Page 2 of The Comeback Road
“Want to get lunch today, Lexie? I feel like it’s been forever since we caught up.Alone.” I saw the daggers she shot at Sloan, and he raised his hands in defeat, but didn’t bother containing his smile as he buried himself into her neck while she kept her eyes on me.
“Sure. I can meet you at the diner at noon? I’ve been craving pancakes!”
Glancing at the time and realizing it was already 7:47 and I would be late if I didn’t leave right then, I grabbed a bag of mini muffins. Sloan handed me an already-made cup of coffee, and I silently praised him as I took my first sip.
Okay,fine, he can stay.
I turned my attention back to the happy couple instead of the caffeinated goodness. “I’ll see you for lunch, babes. Sloan, I canonly assume I’ll see you for dinner.” I shot a wink at both as I exited, not bothering to wait for their responses.
The ride to the office was quick. One of the only good things about having to be awake in the morning was the fast commute. The quick drive didn’t stop my mind from going over every interaction it had, could have, or would have with Jace. He’d been adamant about the fact that he was notreallymarried, and I thought back to our conversation as I was leaving the office the day before.
“Are you ready to say yes to dinner with me yet, Lexie?” Jace’s voice called out from behind me.
“Are you still married?” I asked, but still didn’t turn around, keeping my eyes firmly locked on the door—my exit. I heard his exasperated sigh from behind me, and I felt the whispers of his exhale on my neck. I had to steel my spine so my resolve wouldn’t falter.
“Lexie…” His deep voice caused goosebumps to litter over my arms. I briefly thought about leaning back and into him, but shook it off.
“I know.” It was all I could say to him before I tucked my tail and ran.
I couldn’t help the jittery feeling that slithered all over my skin when I recalled the moment as I pulled into the parking lot. I didn’t like to acknowledge how inside out Jace made me feel. And I would have liked to tell myself that it wasn’t instantaneous, but the second I saw him, it felt like I was hit by a bolt of lightning. Like everything I’d been through had led me to that moment, and with one assessing look, the future that had begun stitching itself together in my mind was shattered when my focus landed on his left hand. A wedding ring. It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head, drowning any hopes and dreams that had started to build.
It was 7:59 a.m., and I had one minute to make it into the building. Instead, I could barely get myself to move. Every day, I took a few minutes to sit there and collect my thoughts, giving myself a pep talk to get myself together before I walked into the building and put myself through the sweetest torture.You will be professional. You will not mount him like a…
Knock. Knock.
“Jesus!”
The knock on my window pulled me from my internal pep talk, and I felt my face heating, which didn’t bode well for me with all my red hair. Thankfully, a quick glance showed me it was Dexter, my other boss, and not Jace. Exhaling a sigh of relief, I rolled my window down, taking in the barely there spring air.
“Hey, Dex.” I gave him a partial smile. It had been a weird few weeks for him. He had ended things with his long-term girlfriend, and to say she was less than spectacular about it would be an understatement.
“Heading in or just going to keep staring at the building?” There was a lightness to his tone, but I couldn’t help the raging flush that took over again, knowing I’d been made.
“Oh, uh, you know, just a bit of a crazy morning.” I did my best to plaster on myeasy breezyLexie façade and wave away his concerns.
“Sure. Are you ready?” He glanced back at the building, and I nodded, grabbing my purse from the passenger side as we walked into work together.
The good thing about Dexter was that he didn’t ask questions.
Chapter Two
Lexie
Luckily for me, Jace seemed to be out of the office, doing legwork and looking at some new residential opportunities around town. And then he was blocked off for a lunch meeting. The work he was doing at Magnolia’s house had started to spread around town, and he was getting good traction. Even without my biased opinion, I had to admit that Jace and Dexter did some amazing work. The time and attention to detail with which they tackled every job was absolutely mind-blowing, and I quickly found myself proud to be a part of their team.
Even if I didn’t really need a job, even if I wassemi-retired, they didn’t need to know that. All they needed to know was that they were doing amazing work, and I was happy to be a part of that.
Speak of the devil.Myotherphone rang, and I thought about ignoring it. That was the exciting part about being practically retired—Icouldjust ignore it.
The ringing continued, and since Jace was gone for the morning and Dexter was tucked safely away in his office, my curiosity got the better of me once I saw it was Luke.
“Cough twice if you need me to send the jet.”
“Not even ahellofor your favorite person?”
“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. Youusedto be my favorite person before you decided to throw it all away and retire to some weird coastal town.” Even he couldn’t mask his irritation with me, but we’d worked together for so long that it didn’t bother me one bit.
“Somehow, I think you’ll survive.”
