Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(49)

It pained her through and through to know that Jack would never again be hers. He had been such a big large of her past that her future felt incomplete without him around. It wasn't like she missed him, but there were times when something significant happened that her heart would ache for him. A hole was left in his absence and gradually it shrank, but it never completely disappeared.

Just as she felt the self-pity surrounding her previous actions about Jack begin to take over, a beep from her phone pulled her out of her sinking mood. She fished the phone out of her purse and clicked the button to pull up the text message. "Are you avoiding me?"

Lexi glanced up at the door tentative about someone coming into the room. The last thing she wanted to deal with on top of everyone else was her mystery man. She hadn't necessarily been avoiding him, but it was just easier to try and work everything else out first. Okay so she had been avoiding him a little, but it wasn't as if she had had much choice. She quickly jotted down a message and pressed send. "No, not in NYC."

"Oh, well that's better than avoiding me. I don't want to make you feel awkward."

Lexi tucked a lock of hair behind her ear before sending another message. "Don't worry about it. I just have a lot to deal with right now."

"As usual." Lexi clicked off the message not sure how to respond. Yes she always had something to deal with, but he couldn't be one of those things yet. Before she could think of something to say he had sent another one, "Let me take you to dinner."

She shook her head. "I don't know about that."

"I know just the place."

"I know you do, but it's complicated."

"You just make it so."

The door jiggled as if someone was about to walk into the room so she quickly shot back a response. "We'll talk about this when I'm back. Gotta go. Bye."

She threw her phone into her purse just as Ramsey walked through the door. She tried to act nonchalant as if she hadn't really been doing anything while he had been downstairs. Her heart was racing though. Ramsey didn't know that anything had happened when they had been apart, and she wasn't planning on telling him. They had been separated and so nothing that had happened counted.

She hadn't exactly been in a good place, and even though he was continuing to get in contact with her, Lexi hadn't seen him since that night. She wasn't sure how Ramsey would react to news like that, but she didn't want to find out. With everything still up in the air surrounding their relationship, she didn't want to say or do anything that might jeopardize whatever was going on. If the time ever came up in which she would need to tell him what had happened while they had been a part, then she would think about it. Until then her lips were sealed, and she had always been good at keeping secrets.

The only thing she hadn't been good at was lying. And trying to cover up the fact that she had just been doing something suspicious was a form of lying. Ramsey saw straight through her when she entered the room. She could tell he was assessing her behavior and she tried desperately to keep from messing with her hair. It was a dead giveaway and in this scenario was the last thing that she needed to do.

"What's going on?" she finally asked her voice staying level. His eyes darted from her face to her purse and back. She watched them flicker to her hands lightly clenching onto her khaki shorts to keep from moving. When they returned to her face, she could see that they were set and suspicious, but he wasn't going to ask. They were still on thin ice and he wasn't going to make the wrong step.

"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly.

Lexi arched an eyebrow. She had been too focused on trying to keep from giving away what she had been doing to even really notice Ramsey. His shoulders were tensed and his face looked weary. His own hands were clenched more forcefully at his side. She had no idea what this was about. "What? What happened?"

"Nothing Lexi," he repeated.

"Don't lie to me. Look at yourself, you're tensed for battle. Did he say something about me?" she asked the first thing that came to her mind. "Did he want me to leave?"

"Uh, no," he mumbled. "He honestly wasn't even expecting you."

"Well then what was he doing here?" she asked exasperated.

"Lexi please don't make me say anything. He asked me not to." She could see that he was visibly fighting with himself about what to do. "I just wanted to let you know that he was gone so maybe we could get some lunch," he suggested nodding his head towards the stairs. She followed him out of the room, but was unable to get the thoughts of Jack out of her mind.

"Can I have a hint?" she asked as she trudged down the stairs after him.

"No."

"Ramsey, come on. He came here for some reason right?"

"Yes Lexi, but he wanted to speak to me alone for that same reason," he said never turning around to directly address her.

"It can't be that important. He only has a week to the wedding, what could be so secretive?"

"Lexi I'm begging you to drop this. Just let it go. I don't even want to talk about it," he said shaking his head again.

She followed him to the kitchen and watched as he prepared lunch for them. It was nothing too fancy, but she had never liked him for his extravagance. Her mind was elsewhere anyways. All she wanted to know was what had happened between him and Jack. She could see the weight of Jack's words weighing down on Ramsey. Whatever the conversation had been about had been important at least. It hadn't been just some random discussion about what tie to wear or some last minute demand made from the groom. This was something serious, something Jack literally had been able to discuss with no one else.