I thought Dixie had a thing for me.I always suspected she had a little crush on me, but right now, she’s making me feel like I'm practically invisible to her.An annoying little gnat at best.
“I didn’t touch you like that,” I growl.
“Oh, I wasn’t implying you did.”She smiles down at the dough, completely oblivious to how I'm unraveling.“You’d never do anything to hurt Daddy’s view of you.You care too much about him liking you to ever touch any of the Reeves triplets.We’ve known that for a long time.I'm just wondering why I was in your bed to begin with.Daddy probably wouldn’t approve of that.”
“He’s the one who asked me to take you to my place.He wanted me to watch you because everyone was too afraid you were going to choke on your own vomit with how drunk you were.”
“That’s right,” she draws out the word as her brows pinch together and she starts piecing things together.“And now, I remember why I'm mad at you.”
“Are you kidding me right now?”I drop onto the stool and stare at her.There’s no way this is really happening.I just wanted to talk to her and clear the air.I planned on us having a real conversation.A heart to heart where I would lay it all out on the table and we could see where the cards fall.
“See, I really don’t want to talk to you because now I remember why I'm mad.I’d like it if you left my kitchen.”She points in the direction of the door and I let out a humorless laugh.She has to be messing with me.
“No.I think I’ll stay.I have some things I wanted to talk to you about and they’re concerning why you were mad at me last night.”
“Wait… You knew I was mad?”Her brows pinch together as she finally moves her attention to me.
“Yes?”
“And you weren’t going to tell me?Wow, Storm.You can be a real jerk sometimes.”She spins around and wraps this dough in another tea towel and repeats the process with a third lump.
“I wasn’t going to remind you.That would be crazy.I'm trying to make you less annoyed with me, not more.”I shake my head, focusing on the wrong thing isn't going to help here.“But I wanted to talk to you about how you were wrong with what you were thinking last night.”
Holy crap, I feel like I'm talking in circles and it’s making me more and more agitated.I just wanted to clear the air between us.I want to tell Dixie how much she means to me and make her understand.
“I’m not sure I want to.”
“You’re not sure you want to what?”
“Listen to you yammer on and on about how I'm wrong.I have a lot of work to get done before dinner.”
“How are you even standing right now?Oakley could barely even keep her eyes open when I stopped at your apartment and she wasn’t nearly as drunk as you were last night.”
“Well, Roxy has this theory.She says because her and Oakley drink more often than I do, they get hungover.Where I rarely drink, my body processes the alcohol more quickly and I don’t get hungover… though I'm still a little drunk.”
“Should you really be using sharp objects then?”I motion to the knife she just picked up to start cutting vegetables.
“Probably not, but who else is going to do it?”
“Stop it.Sit down and relax.I can help for a while before anyone is going to look for me.”I move around the island so I'm standing next to her and carefully take the knife out of her hands.
Dixie stares at me until I nod towards the stool and after rolling her eyes, she finally moves around to sit down with a huff.
“You’re not going to do it right.”
I pause with the knife midair, ready to slice into the carrots.I lift my gaze just enough to meet her eyes through my lashes.
“I know how to cut vegetables, Dixie.Remember I have a whole fourteen years of experience on this earth more than you do.”
“Yeah, but you don’t cook.So, your old age doesn’t help you here.”
“I know how to cook.What are we making for dinner anyway?”
“Stew.What else would these idiots possibly want?”She groans, dropping her head onto the countertop.
“If you could make anything you wanted for dinner, what would it be?”
Dixie rolls her head to the side so she can stare up at me without lifting her head.Her eyes are narrowed and she’s examining me, but she doesn’t look angry, just curious.
