I brought her to the couch along the far wall of my office and held her until my arms grew numb. We would find our way through this. And whoever tried to interfere with our lives wouldn’t be so lucky this next time around if I had anything to do with it. They would not succeed in coming between us.
Every so often, Lex squeezed me tighter. If this had fucked with my head, it was nothing compared to what it had done to hers. Life had been a whirlwind since she got back.
After a few more minutes, she pulled back, and I wiggled my arms. Those damn tingles rushed down them.
“All that time I stayed away. All the time we lost. We’d be…” Lex trailed off.
Yeah, we’d most likely be married by now. Engaged, for sure. I rubbed my thumb on her chin. “It’ll make us treasure our time together that much more now that we know what it’s like to be apart.”
She took an unsteady breath. “Who do you think did it? Why?”
“I don’t know. But chances are whoever it was still doesn’t want us together.”
And that still made no sense to me. Who the hell would go through that much trouble just to fail? Unless it had simply been a power game to see if they could get away with it. “Have you heard from Raquel today? I saw the newsletter.”
The Twiner sisters had painted our story as some kind of fairy tale. Raquel had not been so lucky. And they’d blown the lid off Chazz running for mayor. I was surprised no one had called me, but then again, I’d been off the radar for most of the day.
Lex shook her head. “No, Mom called a few times, but I ignored the phone calls and haven’t listened to the messages. I imagine they aren’t very kind. With everything else, I just didn’t want to deal with the stress. And Raquel is probably plotting her revenge.”
For a few minutes, Lex traced the letters of my faded Red Onion Bar shirt. She was still lost in her head. “Do you think Raquel did this?” she asked.
I blew out a breath. Regardless of the fact that Raquel was a bitch, she was still family. That wasn’t just erased with a few mean words. This subject needed to be trod on carefully, yet truthfully. “I think she’s a likely suspect.”
“And my mom.” It wasn’t an accusation, just a statement. But this hurt my girl to the core. And I fucking hated that I couldn’t do anything.
“It’s no secret that neither of them likes us together.”
Maybe it had all been to keep us apart and hurt Lex. Maybe it was Raquel’s way of having fun, screwing with our lives. It wouldn’t be the first time. When we were first dating, she’d planted the seed in Lex’s head that I was on a date with another girl when I’d been out hunting with Kane and Hayden. She’d even had one of her friends lie and say she’d seen me. I’d been so pissed. So fucking pissed. When we’d started dating, Lex had been a little leery because she hadn’t been sure if I was ready to date one person—for one, I was older, and two, I’d dated my fair share.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Before I could call out or answer, Crete’s muffled voice came through the door. “Drake, I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
This wasn’t good. I didn’t want to leave her, but she touched my shoulder. “Go. It sounds bad. And we don’t need it to get worse. We have enough worse right now. I’ll be fine.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Lex scooted off my lap. “I promise. I’ll be fine.”
Inside, I was torn, but she was right. “I’ll be right back.”
Nodding, she lay down and stared into space, obviously lost in thought. There was a blanket Mom had added to make the place a little more cozy. I laid it on her and knelt in front of her. “We’ll make it through this. Me and you.”
For the first time since Butch had arrived, she gave me a small smile. “I know we will. It’s just a lot to wrap my head around.”
I kissed her forehead. “I know it is. I’ll be right back.”
The best thing for Lex right now was probably to give her a little time to process everything, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. My instinct was to always rush to her, keep harm away from her. But I’d learned she processed better when she had a little time to herself.
She turned to look into my eyes. Each and every time she looked at me, I could get lost in them.
I headed out into the hallway and closed the door. “What happened?”
Crete had a hard look in his eyes. “I’ve got Randall on hold. He said he tried you, but it went to voicemail. He was going to pick up your liquor order for the ferry from Juneau tomorrow, but his boss told him to leave it.”
“What the fuck?” That was the last thing I’d been expecting to hear. I’d honestly been expecting news of another fight between a couple of the regulars.
“Yeah, he’s not sure what to do. He doesn’t want to leave you hanging, but if he takes it, it’ll cost him his job.”
“Son of a bitch.”