Axel
At the endof the day Lex Ximena Maxfield is an old-fashioned girl, and at the end of the day the same can be said for me. That’s precisely why I’m doing twothings.
I present her brother with the report I’ve printedout.
Marlin frowns into it, his go-to expression with me. I somehow coerced him to meet me at the coffee shop at the foot of my building. It’s not Hallowed Grounds, but it works for the purpose of ourmeeting.
“Ms. Cheryl Kazouski.” He shakes his head. “Quite a string of previous arrests. No felonies. What abouther?”
“Just wanted to see if she had any outstanding warrants, anything that might make her goaway.”
“You want her to go away?” He pumps out a dry smile and looks eerily like Lex in the process. It’s unnerving seeing her face lurking there in that of her brother’s who has a long-standing history of heavily disliking me. “Here’s what you do. Invite her to dinner and start in on a nice long conversation. That repels just about most women in your life—right? It worked with my sister. The only tragedy is it took a year.” He tosses the printout back tome.
“Funny.” I fold my hands, trying to buy some patience. Maybe this was a big mistake. “This woman has been harassing your sister for the better part of three months. The cops don’t really give a shit. I thought maybe youmight.”
“What?” He snaps the page back toward him and glares at her image as if he were suddenly moved to murder. That’s the thing about Marlin. He loves his sisters. He’d die and perhaps kill for them. I should know. I was almost at the receiving end of the latter. I went back to Hollow Brook the summer after that nasty breakup Lex and I had, and it was Marlin who shoved me through a plate glass window. I ran into Lex having dinner with her family and all but begged for a chance to speak with her. When I wouldn’t take the hint and leave her alone, it was Marlin who kindly showed me to the door—in reality, he made a whole new exit. The cops were called, and, well, according to Lex, that was the night he decided to look into becoming an officer of the law himself. “What the hell does this woman want withLex?”
I start in on “Stumpy” and the insanity that led to Lex quickly becoming the pariah of every dog lover, including just about everyone at the institute for the deaf and hard of hearing without meaningto.
“Shit. I ran right through those protesters the day I came looking for Lex and found her in your bed. It never even occurred to me they were there for her.” He smacks his eye with his palm. “And you let this crap fly for three solidmonths?”
“No, I monitored it. What I didn’t let fly was our breakup. Lex and I are backtogether.”
Marlin groans as if I just struck him in the gut full force with a baseball bat. “You sure she’s on the same page? Lex might let you think you’re back together, but she’s probably plotting your demise.” A thin smile creeps up his face as if he might be doing thesame.
“She’s in.” Marlin and I glare at one another as if this were a standoff that was about to end with a gunshot, and considering he’s the only one armed in this scenario, it very well might. “Look—we both care about Lex, and this woman right here is making her existence miserable. She’s even got The Pelican covered with protesters. Lex can’t catch a break. The last thing I need is for this to escalate further. Nobody hurts Lex on my watch, and I say this endstoday.”
He clicks his tongue, shaking his head at Stumpy’s picture again. Lex even has me calling her that. You have to admit it’s catchy. “Give me aminute.”
In less than thirty seconds, Marlin discovers that sure enough good ol’ Stumpy has an arrest warrant for an entire slew of outstanding parking citations as long as myarm.
Marlin pulls out his phone. “I’ll call the boys over in Hollow Brook and give Lex an early Christmas present.” He growls over at me. “Don’t worry, lover boy. I plan on letting her know it was all your doing. Go on now. Get lost. You’ve done your good deed for the day. Just know if you break my sister’s heart again, I’ll have your body pumped full of bullets, and then I’ll make sure the guy who did it gets thrown away for a very long time.” He gives a shit-eating grin. “I’m all about justice.” He flicks his badge with hisfinger.
“Cute.” I rap my knuckles over the table two times fast. “This isn’t the only reason I called you down here. I’m planning on asking Lex to marry me, and seeing that your father is no longer with us—I was hoping you’d give me yourblessing.”
He lets out a sharp howl of a laugh, and my stomach plummets. Everything in me sinks like lead right to the core of the earth. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t my brightestidea.
“You really want to marry Lex?” He ticks his head back with a strangled look of shock as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would. “You have met her,right?”
“Yes. And if you would spend a little time with her, you’ll see she’s changed. She’s softer, kinder, but at the core still very much herself. She’s had a tough past fewmonths.”
“Only because you’ve been in ’em.”
I shake my head, not sure which way to go with it. He is right. “You’re full of it today, aren’t you?” I take a breath and stare at this masculine version of the woman I love. “So what’s it going to be? Do I have your blessing? Or do I go on without it? Because right now those are my only twochoices.”
Marlin leans back, expanding his chest in that navy uniform, only to elicit a sigh from a couple of women walking by. Marlin is a player from what I can remember. I heard there was a short marriage thrown in there between now and the last relationship Lex and I had. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to dump him, seeing that he’s so easy to get alongwith.
We growl at one another for a few moments before he shakes his head at me. “You got it. You can have my sister’s hand in marriage under onecircumstance.”
“What’sthat?”
“You make a better point of getting to know Serena and me, too. We’re a package deal. Part of the reason I wasn’t a fan the first time around was the secrecy. Dude, you dated my sister a year before I knew you existed. If you’re going to be family, you better start acting likeit.”
“I will. I swear I will.” A rush of relief fills me. “In fact, Lex and I will happily host Sunday dinners. We’ll have the entire clan over. I know how Lex feels about the Knights,too.”
He grunts, “Good.” He stands, and I do the same. “I’ll get cracking on this nutcase.” He snaps the paper off the table. “And I’ll wait for Lex to tell me the good news.” He glares at me a moment before breaking out into a genuine smile—a pained smile, but nonetheless. He wraps an arm around me and offers a quick jostle. “And if she says yes, welcome to the family, kid. I won’t make you regret it too much. Lex is a prize.” He gives a wistful shake of the head. “Let’s hope she feels the same aboutyou.”
“Let’s hopeindeed.”
