Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(53)

Lexi’s mouth went dry. No. He wasn’t supposed to find out this way. He couldn’t know now, not when he was so beat-up already.

She shook her head, not able to form the words.

“Lex, tell me,” he demanded, his eyes like ice as they stared into her.

She just shook her head more furiously. “I can’t.”

His grip on her hand tightened imperceptibly, and she winced. When she tensed, he dropped her hand like she had burned him.

“When were you going to tell me?”

“Soon,” she whispered. “Every time I wanted to, I couldn’t. The divorce—”

“Every time?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “How long have you been…how long ago did this happen?”

He couldn’t even say it. She couldn’t either.

“About a month.”

Jack staggered back a step. His face was a mask, and if she hadn’t known him so well, she wouldn’t have seen the hurt flashing in his blue eyes.

“A month…”

“I’m sorry, Jack.”

“That you’re…” He shook his head. “Or that I found out this way?”

She took a breath before answering. “That you found out this way.”

“You always were a f**king terrible liar, Lex.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she shook her head. She hated hurting him. After all the f**king bullshit they had gone through, she still f**king hated this so f**king much. It made her chest ache, and her ears were ringing.

“I’m not lying,” she said. She had to stand by it. She loved Ramsey. She wanted to marry him.

“You can’t even say it. You haven’t even told me. I’ve known you for years, longer than everyone else you still talk to. I know you, Lex,” he said, still standing at his safe distance. “Don’t ever forget that I know who you are as much as you know who I am.”

“I know. God, I know, okay?” She swiped at her eyes as her vision got blurry.

“Are you happy?”

“Yes.”

“No, are you really, really happy? Like, you’ll never really be sad again because you have everything you want. Are you happy like that, Lex?” he asked.

Those blue eyes stared straight through her. They demanded she think and feel and remember.

She hesitated. “Yes.”

He shook his head and looked away from her. “Then, what are you doing here?”

“What?”

“If it’s him, Lex, and you’re really happy, then what are you doing here?”

“Don’t ask me stupid questions. I came because you asked me to,” she whispered.

He smirked at her. It was a knowing look. She had seen it a million times. How he managed it through the pain that was clear across his entire face at this point was beyond her.

“Exactly.”

Lexi just stared at him. How was she supposed to respond to that?

“And it’s why you should leave now because I’m asking you to.”

“Jack…”

“I told you once that all I wanted was for you to be happy. If you are, then that’s all that matters. That’s it,” Jack said before turning and walking back into the courtroom.

Lexi stood there, stock-still, for longer than she wanted to admit.

What had just happened?

Chapter 10

Lexi might as well have been in a nightmare.

She stood at the center of a large group of people. Photographers were all around. A podium had been constructed off to the side. A shovel sat in the freshly tilled earth, and before her was the completely cleared land where the new Bridges medical wing was going to sit. Even though breaking ground had officially begun two months ago with the underground garage that was going in, they were having the public ceremony on this perfect sunny Saturday morning in front of the press.

The press made Lexi nervous.

They made her even more nervous when three guys who she had slept with were in close proximity. Not to mention, Bekah and Parker and Ramsey’s parents were also present!

She had never been with all of them in one place. Last year, the rehearsal dinner and wedding had been close, but John hadn’t been factored into the equation. Now, he was here, standing smugly next to Jessica. When he caught Lexi’s eye, he stared at her like he knew all of her secrets. It was completely disconcerting. She had never found out where he was getting his information from, but damn it, he seemed to know so much about her every time she saw him. He was civil and hadn’t pushed his luck with her or anything, but he was never far out of the loop.

And she just wanted to know—how?

But he wouldn’t tell her.

She couldn’t badger him about it without raising questions as to why she would be talking to him so much. So, she tried to avoid it. But she would be lying if she said the temptation to gather as much information from him as possible wasn’t there.

Lexi averted her attention from John as he started up a conversation with Jessica. Lexi surveyed the rest of the crowd. Bekah wasn’t even standing with Jack. He was talking to some business associates that Lexi had never seen before. Bekah was at her father’s right side, a position of power. Even though Bekah wasn’t working on the medical wing, she was sure to put herself in the spotlight, regarding the development.