Looking Out for Lexy (14 page)

They would have to make plans for another day.

Fifteen

              Lexy stepped out of the taxi, shoving a few bills through the window, and running for the back door at the same time.  To top off the weekend it was raining.  Rushing into the house, throwing her drenched coat on a kitchen chair, she slipped into the living room.  Hair dripping from the rain, Lexy sat down momentarily on her big, emerald overstuffed sofa without unpacking. 

             
Raising herself up wearily, she padded into the bedroom.  Grabbing a towel to dry her hair, she gathered it back up in a ponytail.  Slipping on a mint green sweater and jeans, she went back into the living room, turning on her Christmas tree.  The soft, multi-colored glow always made her feel better.

             
As a child Lexy would sneak downstairs early in the morning just before the sun was coming up and turn on the tree lights.  Spellbound, the little girl would sit and watch the tree in wonder.  It always brought her peace. 

             
Lexy sat down again and gazed at the lights on the tree.  There would be no peace this night.  She didn’t even have the strength to get up again and call April to let her and the kids know she was home.  Besides, she needed to pull herself together before confronting anyone.  They would want to know why she was home a day early.  Pulling her knees up against her chest, Lexy rested her chin against them. 

             
What a stupid fool she had been !
 
Maybe she should’ve stayed around to hear Jack's explanation.  What a good one that would have been! She felt like such an idiot. Wasn’t that just like her to go traipsing off on a
junket not really knowing anything about him.
One more for the leap before you look case file on Lexy Kane! 

             
She lay down, her head aching, and closed her eyes.  This was the time that unbidden painful memories of Tom and what had gone wrong always seemed to invade her mind.  Lexy had been dating him off and on through high school. Tom Kane was tall and very good looking.  His cornflower blue eyes and light brown hair had attracted the girls like bees to honey.  He was supposed to be Lexy's steady; except when he was with someone else.  Lexy was caught in a seemingly endless triangle.  Until Jack Wyatt, ultimate rebel without a cause had come to town.  After Jack, the relationship with Tom had ended.  He hadn't taken it too well.

             
  The night Tom had separated her from Jack, drunk and out of control, he'd taken Lexy to a lonely place outside the city, nearly forcing her to have sex with him.  She'd managed to fend off his advances, and he hadn't remembered much the next day.  When she'd found out she was pregnant that summer, Tom had offered to marry her, thinking he was the one who'd gotten her that way. 

             
Lexy had waited for Jack, but he never came back for her as he'd promised he would.  She had no choice.  When Ryan was born, she had no doubt as to who the father was.  Lexy often wondered if Tom knew that Ryan wasn't his.              

             
They had eventually moved to Milwaukee when Tom had been offered a better job.  Even then, Tom had continued to drink and party with his buddies in Racine, leaving Lexy alone with the kids most of the time.  More often than not, after a night with his single buddies, he'd come home and start in on her.  At first it was just verbal abuse.  It had not take long for the bruises to appear.  Later on it was a broken finger or a fractured rib. 

 
              The only good thing that had come from the marriage was the birth of her second child, Jesse. 

             
Lexy often dreamed what it would be like to really be loved.  She often thought of Jack then.  He had seemed to understand what love was.  He'd treated her with respect.  Like a lady.  Even when he hadn't returned, she'd always felt in her heart that he hadn't forgotten her.  He just hadn't been ready to love.

             
As the years dragged on, Lexy got tired of the fights and the abuse.   She’d withdrawn from almost everyone. Her work with the homeless became the only bright spot in her life, besides her children.  

             
Then, as her two children had gotten older, they too were on the receiving end occasionally.  Especially Ryan.  No one was good enough for her husband.  Tom had to have control.  And she’d almost let him. 

              Finally, Lexy decided enough was enough. With help and encouragement from her friend April, she’d filed for divorce.  She’d been terrified that he would hurt her physically, but he’d just stared at her when the papers were served.  (Of course the police had been there.)  Lexy thought she could actually see the relief in his eyes.  He'd left quietly. 

             
Making love had not been a part of her life for a long time until Jack.
Being with him again had made her remember.  Everything.  Lexy shivered, opening her eyes as she came back to the present.  A matter of a few minutes had passed and she’d remembered those days as vividly as if it had been the night before. It amazed her how much she could remember in the space of a few seconds.  And now she would have to start over again. 

             
The small, bedraggled woman lost in the massive couch, didn’t see much hope for the future in that department after today.  She squeezed back the hot tears that were starting to brim in her eyes.  Lexy was a first class romantic.  She'd always believed that to make love, one needed to be in love.  Right now that situation just didn’t seem to be in the cards.  Closing her eyes, tears collecting on her cheeks, Lexy slowly drifted in and out of  sleep.
 

             
The phone was ringing in her fitful dreams.  It kept on ringing until Lexy realized she had fallen asleep on the sofa and the ringing was real.  What time was it anyway?  Jiltingly, she made her way to the phone vaguely wondering who would be calling.  No one knew she was home.  Lexy glanced at the clock as she fumbled for the telephone.  It was 9:30 p.m.  She must have dozed off for a couple of hours.  Jet lag!

    
              “Hello,”  she mumbled into the receiver, her head still not clear of sleepiness.

    
              “Lexy?”

    
              “Yes, who’s calling?”  Her mind was still foggy.

             
“It’s me, Jack.  Don’t hang up on me till you hear what I have to say, Lexy.”  He hesitated.  “Please.”

   
              “You have a lot of nerve calling me.  Why should I listen to anything that you have to say, you...you womanizer!  Gina told me about you and her.  How does it feel to be with two women in one week, or is the number higher?  I really made a fool out of myself didn’t I
Mr.
Wyatt?  Well, I guess you can add me to your latest list of conquests now.  I can’t believe how easy I was?”  Lexy was wide awake now and as mad as a wet hen.

    
              “Lexy.  You were never easy, and you aren’t now.  I need to talk to you and I won’t take no for an answer!”  His voice was tight with emotion.                She could almost feel those sexy dark eyes of his staring at her through the phone.  “I think enough has already been said.  You don’t owe me anything, Jack, just because we were lovers once.”  Lexy spoke quietly in that low contralto voice that nearly drove him to distraction.               

             
“But, you could have at least had the decency to use different lines on me.  Your current girlfriend could have been in the room with us when you...you almost made love to me.  She could tell me everything you said to me almost verbatim as I so willingly fell for your charms...again.  You are really very good, Mr. Wyatt.  I can personally attest to that.”

    
              “I’ll be there in ten minutes, Lexy.  I’m here at the airport now.”  The tension in his voice resonated through the telephone wires.  Lexy swore she could feel it touch her fingertips as she gripped the phone.

    
              “Wait, wait, here?  You mean here, as in Milwaukee, here?  Jack?  Jack?”  Lexy was incredulous, but he had already hung up.  Lexy stared at the receiver in her hand.

             
The nerve!  Coming after her just like that!  Hadn’t he gotten enough of her in a few hours?   Well, she would be ready for him.  He didn’t  know what ice could  be, but Jack Wyatt would soon find out!  Lexy glanced around the festive room.  She would not let him see that she was a sentimental fool either.  The Christmas tree lights went out.

Sixteen

              Lexy jumped as the phone next to her bed jingled.  She had been nervous all morning waiting for Jack to call.  “Hello.”

             
“Hey Lex, it’s me, Jack.  So, can you get away for a few hours?”  He had such a sexy, deep voice over the phone.  The cherry-haired beauty shivered in spite of herself.  She wanted to be with him so badly.

             
“Hey Jack.  I have some not so great news.  I have to go to a barbeque with my parents today so I can’t go riding with you.  I’d so much rather be with you than go to a stupid cook out.  I’ll be bored to death.”  The thought of having to spend time with Tom made her stomach roil.

             
“Oh.  Ok then.  Maybe we can slip in some time tonight.  I know it’s Sunday and you probably can’t stay out too late, but maybe we could meet and go for a walk or something after you get home.”  Jack was disappointed.  She could tell.

             
“I think I can manage that.  Give me your phone number and I’ll call when I get home.  As long as I’m not out past 9:30, they won’t care.  Especially if I tell them I’m meeting my girlfriends.”

             
There was a deafening silence.  Finally, “I see.  Things must not have gone too well last night.”

             
“They were drunk and I couldn’t really talk with them about you.”  She didn’t want to talk to him over the phone about the situation.  “We’ll talk about it tonight, ok?”

             
“I guess so.  Call when you get home.  Talk with you then.”

             
“Jack, I’m really looking forward to seeing you.  I’m sorry about meeting the friends thing.  It will just make things easier for now.  Call you later?”  Lexy hated this.  It wasn’t right that she couldn’t be with the person she truly wanted to be with.  Parental obligations sucked.  But, in spite of everything she loved her mom and dad, and didn’t want to disappoint them.  Lexy saw
that
coming soon enough.

             
“Talk with you later Lex.”  The tall, chestnut-haired youth set the phone back in the cradle.  It was gonna be a long afternoon until he could see the girl of his dreams again.

Seventeen

             
She leaped up as the front door bell rang.  Lexy looked at the door as the ringing persisted.  Then, a voice in a low, but deadly tone told her to let him in, or she would be replacing her door.  With an elegance and grace she didn’t feel, Lexy opened the door. 

             
Jack stood there shivering, all six foot-one of him.  Shaking the rain from his hair, he stepped inside.  Lexy swore he looked like a Greek god with that mass of wet, dark hair falling in his face.  Not giving her a chance to say a word, he caught her in his arms and kissed her hungrily.  “Lexy, Lexy.”  He whispered tenderly as she melted into his arms.

             
God, she tasted good!  Jack couldn’t believe how he’d hungered for her kiss those few hours they’d been apart.  These were not normal emotions he was feeling.  At least not his normal emotions.

             
Lexy broke the kiss, struggling to get away, but his arms held her so tight she could barely breathe.  When he finally released her she took a step back to catch her breath.  He just couldn’t do this to her!  Especially when he said her name like it was the only one in the world.

    
              “Where is your bedroom?”  He started in the right direction.

   
              “What do you think you’re doing?  Where do you think you’re going?  Jack.  I thought you wanted to talk!” 

             
Lexy followed him, still trying to catch her breath from that kiss.  Jack walked into her bedroom and spied her bags.