Page 143 of On the Line
“Thank God,” she said. “I thought I just embarrassed myself for nothing.”
“It’s always been you, Lexie,” he said. “You know that. I’m just glad you finally came to your senses.”
She laughed, half choking on a sob as joy bubbled up her throat. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”
“Don’t you know that I would wait for you forever?”
“Comeon!”Mitchyelleddown the hall, anxiously jangling his keys in one hand and Lexie’s shoes in the other. “We’re going to be late!”
“Hold your horses, old man,” she said, finally emerging from their bedroom down the hall, her hair hanging in loose waves around her shoulders and down her back.
“Don’t call me old man,” he said. He was thirty-five. That didnotmake him old, no matter how often Lexie teased him about it.
“I’ll call you whatever I want,” she said, stalking up to him and sticking her tongue out before quickly snatching her shoes and darting away from him.
Almost like she knew that gesture would earn her a little smack on the ass.
“Seriously, Lex,” he said, twisting his wrist so he could look at his watch. “We should’ve been there twenty minutes ago. We agreed to help setup.”
Lexie sat on the end of the chaise and stretched her long legs out in front of her so she could lace her black combat boots up over her black pants.
“They can survive without us,” she said, not looking at him. “There’s probably a hundred people there already, and the damn thing doesn’t start for another hour.”
His girl had a point.
Baby showers happened all the time, but when the wife of a professional athlete had a baby, it became a thing.
Expensive catering. Swanky venue downtown, in this case, one of the many meeting rooms located at the Atheneum Hotel in Greektown. Something called a balloon arch and a flower wall?
Mitch honestly stopped listening whenever Lexie talked about it, but he supposed he was about to see for himself what all the fuss was about.
Lexie finally stood, her pale blue top contrasting her black lower half.
“What kind of person wears black to a baby shower anyway?” He asked her.
“The kind who wears black every other day of the year. Just because my best friend is having a kid doesn’t mean I’m going to start wearing floral prints,” Lexie said. “I conceded with this top. What more do you want from me?”
Mitch chuckled and hooked an arm around her neck, hauling her in for a kiss. “Fair enough,” he said against her mouth. “But can we go now?”
“Yes,” she said, snagging her coat off the hook by the door and slinging her purse over her shoulder. “Grab the gifts, will you?”
Mitch rolled his eyes but gathered up the stack of wrapped boxes and gift bags stuffed with tissue paper.
Admittedly, these gifts were from him as well.
It wasn’t every day his best friend had his first kid, after all, and a boy no less.
“Poor Berkley,” Mitch said out loud as he settled behind the wheel of his Suburban.
“How come?”
“Raising boys is tough work,” he said as he pulled out of the garage. “Or so I’m told.”
“Well yeah, if he turns out anything like Brent, especially in the looks department, those two are in for some hell. And if he’s as talented of an athlete as Brent? Or as smart as Berkley? Or both? They’re fucked.”
Mitch nodded in agreement and reached over to grab Lexie’s hand.
It was crazy to him how much could change in a year. Last January, he was barely moved back to Michigan, still on the mend from his career-ending back injury and heartbroken over Lexie.
