“I didn’t know what you wanted,” Ramsey began digging into the basket, “so I just got a bunch of things. You can decide what you like.”
“When did you have time for this?” she asked. She had stayed at his house all afternoon. Granted, she had felt like shit much of that time and took nearly an hour long shower.
“I just made a list and had some people take care of it,” he said sheepishly.
“Oh.” She should have figured. It could have been worse. He could have not gone to the trouble. She shook her head again in frustration. Why did she care whether or not he went and picked out dinner for them? She had to keep reminding herself she didn’t really want to be here. Right?
Lexi watched him extract a bag of green grapes from the bag and immediately snatched them out of his grasp. He jolted in surprise. She sent a smile his way and popped one into her mouth.
Ramsey couldn’t help himself from staring at her. Lexi’s cheeks were flushed from the Georgia summer heat and lips wet from licking off the grape juice that had squirted onto her bottom lip. He gulped heavily fishing around in the basket for something to distract him. He uncovered the remaining food and removed two cans of Coke for them.
She caught him watching her, and in her eagerness scooted closer towards him so they were nearly touching. “Want one?” Lexi asked holding a grape between her fingers. He nodded and before he could reach out to take the fruit, she pressed it in between his lips.
He crunched down on the fruit trying to act as if that hadn’t affected him. “Thanks.”
Lexi batted her eyelashes before sitting back on her side of the blanket. Her hand brushed her bag and felt the vibrations through the material. She retrieved the device and flipped it open. “Are you okay? Where are you? Why aren’t you returning my texts? Lexi?!?”
Lexi sighed heavily and bit her lip as she read through Jack’s text message. She had completely forgotten about messaging him back. She quickly typed out a reply and closed her phone. “Sorry. Alive.”
“You got to your parents safe then?”
Turning her head to look at Ramsey’s perfect bone structure, she giggled a little to herself. Man, if Jack knew where she was at this moment, he would have a fit. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell him though. At least, not over text message. Not when she couldn’t use the information as leverage. “Safe.”
“Anyone important?” Ramsey asked casually taking a bite of the sandwich in his hand.
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Just Jack again.” God, she hated how familiar this all felt.
“Ahh...” he said unsure if he was prepared to broach that subject.
“Do you want to come over tomorrow or something?”
Lexi sighed again. Did she want to go see him? Yes. No. There wasn’t really a good answer. If she was honest with herself, the answer would be yes. The answer would always be yes. She always wanted to see him. She hadn’t spent any time with him in two years, and she missed him. A part of her always missed him. They had gone through so much, it was hard to not want to be around him. Even though things always ended so fucked up, her brain wouldn’t let her forget the in between times when things were oh so good.
“Yeah. I’ll let you know.”
“Great.”
“So what’s up with you and Jack?” Ramsey asked against his better judgment. Lexi’s eyes immediately darkened.
“Oh, just...you know,” she stated vaguely unsure how much she wanted to reveal. He didn’t know anything now which was probably for the better.
“Not really. You two seemed pretty heated last night. Was he just drunk? I’d never seen him that way before,” Ramsey admitted hoping to push the right buttons. He could see her begin to visibly relax as the attention fell away from her.
“I’ve just known Jack for a long time, and he’s pretty protective. Kind of like an older brother,” she said dryly. She couldn’t help thinking that Jack would make the worst older brother in the world.
Ramsey smirked noticing the ever-so-slight twitch in her muscles that indicated she was lying. He had always considered himself a great judge of character even when his parents hadn’t. Lexi’s phone began to buzz next to her again.
“Hello?” Lexi asked not recognizing the Atlanta phone number. Last time that had happened, she had been led here. That thought almost made her want to drop the call, but the sound of a chirpy voice cut off her line of reasoning.
“Hello, dear,” Bekah said from the other line.
Cringing at the uppity sound of her voice, Lexi pulled the phone away from her ear. “What’s up?”
“Where are you?”
No way had Jack put her up to this. Then again she had to have gotten the number from somewhere, and Jack was the prime suspect. “I’m busy. Was there something you needed?” Lexi asked avoiding the question.
She let her eyes fall back on Ramsey who looked at her inquisitively. She shrugged and mouth Bekah to him. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Yes,” Bekah stated rather deliberately. “I don’t believe we’ve finished our conversation yet. Do you have plans tomorrow? I’d really like to take you shopping for Jack’s big day, and we can talk then.”
Jack’s big day? She hadn’t heard anything about his big day. What was his big day? What were they celebrating? She had no idea, but she didn’t particularly want to give Bekah the satisfaction of knowing that piece of information.
“Fine. How about I call you tomorrow?”
“Sounds great, sweetie,” Bekah said happily. “Jack, stop,” Lexi heard her mutter playfully in the phone. She didn’t even know if Jack was actually there or if Bekah was just being a bitch. She supposed it didn’t really matter since it had worked. Lexi could feel her heart constricting and pain crease her temples. Her throat was closing up and she felt her body seizing at the thought of Jack being alone with Bekah. Lexi coughed uncomfortably and said a rushed goodbye before slamming the phone shut.
“What was that about?” Ramsey asked, concern evident in his voice.
“Your sister wants to take me shopping,” Lexi informed him pushing several strands of hair behind her ear forcefully.
“That’s nice of her,” Ramsey said. Though for some reason, he didn’t really think it was.
Lexi snorted. “Nice. Right.”
“You don’t have to hang out with her,” he stated absentmindedly. He passed a sandwich to her, and she reached into the basket to investigate the contents further.
“Yeah, I know, but Jack wants me to,” she said shrugging.
“Why is that?” he asked honestly curious.
Lexi shrugged again. “Beats me. We’ve known each other for a long time, and I guess since I’m here he wants me to get to know his girlfriend too.”
Ramsey took a deep breath to keep from asking too many more questions. “How long are you here for exactly?”
“School starts on Monday. I guess until Sunday then. A week total.” Lexi smiled at the grimace that crossed his face. She wasn’t entirely sure if that was because she was staying too long or too short, but she was going to go with the latter. She had found herself in quite an interesting scenario.
“I guess you’ll be here long enough for Jack’s birthday then,” Ramsey said leaning back on his elbows and examining her reaction.
Lexi’s mouth popped open in surprise. Oh my God. How had she forgotten his birthday? Of course, it was his birthday this weekend. And, if she recalled, this was a big one indeed. Twenty-five years old. Wow. A quarter of his lifetime gone by, and she had known him since he was just nineteen. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten. “Oh, yeah. What is he doing exactly?”
She couldn’t believe she was asking Ramsey for information about this. Why hadn’t Jack mentioned it? Had he assumed she wouldn’t come? Did he not want her to be there? There were so many questions that she needed answered. At least now she understood why Bekah wanted to go shopping for Jack’s big day.