Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
winnie
About eight-thirty a.m. Saturday morning, I was sitting at the island with a cup of coffee when I heard knocking on the sliding glass door.
I looked over and saw Hallie and Luna on my patio grinning excitedly. Hallie waved and Luna bounced up and down as I opened the door. “Good morning, girls!”
“Good morning!” they chorused.
“What a beautiful day, huh?” I looked behind them at the sunny, cloudless sky.
“Yes. Daddy says maybe we’re going horseback riding this weekend!” Luna said breathlessly. “Is it true?”
“Sure,” I said. “Tomorrow, if that works for your dad. My cousin can meet us there in the morning. She has a horse you can ride.”
“What’s the horse’s name?” Hallie asked.
I laughed. “I’m not sure, but I’ll find out. Hey, would you girls like a pedicure this morning?”
“Yes!” Luna shouted. “What’s a pedicure?”
“I’ll paint your toes.” I stuck one bare foot out. “Like mine. See?”
“Can you paint mine red like yours?” Luna asked.
“Sure.” I glanced at Hallie, who was looking down at her sneakers. “What do you think, Hal? Red? Purple? Blue?”
She smiled. “You really have blue?”
“I really do.”
“Okay.” She looked a little anxious about it, but she nodded. “I want blue.”
“Great. Then maybe we can show off our toes at the pool today. Why don’t you go tell your dad we’re going to play salon over here, and I’ll get everything set up?”
“Okay!”
“And when you come back, just wear flip-flops, okay? Or bare feet. You won’t be able to put on socks and sneakers.”
They joyfully skipped back toward their place, and I headed for the upstairs bathroom to get all my supplies.
As I went up the steps, I wondered if Dex would come too. If I’d had his number, I’d have texted him an invite. When I got back downstairs, I set the nail polish bottles on the counter and decided to go over and knock on his door.
I went to the front this time, and he opened it with a cup of coffee in his hand. He wore gray sweatpants and a US Navy T-shirt. His mouth curved into something close to a smile, making my heart flutter faster. “Morning, neighbor.”
“Morning. I came over to ask for your number.”
He took a sip of his coffee. The mug had a firefighter’s boot on it and read My Dad is My Hero. “Why?”
“I think my place needs a fire inspection. I thought maybe I’d call you to schedule one.” I grinned. “I know how you are about safety.”
“Ah.” He sipped again, his brown eyes dancing. “Then I suppose I could give it to you. For safety reasons.”
“Why don’t you come over with the girls and we can exchange information?”
“Just information?”
I laughed. “This time, yes.”
“I could come over,” he said, like he was doing me a favor. “Have you eaten breakfast?”
“Not yet. Just coffee.”
“I’ll bring you a monkey bread muffin.”
My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Were you at Plum & Honey already this morning?”
“Yes. The girls insisted.” He paused. “And I might have asked your mom what your favorite muffin was.”
“Look at you being a nice guy.”
“I know.” He put his grump face back on. “Don’t fucking tell anyone.”
I zipped my lips. “Your secret is safe with me. See you in a few.” As I headed across his driveway toward my place, he called out.
“Hey!”
“Yes?” I turned around.
“Did you hear back about the job in Rhode Island?”
I smiled, pleased that he remembered. “Yes. We’re going to talk by phone next week. I’m really excited.”
He nodded. “Good.”
That evening, I headed over to Cloverleigh Farms to help Millie with a large wedding reception. Usually, our Aunt April was on hand to help with big events, but she and her family had gone down to Chicago to see one of Chip’s games.
It was a long night, and by the time the wedding party went back to the bar at the inn to keep the celebration going, it was after eleven. Millie and I left the staff to break down the room and retreated to her office, where I dropped onto her couch and kicked off my shoes.
“Shot of whiskey?” she asked, taking a bottle from a shelf behind her desk.
“Yes, please.” I stretched my legs and feet.
My red toe polish reminded me of giving the girls pedicures this morning.
It had been so much fun, and Hallie had been excited enough about her blue toes that she’d forgone her water socks and gone barefoot at the pool—at least for the ten steps between where she’d left her flip-flops on the cement and the shallow end.
But Dex had called it progress and thanked me with a secret smile that made my heart threaten to burst.
Millie poured a little whiskey into two old fashioned glasses and brought them over to the couch. “Sorry I don’t have ice.”
“It’s fine.” I took the glass, scooting over so she could sit next to me.
“Cheers.” She tapped her whiskey against mine. “Thanks for the help tonight.”
“My pleasure.” I took a sip, enjoying the way the fiery liquid warmed my throat.
“So what’s new with your dad crush?”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s not my dad crush. He’s just my neighbor.”
“So you haven’t fooled around with him again?”
I took another sip. “I didn’t say that.”
My sister laughed, kicking off her shoes and tucking her legs beneath her. “Tell me everything.”
“There’s not much to tell. We hung out on Thursday night and . . . stuff happened. But we hung out all day today, and nothing happened.”
“What did you do today?”
I told her about playing salon with the girls. “I painted their toes and they did my hair, which was—interesting.”
Millie laughed. “Remember when we played salon and Felicity cut her bangs so they were like an inch long?”
“Yes!” I howled at the memory. “Dad was so mad at us. There were no scissors involved today, but there were a lot of accessories. They brought over a bag of hair bows. I looked like I’d been gift-wrapped by a toddler.”
“Where was their dad during all this?”
“He was there, drinking coffee and laughing at me. Then I suggested he let them do his hair, and when they begged and pleaded, he couldn’t say no.” I giggled at the memory. “They stuck a headband with pink cat ears on his head and he caught me taking a picture with my phone.”
“Let me see!”
I dug through my purse and found my phone, then brought up the picture of a scowling Dex to show her.
She burst out laughing. “That is one furious feline. But damn, he’s hot.”
“He was so mad when I wouldn’t delete it.” I dropped my phone back in my purse. “He threw me in the pool later, even though I told him I didn’t want to get my hair wet.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Sounds like a fun day.”
“It was.”
She sipped again. “I know you said you guys are not Dad and Frannie, but something about all this seems very familiar.”
I sighed in exasperation. “I swear it’s not like that with us.
Dad and Frannie were in love. Dex and I are not.
In fact, that’s one of our inside jokes.
We both agreed that this thing between us should stay casual, so every time we say goodnight, one of us is like, ‘I had fun tonight, but I don’t love you. ’”
My sister pressed her lips together.
“Stop looking at me that way,” I said. “We just have a good time together. He makes me laugh and has a nice dick, okay? Let me just enjoy it.”
“Okay, okay.” Sighing, she unfolded her legs and stretched them out. “Will you see him tonight?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because his kids are there.” I tossed back my last swallow of whiskey. “We don’t want them to suspect anything. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to mess around with him too often, you know? If you’re going to keep something casual, it should probably be something that only happens now and then.”
“True. Especially for you.”
I’d sort of been hoping for tacit permission to at least sext him later, now that I had his number, but hearing Millie confirm what I’d said, I knew I shouldn’t.
“I should get going,” I told her. “I told the girls I’d bring them horseback riding tomorrow. Whitney is meeting us at the barn at nine.”
“That’ll be fun.” She paused. “Dex coming too?”
The question shouldn’t have felt so loaded.
“Probably.” Avoiding her eyes, I stood up, slipped my heels back on, and set my empty glass on her desk. “Thanks for the drink.”
“Anytime. Drive carefully.”
The next morning, we drove together to Cloverleigh Farms and walked over to the barn. I introduced Dex and the girls to my cousin Whitney, who’d spent years working in the stables and had always loved horses.
The girls promptly fell in love with Buttercup, a gentle, chestnut-brown Quarter Horse, and quietly listened as Whitney showed them how to feed her, brush her coat, and get her ready to ride.
It was another beautiful day, warm and sunny with just enough of a breeze to make the heat bearable.
Dex and I stood off to the side near the split-rail fence as Whitney patiently let each girl have a turn in the saddle, carefully leading Buttercup around the paddock. They begged to do it again and again.
“This is so nice of you and your cousin,” Dex said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Of course. Whitney said she was thrilled to do it, and she doesn’t have to be at work until one.”
“She’s Chip’s cousin too?”
“Right. Whitney is my Aunt Sylvia’s oldest. She’s about Millie’s age—or close to it, maybe around thirty—and works for her stepdad, my Uncle Henry.
He’s the winemaker here.” I gestured back toward the winery.
“But Whitney manages the tasting rooms in Hadley Harbor and Traverse City, so she’s not here every day. ”
Dex was quiet a minute. “Pretty soon my girls will have a stepdad.”
I looked over at him. “My mom mentioned something about Naomi being engaged. When is she getting married?”
“In October.”
I smiled at Luna, who was waving to us from Buttercup’s back. “Is he a good guy?”
Dex shrugged. “He’s okay.”
“Are you . . . upset about her remarrying?”
“Fuck no,” he scoffed, as if I’d offended him.