“Hey, Chloe.”
“Hello, Alex, is it too early?”
“No, Rix and I have already had a short hike and we’re about to have breakfast on his balcony.”
Chloe said nothing for a moment, and then she asked, “I do believe you two have a good deal to pack in before your sister’s wedding, but…exactly how much practice are you getting?”
I wished.
“I’m in my room, he’s in his, but I need to get over to his. That’s where we’re meeting and the food has arrived.”
“Ah.”
I didn’t have a lot of time, so I got down to it.
“I took your call because I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m calling. We didn’t quite finish, and to answer your as yet unasked question, Judge’s sister Dru loosely knows your sister. And when you told Blake about Rix, you probably didn’t know that Elsa Cohen has spoken of Rix, and your sister is somewhat of a fan of the Elsa Exchange. So knowing Dru knows him, she went fishing. I’m sorry to say, Dru isn’t very fond of Blake, so she was concerned as to why Blake was calling about Rix, who Dru has become rather close to.”
Damn.
Well, at least that explained that.
“Obviously, I jumped to conclusions,” she went on. “I’m sorry if I made things awkward for you.”
“We talked it through, and Rix is going to go with me to New York.”
“Excellent,” she purred.
“So I guess it’s good you let the cat out of the bag, because Blake is going to hate me being with someone and she’s especially going to hate that it’s someone like Rix.”
“Then I won’t feel too badly I phoned, though I am glad that Rix cut me off, because I was going to discuss something else last night with the two of you, and given further time to contemplate, I think this should be between you and me.”
“All right,” I said warily.
“I’m not sure you’ve gotten to this point in learning of Rix, but he was once engaged.”
Oh, we got to that point.
“Yes, he mentioned that.”
“Obviously, considering he intended to make a family and spend the rest of his life with her, he loved her deeply.”
A stitch pinched my insides.
I ignored it.
“Obviously,” I mumbled.
“So of course, the blow she landed by ending things with him mere weeks after he had his accident, mere days after he came home after losing his legs, doing this because he lost his legs, was a heavy one.”
When she finished speaking, I stood immobile, listening to the rushing in my ears, seeing my vision go white like static on an old TV screen.
I had no idea how long I experienced this before I heard Chloe calling my name.
I just knew it was long enough for me to identify the feeling I was feeling.
An emotion I had not felt in my entire life.
Rage.
“Are you there?” Chloe asked.
“Yes,” I said, that one-syllable word harsh and trembling.
“I sense you feel much the same way Judge and I feel about Peri,” she noted quietly.
“I sense you sense right,” I forced through a throat that seemed dry and scratchy.
Chloe’s tone was different on her next. No nonsense. Determined.
“Okay, Alex, it’s no surprise to me that Rix is going to step up for you with your sister. He’s that man. Very much so. As you’ll soon learn. But as much of a bonus as that is, I hope you take no offense, this situation is not about you and your sister. Though I’ll warn you, I don’t know your sister, but her calling Dru, checking things out about you and Rix means she’s sleuthing, and it’s highly probable you understand why, so you two are going to have to be convincing.”
I already knew that.
I still swallowed nervously.
“Alex?” she called.
“I’m here. I’m listening.”
“Good. Now the important part of this is that Peri has recently approached Rix, and since then, has continued to try to reach out. She wants to get back together.”
My neck tightened so tight, the very thought of moving it warned of agony.
“He doesn’t want that, Alexandra,” Chloe told me. “He loved her, but the kind of betrayal she treated him to…it’s over. That’s definite. He told Judge that, and Judge believes him.”
I relaxed because I believed it too.
I mean, thank God he figured out before things got legal that the “for worse” part of marriage was not in the cards with this woman.
But it was still detestable how he figured that out.
“All right,” I said.
“Though I think we both can agree that woman having the sheer audacity to kick him while he was down, and then when he’s up. When he’s back. After all the painful rehab. After psychologically dealing with the loss of two limbs. After learning to walk again. Run. Drive. Bike. Live. After he went through all that alone, she feels she’s entitled to come back into his life, not standing by his side through the thin, thinking she can benefit from the thick of Rix. And on top of all of that, he now has an important new job with better pay, and the only direction from here is up. Well, that cannot happen.”