Chapter 35 – Lexi
thirty-five
Lexi
I’m in the middle of composing an email when the phone rings beside me. I look over to see it’s Ryleigh and my blood turns cold. My stomach lurches and my palms get sweaty. I hate every fucking second of it. Picking it up, I put it to my ear instead of putting it on speakerphone.
“Hey,” I answer with a smile and a shaky tone.
“Hey,” she returns, her voice is filled with a sort of glee.
“So,” she starts and then stops, and I close my eyes.
“I just got off the phone with Trent’s lawyer.
” I lean back in my chair. “He was so happy to hear from me.” She laughs and that makes me laugh.
“Anyway, told him to take the twenty million and shove it up his client’s ass sideways, no lube, obviously.
” I silently laugh because I can just imagine Trent’s face at being told no.
“They want to meet with us face-to-face.”
“Why?” I ask, surprised, but not that surprised. This is Trent’s MO. Get them in the room and then try to strong-arm them. I sit up in my chair, looking out the window, trying to press down the way my heart is beating erratically.
“So he can fuck with you.” Ryleigh already knows his games.
“What if I say no?” I tap the desk with my index finger.
“Then he stalls,” she replies reluctantly.
“So he wins,” I groan, “again.”
“No,” she snaps. “You see, showing him you’re not under his thumb anymore and how unbothered you are by him and his money will push him to another level. Trust me, I’ve known guys like him my whole life living in Hollywood.”
“I don’t know,” I waffle, my voice trailing.
“They gave us two dates to work with.”
“Fuck no,” I snap. “If I do this, and apparently, I have to do this, I’m going to do it on my own time. I’m going to decide the date, not him.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” she cheers. “Figure out when it’s good for you, and then I’ll call them back.”
“Okay, let me check my calendar,” I tell her, “and I’ll text you dates tonight, and you see on your end if they work. Then we will send them the acceptable dates.”
“Sounds good,” she says. “Lexi, you’ve got this.”
“Yeah.” I exhale. “Yeah, I do.”
“A little bit more convincing next time.” She laughs. “Got to run,” she says and disconnects.
I sit at my desk for longer than I need to and then close up. I’m walking out to my car when the phone rings and I look down to see it’s Kirby. “Hello.”
“Hey,” he says softly. “Where are you?”
“Just leaving work,” I tell him, opening my SUV door and getting in.
“It’s after six. Is everything okay?” I sit in the seat and put my head back on the headrest. I’m literally twenty minutes late and he’s calling to check up on me.
“Yeah, just had a call with Ryleigh,” I huff out.
“Want me to come and get you?” he asks me and I can’t help but smile.
“No, I’ll be okay,” I assure him. “Have you decided what you want to eat?”
“Why don’t you come home and let me worry about that?” he suggests. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay.”
“Lexi,” he calls my name before I hang up, “drive safe, yeah?”
“I will.”
“Love you,” he replies, right before he hangs up and I pull out of the parking lot, headed over to his house.
I don’t know why I’m surprised that he’s outside waiting for me when I get there.
He pulls open the driver’s side door. “I was tracking you like you were my food delivery.” He laughs, and when I step out, he takes me in his arms. “Hi, baby,” he says, right before his lips kiss mine. “Let’s get you inside.”
I nod at him as he grabs my bag with one hand while holding my hand with the other.
It’s been two weeks since the big game. Since I introduced him as my boyfriend and since he asked me to move in with him.
Two weeks since he beat Matty in the hockey game and two weeks of hurling insults back and forth about which team is better.
Living life with Kirby has been so blissful, it’s almost as if he was made for me.
He has not once walked into the room when I was on the phone with whoever I was on the phone with and told me to end it.
He would come in, kiss my head, say hello, and then walk out, giving me privacy.
It made me fall deeper and deeper in love with him than I already was.
“So,” he starts when he sits next to me at dinner, “what has my baby frowning?” I fill him in with what Ryleigh said. “I want to be there.”
“I don’t think you can be there.”
“I don’t mean I want to be in the room, but I want to be there before and after,” he restates. “I can give you my schedule and we can work around it. We’ll fly in in the morning and out the same day.”
“I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”
“I agree. That way you can move in with me.” He winks at me as I roll my eyes. “Now eat, so we can go for a walk on the beach.”
It’s something we started doing after dinner, walking on the beach and talking about our day.
Then it would change to what we wanted to do in the next week, then the next month.
It is easy with Kirby and I have to wonder if this is what a relationship is really supposed to be like. Effortless. The answer is always yes.
* * *
Two weeks later, I’m sitting in the back seat of a car with Ryleigh next to me. She’s been texting since we got into the car. I’ve been back in Phoenix for a whole twenty-five minutes, and I feel like my skin is about to crawl off my bones. I swallow down the bile that is threatening to come up.
“Relax,” Ryleigh says from beside me, not even looking at me, “or at least get it all out now. I don’t want them to know how bothered you are by him.”
“I’m not bothered by him.” I look over at her. “I’m bothered by being here,” I say, annoyed that she saw right through me.
“Then be annoyed he made you come here.” She smirks at me, putting her phone down and then she looks out the window. “We need to make a quick pit stop.”
“Good. I’d like a shot of tequila.”
Ryleigh laughs as we pull into a parking lot, and I spot a big black Cadillac Escalade.
The door in the back is open and I see one foot coming out, a cowboy boot on his foot before I see the man stepping out.
He’s wearing jeans and a blue knit sweater.
Aviator glasses cover his eyes as he watches the car approach him.
My eyes go to the side when I see more movement, and I gasp when I see my uncles Matthew and Max there, also in jeans, but in sneakers. They also have aviator glasses.
“What in the world?” I ask, opening my door and stepping out.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Matthew says. “I would like for you to meet Gabriel’s great-uncle. Don’t let the word great fool you.” He mumbles out the last part.
“Casey,” I say his name and he smiles at me, “it’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“Pleasure is all mine,” he replies.
“Okay, we don’t have much time. Do you have it?” Ryleigh steps up to him as if the two of them are business partners.
“Right here,” he confirms, handing her the brown envelope. “Have fun.”
“You know I will,” she assures him, then looks over to Matthew and Max. “You couldn’t let him do this without showing up?”
Matthew pffts out, “This is my family.”
“You showed up when it was his family.” Ryleigh points to Casey.
“That’s because you went, and you’re my family,” he counters and Ryleigh just shakes her head.
“Go and get ’em,” Max says with a smirk. “See you later.” He slaps Matthew on the arm before turning and walking back to the SUV.
“Do I want to know?” I ask Ryleigh, walking back to the waiting car, looking over my shoulder one last time.
“It’s better if you don’t.” She gets in and her smirk is scary looking. I take out my phone, texting Kirby.
Me:
My uncles Matthew and Max are here.
Kirby:
I know. They are coming to my house after. Your father just got here.
“My parents are here?” I look over at Ryleigh.
“I’m not in charge of their travel schedule,” she states and the car comes to a stop, and I look up at the office building. “Let’s do this.”
I grab my purse, step out of the car, and start to walk toward the office.
“Bury the nerves,” she advises and then stops.
“This motherfucker tried to get you to never talk about him again after making you miserable for the past ten years.” I bite down.
“He has fucked with you for the last time.” I grip the handle of my purse even tighter.
“Now, let’s go in there and make him pay through his asshole. ”
I snort before walking in and heading toward the elevator.
We step in, and when we walk out, we are faced with a receptionist. Ryleigh walks over to her while the other door pings open.
The doors part and I see him—Trent. My eyes go big when I get a good look at him.
His eyes have a purple-blue tint to them and the top of his nose is bandaged with a little strip.
He takes one look at me and gives me the whole up and down.
“You look trashy,” is the first thing he says and I laugh at him.
I’m wearing a white linen skirt that reaches to my mid-thigh and a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt with blue flowers all over it.
When Kirby saw my outfit, he picked me up and fucked me on the counter.
“Thanks.” I smile at him. “That’s the look I was going for.” The bigger my smile is, the more he glares and hisses. “You look…” I take him in, his hair perfect, outfit perfect, but his face looks a bit battered. “Well, you look like shit.”
“I was conveniently mugged,” he hisses at me. “Probably your thug family.”
I laugh. “There is no way it would be my family.”
“Yeah, right.” He shakes his head.
“If it was my family,” I state calmly, “you’d be drinking out of a straw, and you would have to be wheeled in here because they would make sure to break every single bone in your body.
” His eyes pop out of his head. “Maybe it’s one of your fuck buddies’ husbands who got wind of whatever it is you do with them.
” I shrug, not giving a shit and Ryleigh is right, fuck him. “Either way, I don’t really care.”