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“Jean…” Alexa’s dad looked at her. “Now you’ve done it.”
Alexa could only assume her mom had passed along every word of their conversation about Nick over lunch all those weeks ago. Her parents were best friends. They didn’t keep secrets from each other, and Alexa knew better than to ask her mom to keep anything from her dad.
She took another bite of the pie to give her more time to decide how much she wanted to say, then took her time chewing. “It’s… complicated.”
“Because of the accident?” her mom asked.
During their previous conversation about Nick, Alexa had confided her deepest fear: that Nick wouldn’t want to be with her once he knew she couldn’t have children, or worse, that he would feel too guilty to be honest about not wanting to be with her and would decide to stick around and be a martyr.
“That’s part of it.” Alexa hesitated. “To be honest, there’s also a work conflict.”
Her dad lifted his bushy eyebrows. “Something that could get you in trouble?”
“Potentially,” Alexa said.
Furrows of concern appeared in her dad’s forehead. “That doesn’t sound good for you, honey.”
She thought about it, then decided to go with honesty. “It might not be good for him either.”
“Does he work in your office?” her mom asked.
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Come on, Lex. What’s going on?” her mom asked.
“I can’t say too much,” Alexa said. “Let’s just say his company has been of interest to the AG’s office for the past few months.”
“Oh, no…” her mom said. “Lex!”
“I know it’s a bad idea,” Alexa said, rising to her feet. She headed for the kitchen with her pie. “I don’t need you to make me feel worse about it.”
Her mom crossed the great room into the kitchen. “I’m not judging you.”
Alexa scraped her pie into the trash can. “What do you call it?”
“Your mother is just worried about you,” her dad said from the living room. “It doesn’t sound unreasonable given the circumstances.”
Alexa set her empty plate on the counter and exhaled all her anger. She could count on one hand the number of fights she’d had with her parents since she’d been an adult. They were her best friends, and she didn’t want to argue with them about Nick.
About anything.
“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Her mom shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize. It sounds like a stressful situation.”
“It is,” Alexa said. “And the thing is…” She stopped, not sure if she should say the thing that had been weighing on her heart since Havana, since even before Havana.
“The thing is?” Her mom’s blue eyes shone with concern.
“I think it might be too late,” Alexa said. “I might already be in too deep to get out without any collateral damage.”
“To you?” her mom asked.
“To both of us,” Alexa said.
“Should you tell Imani?” her dad asked, joining them in the kitchen.
“I’m not sure,” Alexa said. “The lines are… blurry.”
