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wrong with her?” The dangerous question came out before Lexy could stop it.
    “What kind of woman saddles her kids with names like Alexa Annabeth and Grayson Jameson but then calls her dogs George and Martha?”
    “Mom wanted the corgis to be patriotic.”
    Noah’s jaw dropped. “You know that’s crazy, right?”
    Lexy did. Over-the-edge nuts. That described her parents. They were successful to a shocking degree and smart, but that was all to the outside world. In the eyes of those who really knew them well, which was almost no one, they were utterly dysfunctional.
    And the whole damn family adored Noah. Her brother Gray turned out to be Noah’s biggest supporter. Gray whined almost daily about her decision to break off the engagement. Tried to talk her out of it about a hundred times. Her dad grumbled about Noah being a man who could handle her. Her mom, well, Noah charmed the woman right out of her expensive designer shoes.
    Noah worked hard with Gray and refused to quit even after she dumped him. Since the entire family sided with him, Lexy got stuck with a reputation as an unreasonable outcast. Little did they know she was trying to save their collective butts.
    “You know, if you had asked me about any of this before you stormed out, I would have told you. There was no reason to go to limp dick—”
    She growled in frustration for the first time in her life. “William.”
    “You sleep with him yet?”
    “That’s not your business.”
    “We can debate that point if you really want to.”
    “I’m not playing this game.” She tightened her hold on her bag.
    “You missed me.” The idea made Noah grin like a monkey on speed. “I can tell.”
    She did. Every single day. “I prefer grown-up men now.”
    That killed his stupid smile. “Limp ones.”
    She wondered if her head would explode from the back-and-forth. “There’s nothing wrong with William.”
    “All of his body parts work? You’ve been to bed and he passes?”
    “William is a friend and—”
    “So you haven’t slept with him.” Noah nodded nice and slow, even shot the watching ladies a smile. “Good, don’t you think?”
    “I didn’t say…what’s so good about it?”
    “Because you’re not cheating on me.”
    “It would be hard to do since we broke up,” she said in an attempt to point out the obvious.
    “Semantics.”
    “It always is with you.”
    He sighed. “Seems to me we’re still not communicating effectively.”
    “How’s this? Get lost.”
    “Clearer, but not going to happen. See, I’m thinking I could use a vacation, too.”
    “You haven’t taken a vacation since high school.”
    “Then I’m overdue.” He nodded toward her bag. “Any chance you packed my bathing suit? Last I knew it was in your apartment.”
    “If so, a homeless guy has it, since I donated all of your leftovers to a shelter.”
    He let the shot whiz on past him. “Well, the gift store probably sells men’s trunks. If not, we’ll have to hope the spa has a liberal policy on skinny-dipping.”
    No way was she sticking around for that show. “I’m going to my room.”
    “See you at dinner.” He winked at her.
    That stopped her hasty exit. “You are not staying here.”
    “Yeah, babe, I am.”
    “I am not your babe.”
    “Whatever you want to call yourself, you can’t hide from me.”
    Oh, she bet she could.

Chapter Four
    F our hours and two ice-cold showers later, Noah sat in the oversized dining room nursing a beer and his fractured ego. He passed over the salad bar and trays of something called macrobiotic food in favor of the bottle he had smuggled into the joint.
    “Not having dinner?” asked a tanned, trim, salad-eating guy as he sat in the chair across from Noah and started a full-fledged unwanted conversation.
    “I prefer food.” Noah hoped the guy would pick up on the cues and disinterest and move on.
    “I assure you, all of our selections are very healthy.”
    “Whatever.”
    “The food has the optimum mix of