Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(64)

“You can open it now, if you want. It’s not much, but I thought you could…I don’t know. It’s up to you,” Parker said.

“Go ahead, Lexi,” Ramsey said encouragingly.

“All right,” she said.

She untied the silver ribbon, tore back the white and silver paper, and popped the lid on the box. Inside was a wedding planner with individual tabs for each thing she would need to accomplish, and the front read, Lexi and Ramsey’s Wedding, in a swirly silver font.

Lexi smiled up at Parker, feeling completely genuine about it for the first time. The planner was truly a nice gift. “Thank you,” Lexi said graciously.

“I know that you hired Sherri, but I thought it’s never a bad idea to have your own planner. I didn’t know if you already had one.”

“I don’t. This will be a big help.”

“Well…well, good.”

They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, the knowledge of how close Parker had come to being in Lexi’s shoes weighing them down.

Ramsey shifted from one foot to the other. “I think I’ll go put this away,” he said, hefting up the bottle of wine.

The two girls watched him walk away, and silence fell between them like a brick wall. What did she have to say to Parker that Parker didn’t already know? It wasn’t that Parker was an inherently bad person. Lexi just couldn’t be around her without seeing Ramsey all over her. The man he had been, the things he had sacrificed, the desperation had shown to make things right—it made her heart ache.

“So, um…what do you think about the divorce?” Parker asked.

Oh, for f**k’s sake!

“About Bekah and Jack?”

“Yeah…it’s kind of weird, right?”

Lexi eyed her suspiciously. “Why do you think so?”

“I just know that, growing up, Bekah was in love with weddings, and she always said that once she got married, that was it. I’m surprised to see her breaking it off so soon just because he cheated on her. I mean…he’s done that before,” Parker said, biting her lip and looking away.

“How do you know that he cheated on her?” Lexi asked.

She filed away the information about Bekah. It made her want to gag, and she would look at it another time when she could process.

“Oh…well, I don’t know. I’m just going off what she said.”

“He didn’t do it,” Lexi said.

She wasn’t sure why she had to defend him in that moment. For a while, she herself had been debating whether or not it was the truth, but with the words tumbling out of Parker’s mouth, Lexi just couldn’t let her think that about Jack. He hadn’t done anything with Lexi when he’d had chances…so she highly doubted he had with anyone else. She hoped she was right.

“Well…if he didn’t, then it’s even stranger,” Parker admitted.

“She hasn’t told you why?” Lexi asked, arching an eyebrow.

Parker shrugged. “I know a lot of people don’t like Bekah, but she’s not all bad.”

“You mean, her heart is black. It’s not missing?”

Parker actually cracked up laughing at that. When she did, Lexi could almost see the girl who Ramsey used to love. It was a strange feeling in that moment. She had seen Parker laugh before. It was like her guard was down for a split second. She didn’t look so tired, overworked, and disheveled.

“Bekah and I aren’t as close as we once were, but I don’t think she would divorce Jack if he hadn’t actually done something. So, if he didn’t cheat on her, then what did he do?”

Then, what did he do? That was a good question. Lexi had a few theories herself about that situation, but she wasn’t sure if Parker was the best person to try them out on.

“I don’t know,” Lexi answered with a shrug.

Parker looked off in the other direction, like she was thinking about something else, when Brandon snuck up behind Parker and grabbed her around the middle.

“Hey, you!” he cried.

Parker jumped and turned around in surprise. Her smile dropped marginally when she saw who it was, but then she recovered and smiled slightly up at him again. “Hey, Brandon.”

“Oh, aren’t you just excited to see me?” he said dryly.

“It’s good to see you.”

Brandon glanced at Lexi and gave her a look that said, She’s f**king lying. “What were y’all lovely ladies just discussing anyway?”

“Bekah and Jack’s divorce,” Parker told him.

“Ah…the Bitch,” he said, nodding.

“We were just discussing what we thought the real reason was for Bekah divorcing Jack,” Lexi said, smirking at his comment.

“Lexi doesn’t think that Jack cheated,” Parker said.

“Because Jack would never do anything wrong,” he said sarcastically.

“He didn’t cheat on her,” Lexi repeated.

“So, what’s your theory then, honey?” Brandon crooned.

Her theory? Eesh. It was probably not the best time for any of that, but they were both staring at her now.

“Personally, I think Bekah put in all the effort in the beginning while they were dating. She saw it as a competition. She saw it as just another way to win. She did everything…and I mean, everything to keep Jack, even when it was pretty clear that no one else knew why. Then, they got married, and she won,” Lexi said softly. “So, she had nothing left to fight for. Jack started putting in the effort to make the marriage work…to salvage the heap of shit that they walked into. She had nothing left to put effort into though.”