Page 76 of Her Fantasy Husband

Chapter Fifteen

Lexi wandered around the house as though in a daze.

He was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.

Now she had to get through this. And she would. She’d done it before, long ago, when her parents had been killed. She’d do it again.

For once she had the place to herself, and she was glad. They were all being so careful around her.

Josh had been right. She’d been in total denial about the fact that she needed something. Again, a hang up from losing her parents. She subconsciously associated need with loss.

Or rather, she had been in denial until he’d come into her life for real.

Then it was impossible to ignore. But maybe these feelings were inevitable. She’d put her life on hold when she married Josh. But everyone needed someone. Everyone needed to be the most important person in the world to someone else. She was no different. Now she had to accept that for her, that someone else was never going to be Josh.

But she hated the thought of him accepting that he had to be alone, that he didn’t deserve love. He had so much to give.

She’d allow herself today to mope, and then she would get back up, dust herself off, deal with her grandmother and anything else that came her way.

She lay on the sofa where Josh had slept and burrowed her face in the cushion trying to get a brief scent of him, but he was gone. Her phone rang, and she grabbed it up and stared at the number. But she didn’t recognize it, and her heart sank. No good hoping.

“Hello. Lexi Slater here.”

The other end was silent for a moment, though she could hear someone breathing.

“Hello?”

“Hello.” A girl’s voice. “My name’s Evelyn. I think you might be married to my brother.”

…

All he could do now was wait. They’d told him it would take time. They had to contact Evelyn and her family and find out if she wanted to see him.

Would she?

He really had no clue.

But he hoped.

He was heading to his office when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and stared at the number. Lexi.

Did she want to talk about the divorce? No way. He wasn’t ready to talk about it, and he certainly wasn’t ready to do it.

He put the phone away without answering.

It rang again ten minutes later. Then five minutes. This time he took a deep breath and pressed the button.

“Josh?” She sounded almost breathless, excited.

“What is it?”

“Your sister called. She’s trying to find you.”

For a moment he couldn’t process the words. “I don’t understand. I just talked to social services, they told me it could take weeks.”

“You did? That’s wonderful, Josh. But she didn’t call because of social services. She hired a private detective to find you—apparently it wasn’t difficult.”

“I don’t believe it.”