Deserving Love: A Contemporary Romance Series (Nick & Lexi Book 1) by Kay Brody

do that?” I asked.  
    “I wish I knew,” he sighed. “Any ideas from the queen of Biltmore Village?”  
    The title made me laugh. A queen? I highly doubt that. I was nothing more than someone willing to say what they felt.  
    “Well, money never hurt,” I teased and he laughed.  
    Just as we began to chat again I heard the chirp of my phone.  
    “That went off when you were getting coffee,” he told me. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”
    “It’s okay,” I told him as I picked up the device, already knowing who and what it was. A message from Nick.  
    I am a failure. I forgot Reckless was on last night. Yesterday sucked so bad that even the image of you naked couldn’t help.  
    I couldn’t help but smile at the message. Nick had a way of causing that to happen no matter when he wrote or what he said.  
    I didn’t watch it. I didn’t get naked either. I crashed early. Do I even need to ask about yesterday? Was it the bat shit crazy one?
    I was debating whether to hit send. I wanted to, but I felt like starting a conversation with Nick would deter me from the conversation I was in at that moment. Besides, what if Kendall was right? What if Nick was just an imaginary diversion to prevent me from dating real men? Not that I was dating Evan. Not that I would date Evan. But the theory still stood.  
    “That’s a pretty serious smile,” Evan commented. “Must be someone very special.”
    “Yes,” I blushed. “No. Hell, I don’t know. It’s…..”
    “Complicated?”
    “How’d you guess that?” I was surprised.
    “You’re a woman. Everything is complicated,” he noted. “Besides, whenever I’m trying to get to know a beautiful woman she has someone else she is interested in. Story of my life.”
    “I…uh…wow…thanks,” I was struggling to find the right words. “But it’s not like that. It’s ….complicated.”
    “So it’s not someone you are interested in?” Evan seemed hopeful.  
    “Not really,” I tried to find the words to explain. “I mean I am. But I’m not. And it doesn’t matter because we’ve never met.”
    “Oh,” he sighed. “One of those online things.”
    He didn’t seem surprised or turned off by the idea. He more seemed disappointed.  
    “Sort of. But it will stay an online thing,” I informed him. “We will never meet.”
    “Why?” he asked sincerely.  
    That was when I decided that rather than make myself look stranger than I already did, I would tell him what was going on with Nick.  
    “It’s hard to explain,” I began. “We have mutual friends so we started chatting. But we really don’t even know who the other is. And we’ve agreed to never meet,” I added.  
    I watched Evan’s expression change and I wondered if he judged me for the Nick situation. I wanted to explain more. A part of me wanted to confess to the fact that Nick made me feel sane and desirable. I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed the conversations and wished they occurred more often. But I didn’t want Evan to decide I was crazy.  
    “How long have you been talking to him?” he asked. “I met someone in a similar way. That’s pretty weird.”
    “Why are you here then?” I asked.  
    “Why are you?” he replied.  
    “Because maybe it’s time to spend time with new people. Real people. Not ones that I have to type to all the time.” It was the only answer that I had.  
    “Do you like him Lexi?” I paused and tried to decide how to answer him.  
    “I do. We have a lot in common and……what did you call me?” the name hit me.  
    “Ite   what they call you right?” he asked.  
    “Yes, but how did you know that?”
    “I just sent a message to the girl I met online not too long ago,” I didn’t understand why he’d changed the subject. “And then you got the message.”
    “No, my message is from a guy named Nick,” I laughed. “But nice theory. That would have made my best friend’s whole week. “
    “Lexi,” he continued, bothering me