Welcome to Paradise: Welcome to Paradise, Book 1 by Elle Kennedy Page A

he said, genuinely apologetic. “But Charlotte won’t be in town for much longer, and I want to spend as much time with her as I can.”
    Her blue eyes narrowed. “Why?”
    “What do you mean, why?” He bristled. “Because I haven’t seen her in fifteen years? Because I enjoy her company?”
    “But…she dumped you!”
    “Actually, I dumped her.”
    There was a deafening silence. Lexie looked so flustered he started laughing again then grew pensive. “I’m sorry I never told you. I just wasn’t proud of the way I ended things.” He swallowed. “I hurt Charlotte pretty badly.”
    The blonde seemed to be working it all over in her head. “You broke up with Charlotte.”
    “Yes.”
    “And now the two of you are back together.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?” she asked again.
    “Stop asking why.” Irritation crept up his chest. “Why can’t you just be happy for me?”
    “I am. Well, I’m not,” she amended. “But that’s because I don’t trust any of this! It has Evelyn written all over it, Nate.”
    “Charlotte is not like Evelyn,” he replied stiffly.
    “And you don’t find it the least bit suspicious that she’s so willing to hop into bed with you again after you supposedly destroyed her?”
    “I didn’t say I destroyed her. I said I hurt her.”
    “Same thing.” Lexie shrugged. “And trust me, Nate, women don’t forget those kinds of things.”
    His voice was quiet. “She hasn’t forgotten. But she’s willing to forgive.”
    “So she says.”
    The suspicion still running rampant on her face intensified his annoyance. He got that Lexie didn’t like Charlotte, but this was starting to piss him off. “Stop it, Lex,” he said in a low voice. “You might not like Charlotte, but at least show her some respect. She makes me happy.”
    A lump lodged in his throat. Fuck, she really did make him happy. All these years, he’d carried on with his life, worked at the pub, dated women he didn’t feel anything for. But a piece of him had always been missing. He hadn’t felt whole, content. And then Charlotte walked back into his life and everything made sense again. He could tell Charlotte anything and everything. He could hold her in his arms and feel so completely at peace.
    And as much as he cared about Lexie, he refused to let her taint this newfound happiness.
    “I love her,” he said gruffly.
    Lexie looked shocked. “What?”
    “It’s true. I love her. I never stopped loving her.” His throat grew tight. “And I want her in my life.”
    “God, Nate, you’re being so—”
    “Stop,” he cut in again. Then he sighed. “Do you care about me, Lex?”
    Her tone softened. “You know I do.”
    “Then drop this. And you know, it wouldn’t kill you to make an effort to get to know Charlotte. The two of you are stuck in the past, focused on petty teenage crap that doesn’t matter anymore.”
    “So what are you saying? If I don’t make an effort, you’re going to cut me out of your life?”
    He ignored the bite to her voice. “I’ll always be your friend and you know it. But things would be a hell of a lot easier if you tried to accept Charlotte. Because like it or not, I’m not letting her go again. I want her in my life and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she stays there. I’m serious, Lex, this time it’s forever.”
     
     
    Lexie strode into the Paradise Public Library forty minutes later, after leaving Nate’s house with a chunk of anger in her throat. She might have promised him that she’d accept his relationship with Charlotte, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do some digging. In secret, of course.
    Truth was she didn’t trust Charlotte farther than she could throw her. And now she trusted her less after she’d learned the truth about Nate and Charlotte’s breakup. She could only imagine what Nate must have said in order for Charlotte to storm out of town in the middle of the night. Lexie remembered having breakfast with her parents at Betty’s