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“No, but I sure as hell know my sister well enough. You’re being too weird about this.”
Those shoulders that had just been up so high in a show of defiance to his questioning, slumped, and she pulled out her phone, tapped at the screen, and handed it to him. “The last few times I talked to her, she broke down, okay? I’m sure she’s just trying to avoid that happening at their family holiday dinner.” Lex glanced down at the text exchange and read Xochitl’s first response to Vannah’s initial call wishing her a happy holiday. Then Vannah’s response where she told her about Lex unblocking her, though she didn’t specify that it was only on his phone and for today.
Xochitl’s response completely ignored the part about his unblocking her and made mention to all the yummy food Vannah must be having so much fun cooking. When his sister mentioned his unblocking her again and that maybe she should reach out, she finally commented on it.
Yeah, I’m good. I have so much going on right now. Maybe after the holiday weekend, I’ll drop him a line.
Lex glanced up at his sister’s wincing face as he handed her phone back to her. “Yeah, she sounds really excited.”
“Taz, Taz,Taz.” Vannah tugged at his arm before he could walk away. “I called her after she text me, and she sounded really emotional. She said making the rash decision to drop the semester when she was so close to getting her degree has made her examine her life and every other big decision she’s ever made. She said she’s got even more decisions to make now. It’s why she wanted to wait until after the holiday to reach out to you.”
“Why? What decisions?”
Vannah shook her head, and he could see in her eyes she really didn’t know, but he also saw the worry. The same disquiet that had instantly seeped into his veins the moment she mentioned Xochitl saying she wasre-examiningher decisions. “She didn’t say, but I really think you should call her.”
“For what?” Lex searched her eyes.
Glancing away as if she wasn’t sure she should say more, Vannah seemed to think about it, before she turned back to face him. “Before breaking up with Cade, she was really,reallytorn about it.” She shook her head when Lex’s brows jumped in utter irritation. This wasnotwhat he wanted to hear, damn it. Obviously sensing his exasperation over where she might be going with this, Vannah reached out and touched his arm. “Not because of what she felt for him. Her biggest fear was that she’d regret walking away from a guy who was so genuinely in love with her and would likely never hurt her. I had no idea what she might be referring to at the time since I hadn’t the faintest about what happened between you two at the wedding. I just thought she was speaking hypothetically. But back then she commented more than once that Cade was a safe bet versus someone she might fall hard for and then break her heart. She kept saying, it’s why she knew she wasn’t in love with Cade like she should be because she’d never once been heartbroken over any of their breakups, but she also said maybe that was a good thing. It’s why she was on the phone with me and then her mother for so long the night before she did it. She’s cried so much over you, Taz. She didn’t say so, but my guess is she’s rethinking her decision of breaking things off with Cade, now that she thinks she’s lost you for good.”
Feeling his eyes widen, that exasperation he’d felt earlier morphed into fury almost instantly. “Ididn’t hurt her.Shedid this. So now that she fucked everything up, she’s running back to her ex?”
“She didn’t say that!” Vannah shook her head adamantly. “I’m only guessing because when I asked what decision, she was curt with me and said she couldn’t talk about it now, but that she’d call me after the holiday weekend, then cut the call short.”
“This is bullshit!”
“Call her,” Vannah urged before he could stalk away. “Call her, Taz. It’s the last thing she’d be expecting, and if you’re really feeling excited about this, then you owe it to yourself.” Before he could walk away, she touched his arm again. “If you do talk to her, Taz, let her talk. You blow up so fast, and she sounds so vulnerable right now.”
Staring at his sister’s pleading eyes, he thought about it for a moment. Then the thought of Xochitl considering running back to Cade assaulted him again.Fuck that.
Lex did his best to not storm out of there and call attention to himself, but he needed air. He rushed downstairs and outside into the parking lot where eventhatreminded him of Xochitl. What he’d been doing in that parking lot the night of the wedding, because of theassholethat now broke them up, had cost him two years from being with her. And now he may’ve cost them everything. The very thought had him cursing under his breath. He paced around that parking lot for a few minutes debating on whether he should just block her ass again or call her like his sister was insisting. Two steps from blocking her again as he tapped away on his phone, the visual of seeing those beautiful,painedeyes that last time at school, assaulted him.
Without another thought he hit send on the contact he was about to block. Two rings later, she answered but he heard nothing. “Xochitl?”
“Uh, hmm?”
His weak heart nearly stopped. “Are you crying?”
More silence, before hearing her take a deep breath. “A little.”
“Why?”
He heard her sniffle. “Hearing your voice . . .”
Panicking for a moment, even as his heart ached hearing her so broken up, he was having visuals of her crying at her family’s holiday gathering and everyone witnessing it. “Where are your parents right now?”
“In the Bahamas.”
Freezing the frantic pacing he’d been doing in the parking lot, he was stunned for a moment. “What?” Lex listened to her blubber away about how her parents had always wanted to take a Thanksgiving cruise but always felt too guilty.
“Now that they knew both Izel and me were in serious relationships who we could each spend the holiday with, they went for it. Life’s too short, right? I didn’t want to make Izel feel guilty since Josh’s family is having a big thing over at their place. I just didn’t tell him we’d broken up, and he thinks I’m in La Jolla with you.”
“You’re home alone tonight?”
“Well.” It was unbelievable how that word could make him soinsane. “I still had a lot to pack, and I knew you’d be home with your family. So, I’m at the dorm still finishing all my packing up. This way you don’t have to be bothered with me having to come back to pick up anything later.”
“You’re all alone? Thanksgiving night?”
“Yes.” Her voice gave again, and she was quiet for a moment too long before he heard her inhale and sniff a few times and then speak again. “It’s not like I have much of an appetite anyway. I only answered because Vannah begged me to.” She went silent again as Lex tried to compose himself and swallow back the emotion he was now feeling too. “I’m so sorry I destroyed us. I love you so much, Lex, but hearing your voice”—she sniffed a few more times before squeaking out the rest— “is destroying me.”
The line clicked and in the next instant he was running back into the restaurant, feeling like a madman. For once, he was thankful to have such a ridiculously big family. The second he found Gordo, he pulled him aside. “I need a favor.”
