Lexie couldn’t see Savannah but kept her eyes directed into the camera. “Sandspit.”
“Sand what?”
Exactly. “It’s on Moresby Island in the Hecate Strait.”
“That certainly sounds isolated. Was this planned in advance?”
“Planned?” That was a new one. “No. Not at all. I had every intention of marrying Pete when I walked into the Fairmont that day.”
“Then what happened? Why did you run out on him?”
“The easy answer is that I panicked.” She looked down modestly at her hands. “Everything was happening so fast and I couldn’t think straight.” She looked back up and managed a little tear in her right eye. “I had to go away by myself so I could get my head together.” That was a bit of a fudge. She’d had to go away but she had yet to get her head together. “I didn’t want to marry Pete for the wrong reasons. I didn’t want to make a mockery of marriage.” She paused and swallowed hard. “I want all the fans of the show to know how truly sorry I am for disappointing them. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I just got caught up in the excitement of it all.” She shook her head and looked down at her lap again. “I wanted to take my vows seriously. That night, I realized I didn’t love Pete like he deserves to be loved.” She looked back up and was pleased with the tear caught on her bottom lashes. “Both he and I deserve a deep love that lasts forever. Not just until the cameras stop rolling.” She took a breath and added, “Neither Pete nor I feel that kind of love for each other.”
“Let’s ask Pete. We’ve got him on a live feed from Acapulco.”
Alarm bells rang in her head and sucked the tear back in her eye. When they’d negotiated this interview, NBC hadn’t mentioned anything about Pete.
“Good morning, Pete. You look like you’ve been relaxing in the sun. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been trying to relax and regroup. Trying to get my legs back beneath me.”
“You’ve been listening to Lexie. What are your thoughts on what she had to say?”
“It hurts. I thought Lexie and I did have the kind of love that lasts forever. At least I felt that about her.”
Wait, that’s not what he’d said the other day.
“I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon with the woman I love, but I’m here alone.”
Lexie stared into the camera and tried not to react. He’d said everything was okay between them! And he sure wasn’t there alone. He was with “hot” women he’d handpicked to comfort him. She knew he was just pretending to be sad in order to hype his own new reality show.
“I fell hard for Lexie and she ripped my heart out.”
The backs of Lexie’s eyes stung with real tears this time, and she clasped her hands together in her lap to keep them from shaking. Was he really going to crucify her?
“I don’t know if I will ever be able to give my heart to a woman again. It hurts too much.”
Like appearing on Gettin’ Hitched in the first place, she’d agreed to this interview in an effort to help her business. The business she’d worked so hard to turn from a dream to a success. A dream Pete held at knife’s point. “When we talked on the phone, I told you that I’m sorry. I thought you understood.”
“Just a minute,” Savannah cut in. “The two of you have spoken to each other recently?”
“Yes,” Lexie answered. The public had cast them into the roles of victim and villain. She couldn’t play the first and needed to dispel the second. She had to avoid the slightest appearance of hitting back at Pete while inching public opinion toward the center. “I called Pete to tell him how sorry I am and that I never meant to hurt him. He said things are cool between us.”
“What do you say to that, Pete? Are things cool?”
He could save her. All he had to do was tell the truth. He could take the opportunity to promote his new show at the same time. “I don’t recall telling her we were cool. All I know is that the woman I love humiliated me on national television.”
“I’m sorry,” she said just as Pete continued to plunge the knife deeper into her business and kill her dream.
“I don’t know if I will ever trust a woman again. Lexie ruined my life.”
A fat tear slipped from the corner of Lexie’s eye and ran down the side of her cheek. It was over. Her business was gone and she would be the villain forever. “I don’t know what to say.”
Savannah spoke into Lexie’s earpiece, but the words were drowned out by the buzzing in her brain. The light on the camera blinked off, and the stage manager stepped forward to take the microphone from Lexie’s lapel. She felt numb and ready to implode at the same time.
Instead of returning to her parents’, she drove her hybrid to her condo in Belltown. She’d pick up Yum Yum later, but for now, she wanted to curl up in her own bed and pull the covers over her head. The business she’d poured her heart and soul into was over.
Yum Yum’s Closet had started as a simple blog she’d written from her dog’s point of view and had grown into a thriving Internet retail business.