He laughed. “And here I thought, you were unhappy with me.”
She had been, but he looked visibly relieved that she hadn’t been upstairs, ignoring him this whole time. She didn’t want to break him out of a good mood even if she was still unsatisfied with how the day had progressed.
“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” she chastised lightly.
He smiled down at her with a knowing look. “I never am with you.”
Shit! She knew it was supposed to be sexual, but still, she felt bad. She had always been a forgive-and-forget kind of person, but since the blowup at Jack’s wedding, she had been holding on to her past tighter and tighter. Ramsey seemed to always be at the center of that. And his reminder of that, even if it was accidental, didn’t help matters.
And then, the party started.
Lexi was swept around the room, introduced to an array of people from Ramsey’s life. She smiled and laughed and joked, and somewhere in there, she breathed. She knew that an engagement party was supposed to be more low-key than the wedding itself, but it still scared her. This felt anything but low-key, and maybe that was because Chyna wasn’t here, and a lot of her friends from college and law school lived out of town. She couldn’t expect them to come into town twice.
Ramsey’s old roommates, Jason and Brad, were making jabs at him, and Lexi was deep in conversation with her old gymnastics captain, Krista, who lived in the metro-Atlanta area. She was pregnant with twins and already showing. It was crazy to see the small athletic woman who had barely any fat on her body to have a little baby bump. Lexi had thought it strange when Krista’s hair had been all one color, and now, she was having kids! At least, her hair was red with blonde underneath it now.
“I just can’t believe you’re marrying Ramsey Bridges,” Krista said, staring down at Lexi’s ring again.
Lexi laughed. “Yeah.”
“I mean, I seriously always thought that you and Jack…” Krista trailed off, glancing up to make sure Ramsey wasn’t looking over here. “And you mean that you and Jack are literally just friends?”
Lexi always forgot that Krista and Jack had been friends in college and that Krista was the person Jack had gone to when he had gotten Lexi on the gymnastics team after she had stopped talking to him.
“Just friends,” Lexi confirmed.
“Crazy. I mean, I guess no one expected me to end up with my college boyfriend. If I had, then I never would have met Matt, who I love something hard.”
“Exactly,” Lexi said, her gaze shifting to Ramsey.
Then, the front door opened.
Lexi wasn’t sure why she even noticed it over the noise of the party and the DJ playing party music, but it drew her attention. She felt like she was watching Gone with the Wind when Scarlett walked into the party wearing the iconic red dress after having been caught with Ashley. Her eyes landed on Parker at the front door, and Lexi held her breath. Of course Ramsey would invite her. They were business partners, but still…
Parker was dressed in a long-sleeved, cowl-necked sweater dress in a deep burgundy color and black boots. Her hair was piled high on her head, like she had been in a rush. Who was Lexi kidding? Parker was always in a rush. She was wringing her hands together as she sought out Ramsey in the crowd. Lexi knew that was what Parker was doing before they even locked eyes across the room.
“Who’s that?” Krista asked. “She kind of looks like you.”
Lexi breathed out through her nose. Of course she did. “That’s Parker. She runs the medical wing with Ramsey,” Lexi explained.
“Weird. You do know she looks like you, right?”
“Yes,” Lexi said as she watched Parker veer through the crowd right toward Ramsey. “I know.”
“Strange coincidence.”
Coincidence. Ha!
“Something like that,” Lexi said softly.
“Fuck, I would kill for a drink right now,” Krista said, eyeing the bar sadly. “And my husband won’t stop drinking. If I have to drive home, I might kill him before these babies pop out.”
“You will not,” Lexi said, laughing.
“I love him, but I want to kill him daily. You’ll understand when you get married,” Krista said, patting her shoulder.
Lexi glanced over at Ramsey and cocked her head to the side. “I’m pretty sure I already get it.”
“Lexi,” Ramsey said, motioning her over.
She took a deep breath and walked toward them. “Hey, Parker.”
“Hey,” she said shyly. “I, uh…brought you this.” She shoved a bottle of wine and a flat rectangular box into Lexi’s hand.
“Oh,” Lexi said, embarrassed. “Thank you.”
She hadn’t expected gifts. The engagement party Ramsey’s parents were planning was where she anticipated small gifts but not at the party they were throwing for their friends.
“It’s not much. I wasn’t sure what y’all wanted since you aren’t registered yet, but I kind of felt like I should bring something,” Parker said softly.
“Well, wow, um…thanks. We didn’t get any other presents.”
Parker’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Oh…really? I thought…isn’t that etiquette?”
Lexi shrugged.
Ramsey jumped in. “It is. Thank you,” he said with a smile, taking the wine out of Lexi’s hand.
“You can open it now, if you want. It’s not much, but I thought you could…I don’t know. It’s up to you,” Parker said.
“Go ahead, Lexi,” Ramsey said encouragingly.
“All right,” she said.
She untied the silver ribbon, tore back the white and silver paper, and popped the lid on the box. Inside was a wedding planner with individual tabs for each thing she would need to accomplish, and the front read, Lexi and Ramsey’s Wedding, in a swirly silver font.
Lexi smiled up at Parker, feeling completely genuine about it for the first time. The planner was truly a nice gift. “Thank you,” Lexi said graciously.
“I know that you hired Sherri, but I thought it’s never a bad idea to have your own planner. I didn’t know if you already had one.”
“I don’t. This will be a big help.”
“Well…well, good.”
They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, the knowledge of how close Parker had come to being in Lexi’s shoes weighing them down.