Weston chuckles, and Ronnie’s eyes gleam with mirth.
“You might be screwed,” Ronnie cackles.
“Or definitelynotscrewed any time soon,” Weston corrects.
I bite back my smirk at the knowledge that her icy exterior has already melted for me more than once. But I’m not one to eat and tell. Guess I’m more of a Lexi expert than they are if I’m wearing her down when they don’t think it’s possible.
“Listen,” Wyatt says, his glass clinking to the high-top as he sets it down. “She stayed behind when her family blew up. It probably scarred her in ways none of us realize.”
Ronnie nods, adding, “The way she shows up for her people is next level. Lexi has a bigger heart than almost anyone in this town, but she’ll defend it with every tooth and nail in her body.”
“She’s tough, but she’s had to be,” Weston piles on.
“You know their dad ran the town diner until he cheated on their mom and left?” Ronnie asks.
I shake my head. “She hasn’t shared that with me.”
Wyatt huffs. “I’m not surprised. The girls haven’t spoken to him since he left fifteen years ago. They were really close with their mom, but she passed from the big C a few years ago now. Their dad…he did some damage when he left.” His green eyes darken to almost black, jaw clenching, and that’s a look I’ve seen in a lot of my dad’sassociatesbefore things turned sour, so I change the subject.
“So the café means something to her.”
“Think so,” Weston says, tilting his head in thought. “She doesn’t open up too often, but she seems passionate about the place.”
The dots are connecting in my head. Her resistance to the updates to the menu. Why my additions have been so unwelcome.
Is she proving something by managing it? Continuing a legacy? Or just forging her own path, determined to do better than her father did?
I can get behind a revenge story. Shit, half the turf wars back home were nothing but revenge that should’ve died out decades prior. Battles between families that had no business carrying generation to generation, but we all got wrapped up in them and lives were lost over it.
Like my dad’s.
Pointless deaths never sat well with me, but when it was his? That was my last straw.
Making a restaurant successful is the kind of point I’m too happy to prove.
I pivot my focus back to that before thoughts of my dad hit too hard. “Good thing she’s got me then.” Confidence has never been my problem, and when I accent my words with a smirk, it draws attention from more than just the three men at the table.
A little blonde thing sways over to the table, sultry eyes trained on mine.
“Well, aren’t you just what the doctor ordered,” she purrs, placing a delicate hand on my arm.
“Find someone else to fill your prescription, sweetheart.”
“Hallie,” Wyatt says, acknowledging her presence with a nod.
She flushes, jumping in recognition, eyes flashing around the table to take in who all is here.
“Grady,” she whispers, eyes down, sheepish all of a sudden.
“You’ll have better luck on the other side of the bar tonight,” Ronnie cracks. “Nothing but taken men, and one who’s got a thing for someone who definitely isn’t you.”
Her cute features darken into a scowl, glaring at the guy along the wall at my right.
“I wasn’t offering to you, Ronnie,” she seethes, nose scrunched up.
“Happily married. Like I’d take Wyatt’s leftovers. Please. I don’t need to give myself more issues. He probably turned you into an amphitheater by the time he was done with you.”
Hallie’s jaw drops and she crosses her arms over her chest in a way that isn’t nearly as endearing as when Lexi does it.
