"Except," she said, cutting her eyes to the side, "he's aJaguarsfan."
"Oh my fucking god, Gigi," I said, exasperated. "What have you gotten yourself involved with? A Jags fan?Really? Is someoneblackmailinghim?"
She lifted her hands and let them fall to her sides. "He's a big believer in rooting for underdogs," she said, but her tone made it clear she wasn't convinced. "Believe me, I'm workingonit."
"Has he met your family?" I asked. "What do Ash and Lindenthink?"
"He hasn't met them yet, no," she replied. "But only because he's dealing with some major stuff and meeting my family isn't the most pressingconcern."
Magnolia's family was an extension of her being. Her world was Sunday dinners and obscure Portuguese holidays and an endless cycle of birthdays, anniversaries, and no-reason-at-all celebrations. Anyone who mattered to her had a seat at the family table. That was why her brothers baffled me. If they understood how to look out for their sister, they did a piss-poor jobatit.
I shook my head. "I want to be a friend right now, but I think I have to be an asshole instead. If he can't make you a pressing concern—which is bullshit, by the way—you need to step back and tell him to give you a call when he can. Don't let him take advantage of you anylonger."
She flinched as my words moved through her like a blow. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and stared at the protective covering over the newly restored plaster on the walls. Her lip was turning purple under the pressure of her teeth and her chin kept wobbling in a manner that suggested tears were coming my way. We stayed there, on opposite sides of the room, not sayingaword.
In a certain light, it was wrong to say these things to Magnolia. She was an intelligent, capable woman and she didn't need me hanging a raincloud over her happiness because I'd witnessed years of her romantic disasters. In that light, I was thedickhead.
But what kind of friend would sit by while an undeniably shady situation got shadier? I knew Magnolia, and I knew these doubts were already putting down roots in every corner of her mind. I was still the dickhead, but I was the dickhead who didn't mind enduring an uncomfortable exchange and some awkward silence because my friend deservedhonesty.
By that logic, Alex deserves to hear the truth aboutLauren.
I swung my head from side to side, attempting to dislodge that thought. Things were good right now—so good—and I didn't want to fuck any of that up by bumbling my way through a retelling of ancient history. And it was just that:ancient.
It's over. It's gone. No sense tellingAlexnow.
Now that was a thought I could get behind. I had no interest in deceiving her, but I didn't see a reason to unburden myself of every bizarre truth. Did she really need to know that I learned Spanish by watching telenovelas—andonlytelenovelas—in high school? Or that I'd lied to the women I brought back to my college dorm about my roommate being a heavy sleeper? Or that I was painfully naïve once, and convinced myself Lauren would walk away from that fling with Matt and realize I was the one shewanted?
The world before Alex felt far away, and I couldn't comprehend the months and years spent pining for Lauren. I could call up those memories but I couldn't get inside them anymore. It was like paging through a high school yearbook and recognizing those moments as my own but struggling to understand why I believed that haircut to be in goodtaste.
Except that haircut was my sister-in-law and I couldn't write those years off as youthful indiscretion. I'd built my life around wanting Lauren. I'd dated women simply because they reminded me of her. I'd foreclosed the possibility of finding a love of my own until now. Until Alex put me backtogether.
Right on cue, Magnolia turned around and asked, "Still seeingthetwin?"
"I am," I said. I wanted thatI amto travel with more weight than two words, three letters. I wanted it to sayI am and I don't think I'll ever be able to let her go. "Her name'sAlexandra."
She tipped her head to the side and offered a watery smile. "Oh yeah. I remember her from the meetings," she joked. "I'm dying to know what her twin thinks of you. I mean, his approval is mandatory for your relationship. She can't possibly make decisions without her womb-mate weighing in.Right?"
I clapped a hand over my chest as she served me a dose of my own medicine. "Point taken,"Isaid.
"Good, good," she said. "Now, let's go downstairs and talk about this courtyard. I'm thinking traditional. Ivy and wisteria, and creepingrosemary."
"I had no idea rosemary was such a pervert," I said. "All these years, I'd thought it was thechives."
* * *
I'd losttrack of my morning. The hours had slipped away from me while I hand-stained flooring all over the Berkeley Street project. Now I was running late for a meeting with Andy and Patrick and taking the office stairs two at a time. It didn't come without a price as the coffee I'd picked up on the way back—being late was preferable to going without my afternoon caffeine fix—was sloshing over the lid and vaporizing a layer of skin onmyhand.
Skittering to a stop outside Patrick's door, I gestured to my watch. "I'm on time," I said,breathless.
"Andy ran into some delays at her Lexington property. She'll be here in five or ten minutes," he said as he shuffled through papers on his desk. "She wanted me to tell you that she ordered lunch for us, and she threatened the life of the delivery guy if your meatball sub wasn't in the bag. We'll meet you in your office when shegetshere."
"I'll allow it," I said, my chest still heaving. I couldn't complain. Even if I'd hauled ass and burned my hand getting here on time, I was getting another lunch out of this. "I'll be waiting whenever Princess Jasmine isready."
I headed toward my office, my legs carrying me in long strides as my body was still inhurry-now-gomode. I elbowed the door open and flipped the lights on with the back of my hand, and dumped everything on my desk. Coffee, paintbrush case, messenger bag, stainless steel waterbottle.
Instead of organizing any of it, I reached for my phone, hoping to find a new message from Alex. We didn't get much time to talk during the day since her hands were full with, well,organs.
Alex:Hartshorn wanted to know whether we were redecorating lastnight.
