“Oh my goodness, both of our first meals,” she realized, loving him even more by the second.
“Exactly.” He took his seat beside her, serving her. “But this weekend, you and I are going out for a proper romantic dinner, just the two of us.”
“Is Ruth babysitting?”
“Nope. Axel and Maisie are. Apparently there’s some other animated trilogy he plans on watching with the kids. They’re going to stay up in the owner’s suite now that they’re finally moving in. Is that okay with you?”
“Are you kidding? A kid-free night for us and some of our best friends taking care of our them? Uh…yeah. I’m totally fine with it.”
“Excellent.”
They ate and talked, and Annabeth asked if she should tell the truth at school tomorrow about why she wasn’t there today. It was a very mature question, and Lexi sat back and waited to see how Connor was going to handle it.
“Tomorrow’s my carpool day, so I’ll come in and talk to your teacher,” he told her. “But it’s up to you if you want to talk to your friends or even a guidance counselor about it.”
She nodded.
“Can I have more mac and cheese?” Jonah asked.
“Of course! Here, let me get it,” Lexi told him just as there was a knock at the door. She glanced at Connor. “Is that dessert?”
Chuckling, he got to his feet. “Not that I know of, but maybe the gang wanted to surprise us with something. You know they’re not always great with boundaries.”
Her bark of laughter was a little too loud. “Sorry, but…are you seriously picking on everyone else’s issues with boundaries? You? The one who didn’t last even ten minutes with staying away when I arrived here?”
“Well…”
Another knock.
“I need to get that. I’ll be right back.” He walked away, but he was laughing.
She gave her son another spoonful of the mac and cheese, and Annabeth asked for more as well. But when Lexi glanced toward the door, she almost dumped the spoonful on the table.
The Winslowes were there.
Son of a bitch…
“Lexi,” Annabeth whispered anxiously as she sunk down lower in her chair, breaking Lexi’s heart.
Stepping around her, she gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” she said softly before walking to the door and joining Connor.
Luckily, he realized what was happening, and the two of them stepped out onto the porch with his parents.
“Good evening, Lexi,” his mother said, sounding nicer than she’d heard in a long time.
Like the way she used to sound before she forced the two of them to break up.
“Mrs. Winslowe, Mr. Winslowe,” she greeted cordially.
“What are you doing here?” Connor asked them. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”
“We really just wanted to talk, but you haven’t answered your phone all day,” his father said.
“Yeah, I know. That’s because I didn’t want to talk to you. I would have thought it was obvious.”
“Connor, we’re both so sorry,” Mrs. Winslowe said. “For everything. All day we’ve been thinking about what could have happened to Annabeth and…and I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. She means the world to us, and knowing that we scared her to the point that she ran away…”
“Everything just got out of control,” Mr. Winslowe added. “We thought we were doing the right thing, but I guess we lost sight of what was important somewhere along the way.”
