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Shaking off the similarities between them, Lexi turned from Parker and sauntered across the busy restaurant, out the door, and to Ramsey waiting patiently in his Mercedes. The drive back to his place was surprisingly short even with the dead quiet in the car. Lexi took a seat on his comfortable leather sofa when they arrived back at his place, waited for him to take a seat in an opposing chair, and then stared intently into his face.
"Are you going to tell me about this new business venture?" she questioned him clasping her hands together to keep from tucking her hair behind her ear habitually.
"I..yeah," he said leaning forward in the chair and resting his elbows on his knees. "I don't know where to start."
"How about from the beginning? Or with the truth," she muttered her gaze piercing through him.
"The truth right," he said nodding to himself. "Well, the medical wing of Bridges Enterprise has been something that I've been hearing about since I was in diapers."
Lexi's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Since you were a kid?"
"Yes," he told her. "It's my father's dream. It's the one thing he's always wanted to do with the company, but had never been able to." He paused before continuing.
"Well he seems to be getting his wish now doesn't he?"
"Let me tell the whole story," he cut in quickly. Lexi sat back further against the couch and waited. "My grandfather had four daughters and one son, and all he wanted was boys. It was really hushed up, but he more or less left his daughters with nothing when he died. He gave them enough to live on by all means, but my grandfather was old school," Ramsey grumbled. "He thought that a woman's worth came from her husband, and once she had a husband, she was no longer her father's problem," he said the word like it was the most disgustingly archaic thing he had ever discussed. Lexi listened absorbedly unsure of how this all fit together.
"Anyway, my father inherited practically everything plus the business and it's been his obsession ever since. In his eyes, he is still the son struggling to please his father by building up the business. And I swore I would never be like that."
"But you are now," Lexi mumbled under her breath.
"I…God I hope not," he said his green-gold eyes staring deeply into her own. She fidgeted and looked away from his penetrating gaze.
"What do you mean? You're the new vice president right?" she reminded him
"Yeah…no…yeah," he said arguing more with himself than anything.
"Then what are you doing? You said you didn't want to be like your father, yet here you are doing everything he's ever wanted you to do. You don't even want to do this," Lexi couldn't help stammering out.
"I'm going to try to answer all your questions, but let me back up first," he said running hand through his hair again. "From the beginning right?"
Lexi nodded slowly. She couldn't believe how uncomfortable and worried he looked. She had never really seen him quite like this. She knew that he wasn't a hundred percent confident about everything, but sometimes it felt like that. He exuded so much self-confidence that to find him in an uncomfortable state felt foreign to Lexi. It must have felt just as foreign to him by the way he kept readjusting his posture and pushing his hand through his short blonde hair.
"The medical wing was what he always thought would be the next best thing for the company," Ramsey began. "It made the company a full-service industry: lawyers, accountants, and doctors all under the same roof…metaphorically speaking. I thought he would just forget about it eventually, but it seemed to be something that faded with time and then rekindled almost without notice. I can't even tell you how many Club meetings I had been to where my father discussed this newest project with anyone who would listen. I'd actually heard some of his closest friends talking about how that project was never getting off the ground. It was hugely embarrassing." A blush crept up on his tan face as he remembered the incident.
"Well, when Parker told my father she was pre-med for the first time, I saw that light in his eyes that I'd seen before. And I was right. He badgered me about the new medical wing, that I was pretty certain would never exist, for the next couple years."
"But it is going to exist," Lexi said wanly.
"Yes," he said nodding.
"And with Parker?" she asked her brown eyes looking up at him sadly.
"Yes, but not for Parker."
Lexi shook her head side to side. "Then who is it for, because she's one of the few I can think that are benefiting from this."
"You," he said quickly. "It's for you."
"Me?" she asked a giggle escaping her. "Oh Ramsey you must be deluded to think that this is for me."
"Lexi, it is for you. I'm working to make things better for you," he said earnestly.
"How?" she demanded, standing. "By giving up the things you love? By making yourself miserable by being daddy's prodigal son? By working side by side with Parker every day? I'm sorry Ramsey, but these things don't make me happy. And you know what? You would know all of that if you had just bothered to ask me, if you had just bothered to include me in your plans."
"I know. I know. I should have included you, but I wasn't sure this was ever going to actually happen. We'd been planning around it yeah, but we'd been doing that for years. I never thought that everyone would buckle down and become serious about it when she showed back up," he said rising to his feet.
"Well they did and now what Ramsey? They've just announced that you guys are opening a new branch of your company. What are you going to do with the clubs? What are you going to do about…everything?" she ended lamely not wanting to bring up all the other things in his life that he would have rearrange with this new development.
"The clubs are taken care of. I'm handing everything over to Lola. She already knows."
He realized his mistake a little too late. "Wait," she said pointing her finger in his solid chest. "Lola knows about this? This is what she was talking about on Sunday about how you were making everything better for me. And Brad and Jason know too right? That's why they wouldn't say anything bad about you. They were insisting that they couldn't tell me why they had moved out, but that it was for me. Everyone knew," she breathed. "Everyone knew but me."
