I only grunted in response. I wasn't ready to talk to her yet, not about this. I was still trying to wrap my own head around it. And even though I knew it wasn't Lexi's fault that Renée and I had broken up, even though I knew that Renée and I were probably both better off this way, I didn't exactly want to tell Lexi all about that.
Lexi was silent for a minute, but I could feel her gaze still boring into my back.
“Thank you,” she finally said, and this time, I could barely hear her. “Emma and I both had such a good time today at the Children's Museum, and just… Thank you. Thank you for letting us stay here. I know it hasn't been easy on you, and I'm sorry.”
I stared down at the sparkling shards of glass. “Don't be sorry,” I finally sighed. “It's not your fault.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lexi
“So, how have things been going with you anyway?” Misty asked as we waited at the end of the counter for our salads to be prepared. “I feel like I've hardly seen you since you moved in with Andrew. What's more, I haven't heard from you. You were always so good about calling me, but lately, it's like you disappeared off the face of the planet. Everything's okay, isn't it?”
“Yeah, everything has been good,” I told her, smiling. “I appreciate you worrying about me, but I'd let you know if something was wrong. You know that.”
“I know, I know,” Misty sighed. “What have you been up to anyway? Have you managed to land yourself a job?”
“No job yet,” I said with a frown. “I've actually slowed down on applying for jobs at the moment, until I figure out what Andrew's plan is. We haven't exactly talked about whether this is a long-term solution or not.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we first moved in there, he was dating someone else,” I told her. “They broke up the other day. I don't know if they're broken up for good or if they're one of those couples that breaks up and gets back together every other week. I haven't wanted to ask.”
“Because you're hoping he's single, but you're afraid he's not?” Misty asked, sounding amused.
“No,” I said emphatically, even though I knew she was just teasing. “When we first moved in there, he told me that we could stay until the end of this business trip that he had. Then after that, he was going to find us some other solution. Remember, he mentioned moving us to that nice place downtown? We still haven't talked about that, and I don't know what he's thinking.”
“But even if you keep living with him, you're going to get a job, aren't you?” Misty asked, sounding confused. “You aren't the type of person to just live off his billions, even if he's offering.”
“Of course not,” I said. “But I don't even know where I'm going to be living. That affects where I can apply for jobs since I'm reliant on public transportation. So I've just taken a break for a little while. Besides, it was getting hard to look at rejection email after rejection email every morning.”
; “Hmm,” Misty said, but she didn't press the issue. “What have you been up to, if you're not devoting every waking second to the job hunt, then? Exploring the city with Emma?”
“Actually, I've just been following your advice. I've either been at Andrew's house or else doing things with Andrew. I'm letting him get to know Emma, and that seems to be going well for both of them.”
“Spending a lot of time with Andrew, hmm?” Misty asked, waggling her eyebrows at me. “Does that mean I can expect another niece or nephew soon?”
I rolled my eyes. “It's not like that, okay? We're not sleeping together. He's got more than one guest bedroom. We haven't even done anything romantic. He's busy most of the time. All we've done is play some board games with Emma, and the other day we took her to the Children's Museum.” I smiled. “She had a ton of fun.”
“I'd bet she did,” Misty said. “And what about her mama? Did she have fun as well?”
“I did,” I admitted. “It was good seeing Emma that happy. It's been a while since I was able to take her to someplace fun like that. Going to the park is great, but she gets bored with it if we go there too often.”
“Are you hoping to get romantically involved with Andrew?” Misty asked.
“No!” I said, probably too quickly.
Misty's voice gentled. “There's no reason why you couldn't,” she said. “I know you feel like your whole life is in shambles at the moment, but Andrew doesn't seem to mind.”
I sighed. “I don't want to talk about this,” I told her. I frowned, trying to put the reason into words that would make sense to her. “The whole point of this is to make sure that Emma's taken care of. It's not about getting me laid or getting me, I don't know, anything more. I wouldn't feel right going after Andrew, under the circumstances. I wouldn't want to ruin things for Emma.”
“And you think that getting involved with her daddy would ruin things for her?” Misty asked, her eyebrows knitting together.
“What if it didn't work out? Andrew could kick us out, or he could refuse to ever have anything to do with Emma again, or both. I couldn't handle that.”
“Well, even if you're not trying to get back into his bed, there's no reason why the two of you can't be friends,” Misty said, shrugging. “It sounds like you're enjoying his company, at least.”