“I want to know, so I can figure out how to change it back.”
Lexi’s mouth dropped open before she had a chance to realize what she was doing. She had not been expecting that. She had been planning to let him down easy, hoping that they could keep their relationship civil while he was working on the Bridges medical wing. She hadn’t thought he would want to continue seeing her.
“I, uh…”
“Go out to dinner with me,” he said, reaching out for her hand and pulling her a little closer to him.
Lexi stumbled forward a step, but she quickly dropped his hand. She was too close, and this was a really, really bad idea. She was used to bad ideas, but this—well, this was even worse.
“I can’t. Sorry.”
“Come on, you were going to tell me you were dating someone else when you got back to New York anyway. Go out to dinner with me when I get back. Then, you can tell me if your relationship is still perfect, and you have no doubts in your mind,” he said in an almost mocking tone.
“John,” she warned.
“If your relationship is perfect, then what does one dinner between friends hurt?” He smirked at her in a way that made it clear he thought he had her backed into a corner.
“No.” Lexi shook her head and took a step backward. “I should probably get back. I hope this doesn’t interfere with your job, and you’ll still work on the Bridges project.”
She turned and began to walk back up to the restaurant.
“Hey,” John said, jogging to catch up with her, “does he know?”
“Know what? That we slept together?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“He knows.”
“Then, you have insurance against it not happening again,” he said, his voice dipping lower for her ears only. “Unless you want it to.”
Lexi shook her head again as she kept walking.
John reached out and grabbed her arm. “Go to dinner with me, Lexi. One dinner. It was just this week that you said you couldn’t wait to get home to me, that you wanted to go to my cabin in Connecticut with me, that you were sexting me.”
He hadn’t lowered his voice this time, and Lexi’s eyes bulged.
“Jesus, keep it down,” she growled, swatting him on the arm.
“I want what I want, and I’m not ashamed of it. I’m not asking for those things—yet. I’m just asking for dinner. After dinner, if you never want to see me again, we can try to forget. We won’t even call it a date. It’s not a date,” he repeated for good measure. “Dinner.”
“Why are you being so persistent?” Why did she attract such persistent guys? That would have been a better question.
“I don’t like to see people make terrible mistakes.”
“You don’t even know—”
“I do. It’s just dinner, Lexi. Don’t make me beg.” He winked.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Daniel restaurant. Do you like French food? Gorgeous. You’d love it.”
Lexi arched her eyebrows. Chyna had told her about Daniel before. It was over a hundred dollars a plate. They had five hundred dollar caviar. That was outrageous.
John smiled at her response. “I think Daniel will be perfect. Saturday?”
“John,” she groaned.
“I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”
Chapter 3
Lexi had been staring at the glittering diamond ring on her finger for what felt like an eternity. She was just sitting there and staring.
She was engaged. Holy shit! She was seriously, legitimately, one hundred percent engaged to Ramsey Bridges.
Why this shocked her so much, she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She knew he was going to propose eventually. She didn’t date someone for that long without the knowledge that someday she was probably going to get married. That was what people did. It was totally a normal thing to do. People got engaged all the time. How many of her friends were married now? Pretty much all of them.
But still, she was shocked.
Maybe because it was this ring.
Maybe because it was this guy.
Maybe because she hadn’t told anyone yet.
In movies, she knew that the first thing people did when they got engaged, after they finished screaming or crying, was call everyone that they knew. They started with their parents and went down the list. Now, people posted it online as soon as it happened.
But she hadn’t done that.
Last night, Ramsey had asked her who she was going to call first. She had told him it was too late, and they could make calls tomorrow. Well, now, it was tomorrow, and she still hadn’t made any calls…or posted it online…or anything.
She needed to tell her parents, and she needed to call Chyna. Those were the most important ones. Her parents would be happy that their little girl was getting married, but Chyna would flip her shit and likely fly down to Atlanta as soon as she heard. Lexi wasn’t quite ready for that much enthusiasm.
Lexi hadn’t left her office all day because she was still working on that big case, so no one had even seen the damn thing. She had even ordered lunch in.
Now, she was back home, waiting for Ramsey to get home, before she went to see Jack, and she felt like an idiot. What was wrong with her? A gorgeous, successful man wanted to marry her and live out the rest of his days with her in his life.
That was the dream—someone’s dream.
Ugh! She stood and stormed upstairs. That was her biggest problem…her biggest setback. She had never been the kind of girl who prioritized marriage. Sure, she wanted to get married—someday. But she was only twenty-seven years old, and she had so much else that she wanted to do and so many more places she wanted to go.
See…now, she was being irrational. She could do all of those things with a man at her side, with Ramsey at her side, but it just felt different. Marriage had never been her end game. She wasn’t Bekah Bridges, for Christ’s sake!
Just as she made it upstairs, determined to call Chyna and set this all right, she heard the front door open.
“Lexi!” Ramsey called.
“Up here,” she yelled back.
Great. Now, she couldn’t even hide the fact that she hadn’t told anyone. This was going to be good.
“Hey!” he said, a big smile plastered on his face. “Look at my gorgeous fiancée.”
Ramsey bent down and kissed her lips, the taste of peppermint lingering on his tongue. Lexi smiled against his mouth as he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up.
“So,” he murmured against her lips, “how did your parents take the news? Are they excited?”
“Well…”
Ramsey placed her gently back down on her feet and looked at her with a stern expression. “You did tell them, right?”
“I was super swamped at work today, and I just got home a bit ago.”
“So, you haven’t told them?”
Lexi shook her head. “No. I was about to call Chyna before you got home.”
“Chyna before your parents?” he asked.
She didn’t know why that was a bad thing. She loved her parents, and they got along, but Chyna was her family, too. They had gone to hell and back together the last couple of years.
And maybe she wanted to hear Chyna’s opinion before telling everyone else. That wasn’t weird or anything.
“Have you told your parents?” she asked, ignoring the question.
“I wanted to tell them together.”
Lexi blew out the breath she had been holding. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous about them knowing. It had nothing to do with Jack. At all. Not even a little bit. They were friends. Just friends for two years now.
“When did you want to tell them?”
“What about brunch on Sunday? The place where it all started,” he said with a smile.
“Well, it all started in a club in New York.”
“Where it all started over then. Is Sunday okay?”
Lexi tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She couldn’t even help it. She was nervous. Ramsey’s parents made her nervous. The possibility of seeing Bekah made her nervous. Lexi did what she could to avoid his sister at all costs. But she had said yes to Ramsey last night when it counted. It would be silly not to say yes to tell his parents two days from now.
“Of course.”
“Great. I’ll let them know we’ll be there.” He walked toward the bedroom door.
“I’m still meeting up with Jack tonight,” she told him.
“Oh, right. I forgot about that.” Ramsey stopped in the doorway and turned to face her.
She saw that he had a question at the tip of his tongue. She could generally read him pretty easily. Whatever his question was though, she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.
“I was just waiting to leave until after you got home.” Lexi grabbed her jacket.
It was only October, and it was already too brisk to go without.
“You’re leaving now? Should I make us dinner?”
“Oh, I don’t know how long I’ll be. Do you want me to just text you?” she asked.
“Sure, Lexi.”
Ramsey opened his mouth like he was going to ask a question, but she averted her gaze and slid into her jacket.
“Have you seen my purple scarf?” She couldn’t help but change the subject.
“Hey, you,” Ramsey said, drawing her attention. “Come here.” He pointed to the ground in front of him.
Lexi shuffled forward and stood before him.
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Are you okay with all of this?”
“With all of what?” she asked like she had no clue what he was talking about.
“The engagement, Lexi—telling everyone, getting married, being mine forever,” he said before dropping a kiss on her forehead. “I know how you feel about marriage, and we can wait, if that’s what you want. I just thought you were ready.”
“Ramsey Bridges, are you trying to talk me out of it?” Lexi asked.
“I’m not joking with you. I’m not trying to talk you into or out of anything. I just want you to be mine.”
Lexi opened her mouth to tell him that she already was, but he kept speaking before she could say anything.
“I want you to be mine, Lexi. Mine. I want you to take my name. When people call you Mrs. Bridges, I don’t want you to have to correct them. That’s what I want. But mostly, I just want you to be happy. Are you happy?”
“Of course, I’m happy.”
“Good.” Ramsey’s smile returned with her answer, and he drew her into him. “So, you’re going to be okay with telling people…everyone?”
“Yeah,” she said softly. With her hands wound around his neck, she couldn’t think of how she couldn’t be.
Are we still meeting? Are you hungry?
The message from Jack came as soon as she got into her car. She had thought that she was meeting Jack at the office, but it seemed like he had something else on his mind.
Yeah. Did you want to get dinner?
Well, there went her plans to be back to have dinner with Ramsey. She would have to text him and let him know that wasn’t going to happen. Whatever was going on in Jack’s head was a mystery to her. Though…hadn’t it always been?