Page 122 of Bloom

“What if he’s already married?”

“Sharing is caring, I guess.”

I groan a laugh, but it’s quick to fade, quick to be overshone but a weary exhale. “He asked me not to be done.”

“Are you?”

I can’t lie. “No.”

“Do you wanna be?”

Again, the truth prevails. “No. But…”

Lux understands; even though I don’t elaborate, she gets it. “Yeah.But.”

Sighing, I prop myself up on my elbows, squinting at the expanse of green stretching as far as the eye can see. “What’re you doing out here?”

“If I stare at Hunter too long, I start developing murderous instincts.”

“Lux.”

“I’m ruminating.” Sighing, she sits up, one hand shielding her face while the other gestures aimlessly. “All this land is making me itch.”

Despite my mood, I snicker. “Poor little rich girl.”

A fist grinds into my thigh. “I wanna do something with it, smartass. Build something.”

“As if you don’t have enough to do.”

She shoots me a look, but I know she knows I’m right. Just like I know she’ll probably take on a new project anyway even though she has enough going on in her life. Some of which I apparently know nothing about—some of which she promised to tell me before everything went to hell.

When I open my mouth, Lux is already sighing before the question even comes out. “Are you gonna tell me what happened with Everett James?”

She groans at the sky, dragging her hands down her face in distress. “I’d rather not.”

“Oh, c’mon,” I resort to desperate measures—to puppy-dog eyes and pity. “Give me something to think about other than the guy I like and his wife.”

Narrowed eyes slide my way. “That’s dirty.”

I pout. “I’m sad and pathetic. Make me feel better.”

Lux tugs her bottom lip between her teeth, twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger. For a long few minutes, she stares into space. And then, really quickly, like she’s ripping off a BandAid, she blurts, “I slept with him.”

I choke on my next breath. “What?”

Displaying none of the triumph I personally would feel if I’d slept with a man like that, Lux rolls onto her stomach, unusually unsteady fingers picking at tufts of grass. “Just once.”

Just once, she says casually.No big deal. Just once did I sleep with Everett freaking James.Semi-composed and only marginally shrieky, I ask, “When?”

She pauses. “About a year ago.”

Like a falling brick, it hits me. “Oh.”

About a year ago, Lux and Mark were still together. About a year ago, they were this idyllic, happy couple. About a year ago, Lux got—

“I can hear you thinking.” Lux sighs. “And I don’t know, okay? I don’t know if he’s…”

Alex’s dad. She doesn’t know if Everett James, county legend, all-American icon, is the father of her child.

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