Preserving Love: A Contemporary Romance Series (Nick & Lexi Book 2) (8 page)

Can we talk?

I waited on a reply but none seemed to be coming. Just when I’d about given up, I heard the notification. Thank God, she was going to talk to me. At least that was my thought until I read the message.
 

I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Seems we don’t have the privacy to talk anymore.

*****

Lexi

He was going to pull out the Facebook messages. Go back into Nick mode. He was going to pretend we still had the ability to talk without any concern as to the effect it would have on us.
 

I regretted it in that moment. I regretted it all. I wished I could back to when Nick was just Nick and not Evan. I could have come home and told him all about the asshole that was ruining my life. I wouldn’t have had to give details or hold onto any expectations. He would just be there. He would just talk and be there for me as a friend. We could laugh, joke, flirt or whatever.
 

Now I sat there staring at the message and wondering if he was the one that shared details about me. I contemplated whether or not I
could
talk to him anymore. I tried to figure out if this was destroying us or if I’d even known what kind of man I was dealing with. After all, I’d have never expected him to use the media and my personal problems as ammunition to win his design.
 

Lexi…

I miss when you were just Nick.

Wow. So you aren’t happy with us actually being in each other’s life?

I miss being able to talk. I want to be able to confide in the person that became my friend. Now you sit there as my enemy in the business world.
 

I’m not your enemy Lexi. I will never be your enemy.
 

Funny, it sure feels like it.
 

I didn’t know…

Which part Evan? That the article was going to make me look incompetent? That they would quote you saying nothing else matters? Maybe that I’d sit here wondering how they knew something I’d only told you?

I didn’t tell a soul. I never shared your situation with anyone.
 

I wish I could believe you.
 

You don’t?

No. I don’t.
 

Lexi….do you not trust me?
 

I’m not sure I can anymore.
 

Okay??

I’ve spent all this time trying to decide what’s the most important. Our relationship or this development. It seems you already knew the answer.
 

Why can’t we have both?
 

Because you feel the need to destroy one or the other and I seem to be the final decision.

What do you want Lexi?

For you to leave me alone Nick or Evan or whoever you are.
 

For good?

I don’t know…I guess until the good of this outweighs the bad. If that ever happens.
 

I’m sorry.

It was the last thing he said to me before logging off. He was sorry. The problem was that it was too late to apologize for what had already happened. I’d spent my afternoon dodging texts from Society members. They’d scheduled a meeting for the following day. A lunch meeting because they had to scramble and get people out to the event being held by Evan’s company.
 

I damn well knew that they’d demand an answer from me. Them or him. And I would have to make that choice. It didn’t seem like it should be so hard considering the decisions that he had been making. But, it was harder than I’d hoped. I didn’t want to lose him.
 

Until he’d messaged me as Nick I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed him being in my life. Of course he hadn’t even tried to fight me. I’d told him to leave me alone and he’d just left. That didn’t say much for our relationship.
 

I sent a quick message agreeing to the meeting and also to going to the event. I had to prove myself again and that was going to take some serious work.
 

After feeling sorry for myself for a while I decided to get dressed and head back to the shop. I needed my best friend and I also had to get it set up to close for the day the following day.
 

It would be about time for Mrs. Whipple to make her weekly stop for treats and I thought maybe the friendly visit would do me some good. Seeing the look of respect on a member of the community’s face would help me to see why I did what I did.
 

I didn’t expect what I saw when I walked up to the shop. Mrs. Whipple was there. So were about forty other people. They were all standing outside with signs and yelling things about me and my shop.
 

“You should be ashamed of yourself!” The older woman yelled as she saw me.
 

“Decided you prefer the damned Yankees to us?” A man shouted.
 

“Stop buying from traitors!” Another man yelled at passersby.
 

I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were picketing my business. Because of a newspaper article. Because of Evan. I was being ousted from the community because of a condo that none of them were actively fighting against. Yet I was.

Slipping by them I walked inside and locked the front doors. Business was closed for the day. Possibly for a while.
 

*****

Chapter 12

Evan

“Jesus Christ,” I spoke aloud though no one was in the office but me.
 

The front page article in the paper had floored me. This was the second time that Lexi had been in the news in only a few days, and this was worse than the first. I couldn’t imagine how she was handling it.
 

Most likely blaming me. It kind of was my fault, but not directly.
 

I’d done as she asked and not bothered her again after our Facebook conversation. She had requested I leave her alone. As hard as it had been, I had opted to do what she wanted. That meant we hadn’t talked in a little over a week.
 

Even when I’d seen her at the event we hosted, she hadn’t spoken. In fact, she’d barely looked at me before turning around to her Society friends and pretending I didn’t exist. Which only hurt me worse than I was already hurting.
 

It was then that I’d realized we were doing this wrong. The reason the community was divided was because we’d divided them. Not us specifically. GHM and the Society had divided them. So then they looked to both of us as we represented them and saw us as being divided. They were taking sides. Either one of our sides or the places we represented.
 

I wanted to tell her that. I wanted to say how much better it would be if we’d only present a united front to the community. If they saw that the development couldn’t divide us and the companies we were working for, they wouldn’t let it divide them. But I hadn’t been able to tell her that. Because she’d refused to be anywhere near me the entire event. By the end, I’d decided that it was best for me to honor her request and just leave her alone.
 

This could change things, however. She didn’t deserve this. And no matter how badly I didn’t want to upset her, the urge to help her was stronger. I picked up the paper to read the article again.
 

Locals Boycott Biltmore Village Candy Shop in Protest

Locals and visitors in Biltmore Village have seen an unusual sight as they pass through the area recently. Lines of people are marching outside a local candy shop carrying signs and chanting words of boycott against the shop’s owner, Alexis Haraway.
 

Signs carrying messages of dissatisfaction with the owner’s recent choices in regards to a proposed resort development in one of Asheville’s primary historical district warn others that she is in bed with the enemy.
 

“We mean this quite literally,” spoke Margaret Whipple who claims to have been a longstanding supporter and customer of the candy shop until recent days. “She’s taken up with that Yankee and his warped ideals and turned her back on us.”

“Mostly we just want to know if we can trust her,” Archie Travis told reporters. “Seems to be we can’t.”

“She was put in a position of respect and she turned her back on it.” A commenter asking to remain anonymous spoke freely.
 

Haraway recently made news as her involvement with frontman on the potential Willow’s Resort development and the problems it is causing came to light. As the head of the Preservation Society, Haraway is expected to help lead the battle against the development and its intrusion on historical grounds. However many, including some on the Society with her, feel that Haraway has been slacking in her duties.
 

Evan Monroe, frontman in question, even stated of his own accord during a recent HRC meeting that Haraway was using unfair tactics to fight against the company behind the development. “Nothing else matters,” Monroe said in regards to the proposed resort.
 

An attempt to reach Haraway for her side of the story resulted in a refusal to speak with journalists. However, a spokesperson for the candy shop said that Haraway is ‘hurt and surprised’ at the people she thought of as friends and their recent choices. “She fights hard for her community and this is the repayment that she gets.”

The shop has been closed for over a week and there are no set plans on its doors reopening.
 

“We will be back,” the spokesperson said. “We are just letting this die down and letting people find another cause to worry about.”

“She makes good fudge,” Whipple told us before taking her place back in the line of protesters. “It’s a shame that she’s chosen to do things this way.”

We will be continuing to bring you up to the minute coverage on the proposed resort, the HRC decisions and the local community reactions.
 

I shook my head again at the article. Why in the hell would people protest her shop? It didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s not like refusing to buy candy would help or hurt the resort’s chances.
 

She needed me and I wasn’t going to bail on her. Not now. Not when she really needed my help. Even if she didn’t realize it yet.
 

I grabbed my things and headed out of the office. To hell with Morgan and all this bullshit. I was going to take care of something important. If he didn’t like it, he could fire me.
 

*****

Lexi

“What do you want?” Evan had appeared not long after Kendall and I had finished our lunch.
 

For some reason I felt the need to be at the shop every day even though it was closed. Part of me hoped that each day would be the one day that the crowds would leave and I could reopen. Perhaps even the day that people apologized for having no faith and trust in me.
 

Truth was, it was killing me and not even because of finances. I was dying from the image that was being portrayed of me. I loved my customers, my friends and the place I lived and I was being talked about as though nothing really mattered to me.
 

We were less than a week from the decision and everyone hated me. If Evan won and the development went through, I would be all but blacklisted in Asheville. It made me sad as it was the only home and life I’d ever really known.
 

Of course at this point, money was becoming a concern as well. The candy shop didn’t make me rich, but it certainly paid the bills. I’d had to call a relative and borrow some cash for my rent and I wasn’t looking forward to the remainder of the bills that were due with no real income.
 

“I didn’t know…” he started to say and then stopped. “I want to help.”

“I think you’ve helped enough,” I pointed out.
 

Damn him. Even as I stood there cursing him for what had happened to my life and the person I knew, he could still pull me in with just the right look. The right words.
 

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen Lexi,” he said honestly. His voice cracked and it almost broke my resolve.
 

“Well unfortunately that doesn’t change the fact that it has,” I told him, turning towards the counter that held my coffee. “I just have to wait it out.”

“No,” he argued. “Waiting it out won’t work. We have to fix it.”

“How Evan? Are you going to give up your design? Are you going to refuse to build? To fight for the approval?”

“No,” he answered, disappointing me once more. “I can’t. I signed it over so even if I did, they’d still do it. But I want to help you. I want to help this scenario.”

“There’s not much anyone can do Evan,” I was honest, but it was easy to see that I wished like hell we could. I needed life to be normal. “I wish I had an answer.”