I lean in and place a kiss on his cheek. “Iknowshe’ll be okay with us. We just have to give it some time.”
Josh blows out a long breath before he finally looks into my eyes. I smile softly at him, waiting for his response. I’ve never told him that I loved him before, but he needs to know. He deserves to know how I feel so he can stop worrying about Teagan’s feelings.
What we have between us isreal.
“The thing is,” Josh says as he reaches up while cupping the hand I have on his cheek. “I care about you, Lexi. But I don’t love you. I love her. And I think we need to put a stop to this finally.” He pulls my hand gently away from him and places it in my lap. “I’m sorry. You’ve done nothing wrong, I promise. But now I realize that letting Teagan walk away today and asking you to come here so soon after was a mistake. I can’t use you to heal what she broke. I need to find a way to fix things with her. Whatever this is between us, it’s over.” His blue eyes harden. “I think you should leave.”
My mouth falls open, somehow forgetting how to form a single word. Every atom in my body goes numb. Josh stands and disappears into the hallway. A door shuts moments later, and it feels like it’s the final nail in my heart.
He’s still choosing her over me?
Chapter nine
I’m practically dancing around Karyme’s, my favorite local department store, while Lee and I shop for the trip to Scotland. I swear, the last two weeks have flown by ever since telling the girls about the invite. Thank goodness the girls and I have passports from our vacation to Canada a few years ago. That would have been a nightmare to navigate on such short time.
We leave in just a few days, and I’m nowhere near ready. I hate packing. I’m the type of woman to leave it until the very last minute. Luckily, I have a husband who knows this about me, and I’ve caught him secretly packing away outfits for us both over the previous week.
I look up at Lee, and my heart grows tenfold. I still can’t believe this wonderful, amazing, beautiful man of mine made this happen.
“What’s that look for?” Lee asks with a slight grin.
I scrunch my nose and wrap my arms around his neck, kissing him hard on the lips. “I just really love you. That’s all.”
“And I really love you,” he replies before smacking my butt. “Now let’s find you a dress so I can get you home and show you just how much.”
He nips playfully at my lower lip. I wish we were back at home so that I could have my way with him. But…shopping. I reluctantly pull out of his arms and continue my search for the perfect dress to meet A. M. Pierce in.
“Happiness looks adorable on you, babe,” Lee whispers into my ear as I flip through the racks.
“You make me the happiest woman in the world. If happiness looks cute on me, you can go ahead and give yourself full credit for that.”
We go back to searching the racks as my mind drifts to what it’ll be like meeting A. M. Pierce. We know nothing about her—or him. Literally, the ‘about me’ portion on the inside flap of all of their books just says that they reside in Scotland and have been writing thriller novels for almost a decade now. A. M. Pierce could be anybody, and none of us would be any the wiser.
I’d like to assume that Pierce is a woman, primarily because all their novels are written from a female perspective. But there are plenty of male writers who write incredible thriller novels using a woman’s point of view.
“You should get that red one.” Lee points at the most stunning dress hanging on one of the mannequins. “You always look beautiful in red.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes playfully at him before I hunt down the rack with said dress on it. I find my size and throw it into the cart along with a handful of other options.
“Okay, I think it’s time to try them all on. If I hate them, maybe we can hit the mall next?” I ask Lee while we make our way to the dressing rooms located at the back of the store.
“You know you’ll love them all.” Lee winks at me.
“We’ll see about that.” I grab the clothes from him and disappear into the dressing room.
I slip the sequined green ensemble on and gaze into the full-length mirror. I like it, but I don’t love it. It’s definitely more Lexi’s style. I snapa photo of myself in it to send to her later, in case she needs one for our exciting meet-and-greet.
Next, I try on this gorgeous velvet navy ensemble. It’s got a deep V-neck plunge and hugs my dark russet skin like a glove, making my ass look fantastic. I’m naturally a tiny person, so anything to help give me some curves always goes into the ‘yes’ pile.
Last, I pull on the red dress that Lee picked out. I’m not sure of the material, but it’s got lacy long sleeves with small floral stitching over a darker red slip. The pattern gives off a bohemian vibe, while still being classy. It stops just above my knee and hugs my body like a second skin.
It’s perfect, of course. I’m not surprised, Lee always knows what looks best on me.
I carefully pull the dress off and tug my skinny jeans back on, along with my Nirvana crop top, before slipping my feet back into my white and red checkered Vans. As much as I enjoy these gorgeous dresses, I’m naturally a jeans and t-shirt type of gal. I adjust the claw clip, keeping my heavy braids in place, and head back out to meet Lee to tell him that his dress won over my own choices.
I’m not surprised to see that he’s nowhere to be found. He’s the type of man who will tolerate my shopping, but the moment I have to try clothing on, he finds something else to get distracted by. I head towards the book section first—nine times out of ten, that’s where he’ll be.
I circle the book aisles twice before deeming that Lee isn’t there. Odd, but also not concerning. I make my way over to the video games. He’s still nowhere to be seen. I guess I’ll have to resort to calling him to see where he wandered off to.
