Welcome to Paradise

  With a sad nod, Lexie leaned up on her tiptoes and brushed her lips over his cheek. Then she let out a breath of her own and walked out of the room.

  Lexie’s heart ached like crazy as she killed the engine of her BMW and stared at the dark, sprawling house up ahead. The irony of the location didn’t escape her. Her house sat proudly on the former land of the woman she’d always considered an enemy. The woman who’d purposefully come to town with the intention of hurting Lexie’s best friend.

  Except… Charlotte hadn’t been the one to hurt Nate, had she? Nope, it had been her. She’d hurt him by sending him that email. Sure, he’d needed to be aware of what Charlotte was up to, but maybe she should have gone about it another way. Told him in person or, hell, just confronted Charlotte and ordered her to tell Nate the truth.

  Instead, Lexie had opted for shock value, and now, with the memory of Nate’s ravaged face flashing across her mind, she regretted it.

  Fighting back tears, she got out of the car and headed up the limestone path toward the house. She unlocked the front door, walked inside and drifted into the living room without bothering to turn on the light. Maybe sitting in the darkness for a bit would clear her head, help her figure out what to do next. Because she knew, without a doubt, that she couldn’t just stand by and watch Nate suffer. She might have caused the pain he was currently in, but she was equally determined to erase it.

  “Hey.”

  The low male voice made her jump. Just as she opened her mouth to unleash a piercing scream, something rustled and then Cooper stepped out of the shadows. The shriek died in her throat, replaced by a burst of anger that had her glaring at him.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” she demanded over the loud pounding of her heart. “How did you get in?”

  He had the decency to look contrite. “The patio door was open. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I came in and waited.”

  Her heartbeat slowed, but the anger stayed strong. In the darkness, Cooper looked even deadlier than usual. His all-black clothing blended into the shadows, and the razor-sharp stubble dotting his strong jaw lent him a dangerous edge. She would’ve been frightened, if not for the uncharacteristic softness of his coal-black eyes.

  “What are you doing here?” she repeated.

  “I just…fuck…I guess I came to do this.”

  Lexie gasped as his mouth came down on hers. Hard. In a harsh, hungry kiss that contained zero tenderness and one hundred percent passion.

  When they broke apart, her heart was pounding again. “Is that your idea of an apology?” she muttered.

  He gave a lop-sided grin. “Yeah.”

  “Well, screw that. I don’t accept.”

  “Come on, Lex.” His voice went gruff. “I don’t do the whole sharing of the feelings shit. But I know I acted like a total asshole yesterday.”

  “Yup.”

  “And I’m sorry, okay? You and me…we’re good together. In the sex department, anyway.” He shrugged. “I don’t want to stop what we’ve been doing.”

  Her nostrils flared. “Gee, how romantic. You don’t want to stop fucking me. I guess I should be flattered—if you hadn’t kicked me out the door after I sucked you off!”

  A pained expression scrunched up his face. “I really am sorry. Like I said, I’m an asshole.”

  Damn it. He was giving her that little boy grin now, the one that never failed to curl her toes and make her heart flip around like a stupid dolphin. Why did she have no willpower when it came to this man?

  “So…forgive me?”

  Without answering, she brushed past him and moved to turn on the light. A yellow glow bathed the spacious living room, making the off-white furniture gleam. “I can’t do this right now, Cooper. Seriously. I’ve had a really shitty day and I’m not in the mood.”

  He raked a hand through his thick dark hair in frustration. “Fine, if you’re not ready to forgive me, at least tell me about your shitty day.”

  “No.” To her shock, tears prickled her eyelids.

  “Are you crying?”

  “What? No.”

  He was at her side in an instant, those big calloused hands cupping her chin. “Fuck, you are. I told you, I’m sorry—”

  “This isn’t about you,” she interrupted, swiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her silk blouse. “I just…I messed up today, all right? I messed up, and I have no idea what to do about it now.”

  There was a pause, and then Cooper gave a ragged sigh. “Okay. Well. Why don’t you tell me how you screwed up, and we can come up with a way to fix it.”

  Shock jolted through her. In all the time she’d been sleeping with this man, he hadn’t once offered to help her out with a problem.

  She wondered if Satan were ice-skating down in hell…

  “Fine,” she finally murmured. “I’ll tell you. But only because my only other friend isn’t really speaking to me at the moment.”

  Even though Charlotte had been back in Manhattan for twenty-four hours, the pain of losing Nate was still fresh. Her heart still felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces. And each time she tried to sing a note, her throat tightened up, making it impossible to get out a single sound. When she’d walked into her big, empty loft, the first thing she’d done was pick up a guitar and start strumming. Music had always been her safe haven, what she turned to when things got bad, but even that couldn’t numb the ache in her chest.

  With a sigh, she set down the instrument and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. Resting her chin on one knee, she wondered if she could have done something differently, said something else to convince Nate she truly did love him. But she’d been too flustered, too shocked by his uncharacteristic burst of anger, and if she were being honest, she didn’t think there was anything she could have said anyway. Nate’s relationship with that awful-sounding Evelyn had ended because the woman had lied to him. And then Charlotte had gone and done the same thing. She’d been foolish to think he’d be able to forgive her. So she’d let him walk away. And then she’d walked away, just as she had fifteen years ago.

  When a knock came on the door, she was tempted to ignore it, just pretend she wasn’t home and sit here to wallow in her misery. It was probably Georgia anyway, and right now, she didn’t feel like talking to her assistant. It wasn’t Georgia’s fault that she had decided to go along with her ridiculous plan. She’d let wine and bitterness convince her that it was a good idea, and she had nobody to blame but herself.

  The knock came again and again, and finally, a voice she never thought she’d hear again shouted, “I know you’re in there. Your doorman told me so.”

  Lexie Price.

  Charlotte cursed under her breath. What on earth was she doing here? Hadn’t she done enough damage already?

  Ready to tear into the woman, Charlotte stumbled to her feet, raced across the hardwood floor and threw open the door. “Can’t you just leave me alone?” she demanded in lieu of a greeting. “You came all the way to New York to gloat? What is wrong with you?”

  Lexie made a frustrated sound. “Why does everyone think I want to gloat about this?” Shaking her head, she met Charlotte’s infuriated eyes and asked, “Are you going to let me in or what?”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because I don’t particularly want to apologize out here in the hall.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, that’s rich. You ruined my relationship with Nate and now you want to apologize?” Still, she stepped aside so Lexie could come in, mainly because she was curious about where the hell this was going.

  “First of all, you ruined your relationship with your dumb plan to break Nate’s heart.” Lexie strode into the loft, glancing around with an impressed look. “Nice place.” She paused then tossed out a curveball. “Why didn’t you want to go shopping with me?”

  Charlotte blinked. “Huh?”

  “In junior year,” Lexie clarified. “I came up to your locker and invited you to come shopping, and you laughed at m
e and flounced off.”

  Considering she was a performer, Charlotte wasn’t speechless often, but right now, she couldn’t utter a single word. The hurt in Lexie’s blue eyes was equally hard to fathom.

  “Are you kidding me?” she finally burst out. “You waltzed up to me, insulted my taste in clothes then gave some fake invitation to go shopping at the fanciest freaking store in town when you knew I could never afford it.”

  “It wasn’t a fake invitation,” Lexie said in a quiet voice.

  Charlotte was beyond stunned.

  “Seriously,” Lexie insisted, evidently taking her silence as a sign of disbelief. “I was trying to be nice. I thought it would be fun, hanging out together. And even after you acted like a rude bitch, I tried again, idiot that I am. Remember, I invited you to that movie, the one—”

  “—about the stripper,” Charlotte finished. “Because you were trying to make a jab about my mom!”

  “Because it was the only movie out that weekend,” Lexie replied in frustration. “Wow. The whole world revolves around you, doesn’t it, Charlotte? I asked you to go shopping to make fun of how poor you were, I suggested a movie to insult your mother. Are you listening to yourself?”

  She was, and for the first time in a long time, Charlotte forced herself to revisit those moments, ones she’d associated with anger and embarrassment. Had Lexie really been trying to be nice to her? Offering her hand in friendship? Charlotte had been so wary of everyone in school, always anticipating the next attack. Had her suspicious nature actually caused her to distort her encounters with Lexie?

  Feeling winded, she slowly sank onto the couch and met the other woman’s eyes. “I honestly thought you were insulting me, that the invitations were another cruel joke.”

  “You were wrong,” Lexie said flatly. Then she sighed and joined her on the couch. “I always thought you were pretty cool, at least before you went total bitch on me.”

  “You did?”

  Lexie gave a faint smile. “Silly me, huh?”

  “I…I guess I jumped to conclusions back then,” Charlotte admitted. “I just assumed everyone was out to get me. I figured you were no different.”

  “I was out to get you this week. When I saw that email, I forwarded it to Nate.” Lexie frowned. “He deserved to know the truth.”

  “I was going to tell him.” Charlotte swallowed. “The moment I realized I still loved him, I knew I had to tell him the truth.”

  The blonde looked surprised. “You were really going to tell him?”

  “Of course.” She sighed. “I might’ve come back to town with bad intentions, but that changed once I spent more time with him. Everything that happened between us, what I thought happened, ended up being a lie. I’ve spent all these years thinking he was a heartless jerk, but once I found out why he did what he did, revenge wasn’t on my mind anymore.”

  Charlotte noticed Lexie biting her bottom lip, looking thoughtful, as if she was working something over in her head. The blonde was quiet for so long that Charlotte finally said, “What are you thinking, damn it?”

  The corners of Lexie’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Just wondering how on earth we’re going to fix this.”

  “Fix it?”

  “Yep. Because it’s obvious you love Nate, and trust me, he loves you too. I saw him yesterday and he was absolutely dismal.”

  She couldn’t stop her heart from doing a tiny somersault. “He was?”

  “Uh-huh. And I don’t like it.” Lexie glared at her. “Think whatever you’d like, but I do care about Nate. A lot. I don’t want him to be unhappy, so I guess you and I need to put on our thinking caps and find a way to undo the damage we did.”

  Charlotte eyed her warily. “You and I?”

  “I told you before,” Lexie said with the careless wave of her hand, “we’re going to be best friends. That is, if you’re ready to let bygones be bygones and actually get to know me.”

  She had to grin. “I’ll consider it.”

  “Good. And while you consider that, let’s consider a way to get you and Nate back together.”

  “That could be a problem,” Charlotte said with regretful breath. “The tour starts this weekend. It’ll last a month.”

  “Where’s the first stop?” Lexie asked, all business.

  “Right here. Radio City Music Hall, Friday night.”

  Lexie let out an impressed whistle. “Nice. Okay. Well. Here’s what we’ll do then.”

  Chapter Nine

  Nate was only half awake as he opened the front door. The incessant knocking had finally dragged him off the couch, which he’d fallen asleep on last night. He hadn’t had another date with his tequila bottle since the day Charlotte left—getting wasted really wasn’t his thing—but the moping had continued. Completely fucking unmanly, he knew that, yet he couldn’t seem to muster up enthusiasm for anything. He’d worked at the pub all week, chatted with customers, served drinks—but his heart hadn’t been in it.

  Charlotte had taken that heart when she’d skipped town again, and this time he doubted he’d ever get it back.

  So moping it was, and to hell with what anyone thought about it, especially Lexie, who yet again had decided to grace his porch, after being AWOL since the night he’d banished her.

  “Morning,” she said brightly, her cheerful tone making him wince.

  “Mornin’,” he mumbled as he opened the door so she could come inside. “What do you want, Lex?”

  “Lots of things. But right now, I want you to shave that god-awful depression beard and hop into the shower.” She clapped her hands as if addressing a boardroom full of executives. “Come on, get to it. You’ve got a plane to catch.”

  Nate just stared at her. “What on earth are you babbling about? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Oh yes you are. You’re on the eleven-thirty flight to LaGuardia, but we have to get there at least an hour before, according to the e-ticket confirmation.” She glanced at the expensive silver watch on her slender wrist. “It’s nine-thirty now, so we need to get going.”

  Nate felt like he’d wound up in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Or maybe in the movie Freaky Friday—had he switched bodies with someone and Lexie was confusing him with the person who was actually going to New York?

  “Stop standing there and get ready,” she said, looking annoyed.

  “Not until you tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “Well, Charlotte and I talked it over, and we think—”

  “What?” Shock slammed into him. Along with a tiny pang of sorrow at the sound of Charlotte’s name.

  “Yeah, we’re friends now,” she replied with another wave of the hand. Those pale blue eyes narrowed. “By the way, she told me what you said to her the night she left town. I can’t believe you, Nate. You couldn’t have thought of any other way to convince her to go to Julliard?”

  Okay, this definitely wasn’t his life. Granted, he hadn’t spoken to Lexie since he’d asked her to leave his house four days ago, but four days was hardly enough time for Lexie and Charlotte to strike up some weird, magical friendship.

  He rubbed his suddenly aching temples. “Lexie. I’m really confused. Can you please just start from the beginning?”

  She grinned. “Well, I flew to Manhattan the day after you kicked me out.”

  “To see Charlotte.” He still couldn’t fathom any of this.

  “Yeah. And we talked, and, I don’t know, patched things up, I guess. She’s actually not so bad once she has a glass of wine or two. Anyway, she told me what happened with you two back then, and I kind of understand now why she came here to do what she did, considering how crappy you were to her. Long story short, she feels terrible, and she really does love you. And I know you love her, so that’s why you’re going to New York.”

  She recited the entire speech without taking a breath, and Nate couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or throttle her.

  “What did I tell you about sticking your nose in my business?” he grumbl
ed.

  “I had no choice.” She shrugged. “We both know you’re too proud to forgive her, so I’m just giving you a little push.”

  “A little push?” he mocked.

  “Fine, a big one.”

  Her hand suddenly landed on his arm and he found himself being led toward the staircase. “Upstairs,” she ordered, practically dragging him up to the second floor landing.

  In his bedroom, he stood there, dumbfounded, as she threw open the closet door and started pulling out pieces of clothing. Over her shoulder, she shot him an impatient look. “Get in the shower, Bishop.”

  “But…I don’t want to go to New York,” he said roughly.

  “Tough, because you’re going.” She slanted her pretty blonde head. “You still love Charlotte, right?”

  He swallowed. “She lied to me.”

  “And she feels bad about it.” Lexie scowled at him. “Look, if she can forgive you for taking her virginity and breaking her heart, then the least you can do is forgive her for not being able to get over it and forming a ridiculous revenge plan.”

  “I didn’t see you begging me to forgive Evelyn,” he muttered.

  “Because Evelyn was an awful witch. Charlotte is not.” Her voice softened. “You can’t let her get away again. Swallow your pride and forgive her, Nate. You two belong together.”

  Emotion clogged his throat. He couldn’t believe Lexie was saying this, which only caused the shield around his heart to crumble even further. Lexie had managed to find a way to warm up to Charlotte—so why couldn’t he find a way to forgive her?

  He thought about all the cruel things he’d said to her back then, putting himself in her position. He would have been hurt and furious too. Not enough to want to strike back, but he did get why she’d felt the need for revenge. And if she’d been telling the truth about putting aside her foolish revenge plan once she fell in love with him again, then that meant she actually had forgiven him for the cruelty he’d dished out. If she had managed to get past his inexcusable actions, couldn’t he make the same effort?