“But I'm cold.”She sticks her bottom lip out in a pout.
“I know.I’ll get you warm again, but I think we both need to get changed.”I glance down at my leather jacket and worn jeans.I’ve slept in worse, but I don’t want to, I’d rather be comfortable.
More than anything, I want to wear something I'm not afraid of Dixie throwing up on.There’s a very real possibility of that happening tonight.
“Where are we?”She slowly releases her hold on me and glances around my apartment.
I never really thought about it, but I don’t think she’s ever been in here.I’ve been to her place when they moved in and when Porter’s asked me to get the girls for something, but she wouldn’t have a reason to come here.
“My apartment.”
“Daddy’s going to yell at you,” she singsongs, trying to boop me on the nose, but she misses and hits my cheek.
“Your dad is the one who asked me to take care of you,” I mumble as I strip my jacket off and toss it on the chair.My shirt is pulled over my head and I grab a pair of shorts out of my dresser.
After quickly changing into my shorts in the bathroom, I spin around to face Dixie and find a single tear slipping down her cheek.
“What’s wrong, Little Fox?”I hover over her body and brush the moisture away.
“Nothing.I want to go home.”She tries to slip under my arm to get away from me.If she were sober, I have no doubt she’d be able to do it and would be halfway to her apartment already, but with how drunk she is, she can barely function.
Man, maybe I shouldn’t have allowed those extra shots they had before we left.I never should’ve let her get this drunk.
“Baby, you’re not going anywhere.”
Her eyes widen and fear creeps into her features.Definitely not the reassuring words I was going for.
“You’re drunk.I want you with me in case you get sick.That’s it.I'm not going to touch you or do anything to you.Now, why are you crying, Dix?”
“Because you’re only taking care of me because Daddy asked you to,” she whispers as she successfully ducks under my arm and stumbles into the bathroom, shutting the door behind herself.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I murmur as I scrub a hand down my face and stare at the closed door like it’s going to give me the answers I’m looking for right now.
Chapter 6
Dixie
“Hedoesn’tcareaboutyou, Dixie.You’re only here because he was commanded to take care of you and Storm would never go against the great Porter Reeves,” I mumble to myself as I use Storm’s white towel to scrub my face clean of makeup.
He’s not going to be happy when he sees the black smudges covering his clean towel, but I don’t care.I don’t want to sleep with all of this on my face and I'm not asking him for a different towel.
In fact, I'm not talking to him at all the rest of the night… morning?Whatever!I'm not talking to him for at least a week!That should do it.Make him realize I'm mad at him.
But it probably won't.He most likely won't even realize I'm giving him the silent treatment because that’s how little Storm cares about me.I'm only a blip on his radar because of who my father is.If I called anyone else dad, he’d ignore me like I didn’t even exist.
I'm not sure which one would be worse.On one hand, I get his attention and he’s forced to talk to me and take care of me when I get too drunk.On the other, it’s like having false hope that maybe one day I could be more to him.
My eyes are heavy and unfocused as I stare at my reflection in the mirror.I'm so tired and I'm freezing.I don’t know why I let Roxy talk me into wearing this.I knew I’d be freezing in the corset, but she insisted the alcohol would take the edge off.And it did for a while, but now it’s not helping.
There’s no way I'm sleeping in it, but I'm not sure I can get out of this by myself either.
I fumble with the knots on my back, trying to free myself from this contraption.I don’t know what I’ll wear when I get this off, but right now I'm too focused on freeing myself to care.
I don’t have a bra or my dress, Roxy left them both in the back room of the saloon.The only thing she didn’t make me change out of was my underwear, though she did complain about the hot pink color.
“What are you doing in there, Little Fox?”Storm’s deep voice flows through the closed door and wraps around me like a warm hug.
I open my mouth to respond, but then I remember I don’t want to talk to him.I’m never talking to him again if I can help it.
