When we got to the dining room, I froze in place. Gage had to stop, realizing I hadn’t continued in with him. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
I just shook my head as I glanced away from Dante’s scowling face. “Nothing,” I forced a smile and pulled my hand from his.
“Hey, Parker,” Ry called out from his seat. “Glad you could make it.”
I took the same chair I’d sat in the night before and folded my hands in my lap, doing my best to appear calm as I looked around the room at everything and everyone except the man glaring down at his plate across from me.
“Parker,” Ry began, “this is our good friend, Dante. We were in the same unit together in the military. Dante, This is Special Agent Parker. Her team is here to help with the serial killer investigation. She’s been a big help already.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I mumbled as I picked up the glass of water in front of me. I realized I was being rude, so I set it back down without taking a drink. “It’s nice to meet you, Dante.”
I heard a grunt as the only reply. He didn’t bother looking up as he snatched a roll from the basket in the middle of the table. I wasn’t going to take his demeanor personally. I knew that the man had likely had a traumatic experience and was dealing with the effects from that. Plus, I hadn’t made a good first impression. I hated that, but I wouldn’t be around long, so as much as I would love to make sure he knew I wasn’t a shitty person, I wasn’t going to shove myself on him.
I gave Ry and Gage an awkward smile and reached for my own roll. I picked up my butter knife and started to retrieve butter from the dish next to the rolls when another knife met mine there at the same time. I froze and glanced up to see Dante staring at me with a cold expression.
“I’m sorry,” I said, yanking my knife back, my cheeks heating. “You first.”
For some reason I didn’t understand, that just seemed to make him even angrier. He stabbed his knife into the butter with a snarl, and then, to my utter shock, he leaned over the table and jerked the knife hard once, making the butter splat onto my plate.
“Thank you.” I barely heard myself whisper the words, but he grunted in acknowledgement. Seemingly satisfied, he dropped back into his chair and got his own butter. I watched, fascinated, as he slathered it over the top of his roll like a caveman instead of cutting the bread open first.
“What?” Dante demanded when he caught me staring at him as if he were a zoo animal on display. My cheeks heated as I, once again, made him feel uncomfortable and defensive when I hadn’t meant to. I ducked my head, staring down at my plate. I picked up my butter knife and carefully sliced the roll in half.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you that staring is rude?”
My eyes snapped back up to his, beginning to feel a bit defensive myself after feeling his hostility being directed at me since we sat down. “I wasn’t staring atyou, Mr. Arrogant. I was watching someone with clearly no table manners ruining a perfectly good dinner roll.”
The snickers from down the table reminded me that we weren’t alone. I didn’t dare glance in their direction. I internally sighed. I was never going to be able to make friends with this man. Perhaps one day we’d be able to have a normal conversation.
I looked back up to apologize, but there was a small glint in his eyes that looked suspiciously like pride. In me? For snapping back at him? It was there and gone before I could analyze it further.
The rest of dinner was a tense, awkward affair, at least for me. Dante and I were both the quiet ones, neither one of us saying much beyond a simple response when needed. Ry was the one who carried the majority of the discussions, with Gage pitching in every now and then. Most of the talk was about the ranch itself. I learned that they were moving pigs from one pen to another in the next few days. It seemed as if they did it periodically on a rotational basis. Although I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, I also had no idea how ranches were run.
Once our meal was completed, I offered to help clean the table. I hadn’t consumed a single drop of wine this time around, not wanting another repeat of the previous night’s drunken ramblings. As I stood up to gather plates, their housekeeper, Ruby, waved me off with a smile. My original impression of her had been completely wrong, and admittedly, had been formed through the eyes of a woman with insecurities. I thought that she was jealous of my appearance in their house, thinking that she had some sort of claim on the guys. Instead, she just seemed overly friendly with everyone. I had come to understand that Ruby was a natural flirt.
The guys didn’t seem to be interested in her from what I’d observed. Ry would give her an indulgent smile when she’d wink at him, but Gage was rather dismissive when she’d rubbed his shoulder while serving dinner. There had been none of the heated looks that he had given me in the foyer when we had our talk. Instead of being hurt or upset by his rejection, she just laughed it off, not at all upset.
I followed her into the kitchen, carrying empty glasses, fully prepared to assist. When she told me that I didn’t need to help, I tried to insist, but the woman was stubborn.
“Honey,” Ruby clucked her tongue. “You’re a guest here. These guys wouldn’t want you lifting a finger to help. It’s my job,and I get paid for it. Quite well, I might add,” she told me with a wink. “By the way,” she suddenly spun around and set the stack of dishes she’d been holding on the counter. “They asked me if I had an extra bathing suit.”
She eyed me with a critical eye that didn’t feel judgmental, just as if she were mentally measuring me. “Hopefully it fits you. We’re not exactly built the same,” she giggled, “but I think it’ll work.” She picked up a small pile of fabric that I hadn’t noticed sitting on the edge of the kitchen island and shoved it into my hands. It was bright red with splashes of black across it. “Here you go. There’s a bathroom down the hall and to the left,” she pointed. “You can change in there. When you’re done, the back door is just that way. You can’t miss it.” And she winked at me and waved her hand to shoo me off.
I took my eyes away from the minuscule fabric that I was holding and looked back up at her. “Thanks for this,” I said cautiously.
“It’s nothing,” she said with a grin. “Have fun!” She turned her back to me and started rinsing the plates off while humming a tune I couldn’t place.
I turned to follow the directions that she gave me to the bathroom, not at all looking forward to putting on the bathing suit. It was worse than I had originally imagined. As I stared in the mirror, I kept tugging, hoping the fabric would magically grow and cover more of me, but of course, it was a futile effort. I would’ve thought that with a woman having such larger breasts than mine, the fabric would have been more than enough to cover my smaller ones, but it seemed I was doomed for disappointment.
I suppose I could consider myself lucky that it wasn’t a string bikini. It definitely wasn’t a style that I typically went for, since I was more of the full-coverage type of girl. I preferred boyshorts, as I was always needing to hide myself from the world. Thebikini had a cheeky bottom style cut that left half my ass showing. At least I would be under the water the whole time, and it would be dark outside.
There was nothing more to do. I either pulled my bravery out from somewhere deep inside me, or took the coward’s way out and ran home to my borrowed cabin. There was no way to magically produce more fabric, and I wasn’t a coward, so I finally gave up and turned to open the door. I squared my shoulders back and took several deep breaths, preparing to fake confidence I didn’t feel.
Chapter 14
Parker
