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Lexie felt a smile spread across her lips. “You’re right. I should be with him.”
Annie seemed to sense the shift in her. Instead of squealing or cheering or bouncing up and down in celebration—like Lexie expected—she hugged her tight and whispered, “I know it feels like every time you get up, you get slapped down again, but you don’t stop getting up, okay? You never stop.”
Lexie squeezed her back. “I won’t.”
“Besides,” Annie said once they’d separated. “Taking a chance on something unexpected is exactly how I ended up with my own Prince Charming.”
“Speaking of, how are things between you and Paul?”
“Better.” Annie’s eyes swung to something in the distance as she thought about it. “He’s been traveling a lot, though. Kinda makes it hard to work on things when he’s never here.”
“Did you talk to him about going with him sometime?” Lexie asked.
Annie pouted. “He said he’d love that, but he’d be too busy to spend any quality time with me, so we’d be better off taking a vacation together once all the craziness has passed.”
“Who would have thought that an IT guy would have such a packed schedule?”
“He’s a data architect,” Annie corrected. “He’s not the guy who comes to fix your software, he’s the guy who creates it. Big difference.”
Lexie shrugged, indifferent. “So, when is he home?”
“In another day or two, depending on how things go with the roll out of some new system he’s installing.”
Vikki had returned from her break while they’d been talking and—after hearing Annie’s last sentence—eased her way into the conversation by quietly asking, “You don’t really think he’s cheating on you, do you?”
Lexie wasn’t aware that Annie had shared her concerns with anyone else.
“I don’t know,” Annie replied. “I just have a bad feeling, you know? Like something isn’t right. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.”
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.” Lexie put one arm around Annie’s shoulders and gave her a rough jostle.
“Said every best friend of an adulterated woman in history,” Annie sulked.
“I don’t think you’re using that word right.”
“Whatever,” Annie replied. “It’s right up there with ‘I’m sure he just lost your number.’ ”
Lexie tried not to laugh. “Point taken. Listen, if he turns out to be a cheating POS, I’ll buy you a dozen eggs and we’ll coat his car in yolks. Sound good?”
“Make it three dozen and you’ve got a deal.”
“I hate to interrupt whatever social gathering is happening over there,” Wade called from the other end of the bar as he poured a beer. “But I got a business to run here.”
“Sorry, Wade,” they all said in unison, then got back to work.
Kyle came in sometime around nine p.m. Lexie heard his obnoxious laugh waft over from the pool tables in the back and couldn’t help but feel like the universe was testing her by placing him directly in her path, daring her to stand her ground. Her face fell, but not in defeat or fear. No, what she felt emanating from her very core was much stronger than that. It was a potent emotion she couldn’t quite define. Something raw. Savage. Like a caged beast that’s finally hit its limit and is ready to break free. It was exhilarating.
“Just stay away from them,” Wade said, reading her face. “I’ll handle those tables.”
“No, it’s okay,” she replied. Kyle had been sneaking glances at her, trying to bait her into coming over. Well, asshole, she thought fiercely, buckle up.
Lexie straightened her back and walked right up to him, not letting herself think or waver. She remembered what it was like to have his hand wrapped around her throat, watching the predator inside him roar as he’d attempted to choke the fight out of her. She thought of their marriage, how awful it had felt to have him enter her night after night as roughly as he pleased with no regard for what she wanted. How he’d manipulated her, toyed with her, gaslighted her until she believed that she was the villain. All of it playing on the screen of her mind like the worst flashback montage in history. It was exactly the motivation she needed.
Ignoring Kyle’s entourage—mostly former high school football buddies—she stopped in front of him and said, “Can I talk to you?”
“Not sure I’m open to an apology, yet.” His clothes were rumpled, and his breath stank of liquor.
“An apo—” The word wedged in her throat like a swallowed wishbone. “That’s why you think I came over here?”
