Lexi, Baby (19 page)

Was that why Destiny was there
?
I
vaguely remember Landyn saying something about her looking for
Trish, but I couldn’t be sure
.

I was tired; exhausted more like it. I
squeezed Trish’s shoulders. “Everything’s going to work out, T. It
has to. I’ll make it work out. I don’t know where either one of us
can go from here in our relationships, but we’ll get through it
together like we always do. I promise.”

“I’m just so sorry Lex. I never considered
the consequences until it was too late.” I just squeezed her even
tighter.

“I feel like I should say something profound
to make you ladies feel better, but
shit
, you girls are
nuts. Thank God I’m still single,” Detective Adam chimed in.

Trish and I both glared at him. “Shut it,
copper. You just wait until you find a woman. She’ll have your head
spinning so fast you won’t be able to walk straight. Actually, I
might just have to find that woman for you,” I said deviously.

“I don’t want her if she’s anything like you
two,” was his comeback.

Trish and I were both so taken aback by his
comment that we sucked in air at the same time.

Surprisingly, he started laughing, more like
howling. “I’m just joking! Calm down hens and unruffle your
feathers. I tell you what... I’ll make you a deal. You both are
more than welcome to find me a woman as long as she’s equally as
hot as the two of you put together. An attitude like Trish here,
with her sweet ass and olive complexion, along with your big,
beautiful hazel eyes, long silky hair and tight little body, you
got a deal.”

Trish and I looked at each other for quick
confirmation and smiled. “Deal!” We shouted out at the same
time.

He had a huge grin on his face while he
shook his head at us. “Glad I could cheer you up. If only it wasn’t
at my expense, but good luck on the hunt,” he said sarcastically,
but I knew deep down he really wanted us to find him someone. We
didn’t get into too much detail about his past earlier, but there
was something special about this detective.

I’d worry about that later. Right now...
sleep. I needed to hit the sack. I’d decide what I was going to do
in the morning and help Trish with whatever she decided.

I grabbed Trish’s hand. “Come on; let’s go
get some sleep, get this night over with and hope tomorrow will
bring us something good.” We both stood up and I looked to Adam. “I
guess you were right. Now, maybe tomorrow you can tell me exactly
how I’m supposed to fix everything. Good night.”

When we made it to the stairs Adam spoke. “I
have a feeling you won’t have much to fix, Alexis. The man I saw
wouldn’t have cared if you beat him over the head with that bat you
had earlier. He’d forgive you of anything.” Somehow I didn’t think
that was true, but I wished so hard that it was, it brought tears
to my eyes. I gave him an unsteady smile, jogged up the stairs to
the guest room and cried myself to sleep.

There was incoherent alertness tugging at
back of my sleep induced mind. I knew I was still in Adam’s house,
in his guest bed, but I felt the warmth of a body cocoon me as legs
entangled with mine. I was glad I took off my jeans before falling
asleep. I felt hot breath at my neck as light kisses were pressed
to my skin. A large, calloused hand slipped between my hold on
Layla. The hem of my shirt lifted and Landyn caressed my stomach
and the baby growing inside me.

Please let me remember this dream when I
wake up
.

My eyes flew open when I suddenly realized
that Layla wasn’t in the bed with me. I looked to the window and
noticed the sun shining brightly through the curtains. I jumped up,
threw on my jeans and ran downstairs.

A delicious smell filled the air and my
stomach growled.

“Layla!” I called out.
God, that little
girl. I hope she hasn’t broken anything of Adam’s yet
. “We’re
in the kitchen!” Adam called back.

Oh, thank goodness
!

When I rounded the corner of the stairs and
into the kitchen I hit a brick wall. Landyn and Adam were both in
the kitchen. Together. Cooking.

Adam was at the stove with a spatula. He
wore boxers, socks and a white t-shirt while Landyn was at the
counter holding a mixer and wore boxers, an apron, no shirt and no
socks.

What the hell?

Layla sat at the breakfast bar giving
orders.

“Mama likes pancakes with chocolate chips
and lotsa syrup. And cereal with two dashesa sugar. And donuts with
pink icing and sprinkles. If you go buy her that stuff, it would
make Mama not mad at you anymore Daddy.”

The little fibber
!
Those were all
her favorites
.

I sighed inwardly. She was so young and
already she knew how to work a man to get what she wants.

If anyone noticed me, they paid me no
attention.

“Well, in that case, your mom will rarely be
eating chocolate chip pancakes, cereal with a dash of sugar or
donuts with pink icing and sprinkles, because I don’t plan to make
her mad very often, precious,” Landyn replied sweetly and then he
turned his head in my direction and made eye contact.

I swallowed hard when I suddenly realized
that my dream last night was no dream. It was real. He did come to
me.

I wanted to run up to him and throw my arms
around his neck, but I held back. I felt a little foolish for my
shocking reactions last night.

Who nearly starts a fight while
pregnant
? I think somehow, subconsciously, I knew neither of
the guys would let it get too far, but I would never regret hitting
Destiny.

I walked further into the kitchen at a
snail’s pace. Adam and Layla had turned and were watching me with
probing gazes now.

“Good morning,” I said softly in the
uncomfortable silence.

“Lexi, baby, come here,” Landyn ordered as
he pointed to the spot at his feet. I went to him at my continued
slow pace until I was in close enough reach for him to grab me
around the waist and haul me securely against his chest. My hands
went to his shoulders, forehead to his chest and I cried, “I’m so
sorry.” I was sorry for a lot of things.

He squeezed me harder and pressed a kiss to
the crook of my neck.

“Layla,” Lan called out while still holding
me. “Take over for me here and tell Adam how much you like
football, okay? Your mom and I will be right back.”

“
Yes
!” she hissed and clapped
excitedly. “Uncle Adam, can I mix the pancakes?” Layla screamed.
All I heard was mumbling from Adam, as Landyn shuffled me out of
the kitchen and into the living room.

Wait... Did Layla just call Adam, Uncle
Adam
?
What the hell
?

Landyn stopped us in the living room and
tilted my head up to look at him. He looked lovingly at me while he
studied my face. The arm that held me at the waist suddenly came
around and I felt his knuckles gently caressing my stomach through
my shirt.

“I can’t believe we made a baby so fast,” he
whispered gently.

Then he reached down and tried to lace our
fingers together, but it was the hand that, until that moment, I
didn’t realize was very sore. I winched. Landyn saw it and looked
down; my eyes followed. There was slight bruising across my
knuckles.

Landyn looked back up and this time his
expression was not happy.

“Don’t run out on me again, Lexi. I swore
I’d never hurt you and I won’t. I expect we’ll have the same
problems every other family has, but we’ll work through them. I’ll
never cheat on you.”

When I didn’t say anything he exhaled
noisily. “Destiny came to see if I found out where you lived. She
was looking for Trish. She showed me pictures-” he was about to
continue explaining, but I stopped him.

“Trish told me about the pictures and what
she did. She didn’t sleep with that the guy in the photos; who is,
or was Destiny’s fiancé by the way. Trish took the pictures as a
way to pay Destiny back for having sex with you.”

When one of Lan’s eyebrows rose in
expectation, I clarified. “Six years ago, when you had sex with
Destiny, Trish swore up and down that she would pay her back. Those
pictures were pay back.”

Lan gave me a smirk. “I figured there was
more to the story. I didn’t actually think she would hurt Tony like
that purposely. Destiny yes; Tony no.”

The situation with Trish was painful for me.
If she hurt, I hurt. I swore to myself that I would help her make
things right with Tony. It was the least I could do for her after
everything she’s done for me. This, I knew, was going to take time,
but I’d do it. So for now, I focused on the matter at hand.

“Landyn, I’m so sorry about last night.
Well, I’m not sorry for hitting Destiny, but I am sorry for not
trusting you enough to let you explain. If you look at it from my
perspective, you have to admit it looked bad; you unexpectedly get
called into work, one of your worker’s tells me you were in a
meeting and then I show up and find Destiny there-” Lan put his
finger to my lips and shushed me.

“I did go in for a meeting Lexi. Just...
stay right there and don’t move,” he ordered before he hustled out
of the room and up the stairs. I watched him go and he looked so
freaking sexy wearing nothing but boxers and an apron.

Strange, but sexy nonetheless.

A moment later he was jogging back down the
stairs while he dug around in the pocket of the jeans he now
carried. When he made it to me, he threw the jeans down, lifted my
uninjured hand and placed a beautiful princess cut diamond
engagement ring on my finger.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, as tears filled my
eyes.

“Lexi, baby, I wanted to do this right, I
wanted my proposal to be perfect and I wanted our wedding to be
everything you’ve ever imagined, but it seems like everything
having to do with us as a couple is more than unusual. Do you
remember John Sanders?”

That was an odd question, but yeah, I’d
never forget what happened at his house.

I nodded.

“He owns a jewelry store in Bellaire. I had
him meet me at the office so I could pick out your ring. I hope it
fits, I guessed at the size.” I was speechless, and the ring fit
flawlessly.

“It’s up to you when, where and how you want
to get married, baby. Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean we
have to go to the Justice of the Peace or Vegas; we could have
something small or we could have a big wedding, it’s your
decision.”

I was occupied with wiping my tears, but I
managed another nod and whispered, “Okay, I’ll have to think about
it. I’ll have to get with Trish.” I paused. “I love you Lan and I’m
so sorry.”

Landyn wiped away my tears with his thumbs.
“I love you more, baby.”

At that moment, I turned when I heard a
noise and saw a disheveled Trish dragging herself down the stairs.
Her hair was mess, her clothes were wrinkled and she had make-up
smeared all over her puffy, pale, cried out face.

Poor thing
.

I turned again, in the opposite direction
when I heard noise coming from the kitchen that sounded like it was
coming closer. Eventually, Adam and Layla walked into the room
hand-in-hand.

I didn’t like that. I didn’t think it was
appropriate for Adam to be holding Layla’s hand and I figured
Landyn would like that even less, but when I glanced at him, he
looked calm. I silently wondered if it was only the calm before the
storm.

Adam looked between Lan and me. “Looks like
you two worked things out.” Then he turned to Trish and grinned.
“You’re a hot mess,” he called out to her and I heard Trish growl
“asshole.”

He held up his hands defensively. “Hey, I
just call it like I see it, honey. You’ll feel better when you eat;
food’s ready.”

“Yeah, and Uncle Adam let me make all the
pancakes!” Layla exclaimed happily.

Now
my
happy mood was slowly slipping
away.

“Layla, why do you keep calling him Uncle
Adam?” I asked her curiously. Layla’s eyes moved to Landyn and then
came back to me.

“Because he’s my
Uncle,
duh,
Mama
!” Layla said sassily as she put a hand on her hip and
worked her neck back and forth as if to say “booya!”

Geez!
She might as well have snapped
her fingers at me too.

I had to force myself not to lecture her on
talking to me that way. However, I did give her a warning look just
before turning my attention to Lan, who had a very unmistakable
guilty look on his face.

“What is she talking about?” I asked him
suspiciously.

The whole room grew quiet; not that it
wasn’t already quiet, but it had now grown so quiet I could nearly
distinguish each person’s individual breathing pattern. It was
creepy.

As I waited for a response, I caught Landyn
and Adam and Layla looking back and forth between each other. Now I
was getting pissed.

“What?!” I shouted.

Still no response.

I continued to look between the two men
waiting for either one to answer me when, out of the blue, it
dawned on me...

Now that they were standing together in the
same room with hardly any clothes on, I could easily compare. The
answer was staring me in the face; I just had to put the puzzle
pieces together.

Was it the body? Maybe, they had the same
muscular build, but Landyn was possibly half an inch taller.

Was it the face? No, they had different face
shapes, one was square and rugged, and the other was round and
baby-faced. Their skin coloring and texture was identical
though.

Was it the eyes?
Yes
, it was the
eyes. The color wasn’t the same, Adam’s green, Lan’s amber, but
Adam’s were just as bright as Landyn’s. They were the exact same
shape and they both had extra-long unruly eyelashes.