“So when you get married, will you marry just one of them or all of them?” Axel asked. “I mean if.”
“When,” I responded, “it’ll be one of them on paper, but all of them in our hearts.” I giggled. “That sounds so cheesy.”
Axel starred up into space like he was trying to solve a complicated math problem. “So, does that mean that even if you sign a prenup with the one you marry on paper, that you could still take half the assets of the other 7, because me and my student loans might be coming around.”
My heart screeched to a halt. “Wait, what did you just say?”
“I was kidding,” Axel said. “Kind of.”
“Oh my god. You’re brilliant. That’s it! That’s how we fix it!”
Axel started looking around. “What did I do? What did I say?”
“I love you so much. I gotta go.”
“Alexa. Don’t you hang up on--”
I clicked the phone off and jumped out of bed, nearly falling to the floor from pain. “Right,” I grumbled out loud.
I crawled back up onto the bed and made my way to Sadie’s number. I had a stage to set. I started a new text with her.
Oh my god. I think I’m gonna have 7 guys!
Got ya beat!
The three dots signifying she was typing before her words popped up.
No fucking way. Who?
The Foxxes.
Ugh! They’re so sexy, I get it.
Wait… 7? There’s 8 of them!
Who got left out?
Harley. I can’t get him out of this wedding. :(
Oh… right, sorry about that.
It’s okay. I realize this existed long
before I did.
Hey, can I ask you a question though?
If I had sex with all eight of them unprotected
I’m defo gonna get pregnant right? XD
Hahaha. Pretty high possibility.
Wait. Could Harley be the dad?
He was the one I did it with most.
It’s gonna be terrible if my baby’s father
is married to another woman.
…that would be bad.
I’ll just have to hope it’s one of the other brothers..
I gotta go. Will you be at the wedding?
Yeah… Are you in Italy too?
Sure am! I like to witness my Greek tragedies
up close! XD :(
…see you there.
I closed the texts, proud of my handiwork, and trying not to think about the reality that I could actually get pregnant, and sifted back to my phone book for the last call I had to make. I pressed Harley’s number.
“Alexa?” he answered, making my heart thunder again.
“Hey. Are you in with your dad and brothers yet?” I asked.
“No, just waiting for everyone to get here. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, but I need you to come back quick. Find any excuse.”
“Sorry, beautiful, I don’t think I can.”
“You have to, I know how to get you out of this deal with Dante and Malia.”
“What? How?”
“I’ll explain when you get here.”
“Okay, we’re on our way.”
“No,” I snapped. “I’m sorry, but you can’t bring your brothers. Not even Huxley.”
“What? Why?”
I sighed. “Because this plan will only work if none of them know about it.”
25
Harley
I looked myself over in my black, Italian suit. Even I had to admit I looked pretty good. My heart was rattling around in my chest like a loose gear, but not for the reasons I expected. If today went exactly as it was supposed to, all of this nastiness with Dante and Malia would soon be behind me. It made me nervous to think about. I was taking more than one calculated risk, well me and Alexa. It sucked not being able to tell my brothers. I had to lie to them and tell them that Alexa had called me back for one final kiss and nothing more. I could see in his face that Huxley knew I was lying when I said it, but he didn’t call me on it, probably because he didn’t want to be lied to again. I’d never lied to him before in my entire life and I wouldn’t likely forgive myself for it. I had to just hope that the payoff would be worth the sacrifice.
There was a knock at the door to my father’s study where I was waiting for the wedding to start. “Come in,” I called out.
Alexa walked in and the sight of her took my breath away. She’d curled her brown hair, and held a few of the front curls back with a bobby pin. She was dressed in a turquoise satin dress with a shawl around her shoulders, and a pair of white pumps. She was easily the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life, and I’d been around the world and back. I wished more than anything that I could reach out for her and take her into my arms, but I realized we had a problem to deal with first.
Alexa handed a manilla envelope over to me. “You know what to do.”
I took the envelope with one hand and grabbed her arm with the other and dragged her to me for a kiss. “You’re amazing. I can’t believe you figured all of this out.”