I burst out laughing at that and cover my mouth as I walk toward the front door. Whoever is behind it rings again. “What is it with your family and clowns?”
“Look through the little window at the top!” Dixie demands.
I do what she requests, and my heart starts doing gymnastics. “This is the hottest psychopath I’ve ever seen. I am totally letting him in.”
I unlock the door and fling it open. Jude’s perfect body fills the doorframe. He’s in dark jeans and an untucked button-down shirt with a brown cardboard box tucked under his left arm. His mischievous grin has a darker element tonight, and the twinkle in his blue eyes seems to hold a serious glint. I almost have the urge to ask him if something is wrong, because that look, along with the fact that this is an unexpected appearance, makes me think something is. But I can’t get a word out because his lips are suddenly glued to mine.
The kiss is a reflection of the way he looks—it’s dark and moody and something Jude has never been before:needy. He grabs my waist with his free hand and pulls me to him roughly, but his lips brush mine softly. His tongue slides gently into my mouth, but his fingers curl tightly around my waist. It’s one of those monumental big-screen kisses, and I don’t want it to end. But Dixie lets out a sisterly groan, and he slowly, begrudgingly, breaks it.
“Oh God, gross,” Dixie wails dramatically. “My eyes!”
“Sorry,” Jude says in a decidedly un-Jude way, because normally he would shoot some kind of snarky comeback to Dixie. “I didn’t mean to crash girls’ night. I just wanted to see you.”
Dixie and I exchange glances. Dixie’s voice loses its sarcastic tone. “You okay, Jude?”
He nods and shrugs at the same time, which is the weirdest thing ever, and then holds up the box in his hand. “Yeah. I’m fine. I just want to give this to Zoey and thought I would swing by on my way home. I don’t have to stay.”
“Yes, you do,” I blurt out, and his grin starts to lose that darkness. “I mean, you don’t mind, do you, Dix?”
She shrugs. “No. I was going to head home after I finished my glass anyway.” She looks at the glass in her hand, lifts it and tips it back, downing the rest of her Pinot. She reaches for her purse hanging on a hook on the hall stand and then hugs me. “Thanks, Zoey. We have to do this again when Winnie and Sadie are visiting.”
“For sure.”
She steps to the right, in front of Jude, and hugs him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s in the box?”
“No.”
She pulls out of the hug and gives him a motherly look. “Is it a sex toy?”
“Dixie!” I laugh and cover my face with my hands, because I’m not a hundred percent sure it’s not a sex toy.
“Get out, loser,” Jude barks at her, but it’s jokingly. He walks over to the front door and opens it. “Are you parked nearby? Do you want me to walk you? Do you have that mace spray I gave you on your key chain?”
“Yes, no and yes,” Dixie replies and pulls out her key chain to show him the little spray bottle, then she points at the mystery box. “That better not be a video camera. No sex tapes. Not that it matters for you with your dick already out there, but Zoey’s dad is a pastor. Don’t do that to him.”
The minute the dick comment flies out of her mouth, Jude’s head whips over to me. Our eyes meet and I know. It really is his dick on the internet. He looks away and turns back to his sister. “Thanks for that, Dixie. Have agreatnight!”
“Oh. Oh! Oops! Jude, I—”
He shuts the door on her and then leans against it and looks up at me. The darkness creeps back into his features. He runs a hand over his dirty-blond hair and then lets it hang—his head and his hand. I take a step closer. Just one. “I already knew about the cock shot.”
“Oh. You Googled me?”
“Morgan did, and he told me about it.”
He groans, and his hand moves back up to rub his forehead, but he’s still staring at the floor under his feet. “Great. Your brother has seen my dick.”
“If it makes you feel any better, he thought it was lovely.” I know it’s a dumb thing to say, which is why I say it. I want to lift the mood, his spiritsand his head. It works, kind of. His head tips up, and his eyes rise a little. He looks at me from under his thick blond lashes.
He looks embarrassed, and it makes my heart ache. I take another step closer. “I don’t care, Jude. It speaks more to the character of the person who did it without your permission than it does to you.”
He stops breathing, for just a heartbeat, but he does it so quickly I can notice. “How did you know it was without my permission?”
“I just knew. I know that you wouldn’t do that on purpose.” I bite my bottom lip. Am I saying the wrong things? Should I just shut up? If I knew what was wrong, I could do a better job of fixing it.
