Page 51 of On the Line
“I’m aware.”
“And it took six days to make sure Mitch was going to be okay?”
“Well, no…” Berkley said. “But I knew you were on an important work trip and figured you had some big client to close if you were gone for so long, so I didn’t want you rushing back here if something happened. Or if nothing did.”
This girl, Lexie thought,is trying to kill me.
For all Berkley’s talk of hating surprises and disliking people making decisions for her, she sure pulled the same shit on other people often enough that it made Lexie want to rip her hair out.
“So why are you telling me now?”
“Because I figured you needed a kick in the ass to go see him.”
Berkley knew her too damn well. The majority of the time, it calmed Lexie, easing whatever pressure she was feeling, knowing she wouldn’t have to explain herself and what she was feeling or thinking to Berkley.
And then there were times like this, when she’d like nothing more than to take a pair of scissors and snip right through that connection.
Or maybe a hatchet.
In truth, Lexiestillhadn’t made up her mind about going to see him. But now that he was laid up? And she would have the upper hand because she could turn and leave at any time, and he wouldn’t be able to follow her?
The idea was appealing for a number of reasons.
“Fine,” she finally said to Berkley.
“Fine what?” Berkley asked hopefully.
“Fine, I’ll go see him. Have Brent text me all the info I’ll need.”
“Oh, Lex,” Berkley said. “I’m so proud of you. I think this will be really good for you. You can see him, get some shit off your chest—within reason, of course; the man is laid up in a hospital bed. Then you can finally move on.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. Women like her didn’t simplymove onfrom men like Mitch.
There had been so many years that Lexie spent believing she was undeserving of love. Her parents had refused to give it to her, so why would anyone who didn’t share her DNA be bothered?
And then Berkley, Amelia, and Kimber came into her life, showing her shewasdeserving, if only that friendship kind of love that close girlfriends experienced.
But with Mitch…Mitch had pulled the wool from her eyes and helped her realize she didn’t have to live her life without romantic love, too. That there had never been anything wrong with her simply because her parents refused to see what a gift she was.
Mitch helped her realize that she could have it all.
And when she’d finally taken the leap with him and opened herself up to the possibility of allowing someone into her heart in a way she’d never done before…
It wasmagic.
Until he left.
And when he was gone, the beautiful, fragile thing they had grown together withered and died.
Twodayslater,thenight before Lexie planned to visit Mitch, she found herself at Brent and Berkley’s house.
Brent was on the road, somewhere on the West Coast, and Berkley knew Lexie was stressed about the next day, so she invited her over for a girl’s night.
The girls were spread out in the basement in front of the sixty-five-inch television that dominated one wall.
When Brent and Berkley bought the house, the basement had been unfinished. Since then, they’ve converted it into a dual-purpose space: half was a small in-home theater with cushy leather couches, a popcorn machine, and a bar stocked with all manner of snacks and sweets, plus soda, water, and an assortment of alcoholic beverages. The other half was an in-home gym for summer days when Brent didn’t feel like driving into the city—a scant ten miles that could feel three times as long depending on traffic.
Berkley had always said, in the year since they bought the house, that it was way too much space for the two of them, and usually, Lexie was inclined to agree.
