10. All The Tea
All The Tea
Sheridan
By the time we get back to Dahlia’s, it’s late in the afternoon. Dahlia heads upstairs to find her husband, giving me the perfect opportunity to get to work. She’s got to be tired from entertaining all of us nonstop. The least I can do is make a meal.
The dichotomy of her fridge and pantry is stumbling.
It’s a mixture of ultra-healthy fruits and vegetables and all the sweets and processed foods known to mankind.
I love it. It’s a cook’s dream. There are so many options.
But my heart wants a comforting, warm meal. The kind that sticks to your bones.
Chicken and dumplings it is, with my grannie’s light-as-air dumplings. Since they seem to like veggies, I’ll sauté some spinach in the butter while making the roux and add a ton of carrots and peas from the freezer.
The meal comes together surprisingly quickly, then again, one-pot meals usually do.
Dahlia ambles in and stops. “I thought I smelled something amazing, but just thought it was my brain telling me to go cook. You didn’t have to do that.” She walks over to the pot, glances in, and takes a deep breath. “Amazing.”
Yes, I did. I wanted to be able to sit and eat without feeling guilty. “It’ll taste even better when I add my grandmother’s dumplings.”
“I’ve never seen chicken and dumplings with so many vegetables.”
Uh-oh. “I thought, um, because you had so many veggies in the fridge that—”
Dahlia sets a hand on my arm. “It’s perfect. Maverick will love it, and so will I. How can I help?”
“I’ve got it. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. All that’s left is dropping the dumplings in. So what did I miss today?” Let’s talk about anything but what I did. Anything at all.
“They went through with it. I mean, I get Winnie kissing a random guy. She’s bold enough to try anything. But Savie…she acts all bold and brash, but that woman is as shy as the rest of us.”
“I’m not shy.” Why did I say that out loud?
Dahlia’s eyes narrow. “What did you do?”
“So who did Savie kiss?”
“Nope. Nuh-uh. You’re not going to distract me. Who did you kiss? And why didn’t you share with the rest of the group?”
How do I explain the weirdness that was? “It isn’t a big deal.”
“The more you say it isn’t, the more I know it is, so dish.”
Do I tell her? It really wasn’t anything. But it felt like something…I felt way too much. “What was it like the first time you kissed Maverick?”
Dahlia stares at me for a long moment. “It wasn’t the same as what you’re feeling right now.
The thing was, I hadn’t been kissed before, and he waited for me to be ready.
Our first kiss was more like a promise of forever than an introduction.
If we had kissed the first time we met…I don’t know what would have happened.
But I don’t think we would have waited so long to get married. ”
Waited so long? “You two eloped.”
“Yeah, but look at Dylan. She barely waited a few weeks. All that lost time with the man of my dreams.”
Um…are we talking about a different person, because Dahlia’s man scares the life out of me? He always looks like he’s planning the different ways he can kill you without moving. And I bet he was creative and found at least ten different ones each time.
That hardly sounds like a dream guy. Fly, the flirty biker, definitely wouldn’t count as the man of anyone’s dreams, unless they were naughty dreams of bad boys and tattoos.
Does he have tattoos? The scruff on his face definitely added to the bad-boy vibes, as did the little scar on his eyebrow. He’s still too young, but you can just tell that when he gets older, the salt and pepper at his temples is just going to add to those sexy but scary vibes.
“Earth to Sheridan.” Dahlia waves a hand at me. “Where did you go?”
“I thought about dream men. It’s odd, but I don’t have one of those. There hasn’t been a time in my life when I thought, hey, I’d like a man like this. Mostly I picture myself alone for the rest of my life.” Why in the world did I say that? I sound sad and pathetic.
“Same. I write all these men in my books, but none of them were even close to being a man I would fall for.”
“Does a lion man count? Because I’m adding a few of those into my books.”
“So what you’re saying is, you like hairy men.”
We both giggle at the thought.
“Could you imagine all the razors you’d need?”
The alien would probably say something funny like, Excuse me, beautiful, I just need to go shave my mane. And could you do my back when I’m done?
Nope, that’s too contemporary. Would he be more formal—
“You’re planning a book, aren’t you?” Dahlia walks over to a drawer and pulls out three bowls.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Maverick tells me I get a far-off look when I’m in the zone, but I’ve never seen it in the wild before. During our sprints, everyone seems so focused.”
It’s time for the dumplings to go in. I drop them one by one.
“So if you don’t have a dream man, how did the biker you kissed rate?”
The dumpling slips out of my fingers and onto the stovetop.
“That good?”
How do you rate your first kiss when you expected it to be nothing? Less than nothing? A friendly kiss you might give a family member on the cheek turned into life-changing and…“Terrifying.”
“What?” Dahlia squeaks. “Did he do something inappropriate?”
“Who did something inappropriate?” Maverick booms as he walks into the room. His gaze is hard, and the formerly random murder plans seem imminent.
Hopefully, it’s not me who he wants to unalive violently.
“Did someone touch you?” Maverick walks over, picks up Dahlia like she’s a small child and not a fully grown woman, and then sets her down on the counter in front of him.
That move was smooth. It would have been sexy too if he didn’t look positively homicidal. He scans her face and arms, probably looking for bruising.
Dahlia reaches up her free hand and sets it on his cheek. “I’m fine. No one touched me. We were talking about Sheridan.”
Maverick’s head twists, and he pins me to the spot with his hard gaze.
You’re not going to die today.
You’re probably not going to die today.
That man has to have some reasonable parts of his brain.
“Name now,” he snaps.
Like I can talk anymore. My vocal cords, along with the rest of my body, have seized up. I now officially know what a deer caught in headlights feels like.
At least my life doesn’t flash before my eyes.
“You’re scaring her.” Dahlia chides. “Remember what we said about not terrifying my friends.”
“Your friend has nothing to fear from me. The man who touched her inappropriately is going to wish he was never born.”
“I touched him. He did nothing. It was me. I accosted him and kissed him,” the words tumble out of my mouth.
“Really?” Dahlia’s eyes open wide.
“Really.” There is no way I’m discussing this with Dahlia’s husband staring at me.
Change the topic of conversation to something else.
Anything else. “Um…dinner should be done in just a few minutes.” If I can manage to get the dumplings in the pot instead of next to it with my hands shaking this badly.
“You should see how many vegetables she put in the chicken and dumplings.” Dahlia rubs Maverick's chest. Is she trying to calm the beast? Because I don’t think it’s working.
“Woman,” he growls.
Maybe it’s working.
“Oh, tomorrow I was thinking we could do some sightseeing. There’s nothing we need to do for the reception until the day after. What do you think of seeing some sights and stopping at a nice restaurant for lunch, Sheridan?”
I think that sounds expensive. Way, way, way too expensive for my current budget.
But thankfully, an amazing excuse just so happened to fall into my lap.
“So about that…I offered to go with a friend to visit her grandson in rehab. He was hurt pretty badly, and she isn’t taking it well.
We’re going to make the kid’s favorite treats and bring them to him. ”
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Is it anyone I know?”
Considering Dahlia is less social than I am, and I’m not very social at all, I doubt it. “No.”
“Do you need a ride?”
“Nope. She’s just a few blocks over. I can walk.”
Dahlia’s brow wrinkles, but she doesn’t push, which I appreciate with all the drama of the day.