Lex and Lu Read Free

could deliver the news more effectively.
    “Willa just got a text from Lu.” Amber paused, gently picked up her wine, and took another fortifying sip. “She’s on her way home.”
    Jo leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She wasn’t surprised, not really. Maybe it was time. In her mind she saw her family fracturing even more but there was little she could do about a decision that had been made earlier. Partly horrified, partly relieved, she looked at Amber and Willa.
    “Is she coming alone?” Jo asked, fearful of the answer.
    “Yes,” Willa replied.
    “Thank fucking God!” she murmured. Maybe she wasn’t ready to set things straight.

    Exhausted after a hard game and a sleepless night, Lex rolled over and shut off the alarm clock on his iPod before the blast of music coming from it shattered the early morning quiet. Eighteen hours of knowing that his dad was dead hadn’t lessened his sense of disbelief. His father had died while he in the midst of his pregame warm-up. His manager had handed him the phone as he walked off the pitch so that his mother could tell him before his game. Normally they would have waited, but with information flying all over the globe at warp speed, they were afraid that a reporter would ask him about it in postgame interviews. And the last thing they wanted was for Lex to be blindsided by that kind of news.
    He wasn’t sure whose idea it had been. But knowing his mother as he did, he was pretty sure she had forced his agent to have his club make the arrangements since Lex never checked his phone once he entered the stadium. He also knew his mother figured he’d play in his game. She’d spent the majority of Lex’s life making sure he could play soccer, so his walking onto the field a couple of hours after learning that his father had died wouldn’t have shocked her.
    Playing in a critical game was exactly the kind of therapy he needed. Sex would have been good too, but he’d been avoiding that for a bit. No messy entanglements allowed this season. And that would have made his father proud. Lex managed a fleeting smile, thinking of the last conversation he’d had with his dad about that subject. They’d been out at a pub down the street from his club’s stadium when his father mentioned Lex’s lack of a groupie—as he referred to all of the women Lex had been with since he was 18.
    “Bit of a dry spell?” he’d said, winking at Lex.
    Lex graciously acknowledged the dig. “No sir. Just trying to focus in on playing soccer.”
    His dad grinned. “Yes, I’ve been wondering when you were going to get serious about the sport.”
    He laughed. One of the things he loved about his dad was his ability to look at things from Lex’s perspective. “Ya know how it is, Pops. Even when things are supposed to be uncomplicated with women, they don’t ever stay that way.”
    “If you’d stop binging on groupies, maybe things wouldn’t get complicated.”
    “No, Pops. That’s what keeps it from getting complicated,” he replied with a wink.
    “Seriously, Lex,” he said, suddenly changing the mood, “any plans to find a nice girl and settle down?”
    Lex eyed his father. “How 1950s of you. Where’s this coming from?”
    “I look around you and I know you are successful. You’re driven and ambitious. But don’t you feel like something is missing? Don’t you want to share this with someone?”
    “That’s what I have you, Mom, and Pete for,” he answered. “Ready for another?” He pointed at his dad’s empty glass and waved to the bartender, hoping to change the subject.
    “Lex, I’m serious. I don’t want you to be alone. I have seen your capacity to love someone—outside of your family.”
    Suddenly, completely uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, Lex ordered another round of drinks. Turning back to his father, he said, “I was a kid and didn’t know any better.” And with that, he left his father sitting at the bar while he went off to