Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(105)

Lexi walked out to the end of the pier, leaned her elbows on the railing, and stared out across the ocean. Jack followed, and they stood there, watching the waves rise and fall.

“I never thought I’d be with you on a pier again,” Lexi said.

“The first time was pretty memorable,” he said with a smirk.

“And we’re both still with other people while we’re here.”

Jack just shrugged, keeping his eyes forward. “Ramsey didn’t tell me what happened. Are you going to?”

“He called me Parker,” she spat out.

Jack hissed between his teeth. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“How the hell did that happen? Ramsey doesn’t seem the type to confuse you two. I mean, y’all are so different. I don’t even think you look that much alike.”

Lexi laughed. “Yes, we do. I thought we were twins when I first met her.”

“I guess,” Jack said with a shrug. “You don’t look or act enough alike for me to ever confuse you…ever.”

“Well…he was in the bedroom, talking to Parker.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose at that. “In your bedroom?”

“Yep. They were talking about why they had broken up. She reminded him that they were going to get married, and she wanted him to just believe her, but Ramsey said he couldn’t…and that he wasn’t over it. We got into it, and I guess he got mad and mixed us up.”

“Damn…sounds like us,” he mused.

Lexi laughed. “Maybe three or four years ago.”

“So,” Jack said, turning his back to the ocean and leaning back to look at Lexi, “what are you going to do? You want to be with him? You think Parker is going to try to interfere?”

It felt so strange in that moment, to be having this conversation with Jack, especially on a pier. So often in the past, he had been the source of this contention, and now, he was there for her exactly when she needed him—and he kept being there when she needed him.

Things had changed. He wasn’t looking at her with that lust in his eyes. In fact, she hadn’t seen it in so long. He was trying to be there for her as the friend she deserved. He wanted her to be happy. It made her happy…and also terribly sad, which was even more confusing. She wanted Jack as a friend. It was something they had never really been able to achieve before. But having him as her friend…meant he wasn’t anything more.

She knew it was a dumb thought. She was pissed at Ramsey for calling her Parker, and then she was standing here, being sad about Jack. But the only reason she was thinking about it was because of this situation with Ramsey. It made her want to be the same idiot teenager she had been for a long time. She wanted to lash out the only way she knew how.

And it would be so easy.

But it would be so dumb.

“What should I do? We’ve had the conversation about Parker more than we’ve had conversations about you.”

“He trusts you,” Jack all but whispered.

“I know. I know.”

“That’s pretty valuable…as long as you trust him.”

“What if he’s not over her?” she asked, staring up into those blue eyes. She just wanted an answer. She wanted someone to tell her what to do—even though she knew she was the only one who could decide.

“I think you’re asking the wrong person…”

Of course she was. She dropped her head down between her hands resting on the railing. What was she supposed to do? Even though Jack hadn’t been over her, he had still married Bekah—not that she wanted to compare their relationships at all. Still, Ramsey might not be over Parker, but he wasn’t pursuing anything with her. They had their differences—the abortion—but it didn’t mean that he was going to run back to her.

She didn’t feel like she was overreacting. She felt that she was enduring the byproduct of too much emotional buildup. All this time, she had been worried about Parker, and then she had been right. She had wanted to be wrong.

“Lex,” Jack said, reaching forward and tucking her hair behind her ear, “are you happy?”

“Right now?”

“In general. Does Ramsey make you happy?”

“Yes,” she whispered, straightening up and looking back at Jack. “He does.”

Jack swallowed and nodded. “Then, we should go back. I bet he’s worried. I’d be worried.”

“Jack Howard worrying? Now, I’ve seen everything.”

“I was worried when I saw you run out of the house.”

“Thanks for coming after me. I don’t know where I’d be…” she said, shuffling her feet.

“And you’ll never have to know because I’d do it every time.”

Lexi smiled shyly off into the distance. She couldn’t meet his eyes. She was grateful to have him in her life in that moment. She wished it had always been this way…that things had been different. But they weren’t, and she just wanted to appreciate it now.

“Thank you,” Lexi said.

Jack nodded and then guided her back off the pier. They walked through the sand, back to the beach house, together in silence aside from the waves crashing against the surf and seagulls in the distance. It was peaceful and helped to calm the nerves flitting around in her stomach from the prospect of having to talk to Ramsey when she got back.