Page 24 of Thank you, Next
He’d been so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed Lexi moving across the room to stand in front of him. He started when she waved her hand across his face. “She needs to know the answer.”
“What answer?” Will sometimes didn’t know what Lexi was talking about, but she usually had a point. He just had to wait for the point to come out. Or sometimes he had to tease it out. “The only answer she’s going to get is to date better people.”
Lexi clapped her hands together and threw her head back. “He finally gets it.”
“You know that I’m not better people, don’t you?” Will didn’t know why Lexi was so interested in beating this particular dead horse, but she didn’t know what she was asking for. After how things had gone down with Alex, he wouldn’t even merit forgiveness, much less a chance at proving to Alex that love was worth the risk with the right person.
And he believed that, even after his divorce, mostly because of the woman standing in front of him.
“I know you don’t think that you and Alex are destined to be together, and she agrees. But you’re both very, very wrong.” Lexi sounded so certain of this.
“If we were going to get together, it would have happened by now. Alex would have realized that none of those guys she’s dated are right for her.” Before Lexi could say that he was right for Alex, he said, “And I wouldn’t have gotten married to someone else. We’ve spent enough time together to make things happen if they were going to happen.”
Lexi looked at him for a long moment, with a brow as furrowed as it could get with the amount of Botox in it, before asking, “Have you ever had sex with my granddaughter?”
Will rocked back on his heels. “No.”
“But you’ve definitely thought about it.” That wasn’t a question.
“Why do you care whether I’ve thought about sex with Alex?” He could barely get “sex” out when talking about doing it with Alex. In a conversation with Lexi. “She discards men after she has sex with them.” The way to Alex Turner’s heart was not through her vagina.
“But that’s because she dates discardable men.” Lexi finally backed off, knowing that she’d gotten to him on some level. “Like the producer.”
When Will growled despite his best efforts not to, Lexi shrugged. “He’s not a bad guy.”
Will could admit to himself that his view of Andrew was colored by the fact that he’d dated Alex, but he wouldn’t admit it aloud right now. “You need to talk to her.” Will knew that Lexi was the only person Alex would listen to. If he told her to cut it out, she would blow him off. She would continue with this cockamamie plan just to spite him.
“If you think she’ll listen to the old lady who keeps on getting married, you have another think coming.”
“She’s so stubborn.”
“Comes by it honestly.” Will didn’t know whether Lexi was referring to herself or Alex’s mother. All Alex’s foremothers had a stubborn streak a mile long. Lexi put her hand on his chest affectionately. “You have such a big heart, Will. And I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have feelings for Alex. Why aren’t you going after her?”
“I can’t lose you.” Will had never articulated to Lexi the real reason why he would never cross that line with Alex. “When things don’t work out, she’ll still have you.” And Will wouldn’t have anyone.
Lexi put her hand on the side of his face. “You will always have me.” Then, she smirked. “Well, not always. I have standing plans to get lucky every Wednesday night, and I’ll pass away eventually.”
“Don’t talk about that, Lexi. It’s morbid.”
“It’s the truth.” She waved a hand in his face. “I’m getting better at telling the truth in my old age. At your age, you should at least not be lying to yourself.”
“I’m not lying to myself about anything.” Will was getting frustrated. “It would never work with me and Alex.”
“So you keep saying.” Lexi never gave up that easily, so Will girded his loins for more. “But if you two didn’t have anything—if you didn’t have a thing from when you first met here—you wouldn’t care how many of her ex-boyfriends she was talking to.”
“I don’t care that she’s talking to her exes.”
“But you do care that they might get to talking, and talking might lead them to remembering that she’s very beautiful and brilliant and that her tongue is sharp. Then they’ll remember how she runs hot and cold, but how she runs hot in a good way, in certain respects. And maybe Alex will remember that it’s sometimes nice to have a man around.” Lexi walked over to the bar, heedless that it was noon. “And you’ll feel really horrible then, because you will have lost your chance again.”
“That’s not what this is at all.” Will wasn’t that stupid. Even if he did have a thing for Alex, which he didn’t, Alex would never, ever give him a shot. “It’s too late. And I didn’t come here for you to lecture me about my nonexistent feelings for Alex. I came here to tell you what she was doing so that you could talk some sense into her.”
“I’m not going to talk her out of going on this journey.”
“It’s not a journey. It’s a mental breakdown.”
“Hardly. I’ve been waiting for her to have a mental breakdown for years. She’s so wound up and doesn’t know how to relax. This is far too reasonable and proactive to be a real mental breakdown.”
“So what do I do?”