Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(54)

Everyone was dressed in suits, and for a brief moment, she mourned the loss of Jack’s Chuck Taylors. She hadn’t seen him in them since the day of the concert. That could also be because she hadn’t seen him outside of work.

Something had shifted that night after the concert. Lexi hadn’t known what to say to Stella after her announcement. Jack had said no. Stella had pushed her luck. Still, they had slept together. But Lexi didn’t know why Jack had never given her the details. She remembered her interaction with Jack in New York clear as day. He had said that he didn’t have an excuse, it was his fault, and that he had to tell her…get it out in the open. Why would he say that when in reality he’d had an excuse?

It wasn’t that he had lied about it.

She probably would have still been pissed that he had gone through with it. But some part of her brain kept whispering that maybe things could have been salvaged.

Yet, she hadn’t been able to bring it up with him.

She just couldn’t do it.

She had walked out of that restroom and stared into those big blue eyes with a wave of memories crashing down all around her—the way he had looked at her on the beach, the first time he had told her loved her, the whispered sweet-nothings before falling asleep together, the depth of emotion in his eyes when he had produced that ring in her ratty New York apartment. She had seen all of that and thousands and thousands more moments all in a second. She had seen her Jack standing before her, wanting to do nothing more than to make her happy, when all he’d had to do was make an excuse for his behavior.

But he’d never had.

He had never once made an excuse for who he was.

He was just Jack—the blue-eyed, smirking, beautiful man she had loved for far too long.

Something had clicked in that moment. She wasn’t mad at him anymore.

She’d had every reason to be mad at him. He had f**ked her over ten-thousandfold over the years. She’d had her heart ripped out of her chest more times than she could count. He had slept with someone else when they had finally had a shot at working it out. He’d had sex with Lexi before proposing to Bekah. He had put a duplicate of her ring on the Bitch’s finger. And then, he had f**king married the Bitch.

And still, she couldn’t be angry with him even when she wanted to be. So, she had let it go. Because the only way that she could keep going was to move on.

As his blue eyes found her in the crowd, she knew that there would forever be a pull between them—a magnetic, inexplicable pull. If she kept fighting it, then she would only be putting all of her energy into pushing something away that kept crashing into her life and not focusing on the life she was currently living.

So, she lived her life with Ramsey. Jack just happened to be there—not like he had always been but more like…a friend.

“Lexi,” Ramsey whispered.

He stood at her side, and she hadn’t even realized he had been talking to her.

“What? Sorry,” she said, turning back to Ramsey.

He chuckled and squeezed her hand. “You look a little pale.”

“Press,” she murmured softly.

“Don’t worry. They’re just here to take pictures and maybe ask a few questions. You won’t even have to be around them.”

“That’s good.”

“We’re about to start,” he said before bending down and kissing her cheek. “I’ll find you after.”

“Okay. Good luck.”

“I don’t need it,” he said with a confident smile.

“I know. Take it anyway.”

“From you…I’ll take anything,” he whispered.

She believed him.

Ramsey left her side and walked up to the podium, followed close by his father and Parker. His father did some quick opening remarks, thanking everyone for being in attendance. Then, Ramsey gave a speech on the progress of the project, the vision behind the development, and the future of Bridges Enterprise.

Parker chimed in with perfectly timed delivery of her lines. She looked a bit nervous up there in front of all those people. She had clearly taken the time to put herself together though. Lexi normally thought that Parker had a bit of a thrown-together appearance, like she didn’t care about much more than the next surgery ahead of her. Someone must have convinced her otherwise today because she looked great—even Lexi could admit that. Parker’s dark brown hair was blown out, and she had on shimmery makeup that brought color to her naturally pale skin. She was wearing a fine-cut coral dress and nude heels—both designer if Lexi had to guess.

Ramsey’s suit was black, but his shirt and tie complemented what Parker was wearing. They looked good up there. Lexi’s heart constricted at the thought, and she wished to her very core that she could unthink it. Someone had dressed them. It hadn’t been an accident. It absolutely had not been an accident—not when they were going to be on TV and in pictures and going to be broadcast.

Fuck.

She turned away from the speech because, truthfully, she didn’t want to get choked up in front of anyone, especially not the people here. Thankfully, no one was looking at her. Everyone was trained on Ramsey and Parker talking about what they had created together.

She wished these kinds of things would hit her at more opportune moments. She had been trying not to care about the fact that Ramsey and Parker were working together. To begin with, Ramsey had only given in to the idea because of Lexi. Of course, if he had asked her, she would have told him not to even consider the idea. How ridiculous was it that she preferred him around strippers and club whores all day than to being near Parker?