Avoiding Commitment (Avoiding 1)

"I didn't know what you wanted," Ramsey began digging into the basket, "so I just got a bunch of things and you can just decide what you like."

"When did you have time for this?" she asked. She had stayed at his house all afternoon. Granted she had felt like shit much of that time and took nearly an hour long shower. So perhaps he had had enough time.

"I just made a list and I had some people take care of it," he said sheepishly.

"Oh." She should have figured. It could have been worse. He could have not made a list. She shook her head again in frustration. Why did she care whether or not he went and picked out dinner for them? She had to keep reminding herself she didn't really want to be here. Right?

Lexi watched him extract a bag of green grapes from the bag and immediately snatched them out of his grasp. He jolted in surprise. She sent a smile his way and popped one into her mouth. She sighed pleasantly at the sour crisp taste of fresh fruit. Her mouth watered as she added a few more.

Ramsey couldn't help himself from staring at her. She looked to be in such ecstasy from just a few grapes and it was torture to keep himself firmly planted on the opposite side of the blanket. Her cheeks were flushed from the Georgia summer heat and lips wet from licking off the grape juice that had squirted onto her bottom lip. He gulped heavily fishing around in the basket for something to distract him. He uncovered the remaining food and removed two cans of Coke for them. But he was drawn back to her mouth as he glanced up.

She caught him watching her, and in her eagerness scooted closer towards him so they were nearly touching. "Want one?" Lexi asked holding a grape between her fingers. He nodded and before he could reach out to take the fruit, she pressed it in between his lips letting her finger linger for just a second before pulling away.

He crunched down on the fruit trying to act as if that hadn't affected him. "Thanks."

Lexi batted her eyelashes before sitting back on her side of the blanket. Her hand brushed her bag and felt the vibrations through the material. She jumped unexpectedly and flipped open the device. "Are you okay? Where are you? Why aren't you returning my texts? Lexi?"

Lexi sighed heavily and bit her lip as she read through Jack's text message. She had completely forgotten about messaging him back. She quickly typed out a reply and closed her phone. "Sorry. Alive."

"You got to your parents safe then?"

Turning her head to look at Ramsey's perfect bone structure, she giggled a little to herself. Man, if Jack knew where she was at this moment, he would have a fit. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him though. At least, not over text message. Not when she couldn't use the information as leverage. "Safe."

"Anyone important?" Ramsey asked casually taking a bite of the sandwich in his hand.

Lexi rolled her eyes. "Just Jack again." God, she hated how familiar this all felt.

"Ahh..." he said not sure if he was prepared to broach that subject just yet.

"Do you want to come over tomorrow or something?"

Lexi sighed again. Did she want to go see him? Yes. No. There wasn't really a good answer. If she was honest with herself, the answer would be yes. The answer would always be yes. She always wanted to see him. She hadn't spent any time with him in two years, and she missed him. A part of her always missed him. They had gone through so much it was hard to not want to be around him. Even though things always ended so f**ked up, her brain wouldn't let her forget the in between times when things were oh so good.

"Yeah. I'll let you know."

"Great."

"So what's up with you and Jack?" Ramsey asked against his better judgment. Lexi's eyes immediately darkened. Something within her completely closed off at the question. He'd known it would be a bad subject. After what he had witnessed yesterday, he knew something was up and was determined to find out. He just hadn't expected such a dark response. He hadn't thought it would be pretty, but the way her eyes narrowed and jaw tightened simultaneously would have scared him if she didn't look so beautiful.

"Oh just...you know," she stated vaguely unsure how much she wanted to reveal. He didn't know anything now which was probably for the better.

"Not really. You two seemed pretty heated last night. Was he just drunk? I'd never seen him that way before," Ramsey admitted hoping to push the right buttons. He could see her begin to visibly relax as the attention fell away from her.

"I've just known Jack for a long time, and he's pretty protective. Kind of like an older brother," she said dryly. She couldn't help thinking that Jack would make the worst older brother in the world.

Ramsey smirked noticing the ever so slight twitch in her muscles that indicated she was lying. He had always considered himself a great judge of character even when his parents hadn't. So whatever had gone on between her and Jack had not been platonic which begged the question as to why she was here if they had been previously involved. But he didn't get to ask his next question as Lexi's phone began to buzz next to her again.

"Hello?" Lexi asked not recognizing the Atlanta phone number. Last time that had happened, she had been led here. That thought almost made her want to drop the call, but the sound of a chirpy voice cut off the line of reasoning.

"Hello dear," Bekah said from the other line.

Cringing at the uppity sound of her voice, Lexi pulled the phone away from her ear. "What's up?"

"Where are you?"

No way had Jack put her up to this. Then again she had to have gotten the number from somewhere, and Jack was the prime suspect since she had a feeling Bekah didn't know her parents. Those were the only people in the city who had her number. Not even Ramsey who was sitting directly in front of her; her first real date in God knows how long, and he didn't even have her number. She sighed pathetically. "I'm busy. Was there something you needed?" Lexi asked avoiding the question.

She let her eyes fall back on Ramsey who looked at her inquisitively. She shrugged and mouth Bekah to him. His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Yes," Bekah stated rather deliberately. "I don't believe we've finished our conversation just yet. Do you have plans tomorrow? I'd really like to take you shopping for Jack's big day and we can talk then."

Jack's big day? She hadn't heard anything about his big day. What was his big day? What were they celebrating? She had no idea, but she didn't particularly want to give Bekah the satisfaction of knowing that piece of information.