Lex (Unconventional Hearts) (50 page)

Me:
Are you sure??????

“Angel, let’s go inside.” Gage sternly
orders, his hand resting on the nob of his father’s white farmhouse
door.

We’ve taken twenty minutes to make it to the
front door from Gage’s truck. Good thing he drove because I
wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t. I would have taken off like
a bat outa hell and never looked back. I’m so nervous I could puke.
It’s not every day you get to be formally introduced to your
boyfriend’s entire family. My family is small, consists of Roni, my
mom, Lincoln, and that’s it. Gage has a brother and a sister who’s
married and has two kids. Then you have his dad and Chelsea, his
wife. That he basically cradle robbed in order to marry.

The front door opens, breaking Gage of his
grip on the nob. Tasha wearing a spicy burnt orange dress hugging
her stunning curvaceous body takes up the doorframe. Instantly
spotting me on the stoop, her hand reaches out for me.

“Lex, girlfriend, get your ass in this house.
I need help cooking and I want to hear all about this weekend Gage
is raving about.”

I reach out and take her hand. Gage audibly
releases a long sigh. “Thank God.” He mutters under his breath and
I stick my tongue out at him.

Shrugging he asks, “What? It took an hour to
pick out your dress today, Angel, then another fifteen minutes to
get you into the truck. We get here and I’ve got to basically pry
your fingers from the door handle to get you this far. If I had
known Tasha was a master negotiator, I would have called in for
backup long before this.”

Hardy-har-har-har smart-alec. I can’t help
that I’m a bundle of nerves. Tasha is the only one I am familiar
with because we’ve exchanged a few texts over the past week or two,
mainly stuff pertaining to Emma. Although it’s been nice conversing
with another female, and one who is actually feminine, unlike my
wonderful best friend who thinks Manolo Blahnik is a city in South
Africa, not the name of a famous designer brand.

Pulling me up the steps, I lean over and peck
my handsome boyfriend on the chin before Tasha drags me into the
house. Gage, right on our heels, shuts the door. I don’t have a
moment to breathe as Tasha whisks me into the small kitchen at the
back of the house. A dog brushes up against my calves and I grin,
bending down I pet the dog, I know as Babs.

“Hey there girl. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
I run my hand down Babs’s back, and she leans into me, obviously
liking the attention.

“Lex!” I hear my princess call, and I glance
up to see her entering the house from a back screen door, a giant
smile plastered on her face as she excitedly comes running at me.
Throwing her arms around my neck, I laugh. Wrapping one arm around
her back and one on her legs, I hoist her up into my arms, securing
her legs around my hip, bringing her face-to-face with me.

“Hello, Princess.” I kiss her cheek.

“Daddy said you’d be here.”

Gage strolls into the plain, light blue
walled country kitchen, looking mighty fine in his low slung
designer jeans, and a long-sleeved royal blue button-down shirt,
rolled up his tattooed forearms. “She almost didn’t come in.”

Emma innocently questions, “Why?”

“I was nervous.”

“There’s nothing to be nervous about.”
Another husky, masculine voice explains, as he too enters the
kitchen. Crowding the already small space even further, walking a
few steps closer, the man I’ve never officially met. Who I
recognize as Gage’s brother Maxwell, extends his hand in greeting.
“It’s a pleasure, Lex. I’m Max, Gage’s, older, unattached,
brother.”

No sooner does his greeting pass his lips
when a hand suddenly blurs by my line of sight, landing loudly on
the back of Max’s head and he scowls. “What the hell was that for
Tasha?”

“Unattached brother? She’s not single, stop
flirting.” Tasha chastises and Max retracts his hand before I get a
chance to shake it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gage, his
jaw is tight as a vice, and the veins in his long strong neck are
bulging. Guess this isn’t a happy meeting after all. Confirming why
I shouldn’t have come in the first place.

“Emma, darling, go play with the boys and
Daddy, and
Daddy,
go play with your daughter. Lex and I need
some girl time.” Tasha orders, taking Emma out of my arms and
sweetly putting her down. “Now shoo, all of you. We have some
cooking to do.” She pushes them all out of the kitchen with her
hands and I watch Gage leave. Passing by him on her own way into
the kitchen, Chelsea blatantly checks him out, even turning her
head to watch him walk away, her eyes landing on his firm ass.
Making me want to claw her damn eyes out for basically undressing
him in her mind. What. A. Bitch!

With a snarky smile, the woman I know as
Chelsea that I have officially decided I already hate, comes into
the kitchen and walks over to the fridge. A hand smacks my arm and
I break my fixed stare on my nemesis, and turn to face Tasha.

“We will discuss
that
little issue
later.” Tasha raises a brow pointing her eyes to the now closing
refrigerator door. At the mildly attractive blonde woman, carrying
a tray full of cheese in her hands and a bottle of water tucked
under her arm.

“Henry’s hungry, I’ll be back to help you
cook in a moment.” Chelsea speaks to Tasha, ignoring me completely.
Like me being in the same room with her, breathing the same air,
agitates her.

Good! The only reason she’d feel that way
about me, without even knowing me, is for one simple reason. She
wants what is mine, aka, Gage Masterson. For the first time in my
life, I’m sublimely happy to be angering a woman for having
something she can’t. The satisfaction is indulgently sweet. I
realize it’s messed up to feel this way. However, I frankly don’t
care. I didn’t start it. She did. Now, like the crafty business
woman I am. I’m going to finish it. Or in this case, flaunt it,
until it drives her mad and she either stops drooling over my
boyfriend or she confronts me about it. One of the two is bound to
happen sooner or later and I’ve got an entire lifetime to have my
fun with this. It’s better than the alternative, where I stress
about it and drown myself in jealousy. Knowing women frequently
throw themselves at the mercy of Gage isn’t really surprising. He’s
powerful, ungodly sexy and caring to a fault. All attributes that
makes him addicting like honey and women the persistent bees. The
main difference in this situation is, I’m the owner of that said
honey and I’m more than willing to fumigate the irreverent pests
away, in one form or another. It’s great having this sort of power,
knowing full and well that your honey is staying right where he is.
With me, loving me, as I will do the same by loving him forever in
return. I finally something in my life worth fighting for, Emma and
Gage, they aren’t in my world, they
are
my world. Never
thought I’d hear myself say that about anybody.

“Lex, can you slice some strawberries for the
salad while I prepare the chicken?” Tasha asks, helpfully clearing
my thoughts of Chelsea. I needed that.

“Thanks.” I pat her arm, as I walk past her
to the sink where the strawberries are sitting, still in their
container.

The nice thing about this kitchen is, there
are no doors on the cupboards, it’s an open farm feel. Leaving you
able to view all of the utensils and cookware in a single glance. I
spot a colander next to a set of plastic Tupperware containers, and
I put it in the sink.

“Thanks for what?” Tasha questions, looking
down at the chicken breasts she’s smothering in some sort of dry
rub.

“Breaking me from my not so pleasant
thoughts.”

“Ahhhh…of
her
.”

“Yes.” I nod, opening the container of
strawberries and dropping them into the colander, turning on the
water cold, and stealing a paring knife from the knife block, that
rests on the counter only an arm’s length away. Let’s see if I can
cut the greens from the tops without cutting my finger off.

“Her…who?” Chelsea presses, announcing her
unwelcomed arrival into the kitchen once more.

She heads back to the fridge and I zip my
lip, refusing to answer her question.

“Emma.” Tasha blurts, “But… I was just about
to ask Lex about her weekend.”

Chelsea grumbles, “Ok.”

“Gage said you had a family outing on Friday
night, with Emma.” Tasha speaks.

“We did! Daddy took me and Lex to the
movies.” Emma cuts in, nearly scaring the pee out of me. Both Tasha
and I look over our shoulders, to see my little princess standing
just inside the entrance to the kitchen, nervously wringing her
hands in front of her yellow dress.

Tasha teases, “I thought I told you to go
play.”

“I was sent to grab Daddy a water from the
fridge. He didn’t want to get… Hummm… how did he say it? I think he
said, ‘I don’t want Tasha to end up putting a boot up my butt.’
Silly Daddy,” Emma giggles, slapping her leg, like it’s the
funniest thing she’s ever heard. “I don’t know how you’d do that,
Auntie. You don’t even wear boots.”

Tasha and I briefly meet eyes and break into
a fit of laughter. While Chelsea who is working on the stove,
remains quiet.

Minutes pass and all of us are still
laughing, and then Tasha finally speaks. “Well, that Daddy of yours
sure is silly, but go ahead darlin’ and grab him a water.”

Emma goes to the fridge. I look back into the
sink and quickly slice off the top of a strawberry. “Here Emma.” I
hold out the freshly hulled fruit for her.

Shutting the fridge door, her eyes get huge,
almost drooling over the sight of the strawberry. Then she looks to
Tasha, like she’s silently asking permission to eat before its
dinnertime.

“Go on Emma, Lex cut a piece of fruit
just
for you.”

Not having to tell Emma twice she skips over
and smiles up at me, taking the fruit from between my fingers.
“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Princess. Now go play with
Daddy and tell him that Lex said, next time don’t let the princess
do the knights job.”

Giggling, Emma skips out of the kitchen,
nibbling on her strawberry. Like it’s the most amazing thing, she’s
ever tasted.

Once I can no longer see her, when she
disappears into another room, I turn back around to resume my work,
hulling the carton of strawberries.

“So… Friday?” Tasha questions.

Busy, carefully working the knife, I reply.
“We went to see a cartoon with Emma. We took her to dinner at Pizza
Hut, where she got so messy with pizza sauce we missed the early
showing of the movie because we had to go home to change her.”

“Whose home?” Tasha asks.

“Gage’s apartment. I got a brief tour for the
first time. Not much to look at.”

“Oh I know. You look at the way my brother
dresses and carries himself and you’d swear he lives in some art
deco mansion with a butler.”

I chortle, “Yeah that sounds about
right.”

Gage’s apartment is basic, two bedroom, plain
brown carpet, no frills, white walls, boxes still packed in the
corner of his bedroom. It’s rather depressing if you ask me.

“How’d the movie go? Emma like it?”

“She seemed to. On the way back to my place
she fell asleep in the truck.”

“They both stay at your house?”

“Since Friday night they have. Gage made up
an overnight bag for them both before we went to the movie. It’s
been a great weekend having them at the house. Plus, Roni gets to
have a few encounters with Emma before she has a baby.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot, you were saying something
about that last week when I texted you.” Tasha explains, leaving to
do something else in the kitchen. Chelsea is still cooking but
hasn’t made a noise, not that you hear me complaining.

I finish with the hulling and Tasha drops a
white cutting board on the counter beside me. “Slice them,
please.”

“No problem.” I lift one at time out of the
colander in the sink and slice them. I’m slow. So sue me.

“Now, what else happened Friday night?”

Fishing Tasha, you dirty dog. I can’t very
well tell her about our hot and heavy night with Chelsea in the
room, or can I? I’m quite brazen today. I’m even contemplating,
telling Tasha about Friday night. Well that’s one thought I would
have normally shot down immediately. Although Tasha has that one
effect on me, that Gage has. The ability to trust her and confide
in her is similar to how I feel about Roni, in a different way
though. With Roni, I don’t know why but I feel weird telling her
about my hot moments. Mainly because she is a freak beneath the
sheets and I’m not, well not completely anyhow.

“What do you want to know?” I ask, pulling a
small bowl from the cupboard right in front of me and scooping up
the three strawberries I’ve just sliced and placing them
inside.

“What happened
after
she went to
bed?”

“Didn’t Gage already tell you we’ve well…you
know?”

“Yes, of course he did. I’m a nosey sister
and I’m the one who helped him with the rooftop idea. Not sure if
Gage has admitted this to you yet, but he and I text constantly
throughout the day. I work as the secretary to one of the other two
law firm branches he owns. So it’s not always personal, it’s
sometimes work related. He’s sort of my boss, although I don’t tell
him that or treat him that way. God knows he’s got a big enough ego
as it is.”

I laugh. She’s right, Gage is fully aware of
his attributes. Gage is too confident and sometimes cocky not to
know those things about himself. It’s nice to know his sister
doesn’t fawn over him like everybody else seems to. I really admire
that about Tasha. If I could somehow mellow my drooling over the
gorgeous hunk, I would. It’s impossible though.

“Gage does have a big head.” I agree,
smirking as I keep my attention on my singular and rather simple
kitchen task that will probably take me another five years to
complete.