“Actually…”
“He’s back in Michigan,” Berkley blurted.
Lexie reared back as though she’d been slapped.
He was back?
“And you didn’t tell me,” she said flatly.
“We didn’t really know how,” Berkley said.
“And to be honest, we weren’t sure you’d care…” Brent said.
Lexie turned in her seat and glared at him, pointing her finger in his direction. “I have never, not for a single second, not cared about that man. I’ve been out of my mind, worried sick about him. And you didn’t know how to tell me he’s back in the fucking state? First you didn’t tell me he got hurt and now this? What the fuck is wrong with you guys?”
In her hysteria, Lexie’s voice rose. People gathered around the other tables in the dining room were glancing their way, sharing hushed words behind their hands at her expense.
She couldn’t find it in herself to care, not when her best friend just dropped this massive bomb on her.
“Lexie, please calm down,” Amelia said, reaching out to grab Lexie’s hand under the table. Lexie had half a mind to pull away but chose not to, allowing the physical contact to ground her.
Sucking a deep breath in through her mouth, she slowly let it out through her nose and tried again. “Of course I care about Mitch,” she said quietly. “But you keeping this from me is bullshit and you know it.”
Brent and Cole both had the decency to appear regretful. Berkley sat there, staring blankly at Lexie, as though trying to find a way to diffuse this situation before it became a full-blown scene in the middle of this restaurant.
Which would not be good considering they were dining with two of Detroit’s premier athletes.
That thought was a bucket of cold water over Lexie’s head, and all the fight left her instantly. The last thing she ever wanted was to cause problems for Brent and Cole.
“I deserved to know,” she said, meeting Berkley’s gaze.
“We know you did,” Brent said. “We should’ve told you last week when Cole and I went to see him—“
“You what?” Lexie hissed, looking quickly between him and Cole.
“We had some Warriors’ business to take care of that involved him,” Cole said with a shrug.
“I can’t…”
Lexie didn’t even know how to finish that statement. There were a number of things about these last few minutes that were unbelievable.
Mitch was back in Michigan. No one had told her. They thought she wouldn’t care to know. Brent and Cole hadseenhim.
The anger that had dissipated so quickly moments before was back with a vengeance.
She pinned Brent with a glare. “I don’t understand how you’re so cool with this. He left you, too, Brent. He left all of you,” she said, also connecting gazes with Berkley and Cole.
“Look,” Brent started. “I know things with you guys didn’t end well…”
“Did he tell you what happened?” Lexie asked quickly, terror zipping down her spine at the thought.
That last night hadn’t been her finest moment.
The night he walked out. The night shelethim leave.
The last time she had seen him not on television or through a thick sheet of glass.
When he had still beenhers.
