Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lauren
“What was that all about?” Olivia asks when I return to our station at the dining room table.
“She was totally flirting with him!” Callie blurts. When I pin her with a glare, she lowers her voice. “You need to get your head in the game, Lo. I will not allow fraternizing with the enemy. I want to dominate.” Callie pounds her fist into her palm.
“Did you see what my flirting did? I’m getting in his head.”
Callie scans me for a moment, then a smirk blooms on her face. It’s a little scary. “Did you do that on purpose?”
I press my lips together, and Olivia immediately calls me out. “That wasn’t her goal. I can see it on her face.”
Whose side is she on? She knows what it’s like to be in love! Well, not that I’m in love…
“I couldn’t help it.” I shrug. “He gave me this look, and I immediately wanted to show him he’s on my mind too. I don’t know, our chemistry is so natural that sometimes it’s hard to hide. I didn’t mean to make him dump the cookies, but it’s a nice plus, right?”
“That’s a nice story, but we don’t have time for moon eyes and chemistry right now.” Callie thrusts the bin of cookie cutters into my hand. “Get cutting.”
I’m a little taken aback. Callie is normally one of the first to support a budding love story, but she’s been on edge today.
As she takes another tray of cookies to the oven, Olivia leans into me with a smile. “It’s nice to see you so happy.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you thought about when you’re going to start telling people?”
“A little.” I wiggle my cookie cutter around in the dough and carefully peel the cookie up. “I don’t have an exact timeline yet. There are still some things I need to work on before I subject our relationship to everything outside of us.”
“All those external things you’re talking about still exist now, even while keeping your relationship a secret. What’s really going on?”
“That’s it.” I shrug. “There are still parts of me that need work. I need to learn to trust more. I need to learn how to ask for help and find time to relax.”
Olivia sets an elf-shaped cookie on the baking sheet, arching an eyebrow. “How is keeping your relationship a secret going to help with that?”
“It doesn’t inherently help, but at least it buys me some time to work through these things before we’re exposed to more challenges.”
“What challenges are you anticipating?”
“I don’t know.” Heat rises to my cheeks. I grab the rolling pin to flatten another clump of dough. “People might say I got with Jax too soon after my breakup with Austin.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“There must be something else if you’re this determined to hide your relationship.”
Callie rejoins us, instantly butting into the conversation. “What are we talking about?”
“Why Lauren insists on hiding her relationship with Voldemort.”
“I have a guess! I have a guess!” Callie throws her hand up in the air.
“Yes, Callie. What’s your guess?” Olivia graciously nods in Callie’s direction, like a teacher calling on a student.
“I think she’s afraid to go all in because of what happened with Austin.”
“What a great guess. That’s my top one too.”
“Y’all are the worst. You know that?” I try to distract myself by taking the frosting Callie has mixed up and splitting it into bowls so we can add food coloring to them.
Unfortunately, the distraction doesn’t work well at all. Maybe they’re right, but I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t want to admit I have doubts about Jax. I mean, they’re not even doubts about Jax. They’re just doubts about love and my ability to find it.
“If you want my advice, I say you need to go for it. Just rip the Band-Aid off. Hiding the relationship doesn’t exactly send the right message to Jax about what this is between you two, and it doesn’t protect you from getting hurt.”
“I second that,” Callie says as she plops a bit of cookie dough into her mouth. “The longer you hide it the more you’re telling him you want the option to run. That’s not fair to him. I know you like to be in control, but there’s no such thing when it comes to love.”
That’s not what I’m trying to do, at least not intentionally, but I have felt a little safer for it.
It keeps people from seeing the shame if this goes down in flames.
As great as things are going, there’s a part of me waiting for the other shoe to drop because, as history goes to show, relationships end.
I try so hard to control everything that happens in my life, whether it’s the approach we take with the ranch, swing dancing, or matters of the heart. I know I need to loosen my grip if Jax and I stand a chance of making it, but I don’t know how to do that.
I open my mouth to ask them, but Charlie approaches us. “Do y’all have an extra spatula over here?”
“I see what you’re doing. Get out of here, you menace.” I press my hand into his chest to push him away, while he blatantly takes in our setup.
“They’re not doing the animal rescue, boys!” he hollers as I keep pushing him away.
“Traitor!” Olivia calls to Rhett.
“Come on, Wildflower. It’s just business.” He shrugs.
It’s like the use of that nickname takes any anger out of her body because she melts into a puddle on the floor before my very eyes.
As I come back to the table, Callie mutters, “It looks like both of you are going to be useless to me.”
“Hey, we’re doing our best,” I say as I return to my frosting station. “What happened to all the food coloring?” I lift the bowl of frosting. “And I swear you made more frosting than this.”
“What are you talking about? It’s all right… there.” Callie drops her hand as she realizes I’m right. “Thieves!”
She stomps over to Charlie, throwing her finger into his chest. “You stole our frosting. Give it back. You’re not supposed to be sabotaging.”
“I’d talk to Lauren about that. She’s the one who made my teammate dump cookies onto the floor.”
“Jax is just clumsy. Give us our frosting back.”
Charlie arches a brow, a smile slipping onto his lips as he steps closer to her. “I didn’t take your frosting.”
She drops her hand, stepping back with a slack jaw like she’s just now realizing how close they’re standing. It takes a couple of seconds for the color to return to her cheeks before she swivels to Jax. “What’d you do with it?”
He holds his hands up to plead his innocence. “I didn’t do anything.”
She narrows her eyes at him, but when he doesn’t give in, she turns to Rhett, a scowl on her face.
Inserting myself between Callie and the boys with a raised hand, I say, “This is getting ridiculous. We’re supposed to be having fun. Just give us our frosting back, boys. If you don’t beat us fairly, we’ll never accept your victory.”
Everyone falls silent. Even Charlie looks swayed, which is no easy feat.
Callie meets my gaze, and when I slightly tilt my head in her direction, she takes that as her cue to steal their mixer from the counter. Okay. I guess we’re fully owning the sabotage attempts now.
Olivia and I fall into a fit of laughter as we block the boys from capturing Callie. Olivia pulls Rhett in for a kiss, which he willingly accepts, and I hop onto Jax’s back, which does nothing to stop the man.
“What are you doing, Freckles?” Jax glances over his shoulder.
“I’m trying to stop you.”
“You suck at this.”
“Help!” Callie shrieks as Charlie stands over her, trying to tear the mixer from her grasp.
“We’re a little busy,” I call back, my arms still wrapped around Jax’s neck as my feet drag on the floor.
Olivia pulls away from Rhett and leaps to Callie’s aid, taking the mixer from her grasp before Charlie realizes it. She carries it under her arm like a football.
“She’s headed for the door! Don’t let her leave.” Rhett tears after her and Charlie finally lets go of Callie, realizing she no longer has the mixer.
I slip off Jax’s back and dart around him as I make a dash toward Olivia to offer help.
Rhett reaches her at almost the same time, so we barely manage the handoff.
I head toward the kitchen, the place that seems the least occupied at the moment, but the acrid smell floating in the air stops me in my tracks.
“What’s burning?”
Jax takes the opportunity to dive toward me, snatching the mixer from my grip as Charlie yells in panic. “The cookies!”
Charlie pulls blackened cookies from the oven as I leap onto Jax’s back again and Callie and Olivia try to trip Rhett.
Then Aimee walks in the front door. “How are my bakers doing? I thought I’d check—” The smile on her face whooshes off. “What on earth is going on in here?”