When he parked the bike right in front of the paved driveway, he dismounted first before holding out a hand and helping me afterward. I yanked the helmet off while he unstrapped my bag, tilting his head in the direction of the door as his wordless come on.
I followed in after him, taking in the minimal furniture in his living room: a brown microfiber sectional sofa, alargeflat screen television mounted to the wall, an entertainment center underneath, and… that was it. Dex had dropped my bag onto the couch before turning to look at me.
“You can take the bed, babe. I got two other rooms but not another bed to sleep in,” he explained.
I was still looking around, past the living room to spy a kitchen that opened up directly to it but at his words, I shook my head. “No, I’ll stay on the couch. I can sleep just about anywhere.”
While it was the truth, I wasn’t about to point out that our sixty or seventy pound weight difference on top of half a foot in height difference would definitely make me a better candidate for his long but still somewhat narrow couch.
He opened his mouth to argue with me before I cut him off.
“Seriously, Dex. I’ll stay on the couch, don’t worry about it. If you can just get me a pillow and a blanket…?”
The flat, completely ill amused look on his face made think he wanted to discuss the sleeping arrangements more, but I think he understood my secret reasoning and was probably too tired to fight it. With a nod, he disappeared into a hallway to the right of the living room and couch for a couple of minutes, coming back with a pillow covered in a dark blue pillowcase and a white blanket under his arm.
Dex handed them to me silently, watching as I laid out the blanket with a yawn and dropped the pillow onto the end of the couch closest to the front door.
“The bathroom is down the hall, first door on your right, and my bedroom is that way,” he pointed toward another hallway on the left side of the living room. “Last door.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled with another yawn, dropping my butt onto the cushion.
He took a step back, locking those Crayola blue eyes on me. “Make yourself at home, and wake me up if you need anythin'.”
I nodded my answer, smiling at him sleepily. “All right. Night, Dex.” I paused. "Thanks for everything."
His nod was slow. “Night, babe.”
I didn’t waste any more time trying to watch him disappear into the hallway. The moment I slipped beneath the blanket and my head hit the pillow,I realized how wide awake I was.
Ef me.
Small sounds creaked throughout the house. The rush of water through pipes pulled at my attention while I lay there, chin to chest, staring at the darkness. I closed my eyes and tried to will my body to wind down.
And then I tried some more.
Chapter Seventeen
I woke up the next morning both way too early and in almost the same way I’d gotten scared awake just hours before at Sonny’s. Dex’s ass was on the couch crammed into the area where my hips were, one hand on my shoulder shaking me.
“Time to get up.”
I opened one eye, immediately focusing on the digital clock of his DVD player. I groaned, shutting it right back again. “It’s barely seven.” I’m not sure if what I said even sounded like what I’d intended it to, but it must have been enough for Dex to understand.
“Yeah, babe, but we got a busy day. Gotta run some errands.”
What I meant to say was, “I don’t know what errands you want to run at seven in the morning,” but it probably sounded more like “I…errands…seven…”
Fingers swept back the black hair plastered to my face in a gesture I was too tired to appreciate. “I need to go sort Sonny's shit out.”
Sonny. Right.
With a grunt, I rolled onto my back and blinked at the white popcorn ceiling. I sat up half-delusional, sounding more like a man than a woman. “Okay, okay. I’m up.”
After giving me instructions on where the towels were and how to use the tricky hot water, Dex dumped mybagin the standard guest bathroom with a tub blocked off by a neat blue and green striped curtain. I took a quick shower and pulled a brush through my hair before throwing it up into a ponytail. I bumbled out, still half-asleep to find Dex sitting on the couch watching television with my neatly folded blanket and pillow to his side.
“Ready,” I yawned.
He glanced up, looked back at the TV screen for half a second before darting his attention back at me. Well, specifically my legs. In my haste hours before, I’d thrown random clothes together. Apparently, I’d dug into my NSFW—not safe for work—clothing. All I’d found in the bag were shorts, yoga pants, and the three denim mini-skirts I owned. The mini-skirts were a memory of the heat and humidity in south Florida. Heat and humidity that I swear Austin compared to.
