Done With Love (22 page)

“Lexie, open the door.”

Leo’s voice startled and soothed me at the same time. I jumped from the couch and hurried to the door. I smoothed my hair, and then opened the door. He stood with his hands stuffed into his pockets looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself. I cocked my head to the side in a questioning tilt. He stepped inside and swept me up into his arms and kicked the door shut behind us. I was too startled to speak an objection, and doubted I would have anyway. Being in his arms felt too good.

He carried me to the couch and sat down with me in his arms. He rested his forehead against mine. “Lexie, I’m not going anywhere.”

It wasn’t until he said the words it hit me how much I’d been wanting to hear them. Except, how could I believe him? Alarms went off in my head. He’d broken my heart before. And the why of it wouldn’t stop circling through my brain. Even though I’d been so adamant about keeping my emotions in check, I still wanted to know
why
he hadn’t wanted me before. What was so different now? Even if it was just sex between us, why me? Leo could have any woman he wanted, and he was here. With me. Again.

The familiarity of him, the feeling of safety, didn’t change the fact letting him in could ruin me. I exhaled a tired breath. “Leo…”

He raised his head so he could look down into my eyes, and his gaze quieted me. “Quit fighting it, Lexie,” he whispered against my lips.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Just let me in.” His lips were hot and seeking against mine. “Close your eyes, Princess. I’m going to make you feel better.”

He kissed every inch of me, and I did exactly as he told me to—I stopped fighting it. Stopped questioning it. I just let myself
feel.
Afterward, I lay in his arms in my bed, my heart beating in time to his. A very concerned voice in my head cautioned,
You can’t let him in.

I worried it was too late.

“I’ve invited you all here today because Lexie is a hot mess.” Roxanna quit pacing her home office to stare at each of us in turn.

I sat in a black upholstered chair from Roxanna’s dining room set, with Gen on one side of me and Richard on the other. He sat at attention with a legal pad in his lap, diligently taking notes as Roxanna had instructed. His presence was a little bit of a conundrum, but I supposed Roxanna had her reasons for inviting him, however questionable they might be. We faced the back wall where a large board of some type sat on a chrome metal stand, covered with a large black sheet.

“She has been eating
carbs
and suffering from
anxiety attacks,”
Roxanna continued. “And she’s also been lusting after my cousin.” I opened my mouth to object, but she said, “She denies her interest, but something is going on, and I am going to find out what.” She stopped pacing to stand directly in front of me and pinned me with her calculating stare. “My cousin who, I would like everyone to know, took her virginity and broke her heart and still hasn’t explained why.” Then to clarify, she added, “Why he broke her heart, not why he took her virginity.”

Blushing, I crossed my arms over my chest. “I honestly don’t think Richard needed to hear the last part, but thank you for spilling all of my secrets, you brat.”

Gen knocked her knee against mine. “Really. I agree with Roxi. Something’s going on with you and Leo. You should tell us what.”

I blushed. “
Nothing
is going on with me and Leo. Now let’s get on with this weird meeting.”

“We all need to be on the same page if we’re going to fix your life,” Roxanna said.

“My life is just fine,” I lied.

“No, it’s not,” Gen and Roxanna replied in unison.

Okay, so things weren’t exactly perfect for me right now, and professionally my boutique swirled down a big, fat, stinky drain, but that didn’t mean I cared to be the object of Roxanna’s boredom. And she was—bored, that is. She needed a boyfriend, or a new hobby, anything.

“Now that we’ve established Lexie’s life is a mess, we can move on to how we can fix it.” Roxanna resumed pacing. “And we have our work cut out for us. First things first—”

“Hold on, you’re talking too fast,” Richard said, scribbling on the notepad. He’d written LIFE IS A MESS and CARBS, circling the last word. At least he hadn’t taken down the virginity part.

“I don’t think you need to write all of that down,” I told him.

“Yes, he does,” Roxanna said.

I rolled my eyes. “You are so weird.”

Roxanna paced, tapping the air with a long stick ruler clutched in one hand. I had no idea when she’d acquired it, but something told me she’d gone shopping just for this meeting. I’d never seen the big board and the chrome stand in her house before tonight.

“We’re all concerned Lexie’s gone bat-shit crazy.” I opened my mouth, but Roxanna silenced me with a pointed stare. “And none of us blame her. She’s been dealt some really bad luck, what with her runaway bride video going viral.”

“Yeah, the video.” Richard scribbled in the notepad. He nodded at me. “You’re, like, famous. Over two-hundred and seventy thousand hits.”

“She looked really great in that dress,” Roxanna said, hands on hips.

“Well, she’d better. The damn thing cost more than my car. It’s too bad she can’t sell it to pay her bills,” Gen added. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I bet with your newfound fame—”

“It’s not a good fame,” I reminded her.

“—you could get a boatload of money for it.”

“If she doesn’t get a large influx of cash soon, she’ll be bankrupt,” Roxanna added.

I took a deep breath and pinched my eyelids together, pressing my fingertips against my pounding temples. “Thank you guys, but I’m intimately familiar with all of this. Can we just move on to what this is all about?”

“Yes, let’s.” Roxanna whirled and grabbed a corner of the sheet, whipping it off the board. The board and stand came crashing down, and she jumped back. “Shit!” she said, and bent to pick it up. “Richard, a little help, please?”

“Oh!” He jumped up to help her pick up the board while she righted the stand.

“I knew I should have done a PowerPoint, but those projectors are so expensive.” Roxanna and Richard righted the board, and my eyes were glued to the photographs pinned to it.

My photo was tacked to the center of the board, blown up to an eight-by-ten. I didn’t know where she’d gotten it, but it was of me with my wedding gown hiked up in mid-bolt on my way out of the church. It wasn’t a flattering photo either, with my face scrunched up as if I were three seconds from throwing up. Those memories wouldn’t fade away any time soon, especially not with images like this floating around.

Up in the right hand corner was a photo of Deborah, bundled up in a pristine white belted jacket. She was downtown somewhere. The photo looked like it had been taken from the front seat of a car. I glanced from the photo to Roxanna, who stood back from the board, her arms crossed as she scrutinized her handiwork.

“Rox, where’d you get that photo of Deborah?” I asked, though I was certain I already knew the answer.

Roxanna had a really great camera, one of those fancy professional ones. Lately, Roxanna had been talking about getting into the more hands-on physical side of the Moss private investigation services. I wondered if this was some kind of test run.

“That’s not important,” Roxanna said, and I exchanged a nervous glance with Gen.

In the left hand corner of the board was a photo of Jeremy, taken of him standing at the altar, looking less like the prince charming I’d thought he was and more like the spineless toad he’d proven to be.

Down below were three photos—Gen, Roxanna, and Richard. Gen’s picture was of her sitting in front of a canvas, a paint brush in her hand, looking startled. In Roxanna’s photo, she held a martini near her smiling lips, her brows raised at the person taking the photo. Richard’s photo was copied from Bradshaw Insurance’s company website, glasses pushed high on his nose, his brown hair in a tuft of tight curls trimmed close to his head. There were pins tacked into the photos, red string wrapped around each pin, weaving to join each picture to the focal point of the board—me.

“Well, if that isn’t overly dramatic, I don’t know what is,” Gen breathed.

“I worry about you,” I told Roxanna, my gaze darting between the photographs. “You should start writing again. Remember a couple of months ago when you told Leo you were going to need flexible hours so you could free up some hours to write?”

“This is not my intervention,” Roxanna said, then pointed at Richard. “Sit down, Richard.”

He retrieved the notepad and pen off the floor and sat. Roxanna picked up the ruler and slapped it to my picture. “As you can see, this is where things went wrong. Lexie should never have walked down the aisle in the first place.”

“I agree.” Gen shrugged at my scowl. “What? It’s true.”

“Jeremy is a major mama’s boy loser.” Roxanna slapped the ruler at Jeremy’s photo, and it landed smack dab in the center of his forehead. “And this woman is the devil.” She slapped Deborah’s photo between the eyes. “And we,” she slapped each of their pictures at the bottom of the board, “are going to save Lexie before she winds up in the loony bin and bankrupt.”

Gen burst out laughing. “If you were normal, I wouldn’t love you so much.”

Roxanna looked exasperated. “This is serious. Pay attention.”

“
Sheesh
. Okay.” Gen crossed her arms over her chest and snapped her mouth shut.

“I’ve been thinking about all of this really hard.” Roxanna paced, her brows drawn together in concentration. “What we have here is a gross display of power,
and
,” she stopped to slap Deborah’s photo again, “this woman’s obsession.”

“Obsession,” Richard mumbled, circling the word.

“What we need to do is attack the weak link.” Roxanna slapped Jeremy’s photo. “And I think we can all agree that Jeremy is the weak link on this board.”

She wouldn’t get any argument from me.

“And what is your suggestion?” I asked.

Roxanna placed her hands on her hips and jutted out her chin. “We separate him from the evil bitch and kick his ass.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. My jaw hung wide open, and Gen shook her head. Richard’s face resembled someone who’d just taken a shot of cheap tequila without salt or lime.

And then Roxanna burst out laughing. “Oh my God, you should see your faces!” She bent to brace her knees and sputtered laughter. “We’re not
criminals.
”

“Very funny, you asshole.” Gen stalked over to Roxanna and snatched the ruler from her, then faced me and Richard. “I agree with Roxanna, we should approach Jeremy. Tell him he needs to ask his mom to back off.”

Maybe…

Could it be so simple? I hadn’t spoken to Jeremy since our wedding day. There’d been a couple of times I’d almost answered his phone calls, but I couldn’t bring myself to listen to his excuses. He’d even sent me a bouquet of flowers for Christmas. I threw them in the trash. His card hadn’t said, “I’m sorry.” His card had said, “I wish you would call me back.” After awhile, he’d stopped calling.

It wasn’t as if he could control Deborah, but maybe he could talk some sense into her. I was angry with him, true. He’d broken my heart, true. The thought of talking to him after what had happened between us made me want to vomit, true. But if doing so would end this feud between me and his psycho mom, it was worth a shot.

Maybe he could get her to retract all of her statements. Live. On television.

What if Deborah spoke to the bank and assured them my boutique was a good investment? My entire body was taut with hopeful excitement—I could barely sit still. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Good, because at this point I don’t think you have a choice.” Roxanna crouched in front of me and looked up into my face. “I know you don’t want to see him again, and I hate that you have to, but I just don’t see any other option.” She frowned. “We have to try.”

I smiled and drew her in for a hug. “I love you, even if you’re weird.”

“Are you sure, Lex?” Gen asked, and I nodded.

“I should probably talk to him soon.” Glancing over at Richard taking more notes, I wondered what his role in all of this was. The last time Gen had enlisted him for help, we had almost put the kibosh on an ongoing police investigation, which could have ended very badly for all involved. I thought it necessary to add, “There will be no high speed chases.”

“I’m a good driver,” Richard said, but he wrote down NO HIGH SPEED CHASES on his tablet, anyway.

“Which is why you were invited. Just in case.” Roxanna stood.

“Why would there be a ‘just in case’?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m just meeting him to talk.”

She shrugged, adjusting her sweater dress. “I ordered Japanese takeout so we can talk specifics.

“Oh good, I’m starving,” Gen said.

“I’m sure you’ll be happy to know the delivery guy is Leo.” Roxanna peered at me, as if looking for clues to validate her suspicion.

“Roxanna Leigh, when there is something serious to report about me and your cousin, I will definitely let you know.” I pushed her toward the door. “I am not getting emotionally involved with anyone right now. Okay?”