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Heidi shakes her head. “Well, you are in for a wonderful—”
Her phone rings, and somehow, her grin widens when she looks at the readout. She practically shivers with delight. “Put on your don’t-fuck-with-me pants, Jaxon. It’s time for payback.
Heidi hits the speaker on the phone and holds it up between us. “Hello?”
“Heidi, put Jaxon on. I need to talk to him.”
I glance at Heidi, confused. Why is she so happy about Lucia calling?
“I’m sorry, who?” Heidi pretends a confusion that doesn’t suit her at all. She is never confused. She’s always three steps ahead of everyone else.
“Don’t fuck with me, Heidi,” Lucia screams in a voice I’ve never heard from her. What the actual hell is going on? “Put Jaxon on the phone.”
“Oh,” Heidi says slowly. “You mean Jaxon Hayes. I have so many clients and—”
“Just put him on the fucking phone.”
“One moment, please.” Heidi mutes her phone and cackles with maniacal glee.
“Best day ever.” Heidi squeezes my arm and looks me dead in the eye, her smile twisting as her expression turns bloodthirsty. “Remember that she pushed you in front of the train when she told the world you were the cheater. Don’t go soft on her.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your heart has been ripped out. Use that.”
“Heidi, what the —”
She unmutes the phone and shoves it in my face.
“Hello,” I say automatically.
“Jaxon,” Lucia says, then breaks into sobs. Gone is the angry, shrieky voice she used on Heidi.
I stare at Heidi, but her smile only grows the more Lucia cries. Heidi is sharp and cutthroat, but she’s never been malicious or deceitful. I assume some real tragedy hasn’t befallen my ex-girlfriend.
“Lucia,” I say, gently. “What’s wrong?”
“Jaxon,” Lucia wails. “You have to help me.”
Finally, Heidi pulls another phone from some secret pocket and holds up an article from a celebrity gossip site with the headline ‘America’s sweetheart caught cuddling with Theo Landry six months before she split from Jaxon Hayes.’
“Six months?” If my heart wasn’t still in Catalpa Creek, I might be furious and hurt right now. Instead, I just can’t believe I was such a blind idiot. “You were fucking Theo for six months before I caught you?”
“I didn’t mean for it to happen. Haven’t you ever fallen in love with someone at first sight?”
Honey, standing in a field, her dark hair caught by the wind. Even from a hundred yards away, I was a goner. I believe in love at first sight. I fell ass over head into it. “You shouldn’t have lied to me for six months and let me think the problem in our relationship was me. Do you know how hard I worked to fix things for you?”
Heidi makes a pained sound and I look over to see she’s pressed her hand to her mouth and is blinking hard. Guess she has a heart after all.
“If I’d told you, you would have dumped me. You know how it would have looked if we only dated for a few months before I ran off with Theo.”
“Bottom line.” I’m so sick of her bullshit. So sick of feeling like any of this was ever my fault. “You cared more about your image than you ever cared about me. It’s a shitty thing to do, Lucia.”
“I know.” She sounds contrite, but she’s not. It took me thirty seconds to recognize Honey attempting to manipulate me, but I let Lucia do it for six months while we dated and then I let her keep doing it, because it was easier than admitting the truth. The truth that I’d been so busy with my career, I didn’t even know the woman I was dating. The truth that I was so desperate for a real, stable relationship in my life I was willing to ignore the numerous red flags.
All it took for me to get my head on straight was a few months of solitude and a woman who reminded me what true friendship and love really are.
Lucia’s still talking, but I’ve stopped listening.
