Without You (Love Wanted in Texas 1)

Blake held up his hands and took a few steps back.

“Wait, Will. Let me explain what you heard.”

I looked down at Lex. She looked scared, panicked almost. Of course she did. She’d just been caught with another guy.

“I don’t need you to explain it, Alex.”

She let a sob escape her mouth. “Will, please don’t call me Alex. Please just let me talk to you alone. Please.”

“I heard it all. You’re confused. Daddy’s telling you to experience other people. That’s what you want. That night of the party, you were wasted, weren’t you? You said you’d passed the fuck out. What happened between you two?” I looked at Blake and then back at Lex.

She began shaking her head faster as she wiped away her tears. “Nothing! My God, Will, I’d never do that to you.”

I took a step closer to her and leaned down. “I just heard him say how the two of you were dancing, Alex. I heard it with my own ears.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“How often do you see him, especially with all these study groups you go to?” I looked up at Blake. “Are you there every time?”

The fucker smiled and said, “Yes, I am. Always.”

“No. Will, please let’s just go somewhere and talk. It’s not like that,” Lex pleaded.

I took a few steps back as Lex began crying harder.

“You made me promise you that everything would be okay, that we would be okay. You made me promise you that I wouldn’t meet anyone, Alex.”

A loud sob escaped Lex’s throat as a door opened.

Grace stepped out. “Will?” She looked back and forth between Blake and me. “What’s going on?”

I glanced back at Lex. I took a deep breath and blew it out as I closed my eyes.

“Will, I love you. Please just—”

I opened my eyes. “No. No, Alex.”

I turned to walk away, but Lex grabbed my arm.

“Will, please!”

I turned and looked into her beautiful blue eyes as I felt the tears building in mine. “I guess I should have asked you to make the same promise to me, Alex.”

She sucked in a breath of air as I pushed her hand away. As I began walking off, I closed my eyes.

She screamed out, “Will! Will!” Then, I heard her yell, “Blake, let me go! Let me go!”

Grace told Blake to let Alex go as the elevator door opened. Before I got on, I saw Lex running toward the elevator, but I stepped inside with the doors shutting behind me before she got there. The sounds of her yelling for me almost had me rushing back to her, but the image of her hand on his chest while she’d looked into his eyes was now forever etched in my brain.

I heard a knock on my bedroom door, and I flew up out of bed. I threw open the door, hoping to see Will.

“Libby…” I walked back to my bed and sat down. The tears began falling again. “Please tell me where he is.”

Will hadn’t come home for Thanksgiving break, and no one knew where he was, not even Luke.

She walked up to me and dropped to sit on the floor. “I swear to you, Alex, I don’t know. We’ve all been trying to call him. My par

ents are so worried about him.”