I’m smiling so big it aches. This fucking girl…I text her back.
You can handle my package no matter who you work for.
Then I put the phone down to take care of the riot she’s causing in my boxer briefs. Man, she better reread her HR paperwork and see my point. I have to have this girl.
4
Dixie
So?” I ask and give a long, slow spin in front of my computer so Winnie and Sadie can see the back of the white cocktail dress with black lace panels that I’m thinking of wearing to the charity auction tonight.
“Don’t you have something…sluttier?” Sadie asks casually.
I glare at her pixelated face through my computer screen. I’m not sure she’s absorbing the depth of the look, so I add, “It’s a work event, Sadie.”
“It’s a gorgeous dress, but it is a little…” Winnie, the only one in our family with the slightest amount of tact, searches for the right word. “Safe. Pretty but tame, you know?”
“It’s the white. It’s virginal,” Sadie adds helpfully. “You’re twenty-five. No one wants a twenty-five-year-old virgin. Wear a color.”
I frown because I really like it. It makes me feel confident. But so does making Elijah’s eyes bug out of his head, and that’s the ego boost I’m going for tonight. I hold up a finger to the camera and scurry over to my closet.
“How’s the packing coming along?” I call out from inside the walk-in closet. I live in a studio. It’s small and basic but it’s affordable, which trumps everything else in San Francisco.
“The big stuff like furniture is already in San Fran. We’re just going through some boxes in the basement now. What to keep and what to toss. Mom doesn’t want to leave too much junk here while we’re gone. But Dad’s doing a better job with it than her,” Winnie informs me. “He’s great at purging stuff. Mom keeps finding things and getting weepy.”
“Yesterday she found Jude’s first pair of skates and cried for like an hour,” Sadie explains and I can hear the exasperation in her voice.
I grab the teal cocktail dress with lace across the top and the hem. It’s clingier than I’ve worn to a work event and a much bolder color. I tend to stick to basic black or white at work functions, and much looser. But the Elijah factor is changing everything.
“Give Mom a break, guys,” I tell my sisters as I shimmy into the dress. “This is brutal on her even more than us, and probably more than Dad. She’s never lived anywhere but Toronto, and she’s moving and watching the only man she’s ever loved fight a losing battle at the same time.”
I walk out of the closet and over to my desk, where my laptop is perched. I can see the instant look of approval on both their faces through the screen. “Yes!” Sadie says emphatically.
“So much yes!” Winnie agrees.
I glance over at the full-length mirror on the wall next to my dresser. The dress is sexy but not racy, so, although it’s not something I would normally think of for work, I’m going to go with it.
“Wear Gran’s pearl necklace and earrings with it, Dix,” Sadie advises.
“Pearls are old-fashioned, aren’t they?” Winnie says.
“No way,” she argues back, shaking her head so quickly her dirty blond hair flies and hits Winnie in the face. “Any man worth your time will equate a pearl necklace with a pearl necklace.”
She grins and gives me an exaggerated wink. Winnie wrinkles her nose. “Gross.”
I laugh at both of them. “I’m not trying to get him to think of that. I’m just flirting. We’re just flirty friends.”
“You have never called us for fashion advice because someone is just a flirty friend,” Winnie reminds me.
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” I retort. “I have to go! Have to be at the event in half an hour to make sure the setup is going well.”
“Have them set up a mattress behind the stage so you don’t have to waste time bringing him back to your place,” Winnie quips with a grin.
“Besides, your place is too small for really rowdy sex,” Sadie advises. “And this guy’s a goalie, so it’s going to be hella rowdy. Trust me.”
Winnie rolls her eyes. “You banged one goalie in your senior year of high school and now you’re like an expert?”
“It’s one more than you’ve banged,” Sadie counters. “When she starts lusting after librarians and accountants you can give out the advice.”
