At First Sight - Nicholas Sparks [52]
“I wouldn’t consider these e-mails adventures.”
“Call them what you will. But you’ve got to admit they’ve been making you think, right?”
“Oh yeah,” Jeremy admitted. “They’ve been making me think.”
“In the end, if you’re going to marry her, you’ve got to trust her, you know.”
“I know,” Jeremy said. “Believe me, I know.”
For the second time that evening, Jeremy found himself wondering what it meant to trust someone. That’s what it came down to. Most of the time, yes, but lately it hadn’t been easy.
But the e-mails. Not one, but two. And the second one . . .
If he picked up the journal, suppose he learned something about Lexie, something he didn’t know or might not want to know? Would that affect the way he felt about her? Would it make him throw in the towel and storm away without ever looking back?
He tried to fit the pieces together. Whoever sent the e-mails not only knew that Lexie was pregnant and that Jeremy had Doris’s journal, but was also bold enough to suggest he would learn something Lexie had been hiding. The implication, again, was that someone wanted to break them up.
But who? Granted, anyone in town might know Lexie was pregnant; few, however, knew he had the journal, and aside from Lexie, he could think of only one person who knew the contents of the journal.
Doris.
But it made no sense. She was the one who’d pushed Lexie toward Jeremy in the first place; she was the one who explained Lexie’s behavior so Jeremy could understand Lexie better. Doris was also the one Jeremy talked to about his writer’s block.
He was so lost in thought, it took a moment for him to realize that someone was knocking at the door. He crossed the room and opened it.
Lexie forced a smile. Despite her brave expression, her eyes were red and swollen, and he knew she’d been crying. At first, neither of them said anything. Then:
“Hey,” she offered.
“Hi, Lex,” he said. When he made no move toward her, she stared down at the floor.
“I guess you’re wondering why I’m here, huh? I was sort of hoping that you would come back, but you didn’t.”
When Jeremy didn’t respond, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry. You were right about everything. I should have told you, and I was wrong to have done what I did.”
Jeremy studied her before taking a step back from the door. With that tacit permission, Lexie entered his room and took a seat on the bed. Jeremy reached for the chair in front of the desk.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“I didn’t plan on going,” she said. “I know you might not believe it, but when I left Doris’s, I was intending to go home and . . . I don’t know . . . it just hit me that I should probably talk to Rodney. I figured he’d be able to tell me where Rachel might have gone.”
“What about before?” Jeremy said. “At the boardwalk. Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
“Rodney’s just a friend, and he’s going through a rough time. I know how it might have looked to you, but we go back a long way, and I was just trying to be supportive.”
Jeremy noticed the careful way she’d avoided answering the question. He leaned forward in the chair. “No more games, Lexie, okay?” he said, his voice steady and serious. “I’m not in the mood. I just want to know why you didn’t tell me.”
Lexie turned toward the window, but he could see the reflection of the lamplight in her eyes. “It was . . . hard. I didn’t want to be involved in the first place. And I didn’t want to involve you, either.” She laughed, sounding shaken. “But I guess I did, huh?” She shook her head and drew a long breath before going on. “The thing is, Rodney and Rachel have been arguing a lot lately because of me.”
Her voice grew softer. “Rachel has been having a hard time with the fact that Rodney and I dated. But more than that, she knows how Rodney felt about me. And that’s the thing. Rachel still thinks Rodney has feelings for me, and—according to Rachel, anyway—Rodney still