Done With Love (24 page)

“
We can’t change your names. They’re already on the mission board,”
Roxanna said. “
You people are impossible to please.”

“
Maybe I want to be Sexy Hooker,”
Gen said.

“
You can’t be Sexy Hooker. You’re Whipped Hooker,
” Roxanna said. “
Isn’t this the restaurant where he proposed to you?”

“Yes.” I was embarrassed to admit it.

“
Talk about creepy,”
Roxanna breathed.

“It was really stupid to agree to meet him here,” I admitted.

“
He probably even reserved the same table
,” Gen said.

“He did.” Which was a huge stressor. What the hell had he been thinking? The table was in the corner, two steps up from the main dining floor. I had a clear, unobstructed view of everyone in the room from here. Which meant everyone in the room would also have a clear view of the two of us dining together. I couldn’t shake the worry that Deborah might storm through the door and catch Jeremy and me dining together.

“
What a douche
,” Roxanna said.

I smiled. “You sound like Leo.”

“
Oh, why don’t we talk about Leo?”
Roxanna said, but before I could reply, she said, “
What the hell. You’re late. Get in here
.”

“
Ouch,”
Richard said, his voice muffled because he wasn’t on the call. There was a crackle and then silence.

Oh God, I’m alone. With my thoughts. And Jeremy, if he ever shows up.

My hands shook as I cowered behind the menu. The seconds ticked by at a turtle’s speed while I stewed. When they didn’t call back, I picked up my phone and dialed Gen’s number. She didn’t answer.

I dialed Roxanna and while the phone rang, Jeremy stepped from around the corner. He looked straight at the table, and a smile broke over his lips. I returned the smile, but my lips were stiff.

“Hey, sorry. I’m here,”
Roxanna said into my earpiece. Her voice made me jerk in surprise as if I’d been zapped by an electrical cow prod.

I put the menu up, severing my view of Jeremy “
Jeez,
where did you go? You can’t just hang up like that! He just walked in.
He smiled at me.
I think I’m going to have an anxiety attack!” My whisper sounded more like a hiss.

“
Keep your panties on.”

The menu shook in my hands, so I put it down. Jeremy weaved through the tables toward me.

“Easy for you to say,” I whispered, keeping my lips as still as possible so it wouldn’t appear like I sat up here talking to myself.

“
You’re fine, just relax. And stop talking or he’s going to know someone’s listening,”
Roxanna said.

“
Mm-hm,
” I answered, my lips pinched together.

Jeremy looked much better than he did the last time I saw him, standing at the altar, pale-faced and guilty. There was color to his complexion and not a hair out of place. Jeremy had always been perfectly put together. It was a Buchanan thing. He looked good. From where I sat, it was easy to see why I’d fallen for him. He had a nice smile and an air of confidence about him. The only time his confidence ever wavered was in the presence of his parents. We’d dated for six months before I met his parents and witnessed the effect they had on him.

“
Just remember, we’re attacking the weak link. He’ll be putty in your hands,”
Roxanna said.

She was right. I could do this. I had no reason to be nervous. If anyone should be nervous, Jeremy should. Except, he didn’t look nervous at all. He looked happy, like I was an old friend. I didn’t feel so nervous now, I felt a little angry. Okay, a lot angry.

“
You’re going to be fine, Lex. Take deep breaths,”
Gen said, her voice muffled. She must have been talking near Roxanna’s ear. “
Relax your shoulders. Remember, this is for your boutique.”

Her words soothed me. Getting worked up and strangling him over the table would do no good. Taking a deep breath, I sat up straighter in my chair and set the menu back down. One thing was certain, I wouldn’t prolong this meeting any more than I had to.
Straight to the point and out the door.

“Jeremy,” I greeted when he planted his feet in front of the table.

He looked ridiculous wearing the tie I gave him for his birthday last year. The table he proposed to me at, the tie—I was confused. Was this his way of apologizing for the crappy thing he’d done?

“Lexie, it’s so good to see you.” He came around the table, pulling me up from the chair to hug me. I hadn’t expected him to hug me; my mouth sputtered, and I worried he would notice my cell phone earpiece under my curls.

“You have no idea how happy I am that you called me.”

“Oh.” My breath was strangled by his tight embrace. I pressed my forearms against his chest, my cheeks stiff with the effort to keep my tongue in check. How dare he think his hug would be welcome!

“God, I missed you.” He didn’t let go. He took a big whiff of my hair, and I gritted my teeth. “And you smell great.”

“Jeremy, I can’t breathe.”

“
I’m going to strangle him
,” Roxanna said into my ear. I’d almost forgotten she was there, listening. “
Tell him he smells like a weasel
.”

“
What’s he doing?”
Gen asked, her voice just a whisper beside Roxanna’s voice.

“Oh, sorry.” He let me go. He gave me a sheepish smile and held my chair out for me.

I sat down. “It’s fine,” I lied.

I wasn’t here to talk about feelings, and I sure as hell didn’t want to hear him tell me how much he missed me. What was wrong with him? I didn’t want to hug—I wanted to clobber him over the head with the blue ceramic vase at the center of the table.

After an awkward moment of him hovering beside my chair, he rounded the table to sit across from me. I couldn’t get my lips to work to match his smile. I was a horrible actress. I wanted to be entirely indifferent, but I couldn’t. My temper flared with each awkward second ticking by with him smiling as if this meeting was
no big deal.

“This is great. Dinner, I mean.” Jeremy beamed across the table.

“Yes, great.”
You are here to be nice, not to bite his head off
. I really wanted to bite his head off.

On the drive over, Gen listed all the reasons why Jeremy deserved to be slapped in the face. I’d been the voice of reason, trying to calm her down and remember the lessons we’d learned growing up—forgiveness was a virtue. Being face to face with him, it was difficult to apply the life lesson. I clenched my hands together under the table. I couldn’t lose perspective, no matter how angry I was with him for his past discretions. Rolling my shoulders back, I stretched to release the tension in my back.

I tried another smile. “Thank you for meeting me.”

“
You sound very professional. Good job,”
Roxanna whispered, and my lips twitched.

“I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear from you again.” He fingered the edge of the menu. “You wouldn’t return my calls.”

I sighed. “There’s no point in talking about all of that.”

“I agree.”

His answer surprised me.
Okay, then
. Maybe we could have an adult conversation, sans the awkward. Well, sans the awkward from this moment on. “I know you’re wondering why I called you—”

“Yes!” He leaned forward in his seat, his eyes round. “I miss you too, Lexie.”

My mouth dropped open. “Jeremy, that’s—”

“
He’s freakin’ kidding, right?”
Roxanna gasped in my ear.

“
What’s he doing?”
Gen asked. I tuned them out to concentrate on Jeremy, who had lost his freaking mind.

“There’s so much I want to say to you,” he said. “I just don’t know where to start.”

My teeth gnashed together.
Do not make this personal,
my mind rationalized.
Do not get emotional,
my mind told my irrational heart.

“Jeremy, there
is
no start. Your mom made me sign a
contract,
like some kind of…of…
client.
And
you signed it
. Are you kidding me? You didn’t even
warn
me. You let her ambush me at
our wedding.
Do you have any idea what you put me through? What she keeps putting me through?
I loved you
and you
sold me out.
”

Shit.
So much for not getting emotional. His eyes widened like saucers, staring back at me like I’d just flushed his favorite beta fish down the toilet.

“
Oh shit, she’s losing it,”
Roxanna said.

“
Tell her we’re sending backup,”
Gen said, and I gripped the table. If Jeremy caught sight of my twin, he would tuck tail and run.

“No!” I said, and Jeremy flinched.

I couldn’t say anything more, because then Jeremy would know someone was listening. But, that would be a pretty far out assumption for him to make—bringing a secret crew along to eavesdrop on a dinner with an ex-fiancé wasn’t exactly normal activity. Who did something like that?
No one, that’s who.

“Lexie, I…” As Jeremy’s words drifted off, his shoulders deflated.

The misery eclipsing his face confused me. He looked so wounded. As if I was the one to break
his
heart. Maybe he’d been hurting too—something I hadn’t considered. He’d been the one to sign the contract first, not me. I just couldn’t afford to sympathize. I could barely afford to buy a loaf of bread, thanks to his family, and his inability to step up like any man in his situation would have—should have.

I expelled a heavy sigh and picked up the glass of water beside my empty wine glass. After a sip, I said, “I didn’t come here to fight, Jeremy.” I set the glass down on the linen tablecloth and tried to insert reason into this awkward conversation. “Let’s not talk about hurt feelings or what happened. We need to talk about your mom.”

“My mom?” He winced.

The waitress arrived with a complimentary basket of breadsticks and another glass of wine. I wasn’t exactly pleased with the results of the first glass, so after Jeremy ordered his scotch on the rocks, I ordered the same.

“You don’t drink scotch.” Jeremy blinked in surprise. At this rate we wouldn’t even make it through dinner, which was fine with me. Meeting him here had been a bad idea—it was too intimate, and he’d clearly assumed this meeting was something more, something it could never be. It was best to get to the point, and get out.

“No, I don’t.” I took a breadstick from the basket. “Scotch sounded good.”

“I didn’t know about the contract until after the rehearsal dinner,” Jeremy blurted, and I put the breadstick down on my plate. I wasn’t hungry, anyway; it’d just been something to occupy my hands.

“You didn’t?”

“No.” He ran his hands through his hair, leaving it rumpled, and cursed under his breath. “I swear to you, Lexie. When my mom gets like…” He shook his head. “There’s no talking her out of anything. She wouldn’t listen to me, told me if I didn’t sign it, if I didn’t agree to the annulment, she’d leave me—us—penniless.”

“Money isn’t everything.” But my words were pointless. Jeremy was a trust fund baby; money was all he’d ever known, all he would ever know. Both sides of his family came from old money, and he would never survive without the luxuries he’d grown accustomed to. If he had to budget every penny, balance his checkbook obsessively, give up his country club membership and expensive cigars, he’d have a stroke.

“I know that.” He sniffed, and I almost rolled my eyes.

“No, you don’t.” I shook my head. “You’ll never have to know that, Jeremy.”

“Lexie.” His gaze pleaded with me to understand, but all I could think about was how dull his blue eyes were compared to the depth of Leo’s green eyes. Jeremy lacked fire, when everything about Leo burned bright and hot.
And Jeremy signed me away.
It was hard to look him in the eyes after everything.

“Back up should be inside now,”
Roxanna said, and I looked over Jeremy’s shoulder, expecting Gen to come barreling through the door to give Jeremy a piece of her mind. Instead, Richard strutted around the corner.

In a top hat.
I blinked. Twice.

Richard’s hat matched the reddish-brown velvet tuxedo he wore. The trousers fit fine, but the jacket was tailored to fit a man with a shorter torso. He looked as if he’d shoved himself into it, and with his back ramrod straight, I assumed the seams were cutting into his underarms.

“Just pretend he’s not wearing that suit.”
Roxanna’s voice shook with laughter. “
And don’t look at him, so Jeremy doesn’t notice him. He’s got his Bluetooth earpiece in, and he’s on the phone with Gen. He’ll get close and tell us everything that’s happening. Don’t look at him.
”

Don’t look? It was hard not to. Richard greeted every stare from every table he passed with a “
hello
” and head nod.

Unless a person called in ahead of time to reserve a table, chances were a walk-in could wait up to an hour for a table. The waitress sat him down at the bar across the room. Sitting at the raised bar, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Before I looked away, I spied a shiny black cane in Richard’s hand. Afraid I’d already stared too long, I focused on my clutch sitting near the edge of the table.