That’s the way it had to be.
Even if it wasn’t the way he liked it.
He did call Charlotte, told her he had her ring and asked her to meet him so he could return it. Charlotte, of course, invited him over for dinner, but he declined. Since she’d waited over a half a century to get the ring back, she informed him he might as well hold on to it until the next time he saw Lexie.
“Wily old woman,” he muttered.
With the mystery of the ring solved and no outside distractions, Coop spent the next few days at the office, doing his job covering the news. Concentrating wasn’t easy but neither was going home to his empty apartment, without time with Lexie to look forward to.
“You’re never going to believe this!” Amanda exclaimed, sitting down on the corner of his desk.
He glanced at the fashion editor. “Tell me,” he said, not really listening.
“The Lancaster Foundation called me.”
Coop’s ears perked up. He lifted his gaze from the computer screen.
“I thought that would get your attention,” she said, a pleased grin on her face.
Amanda had been annoyed with him since he’d admitted to her off the record that he’d returned the jewels, but refused to let her cover the news in her section. Coop understood. The fact that he’d uncovered jewels from a prized collection that had been missing for years would have been a big coup for her. For him as well, in his crime beat. He’d opted to protect Lexie and Charlotte instead. He couldn’t have lived with himself if he’d revealed all and destroyed Lexie’s beloved grandmother in the process.
But at night, he’d been pouring out the story onto the computer screen, a fictionalized version of events, names changed to protect the innocent, of course. It was his best damn work ever.
“Hey, wake up!” Amanda snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Where are you lately? Anyway, the jewels you returned? The foundation wants to auction them off. It seems the foundation is in desperate need of cash. They see the auction as a way to raise money and bring public awareness to their cause. And they want to give me exclusive, inside coverage!” she said, beaming.
“That’s fantastic. See? Now you have your coverage, a better angle and you can forgive me for not letting you report on it in the first place.”
“Not so fast.”
Something in her tone caught his attention. “What do you want?” he asked warily.
“The foundation had a condition for giving me an exclusive.” She met his gaze.
The steely determination he saw there unnerved him. “Just how does this involve me?”
“They’d like you, as in you, the Bachelor, to emcee the event.”
“No. Way.”
She clasped her hands together. “Please? Come on. I need you for this. You can bring whoever you want as a date,” she said, obviously hoping to entice him.
“I’m not dating anyone,” he muttered.
She raised an eyebrow. “So the Blogger rumors are true? It’s over between you and Lexie?”
He clenched his jaw. He’d done his best to ignore the omniscient, seemingly ever-present Blogger who knew all his and Lexie’s moves. But when someone threw the damn words in his face, he had to face it.
Just as he had to face the truth. “It’s not over.”
“Then invite her to the auction. And her grandmother for all I care! Just be there!”
“What do you know about her grandmother?”
She glanced away. “Nothing. I just heard our editor talking about the picture of the kiss, how the Blogger came by them. Please?” She clasped her hands together again.
Coop exhaled hard. “Oh, all right. I’ll be there.”
“And Lexie?”
He shook his head. Amanda was relentless. “Whether she comes or not, that’s up to her.”
All he could do was ask.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LEXIE HATED BANKS. She was pretty sure her feelings stemmed from childhood and Take Your Daughters to Work Day. She and her sister would spend the day with their father, older sibling Margaret competing for who could do any assigned task best, Lexie not even trying to win. She’d always wished she were anywhere else, preferably outdoors with the wind on her cheeks, breathing fresh air. Yet here she was, willingly standing outside her father’s New York City branch.
She just couldn’t bring herself to go inside.
Ever since her grandmother’s confession, Lexie had been walking around in a fog, trying to find her place in the world. She’d made several trips to the Empire State Building, seeking answers in the clouds. In so many ways, her confusion made little sense. Whatever Charlotte had done as a young girl should have no bearing on Lexie as an adult. On the other hand, she had spent the better part of her life modeling herself after her grandmother. It wasn’t that Charlotte traveled, so Lexie wanted to do the same. She hadn’t. The ways in which she mimicked her grandmother were more subtle.
Charlotte lived life her way, no matter what anyone else thought. And that’s what Lexie had admired so much. What she’d idealized. Or, to quote Coop, what she’d used to justify her life choices. But with Charlotte’s revelations and her motives, at least for the last heist, being so self-serving, Lexie could no longer look at her own choices the same way. Again, it wasn’t so much the similarities in how they lived their lives—there weren’t many. It was the reasons behind them. Her grandmother’s recent truths caused Lexie to look deeper inside herself.
Of course, it wasn’t just her grandmother’s past that was causing this self-reflection. It was Coop.
I more than like you, Lexie.
She still couldn’t get those heartfelt words out of her mind. Or, to be even more honest, out of her heart.
While it wasn’t a declaration of love—she knew she’d been keeping him from going that far—it meant more. Because unlike anyone who came before, Lexie had really let Coop in. He knew her better than she knew herself. Understood her family dynamic.
Wasn’t he the one who’d pointed out that she and her father had common ground, when for years she’d believed there was none? So here she was, willing for the first time to reach out to her parent. To admit she’d been too stubborn for them to have had a relationship before—and to ask him to admit that maybe he’d been the same way. To see where they could go from here.
Lexie smoothed her white slacks and adjusted her silk short-sleeved shirt, both items a conciliatory nod to her father, showing respect for him and his place of business. As she drew a deep breath, ready to walk inside, she hoped he’d appreciate that she’d left her peasant skirts and multiple bangle bracelets at her grandmother’s.