“Four,” he said, holding up four fingers and smiling at the hostess.
“What do you mean four, Ramsey?” she demanded.
“People are meeting us.”
“Ramsey, what did you do?” Lexi shook her head and took a deep breath. She turned back to the hostess. “Lexi, for four. Thank you.”
Lexi grabbed Ramsey’s shirtsleeve and yanked him out of the busy restaurant. She dragged him to the edge of the building before dropping his arm. “Are you out of your mind?”
“No.”
“Look, this can’t happen. It just can’t. I’m tired of going into things blind and running headfirst into a brick wall. Step one of our relationship rehab is I know everything! I want to know every single thing that you are planning, orchestrating, and organizing. I want to know everything about your past, and I want to know everything for the future. You can’t keep me in the dark anymore, or this isn’t going to work. That’s the deal, and it’s the only one I’m willing to offer.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Whoa, Lexi! All of this over adding two people to lunch?” Ramsey asked, his brow furrowing.
“Yes! It might seem like I’m overreacting, but everything in my past tells me I’m not. We have a lot to figure out about how to make this work, Ramsey. I’ve been a forgive-and-forget kind of girl my whole life, but I can’t be that person anymore—not if I want a real relationship. And I’m willing to give it a shot, but I can’t be lied to. I just can’t.”
“I wasn’t lying to you—”
“Stop. Just stop and listen for a second while I try to explain. I’m just going to flat-out say that I’m emotionally messed-up. I’ve discovered that. And I think I’ve let myself get taken advantage of one too many times because of that. Second, third, fourth chances were in my repertoire. I swore I wasn’t going to give out any more, but then you happened,” Lexi told him.
She glanced out across the full parking lot, trying to collect her thoughts. She knew she was rambling, but he needed to hear it. He needed to know what he was up against.
“I’m giving you a second chance even though I told myself I was done with chances. You f**k up, and you’re done. That’s what I wanted to do when I went back to New York, but I couldn’t. So, prove me right. No more lying.”
“Okay, Lexi,” Ramsey said. He actually looked uncomfortable.
Had she ever seen Ramsey look uncomfortable? She sure as hell couldn’t remember a time when she had.
She hadn’t meant to explode like that, but she hadn’t been able to keep it in. Didn’t he know how much easier this all could be if he would just tell her things? It wasn’t hard to be like, Hey, I’ve invited two people to have lunch with us. She wouldn’t have cared—unless, of course, those people were Bekah, Jack, or Parker. Then, she would care. But she didn’t think he was that stupid.
“Okay then,” she said awkwardly.
Ramsey reached out for her hand and threaded their fingers together. “Hey,” he whispered, pulling her into him. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I know.”
“This is new for me, too. If we want this to work, I know we both have to put in the effort in the relationship. I’m willing to work on it, and I’ll listen when you call me out when I f**k up…like you just did.”
Lexi giggled. “Yeah, I guess I overreacted a bit.”
“You’re just being the adorable woman I fell in love with. I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Lexi smiled and glanced away from his entrancing green eyes.
How did he always wash the anger right out of her like that?
“I’m going to try your everything route,” Ramsey told her. He turned her chin, so she was staring up at him again. “I’m going to tell you everything until it’s so annoying that you’ll beg me to stop.”
“I don’t think I’d ever beg you to stop,” she said huskily.
Ramsey chuckled and shook his head. “Right now, I want to take you back to my apartment and f**k you into tomorrow. I think I’ll start with you on top and then from behind and then maybe the stairs…”
Lexi flushed all over, her body heating at his words.
“And then, I think I’m going to clean you up in the shower and not keep my hands to myself,” he murmured into her ear.
“Okay, okay!” Lexi took a few stutter steps backward and cleared her throat. “Maybe…maybe not everything.”
Ramsey laughed boisterously. “You’re already asking me to stop!”
“You know what I mean. I can’t be turned-on all the time when we’re together.”
Ramsey arched an eyebrow, and with that one look, he asked, Why not?
“I just want you to tell me everything that you might think about keeping from me. After yesterday, I’m pretty sure that has nothing to do with our sex life.”
“All right, Lexi,” he said, closing the distance between them again. “I’ll do whatever I can to make this right.”
“We can start with, who is meeting us for lunch?” She stared up into his handsome face and sighed.
She sure hoped he meant what he had said. She couldn’t go through this all over again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
“I meant for it to be a surprise, but I see that surprises are going to be…difficult.”
That was one word for it.
“I’ve invited my new development team for the medical wing of Bridges.” He scratched the back of his head in that cute way she had grown accustomed to. “I, uh…thought you’d want to meet who I’ll be working with for the next year as we build and staff the new wing.”
Fuck. Of course, he was trying to do something sweet for her. Well, as long as that team doesn’t include Parker.
“That…sounds nice,” Lexi said.
“I should have told you. No more surprises from now on.”
“You’re so funny.” Lexi rolled her eyes.
“Okay, okay. I’ll be more attentive to your feelings,” he amended with a kiss to her lips. “Can we go back inside now?”
“Yes.” She felt sheepish for blowing up on him like that, but she was glad that she had stood her ground. She refused to let her cycle continue.