Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding #1)(20)

"I can't believe you're actually here either."

Lexi's eyes made their way back to him. "Hey, that shirt!"

He looked down at what he was wearing. "Yeah?"

"Oh my God, you're wearing the carnival shirt," she said seeing the worn outline of a Ferris wheel.

"Oh yeah. I guess it is. It's the most comfortable thing I own." She stared longer her mind whirling. "Do you still have yours?"

She giggled convulsively then sprinted to the guest bedroom. When she returned, she had a flimsy green shirt in her hand. The material had several tiny tears. It had been washed and worn so many times it was practically sheer. He nodded his approval only mildly surprised that she still owned the thing. She tossed the shirt onto the back of the couch and lounged back again.

After a brief pause, Lexi spoke up again. "So what did Danielle and Kate tell the new girl? I mean I'm guessing that's who she talked to."

"Yeah, she met both of them. It was almost as strange as calling you. Well maybe not quite that strange." Her eyes narrowed when he winked at her and stuck out his tongue. "Anyway, Danielle agreed immediately. Thankfully, she had no qualms about meeting Bekah. Her and I broke up on good enough terms, you know, for it not to be an issue."

Lexi giggled. "That's not how I remember it."

"Luckily, that's how she remembered it," he said sighing. "I haven't spoken to her much since then, but her sister lives in Atlanta now so she came and stayed with her for the weekend."

"Does she still live in Savannah?" Lexi thought it was humorous that she was able to have this conversation at all. When she had first found out that Danielle even existed, she was so furious that she was certain she would never talk to Jack again, let alone spend time with him.

"Yeah. She's married now to some redneck that dropped out of high school the year I graduated. He's a real winner," he added smugly. "She's raising his two kids from a previous marriage, and she's pregnant with another. You could only just tell when she was here. Anyway, she told Bekah our story; that we dated in high school and my first year or so of college. The distance thing," he stated vaguely, "didn't work out for us, and so we broke up. End of story."

"So nothing about me then?" Lexi asked just trying to get all the information she could.

"Uh...I never told her about you," Jack said shifting uncomfortably.

"Oh, well that's probably for the better," she said trying not to convey her emotions too strongly. There had been plenty of reasons for Jack and Danielle breaking up. The distance and Lexi were just two of the many. But if Danielle hadn't said anything about the others, Lexi wasn't going to be the one to bring them up. "What about Kate? Obviously she brought me up, so I'm sure her story was interesting," she stated sarcastically.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Do we have to talk about Kate? I know how you feel about her. I know how she feels about you. And now Bekah knows how Kate feels about you. And let's just say, it wasn't a conversation I wanted to be present for."

"Oh," Lexi replied slightly taken aback. She hadn't really thought about what Kate might have said about her beyond the usual. Lexi had been so concerned with what she was going to tell Bekah, that it hadn't even crossed her mind what Kate might have said about her. "Did she claim that I was the reason that you wouldn't commit to her?" she asked finally.

He let out a puff of air. "Not exactly, but you didn't help anything either."

"Me? You were the one…"

He cut her off. "I said, let's not talk about Kate."

She quieted, her chest heaving up and down in a familiar burst of anger. "Fine."

"What are you going to tell her?" he asked hesitantly.

She shook her head deep in thought. She still wasn't sure herself. At first, she had been certain that she was going to tell his girlfriend how Jack was an awful terrible person, and that Bekah better get out before things went downhill. After all, that was what she had told Chyna she was going to do. That's what she had screamed at Jack in the hallway. But, after finally being in his presence, Lexi wasn't sure if she could do it. "I'm not sure yet."

"There's just so much you could tell her," he stated vaguely. Lexi could tell he seemed a bit anxious about the whole situation.

"I know." And she did. Their history went back for six years and the fact that they hadn't been together made the whole story juicier. It also made it potentially a hundred times more damaging for him depending on what Lexi revealed.

"Did you mean what you said in the bedroom? That you were going to tell her not to make the same mistake you did."

"I did when I said it," she offered. "But I was angry, and now I'm not so sure."

"I guess that's good thing," he said being optimistic to the prospects. She could tell he wanted to ask more questions. To find out if he was the mistake she had spoken of or if there was something more specific, but he held his tongue. Lexi was grateful for that. She didn't really want to have the conversation.

Lexi pushed her hair behind her ear again before asking the question that had been nagging at her since Jack had called the first time. "Why didn't you tell her about me? You had to know Kate was going to say something."