Blazing the Trail (Sunshine & Shadow Book 5) (2 page)

“Is everything okay?”

April stood up and went
to put a pot of coffee on. She rubbed her neck; sleeping on the couch wasn’t
the best idea.

“Yeah, honey. Everything
is fine. I was just thinking about you, that’s all. And I wanted to tell you
that we love you.”

“That couldn’t have
waited until later?” April laughed. “No offense, dad. But I thought it was
gonna be something dire.”

“I guess my father’s intuition
was wrong.”

“What do you mean?” She
sat at the dining table, holding her cold glass of orange juice between her
hands.

“I just had a feeling
something was...not right, with you. But you seem fine. You’re okay, right?”

April took a deep breath.
She hated lying to her dad, but she knew he was protective, and she didn’t want
him to worry.

“I’m fine, dad,” she said.

She heard her dad sigh.
“Okay. Good. I just...wanted to check.”

“Thanks dad. I appreciate
it. How is...How is everything there?”

“Good,” her dad answered
gruffly. “The guys have started getting the horses back in shape before spring.
They’re enjoying themselves.”

April smiled, her eyes
filling with tears. She wiped them away, surprised at the reaction. “That’s
great, dad. And how’s...Kip? Does he still...hate me?”

Her dad paused. “No, he,
um...He actually brought a girl over for dinner the other night. Been seeing
quite a lot of her recently. She seems like a nice kid...Be good for him to
find someone to make him happy.”

“That’s great,” April
lied again. Her heart began to ache. She missed Blue Haven more than she had
allowed herself to admit. It hurt to think about everything she was giving up.
And for what? So that Lex could ignore her, and then stand her up? For the
first time since arriving back in L.A, April wondered if she had made the right
decision, or if she had chosen a path that would only lead to heartbreak and
disappointment.

“He misses you, though,”
April’s dad continued.

“He said that?”

“Well...no,” he said
slowly. “But I can tell.”

“Father’s intuition
again?”

“No, not this time.”

“Is he sad?” 

“No...He seems pretty
happy.”

“That’s good.” April bit
her lip.

“Hell, baby, I think I’m
the one who misses you the most. But...I know why you left. I know you had no
choice. I just...honey, we all really miss you, ‘is all.”

April’s eyes filled with
tears again. “I miss you guys too. More than you know.”

Her dad coughed into the
phone. “So how’re things with Lex? Is he still treating you right?”

Umm...
“Yes.”

“That’s good. And you
still like your job?”

“Yeah, it was nice to be
working with horses again. It just wasn’t the same in Seattle.”

“I could tell.”

“Father’s intuition
again, eh?”

“Don’t mock it!” Her dad
laughed.

“Never.”

“Movie’s over pretty
soon, yeah?”

“Actually it was last day
yesterday. Today’s the last day of the contract, but...Damian said they don’t
really need me there.” She coughed. “I have no idea what I’m gonna do now.”

“I’m sure Lex will figure
something out for ya, baby girl. Well, I’ll let you go back to sleep. Keep your
chin up, and remember we’re all here thinking about ‘ya. You can come home for
a visit anytime, too.”

“I know. Thanks for
calling, dad.”

“You’re welcome.”

April hung up the phone,
went to the bathroom and ran a brush through her hair. It was knotted, tangled,
and she winced as the bristles tore the hair out from the roots when she
tugged.

She looked at herself in
the mirror.

Her stomach tightened.
She almost didn’t recognize herself.

April inhaled, letting
the breath lift her shoulders. She checked her phone. No word from Lex. She
hoped everything was okay. What if he was hurt? Or stuck somewhere? Or sick?
She dialed his phone number and waited.

“Hi, you’ve reached Lex.
Leave me a message.”

“Hey...it’s April. I’m
just wondering what happened last night and...‘Just hoping you’re okay. Give me
a call. Thanks.”

She slid her phone into
her pocket and looked at herself in the mirror one more time.

“Screw this...” she said
out loud. “I have to know if he’s okay.”

She headed to the movie
lot, wondering if Lex would be too busy to speak to her, or if he was there at
all. Jumping out, she spotted Damian outside the barn with Benny, speaking to
an elderly man.

“April!” Damian said as
she approached them. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t stay away.
Love this place too much.” She smiled at the old man and help out her hand.
“Hi, I’m April Cooper.”

“Mr. Bradford,” Damian
said, “April was my assistant for the duration of this project. She’s got a
wonderful way with horses.”

The old man smiled a
greeting, took the rope from Damian and led the horse away.

April touched Damian’s
arm. “Do you know if Lex is here?”

“Yeah, he should be in
the studio, why?”

“I just...have to ask him
something.” April’s heartbeat slowed; at least she knew Lex was safe.

She took her time
wandering to the studio and stopped just outside the open doors. She could hear
Violet and Campbell inside. Poking her head around, she tapped on the door.

“April,” Campbell said.
“I didn’t know you were working today.”

April walked to them.
“I’m not. I, um...I’m looking for Lex. Is he here?”

“He was,” Campbell said. “He
left a short while ago.”

Violet narrowed her eyes
at April. “Why?”

“I just...wanted to ask
him something. I’ll...go, I guess.”

April retreated briskly,
spurred on by the intensity of Violet’s cold glare. She rushed to her car and
jumped in, slamming the door. There was only one other place Lex could be, and
that was at home. As she headed there, she thought about what she would say to
him. At least she knew Violet wouldn’t be there.

April’s car was
programmed to be allowed access to Lex’s gates and she entered without problem.
She drove up to the house and shut off the engine. She sighed; there was no
prolonging the inevitable.

The front door was open
slightly when she reached it. She knocked twice as she peeked her head around.
She couldn’t hear anything.

“Hello? Lex?” she called
out.

She quickly checked the
kitchen and found nobody. Wandering up the stairs, she heard voices coming from
Lex’s bedroom. She froze.

They were laughing.

April approached the
closed door and stopped with her hand an inch from the handle.

Maxwell barked from inside
the room. April jumped. She could hear the puppy scratching the door and
someone moved from the bed; she heard the slide of sheets.

“What is it, bud?” Lex
said.

Suddenly the door opened.
Lex, shirtless and disheveled, stood before her. Behind him, lounging on the
bed was a girl April didn’t recognize. She was smiling, dressed only in a pale
blue dress shirt with red tooling on the collar; Lex’s.

Lex pushed into April,
shutting the door behind them and buttoning his jeans.

“April, what are you doing
here?” he asked, trying to steer away from the bedroom.

“...Looking for you...”
April was in shock, her mind still spinning.

Lex couldn’t be cheating
on her. Lex loved her. He was...he was good. And...he was kind and...he loved
her. Right?

“You’re cheating on me?”
April asked. Her mouth was numb and didn’t want to work.

Lex darted into the
laundry room and returned, pulling a shirt over his head. “Technically,” he
said, “I cheated on Violet
with you
.”

April looked at him with
wide eyes. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She didn’t even recognize
the man before her. This cockiness, this demeanor, it wasn’t the Lex she knew.

“Come on,” Lex continued,
“Let’s get a drink and talk.”

“Talk? What’s there to
talk about? You lied to me! You’re cheating on me! You...” April’s eyes filled
with tears. “How could you do this to me?” she whispered. Her heart dropped
into her stomach and she gasped as the pain shot through her chest.

“Tell me it’s not true,”
she begged. “Tell me you didn’t do anything with that girl. Tell me you didn’t
lie to me. Please!”

Lex looked at the ground.
“I can’t do that.”

Tears began to fall down
April’s cheeks and she clenched her fists.

“This is the way it goes,
April. Did you really think I would just settle down and become a family man?”

April nodded slowly. “You
told me...you said you wanted to.”

“Well yeah, but everyone
says that.”

“No they don’t!”

“I don’t know why you’re
freaking out now, April. This is the way it’s always been.”

“I didn’t know that this
is the way it’s always been! How many of us are there? How many girls do you
have on a string, tugging them along while you pretend to be in love with
Violet? And what about Violet? And the baby? How could you do this to them?”

“
You
are one of
those girls. What about Violet? She was fine about you.”

“She wasn’t fine! She
doesn’t even know about us since the baby!”

“April, the baby’s not
even mine! It’s Cash’s! Jesus, calm down.”

April froze. Her heart
started to beat faster than she thought possible. She didn’t want to believe
her ears. She couldn’t believe that this man was truly Lex, because if he was,
she had been lied to for months. She had allowed herself to believe that she had
fallen in love with a genuine person. But this man was not genuine. He was a
liar, and a cheat and he was selfish. April angrily wiped the tears off her
cheeks.

“It was better for my
career if everyone thought the baby was mine, April. We were fine keeping
things secret before.”

“I didn’t know about the
other girls! I believed you when you told me you loved me!”

“Calm down,” Lex said,
forcefully.

“No! How dare you stand
there and tell me to calm down after everything you have done!”

“April, you’re being
unreasonable.”

“
I’m being
unreasonable?
You lied to me for months! You’ve been sleeping with who
knows how many other girls! I moved here because you told me you loved me and
that we would find a way to be together. You lied to my face, Lex. And...you always
will.”

“Will what?”

“You’ll always lie to me.
Won’t you?”

Lex looked at her and
frowned. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I want you to say no! I
want you to tell me that I’m wrong. But...you can’t do that.”

Lex sighed and shook his
head, closing his eyes. “No, I can’t.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“I had to keep everything
from you, April. It was necessary...It was for the best.”

“
For who
?”

“For...me.”

April nodded, feeling a
fresh wave of tears run down her face and over her lips. “It’s always gonna be
like that. You do things for
you
, not for me. Not for anyone. I didn’t
come here to be part of your
harem
.”

“I bought you a horse!”

“No, you bought me a distraction.
Keep the horse; he doesn’t truly belong to me, anyway.”

“I...I’ll buy you
anything you want! I do love you!”

She shook her head. “You
can’t buy someone, Lex.”

“I’m not...I’m...”

“Yes...you are. Love
doesn’t work like that. Throwing money at someone doesn’t make them love you
back. Love is about respect and appreciation.”

“I do respect you...I do
appreciate you!”

April closed her eyes. “But
I don’t respect you anymore. Because you lied to me. Because you cheated on me,
Lex.”

“But...I love you. I’ll
stop sleeping around. I really will.”

“You and I have different
ideas of what love means then. I can’t love you now.”

“How can you say that?”

“Love also means trust.
And I can’t trust you.”

“So what does that mean
for us?”

April shook her head
again. “There is no us anymore.”

“April, you can’t just
break up with me.”

She looked at him. “Why
not?”

“You...You’re serious?”

April nodded. She looked
at Lex. She had expected this. She had seen something like this coming. She
just hadn’t allowed herself to accept it. But now she was faced with the truth.
They were too different. And she had been foolish to think that they could work
as a couple. Their worlds could never mesh amicably. It wasn’t fair for either
for them to sacrifice what they would have to sacrifice to make the
relationship work.