"Well, there you go."
"Anyway, don't say anything to anyone. I shouldn't have even mentioned it."
"You can always talk to me, Lexie. I hope you know that."
"I know that, and I love you and Em, Madison, Ava, Paige, everyone… I can't really imagine moving away. You're all my family."
She could see the conflict in Lexie's eyes. "Moving in with Grayson doesn't mean you're leaving the family. And we wouldn't have this family if it weren't for you and Josie fighting to keep the building the way it is. You don't have to sacrifice your happiness for us. Nobody wants that. Things change. Look at all the new couples we have around here."
Lexie frowned again. "That's the second time you've mentioned all the couples, all the love…is that bothering you?"
"Well, I am starting to feel like one of the last single women standing."
"There are more single women than just you in the building."
"I know. I'm fine," she said. "Really. I like my life. It's all good."
"Have you gone out with anyone interesting lately?"
"No. I haven't met anyone exciting in a long time." As she said the words, Jax Ridley's handsome image flashed through her head. He was definitely attractive, with his rugged good looks and deep blue eyes. But even if she was intrigued by him, he was definitely not interested in her. He'd made that clear.
"Maybe you're too picky," Lexie suggested.
"I doubt that. My last online date left right after he finished eating a really expensive steak. He suddenly felt ill and had to leave, sticking me with the bill. I never heard from him again, which was fine with me."
"Well, hopefully, the next guy will be better. I have to say, I do not miss dating."
"I got off the apps a couple of weeks ago. I need a break." She paused as Paige and her six-year-old boy, Henry, came to the pool, settling into the lounger on her other side.
"I have a frog that swims," Henry told her, showing her a frog, whose legs were kicking away.
"That's cool," she said with a laugh.
"Stay in the shallow end," Paige told her son, then gave them a smile. "It is so damned hot."
"Mom, you said a bad word," Henry declared from the edge of the pool. "I get another quarter."
"Sorry, honey," Paige said quickly.
"Bad word jar?" she asked.
"Yes. I'm going to go broke if this heat doesn't let up." She looked up as Bree and her six-year-old daughter, Olivia, joined them.
"It looks like we've got a party," Kaia said, thinking her idea of relaxing by the pool had just gone out the window. On the other hand, she had all her friends around her. What could be better? She set down her drink. "Save my seat. I'll be right back. I need to move my laundry along." While she hated doing laundry, it was much better when she could wait for her clothes to be done while sitting by the pool. She threw on her sheer cover-up and made her way around the pool, stopping to say hello to Josie, Margaret and Frank, who were playing cards as usual.
"Hello, Kaia," Josie said with her perpetually cheerful smile. "Anything new?"
She shook her head, remembering Lexie's warning not to talk about Jax Ridley to her aunt. Although she couldn't help wondering again what the connection was between a woman in her early seventies and the thirty-something, very attractive man, who didn't seem to exist anywhere in the world but here.
Jax usually found doing laundry to be relaxing because it was so boring. But as he set his basket on the table in the center of the room, his vibrating phone drew his attention once more. It had been going off relentlessly for the past hour, with almost a dozen texts from Clay Henning, his former agent, two from Sharla Fields, Wren's publicist, and three from Wren herself. Everyone seemed determined to bring him back into a life he'd left behind.
Frowning, he looked around for an empty washer, but they all appeared to be taken. He probably shouldn't have waited until Saturday to do the laundry. Two of the cycles appeared to be finished, so maybe he could move the laundry along. Before he could do that, his phone rang again.
Shaking his head, he decided the only way to end it was to end it. "Clay, you need to stop."
"I can't believe you finally answered."
"Because you're making me nuts. I told you I wanted no contact."
