Page 41 of Wishes at Water's Edge
They parted ways to take care of their respective tasks. Alexis set the table in a hurry, not able to put the finishing touches on the display that she normally liked to. She liked to artfully fold the napkins and set candles on the table when they had company over. Tonight, however, she only had a few minutes before Lewis was due to arrive, and she wanted to make sure the table was set by the time he got there. She’d just finished setting out the silverware when the front doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Grayson called out eagerly and Alexis smiled. She liked seeing her husband so happy, and she was looking forward to seeing Lewis as well.
She went back into the kitchen to quickly toss together the salad and then made her way to the front door. Grayson and Lewis were standing there chatting, their body language that of two old friends who were very comfortable with each other.
“Hi, Lewis,” she said, giving him a polite hug. “Welcome to our home.”
“Thanks for hosting.” Lewis flashed his charismatic smile. “Your home is very quaint.”
Alexis’s eyebrows lifted. Their gorgeous red brick Colonial house with a modern interior wasn’t her idea of quaint, although she could agree that it was cute and cozy. There had been something about Lewis’s tone that implied he meant the word in a slightly condescending way, although she was sure he didn’t mean to be rude.
“Would you like a tour?” Grayson asked, sounding proud. If Alexis had been standing closer to him, she would have swatted his arm.
Oh no,she thought with an internal groan.Not a tour! All of the upstairs rooms are a total mess.
She tried to remind herself that mess was a part of life, especially when there was a new baby in the household, and that Lewis was a good friend of theirs. Still, she couldn’t help cringing at the thought of him seeing how dirty the rest of their house was. If she was ordinarily a somewhat messy, more free-spirited person, she probably would have felt differently about it. But she loved to have a clean, organized home, and she hated for Lewis to have a negative impression of their new life. He might think to himself that she and Grayson had really changed a great deal.
She realized a second later that they had, of course. They lived simpler lives now and their priorities were vastly different from what they’d been when they were living in L.A. She reminded herself that she and Grayson had changed for the better, and she didn’t need Lewis’s approval to know that her new life was so much better than her old one had been.
“I’d love a tour,” Lewis said, although his tone sounded less than enthusiastic. “Lead on.”
Grayson started to lead them on a tour of the house, beginning with the living room. Alexis was glad that she’d repainted and redecorated the room before Cash had been born—and she was even more glad that she’d gotten a chance to tidy it up before Lewis’s arrival.
Next, they viewed Grayson’s home office, which he always kept neat, and the kitchen and dining room. Lewis was looking slightly bored, and Alexis was squirming at the thought of the tour heading upstairs.
“Let’s go outside and look at the garden,” she suggested. Their backyard had been well-tended all summer and it was still quite presentable, especially since Grayson had found the time to rake the first fallen leaves over the weekend.
“Sure.” Lewis shrugged. “Do you have a lot of crickets out there? Do they sing to you at night?”
Alexis and Grayson exchanged a glance, both wondering if he was making fun of them a little bit.
“Yeah, let’s look at the garden,” Grayson said.
They stepped outside into the backyard. The sun had already set, but the traces of the sunset were lingering in the west, and the air smelled fresh and slightly spicy with distant woodsmoke. The wind rustled in the branches of the trees overhead and in the distance, an owl hooted. Alexis felt a rush of pride as she surveyed the tiny kingdom of their backyard. It was beautiful and peaceful. Surely Lewis would see the merits of their new life when he saw how wonderful it was for them to be so close to nature.
“Well, this is private.” Lewis laughed as he looked around the backyard. “It must feel nice and secluded, all the way out here. You don’t have the kind of view you had back in L.A.—no high-rise view out here, but at least nobody can see you either, huh?”
Grayson cleared his throat as he and Alexis exchanged another glance. “We really love our backyard. It’s nice to sit here in the evenings. The stillness is very relaxing.”
“I’ll bet.” Lewis smiled.
“Well, let’s get on back inside,” Alexis said briskly. She was beginning to feel a little chilly, both because of the weather and because of Lewis’s slightly condescending attitude. “We should get started on dinner. It’s ready, and we don’t want it to overcook or get cold.”
“What, no tour of the upstairs?” Lewis joked as they started back inside.
“I don’t think so,” Alexis said hurriedly before Grayson could say anything. “Cash is sleeping up there, and after the afternoon we had with him, I really don’t want to wake him.”
Grayson and Lewis went into the dining room to sit down and open a bottle of wine, and Alexis hurried to get the chicken parmesan into a serving dish. She found herself feeling that the meal left much to be desired. She wished she’d had some ready-to-bake dinner rolls in the freezer so they could have added a little something more to the meal.
Stop worrying about impressing him, Alexis,she told herself with a sigh.Besides, it doesn’t seem like it’s possible. He’s determined to think that our old life in L.A. was better than the one we have here.
She brought the salad bowl into the dining room, and Grayson got up to get the serving dish for the chicken parmesan.
“We didn’t have time to make anything fancy,” Alexis said, even though she wanted to scold herself for apologizing. She needed to stop worrying so much about making a good impression. “Just salad and chicken parmesan.”
“Oh, that’s alright.” Lewis grinned. “I won’t judge. I can’t cook at all. Of course, who needs to when you’re surrounded by some of the best food in the world?”
Alexis repressed a sigh as Grayson came back into the dining room. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe they should have asked Hazel or Vivian if they could come over and watch Cash while they went out to dinner with Lewis.
