Page 39 of The Leaving Road

Heading down the staircase, I heard a knock at just the right time. “Come in!” I hollered, and Jace stepped through the foyer.

“Holy shit, Magnolia.” Jace stood, mouth agape, but that only lasted a few seconds before he started laughing, and I ended up blushing at his response.

“Jeez, thanks, asshole.”

“No, no, no, please.” He couldn’t stop laughing. “You look good, I just can’t wait to see Matt’s reaction. No, scratch that. I can’t wait to seeSloan’sreaction.”

“I didn’t know Sloan was going to be there tonight.” I heard Lexie start down the stairs, and I turned to frown at her for putting me in this position.

“Don’t look at me like that. I had no idea.” She raised her hands in mock surrender, then pointed a steely look at Jace. “Care to explain?”

He shrugged. “He asked what I was up to tonight, and I said a few of us were meeting at the bar for some drinks. Said he might show up. Didn’t mention you two would be there, though.”

Some of the tension I had been holding was released and I felt marginally better. Maybe I would be lucky, and he wouldn’t be there tonight.

“We can stay here, babe, no problem,” Lexie said and started to take off her shoes.

“Wait…” Jace started to say, but I interrupted him before he could continue.

“It’s fine, really. We are both adults.”

Jace’s face lit right back up, and he held the front door open for both of us so we could make our way to the bar.

I sat in the back seat because it was blatantly obvious that Lexie wanted to sit next to Jace. Once we got into the car, Jace wasted no time striking up a conversation.

“Did Lexie tell you the good news?” he asked me.

“I think you’re going to have to be more specific, Jace; Lexie talks a lot.” I teased her. I met her eyes in the rearview mirror and there was a hint of panic in them, which caused me to frown briefly. But before I could ask her what was wrong, Jace answered.

“She’s no longer unemployed! She’s coming to work for Dexter and me as our new receptionist! Isn’t that exciting?”

I’m pretty sure my eyebrows rose past my hairline, and thankfully, I was struck a little bit stupid. Luckily, Jace was driving so he didn’t see my surprise.

Unemployed?I mouthed at her, knowing she could see me in the rearview mirror. She shrugged as her only defense but said nothing else.

“It’s going to be great! Our workload has increased a lot, and now we can have some help with the day-to-day. I thought for sure she was going to shut me down, but I realized there was no way she had a job lined up yet. It just seemed like a win-win.”

Not really wanting to comment on this, or to continue this conversation before speaking with Lexie, I just hummed out what I hope sounded like approval. Thankfully, since the town was the size of a peanut, we had made it to the bar and that effectively ended the conversation.

Once Jace pulled into a parking spot, I unbuckled and quickly got out to catch Lexie before she could walk into the bar with Jace.

“We are going to talk about that later,” I whispered to her, and she nodded.

I moved out of her way so she could catch up to Jace, but I kept back a few feet. Entering the bar, I felt multiple eyes on me, but I saw Matt stalk toward us in a purposeful manner.

“You look amazing,” he said as he wrapped me into a brief but tight hug. “Let’s go sit down.”

I had to hide my disappointment when I saw Dexter and Lydia sitting at the table. Lydia’s smile turned into a frown at her first glimpse of us.

“Oh, I didn’t know you guys were coming,” she said as we approached the table.

I decided to ignore that comment and kept it light. “Hey Dexter, Lydia. Good to see you both.” My response further deepened her frown.

The conversation at the table was a little stiff from that point on. Jace offered to go get drinks and grabbed Lexie’s hand so she would go with him, effectively leaving Dexter, Lydia, Matt, and me alone at the table.

“How’s the house, Magnolia?” Dexter asked, and I had to hide my shock at the fact he was trying to talk to me despite his girlfriend’s unhappiness.

“It’s been a busy few days. I have to admit, I haven’t done a damn thing.”

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