pops up.”
My father laughs, walking around the island that has another sink. The cabinets are a dark brown. “This house has three bedrooms,” my mother says, “and although it doesn’t have a pool, it has a newly remodeled jacuzzi.”
“Her backyard is literally a pool.” My father points toward the ocean.
“Two out of the three bedrooms have private balconies facing the ocean.”
“How much is this house?” I ask them as I take the steps back to look out the windows to the ocean, seeing some outside furniture.
“What difference does that make?” my father asks, putting his hands in his pockets. “The question is do you like it?”
“What do you mean ‘what difference does it make?’ It makes a huge difference. I have a budget,” I inform him and he looks at my mother.
“Mom, you know my budget, right?” I question.
I didn’t want anything too big, nor did I want to go over two million dollars.
I don’t know how much I’m going to get from Trent, but that was what I had in my bank account that I’d accumulated over the years.
“I do,” she confirms, “and this is in the budget.” She looks at my father. “Should we go upstairs and see the bedrooms?”
I follow them up the stairs and step into the loft area.
Built-in custom cabinets are against the wall, with a brown love seat that faces a television.
“This is cozy,” I say, looking to the left where two big double doors are open and I see a long brown chaise.
I walk across the wood floor to the bedroom.
Stepping into the room, on the left-hand side is a long dark-brown built-in lining the hallway with a cream-colored counter that faces the entry of the open bathroom.
The floor looks like it’s little seashells glued together.
My heels click on it as I look to the left side and see the massive shower that could fit about fifteen people, with the bathtub against the glass shower wall.
“This is a little—” my father says, taking in the glass windows that face the same cement wall that is in the kitchen. “Can you see in here?” he asks my mother, who laughs.
“It’s frosted from the outside,” she assures him. “You can look out, but they can’t look in.”
The shower faces the double vanity, and if you walk deeper into the room, you are taken to the walk-in closet. “It’s so dark,” I mention of the dark cabinets. “Do you think we can swap this out for white?”
She nods her head. “That’s an easy fix. Go and see the balcony.” She motions with her head toward the bedroom. Walking past the king-size bed, I open the door and step out, seeing the beach right under my feet, and the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. “The view is everything.”
My mother steps out, followed by my father. “This house is two million dollars?” I ask her and she looks over at my father.
“It’s five,” my father admits and I gasp.
“Why would you show me a house that is over my budget?”
“Because it’s not over your budget,” he refutes. “Consider this your wedding present”—I laugh—“and your divorce present.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, you and Trent eloped,” he explains.
“I mean, not eloped, you had a small wedding without us there.” I am not getting into that right now.
I don’t want to upset him by telling him Trent wanted just five people there because he didn’t want the uproar of my family to take the focus away from me.
That is what he went with, and that is what he had me believe.
Looking back on it now, I can’t believe I ever agreed with him.
“We gave your sister a house in New York before she even got hitched, and now, she doesn’t even live in the city. ”
“I’m not going to take your money.”
“Okay, then if we buy it, will you stay in it for us?” I roll my eyes when he asks me that. “What? It’s an investment and we want to make sure it’s taken care of, and what better person to do it than you?”
“I’m supposed to be buying this house myself,” I remind him. “It’s a big step for me.”
“Okay, so what if we go halfsies?” he counters. “And when you take Trent to the cleaners, then you can pay us back.”
“Do I want a five-million-dollar home?” I ask them. “It’s so big.” They both look at me like I have two heads. “Okay, fine, it’s a third of the house I had in Phoenix but—”
“You wanted a three-bedroom house on the ocean.” My mother cocks her hip to the side and puts her hands on her hips. “This is it.”
“I mean, it doesn’t have a pool,” I try to joke with them, “but this is high on the list.”
“Now, let’s go see the other two,” my mother urges and my father wraps his arms around my shoulders and kisses my head.
“Love you, Lexi,” he says softly, “more than life.”
* * *
“Who is the most handsome boy in the world?” I ask Jagger as he bounces down on my legs, going to blow kisses in his neck. “You.” I rub my nose against his. “You are the most handsome boy in the world.”
“You tell no lies,” Ariella says, walking into the living room, her hair fresh from the shower. “Was he good?”
“When isn’t he an angel?” I ask her as he squeals.
“Last night,” she retorts. “That was not an angel thing to do by being up every hour on the hour.” She sits with us and looks over at him. “I bet you are going to miss that when you finally move out.”
“Can I take him with me?” I ask her. “I don’t think I can live without him.”
“Did you choose which house you wanted?” she asks me. It’s been three days since we went to visit the houses and up to today the best one was the first one. “Are you still going over it in your head?”
“You know I am,” I reply as the front door opens and then a couple of seconds later slams shut.
“Oh, they’re here,” she states, getting up and walking over to the entrance, and I have a spilt second before it dawns on me she says they’re here.
“Hey.” I look up, seeing Jaxon come into the room. I smile at him and my eyes go behind him to two more blue eyes, my smile slowly fading at the same time my palms start to sweat. “Kirby,” he says his name, “you remember Lexi.”