Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(20)
Author: K.A. Linde

He’s a player. You don’t know him. You’ve only ever seen one side of him.

She had attempted to erase that whole conversation with Bekah from her mind. Rather unsuccessfully, but she had tried. However, the more she tried to forget it the more it kept creeping up on her. Perhaps this was just another one of Bekah’s games not that she had any way of knowing Lexi would still pursue Ramsey…or did she? She hated thinking about it.

Ramsey had only shown her one side, but nonetheless Lexi was just seeing a new side. A side she liked, though it scared the hell out of her, but still different than before. She hated to think Bekah had been right in anything. She hated having doubts about Ramsey.

And though she had a hard time dispelling her reservations, she needed to focus more on having fun with him then analyzing his every move. She had been hurt before, but she didn’t want that to define her.

Brad kept the music blasting to old 90s rock music the entire ride leaving very little room for conversation from that point on. That was fine with Lexi. She was still processing, and didn’t really want to blabber a slew of personal questions in front of Ramsey’s roommates. She could wait for later.

Brad pulled the Jeep off the road and down a winding path that had once been paved, but was now cracking and bumpy. Lexi understood why the Jeep was used instead of the other sporty cars. Wherever they were going was not meant for the lavish and luxury Lexi had witnessed in the garage. She hadn’t really been an outdoorsy type since she spent most of her time on school work or locked in the gymnastics studio. However, when she was younger, she had been a girl scout and church retreats had kept alive her love of camping and bonfires. Living in the city for nearly three years made her forget just how bright and beautiful the stars were…not to mention how many. Thousands upon thousands of twinkling white beams stared down at Lexi through the glass. Her eyes lit up at the spectacle, entranced by the beauty of the countryside.

A break in the tree line appeared before them and Brad began to decelerate as they approached. Lexi peered out through the front window anxious to see what lay ahead. Even in the darkness, the magnitude of the lake, majestically lit by the moon, was evident. Lexi couldn’t even glimpse the opposite bank.

Brad parked the Jeep in a gravel lot besides several other SUVs. As the ignition died, only the sounds of nature filled her ears. Lexi closed her eyes taking in all the noise that wildlife produced and the smell of pine mingled with red clay. She felt Ramsey’s sweet kiss on her lips and opened her eyes to smile at him.

"So you like it?" he questioned rhetorically.

"What park is this? It doesn’t look like Lake Lanier. And wouldn’t we have had to pay for entrance?" Lexi mused aloud.

Lexi could hear a chorus of chuckles behind her, and snapped her head around to see a crowd of people standing under a covered patio with picnic benches. "Don’t mind them," Ramsey said glaring in their direction. "My parent’s actually own this land. I’ve been coming here since a kid," he told her as he veered her towards a garage that she hadn’t noticed in the darkness. "I think my dad was going to make it into some ritzy resort or develop the property, but after awhile he just forgot about it. With the economy all messed up right now, there’s no chance he’s going to do anything to it now," he added the last part with a sigh of relief. Ramsey flicked a switch that illuminated a key pad and punched in a seven-digit code.

"What’s in there?" Lexi asked in awe as a side door clicked open.

Ramsey walked inside holding the door for Lexi to follow. "This is where my dad keeps his toys," he murmured softly, "and now mine." He flicked another switch and the garage lit up showcasing two boats, jet skis, a number of four wheelers, dirt bikes, a collection of rafts, kayaks, and canoes, along with other various outdoors equipment such as a hammock, tent, and camping gear.

"Holy shit!" Lexi couldn’t help herself from exclaiming.

"Yea," he murmured appreciatively. "Ever been on a four wheeler?" He walked over to a green bike in particular and set his hand down affectionately on the handle. Lexi shook her head unable to utter a single word. "This baby is a Raptor," he informed her, "you’ll like her."

The garage door startled her by beginning to open to the front. Brad wandered over to them and stared longingly at the four wheeler Ramsey had just shown her. "You riding the Raptor?" he asked obviously itching to get on the bike.

"Lexi’s never been on one," Ramsey told him effectively ending the conversation.

"Uh…you think I’m getting on that thing?" she asked apprehensively.

"I won’t go that fast," he said winking at her. "Though it is one of the fastest models. I’ll wait until you’re more comfortable though."

As the rest of the group wandered into the garage and began claiming the various bikes and four wheelers, Lexi realized that there were less people than she had originally thought. There were two additional guys and four girls in total. She almost laughed aloud when she realized that they were evenly matched guys to girls. Silently she wondered if this had been planned.

"Alright I’m not really going to go into the details, but since you’ve never been on one before I’ll just forewarn you that the buzzing sound is completely normal, the ride should and will be bumpy, and you’re going to have a lot of fun," Ramsey said. His smile was infectious and Lexi couldn’t help but revel in his enthusiasm. Though she assumed it was also the thrill and anticipation of what she was about to do.

Lexi gingerly climbed onto the back of the bike. She wrapped her arms tightly around Ramsey torso and pressed herself against his back. Nuzzling into his shoulder, she tried to calm her heart which had kicked into overdrive. Ramsey revved the engine, kicked the clutch into gear and took off. When Ramsey had said he was going to go slow, Lexi had thought he had meant slow, but apparently their definitions were different. He raced ahead easily taking the lead from his friends. The shorter layers of Lexi’s hair released from her ponytail and whipped around in her face. She felt him switch gears and zoom forward into the tree line following a dirt trail that she couldn’t make out. Her terror alleviated some the longer Ramsey drove down the path, but her grip only barely loosened.

As they took a sharp turn, a fire burning in the distance alerted her that they weren’t the only ones in the woods. The adrenaline from the ride kept her mind vigilant. As she became more comfortable on the bike, she also became more aware of her surroundings. A dirt path lay before her and she realized that it was wider than she had originally thought. The tree line had gradually begun to grow in overhead to fight for the sunlight, but the moon was still visible.

Lexi clasped her hands tighter around Ramsey’s torso and nuzzled in closer to his warm body. She could feel his taut muscles underneath her grip. A smile spread across her face at the feel of him and she realized, despite her terror, that she was having a good time. She would have never done anything like this, she never had done anything like this before.

Just as she was finally getting into a rhythm of the bumps and curves, Ramsey pulled into a clearing. He made a circle around a roaring bonfire, then hit the brakes and killed the engine.

"Did you like it?" Ramsey asked helping her off the bike and setting her carefully back on her wobbly feet.

"Uh…" she managed clamping and unclamping her frozen fingers. "You said you were going to go slow."

Ramsey laughed boisterously at her shocked face before throwing an arm over her shoulders and dragging her closer to the bonfire. "That was slow."

The rest of the group skid to a halt next to Ramsey’s Raptor and joined them by the fire.

"Man that was awesome," Brad crowed wandering up to Ramsey and clasping him on the back. "Haven’t been up here since the summer."

"Yeah I forgot how killer the ride is," Jason said sidling up to Lexi. "You like it?"

Lexi smiled noncommittally though she had enjoyed herself once she had gotten used to it. The rest of the group seemed to all know each other. A few of the girls giggled about the ride up. One of them reached up and directly kissed a guy staking her claim. They introduced themselves but as soon as they were said she had forgotten them save for one redhead, Jessie, who kept eyeing her warily.

After settling in around the fire, the group began to roast marshmallows for smores and talk about some event that had happened in high school. Lexi wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation since she didn’t follow more than half the players involved, but she did listen to the next thing that was mentioned.

"Do you remember when you guys came up here after prom and she insisted on wearing that ridiculous long dress on your tiny dirt bike, Bridges?" Jessie asked her eyes shifting from Ramsey to Lexi.

Lexi glanced up at Ramsey who was glaring in Jessie’s direction. "Yes I remember," he growled.

"That was a crazy night. I think I was dating Jeff Kensington," she said giggling. "He had such a crush on me. Would have done anything for me."

"I think he did," Brad said with a wink. The group laughed aloud at some private joke.

"Well not compared to…" she began.

"Jess we know the story," Ramsey snapped narrowing his eyes.

"Fine. Whatever," she snapped right back at him, reaching into a cooler, and pulling out a light beer.

Lexi’s senses were on end from the conversation and she didn’t even know what it had been about. All she knew was that he didn’t want to talk about it, and she had a feeling it had something to do with her. She wanted to ask him what that was about, but she couldn’t do it in front of all of his friends. This was the second conversation she had overheard about Ramsey with another girl. First his dad and now Jessie. She wondered if they were related…though she doubted it.

After an awkward silence, the conversation picked back up, but Lexi’s mind was lost in Jessie’s few sentences. Who was the girl that had come up with him after prom? She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that they had driven all the way up here for no particular purpose.

A conversation came to her mind that she had with Ramsey when he had come to visit. He had claimed to never have a girlfriend…to never have been in love. Yet, he had snapped so forcefully at Jessie, Lexi couldn’t help but wonder about the cause.

She knew there had been women in his life. The conversation had never drifted past that point though. She was still too anxious about her own past to push him to find out about his own. She knew that she would never fully rid herself of Jack. Despite telling him that she was completely over him after his actions, she knew she had only said that to hurt him. She still missed him and her heart ached for him whenever she allowed herself to think about him. They had shared something incomprehensible to most people, and it wasn’t to be taken lightly. However, with Ramsey’s help she was slowly thinking of him less and less all the while eliminating the baggage that she had always carried around with her. Now that she sat down and thought about it, Lexi realized she hadn’t even though about Jack after the past two days of carefree fun with Ramsey.

Feeling Ramsey’s fingers gently lace with her own brought her back to reality and she looked up at him and smiled. "What has you so entranced?" he asked her rubbing his thumb against her soft skin.