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She didn’t care.
Still . . . there was a little irrational part of her that would have liked to see him again. Maybe have dinner and show him she wasn’t a crazy person. Maybe impress him with her real life. She could take him to a hockey game and to meet her dad afterward. She’d been under the impression that he didn’t have a favorable view of her father, but every man she’d introduced to her dad had loved meeting John “The Wall” Kowalsky.
“I think you ran even faster than last time in those shoes. I thought the KIRO reporter and her cameraman were going to tackle you, for sure,” Marie said.
Lexie thought so, too, and had practically felt their breath on the back of her neck. She turned and looked out the back window. “I don’t see anyone following us now. I think we lost them, Thelma.”
“You’re Thelma. I’m Louise.”
For as long as they’d been friends, they’d had an ongoing argument over which character resembled them most in BFF movies. Everyone knew that Thelma got to do Brad Pitt in a dumpy hotel in Oklahoma. Wow. She really was Thelma today. She’d had sex with a man who was a virtual stranger. Sean had vanished like Brad Pitt, too. Of course, Sean hadn’t stolen her money or anything else.
“You know I’m saving myself for Chris Pine,” Marie said as she merged onto I–5.
Then Marie would have loved Sean Brown, Lexie thought as her friend sandwiched the MINI Cooper between an Amazon Prime semi and an ARCO tanker truck. “Your driving is giving me anxiety, Louise.”
“Do you want me to let you out on the side of the interstate? I’m sure someone will pick you up sooner or later.” Marie glanced at her, then back at the road. “Maybe not with that hair, though.”
A scowl pulled at Lexie’s brows and she folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Funny. Just take me to my apartment.”
“You can’t go back to your apartment. I’m sure it’s surrounded by now.” Then Marie said the dreaded inevitable. “You have to go to your parents’.”
It made sense. Her parents lived in a gated neighborhood on Mercer Island. She had no choice, but she hated the idea of running home, and she wasn’t looking forward to the interrogation that waited for her when she stepped foot inside.
Lucky for her, when she walked inside her parents’ house, no human was there to greet her. “Where’s my baby?” she called out. She heard yips from the vicinity of her parents’ room, then Yum Yum rounded the corner wearing a cable knit hoodie from the Erin-Go-Aw sweater collection. As always when she saw her dog, her heart turned mushy. “There you are!” She kicked off her shoes, sank to her knees, and scooped up the hairless dog. “Mommy missed you.” Yum Yum’s body shook with excitement and her black tongue darted out and licked Lexie’s face. “Have you been a good girl?” she asked as she rose to her feet and headed down the hall.
Lexie knew her dad was in Pittsburgh, and she figured her mother was at work at her television studio in Tacoma. Her younger brother, Jon Jon, was probably at school. Like a convict with a get-out-of-jail-free card, she felt a slight reprieve from the disappointment she would surely see in her mother’s eyes. With her dog cradled in her arms, she walked into her old bedroom, now converted into a gift-wrap center filled with bright paper and shiny ribbon. Beside the door, she found her purse and the suitcases she’d left at the Fairmont.
Just last week she’d packed for her honeymoon in Acapulco. With one hand, she opened the biggest suitcase and dug past her baby doll chemise inside. She pushed aside her Mrs. Dalton silk robe and pulled out a clean pair of panties and matching bra. “You need a mud bath.” Her nose wrinkled and she set Yum Yum inside the open luggage. Like all hairless dogs, Yum Yum tended to smell like old corn chips if not given regular mud baths with mineral conditioners to clean and hydrate her skin.
In anticipation of her tropical honeymoon, she’d packed sundresses, bikinis, and shorts. She pulled out her blue dress and didn’t want to think about where she’d be at that exact moment if she hadn’t called off the wedding. She didn’t want to think of the people she’d hurt, especially Pete. He didn’t deserve the humiliation of getting left at the altar on national TV.
In the bottom of her purse, she found her phone. It still had half a charge, and she’d rather poke out an eye than make the call, but it was the right thing to do because she needed to:
Take responsibility.
Stop running.
Make amends to those she’d hurt.
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as the phone rang.
“Lexie?”
“Hi, Pete.” Uncomfortable silence filled her ear, stretching until she said, “I’m sorry.”
“What happened?”
“I thought you should marry someone who’s in love with you.” Again silence. “I never wanted to hurt you. I just didn’t know how else to stop it.”
“You could have said something.” His voice grew tight with anger. “Instead of running out on me.” He had a right to his anger, but marrying him would have been wrong for both of them.
“I know. I feel really bad. Saying I’m sorry doesn’t make up for it.”
“You’re right.”
“We don’t really even know each other,” she reasoned. “We can’t possibly be in love, at least not the kind tha
t sustains a marriage for any length of time. We were just caught up in the excitement of the show. I hope we can both move on from this.” She blew out a breath as more silence stretched between them. “Maybe something positive can come from the experience. Maybe in time—”
