“Huh?” Gabe leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “Interesting advice. It’s funny hearing you recommend that someone else should ‘go for it.’”
“This is different and you know it.” Marla’s shoulders snapped back and she glared at Gabe.
He slowly rose and stalked toward her. “Is it? Or is it a case of you being too bullheaded to recognize that you should take your own advice?”
“Uh …” Lissa began packing up her paints and equipment as quickly as she could without damaging anything. “I can finish your painting at home. It’s mostly just touch-up work now.”
Marla and Gabe circled each other like two lions around the carcass of a gazelle.
Lissa sprayed a setting agent on the painting and blew on it herself for good measure.
“Gabe,” Marla said, her jaw tight, “now is not the time to go over old arguments. You know my reasons.”
Lissa blew until her head felt light. The tension in the room was as thick as her oil paints. Definitely time to hightail it out of there. She wrapped up the painting and collapsed her easel, tucking it under one arm.
“So I’m just going to go.” Looking around, Lissa made sure she had everything. She hurried for the front door. “I’ll call when the painting’s done.”
She didn’t know if either of them responded. When the door shut between her and whatever the heck was going on inside with those two, she heaved a sigh of relief.
She didn’t know why people had to make life so hard. She could see Gabe and Marla loved each other. From what she’d heard, they’d been together for almost a year now. Gabe had practically moved into Marla’s house. Whatever problems they had, the couple should be able to resolve them and move on. It wasn’t like they lived in different states from each other. Work it out, people.
She trotted to an old Honda Dax was letting her drive. According to him, he’d bought the used car in college and explored the country in it. With a smirk, he’d told her that it didn’t have enough life in it for her to take it and run. She wouldn’t get far.
But Lissa didn’t want to run. She cranked the ignition and gave the engine some gas. She angled the nose of the car toward Dax’s apartment. Toward her temporary abode. Nope, for the next couple of weeks, calling one place home sounded like heaven. Because Dax was there.
And after those couple of weeks? Grinding her jaw, Lissa ignored that plummeting, burning feeling eating at her stomach. She’d worry about that when the time came.
Chapter 17
Dax took the stairs to his second-story apartment two at a time. The exhausting hours spent hiking and kayaking for his day tour melted from his muscles because Lissa was in his apartment, waiting for him to come home.
A strange, shuddery ripple rolled through his chest. Absently, he rubbed at it. Was this what it felt like to be in a real relationship with someone he truly cared about? No wonder Brad and Gabe looked so stupidly happy all the time. On Gabe, it came across as being slightly less grumpy, but still. Ever since he and Marla had gotten together, it had been a surprising personality adjustment. Dax hadn’t really understood it, not bone deep, not until now. Until Liss.
Would she have set up her easel and transformed his living room into a studio? He loved watching her paint. Or perhaps she was in front of his TV, doing yoga in some tight little stretchy pants.
Yeah, that’s the image he was going with. He hurried for his front door, unlocked it, and threw it open.
A billowing wave of eyeball-melting smoke rolled out to greet him.
He waved his hand in front of his face. “Lissa!”
Her head popped out from the entry to the kitchen, her multicolored curls slipping over her shoulder. White powder streaked across her cheek and nose and sweat beaded her forehead. “You’re home already? Crap.” And she disappeared just as quickly as she’d appeared.
Dax kicked the door shut with his heel, then went around to all the windows in the living room, tugging them open. He coughed. “What’s going on in there? Are you melting metal?”
“Ha ha.” Something rattled, making her voice hard to hear. “I’ll have you know that in just twenty minutes I’ll have a gourmet meal on the table for you to enjoy.”
He hurried to the entrance to the kitchen and rested his forearm on the top of the doorframe. “In twenty minutes, I’m not going to have a kitchen anymore.” He took in the scene. His small counter was overflowing: tubs of spices lay on their sides, a bag of flour had torn, spilling its contents in a wide arc on the laminate, and half-chopped-up vegetables littered the surface. A covered pot rattled on a back burner, water bubbling over and rolling down the sides.
Lissa stood in front of a frying pan, the source of all the smoke, frantically scraping the bottom with his little rubber spatula. “Where’s William?” she asked.
“Gabe asked me to leave him at the shelter tonight. He wants to check on him, give him some immunizations.” His gaze dropped to her bare legs.
She wasn’t wearing yoga pants, but the tiny denim shorts and tank top she wore were just as appealing. He would never let whatever she was making anywhere near his mouth, but watching her make it had its advantages.
Until the fire alarm went off.
The piercing shriek rang out from the alarm in the living room. Lissa dropped the spatula in the pan and covered her ears with her hands. She spun, her eyes wide, her tiny white teeth biting into the plump flesh of her lower lip.
Dax held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it,” he shouted. He strode into the living room. His ceilings weren’t high, and he was able to reach up a hand to yank out the battery. The immediate silence bathed his eardrums like a warm tide.
Lissa hurried to his side, holding a broom. “Oh.” She stopped. “You can reach it on your own.”
“One of the benefits of being tall.” He cocked his head. “What’s the broom for?”
“You know.” She jabbed the tip of the handle in the air, up toward the ceiling. She reminded him of one of those hotdog-on-a-stick girls. “To poke it.”
Dax bit back a grin. “Can you demonstrate that move for me again? What would you be poking?”
She huffed and tapped him in the abdomen with the broom handle. “Don’t make me hurt you. I’ve been working on a nice dinner for you for hours. My patience is just about gone.”
Grabbing the broom, he pushed the handle to the side. Lissa still held it down by the bristles, and his action was like a lever, pulling her to him. He ran his finger over the flour on her cheek. “Thank you for the thought. It was very sweet of you.”
She leaned forward, her breasts nestling against his chest. Raising her face, she waited for the kiss he was more than happy to bestow. He loved how affectionate she was. There was never any awkwardness, no uncertainty on his part about whether she’d welcome his touch. Once she decided on a relationship, the woman went all in.
Resting a palm over his chest, she rubbed a slow circle. “It’s not just a thought. I can still pull this off. I may be on version three-point-o of this chicken con carne, but I think I finally have all the bugs worked out.”
The small caress she gave him wiped away any hunger for food he might have. He couldn’t care less if chicken 3.0 was delicious or tasted like melted rubber. Lissa had tried to make him a nice dinner and her thoughtfulness was enough to make his chest go tight.
“I don’t think a woman has ever cooked for me before,” he said. “Besides my mom of course.”
“Your mom… she was probably a really good cook, wasn’t she?” There went those teeth biting into that lip again.
He lowered his head and kissed the sting of her own teeth away. “She was fine, but that’s not the point.” Another scent, something even more acrid than the earlier smoke, drifted across his nose. “The point …” He sniffed again. “What is that now?”
Releasing her, he ran for the ki
tchen, with Lissa only a step behind.
“Oh no!” She darted to the stove and picked up the spatula. A semicircle shape had melted away from the rubber head where it had rested against the rim of the frying pan. White particulates were mixed in with the mess she called chicken. “Crap, crap, crap!” She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and suspicious-sounding sniffles came from her general vicinity.
Dax took the deformed spatula and tossed it in the trash. He turned off the stove and moved the pot and pan to the unused burners. Then he wrapped Lissa in his arms. “A spoiled meal isn’t a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”
“I know. I just wanted …”
He lifted up her chin. “You just wanted …?”
“To do something normal. Cook a meal for my boyfriend in his home. It’s what regular people do. People who don’t move from town to town. I’ve never even owned a spatula before.” She shook her head and blew out a breath. “But you’re right, it’s nothing to cry over.” She gave him a big smile. “Besides, I might still be able to salvage some of it.”
She stepped around Dax and walked to the stove.
Dax snagged the waistband at the back of her shorts and reeled her away from the carnage. “There’s melted plastic in with the food now. Accept defeat. But let’s get back to the important stuff.”
Lissa looked at the pan and frowned. “What’s that?”
“Uh, you just called me your boyfriend.” His heart hammered in his chest. He’d had girlfriends before. This shouldn’t be a big deal. Why was this a big freakin’ deal? “Did you mean it?”
“Well … yeah.” She shoved her hands in her back pockets, causing her back to arch.
Dax refused to let his gaze drop below her face. This was too important to get distracted by her luscious breasts.
She dragged her toe along the floor. “I mean, I know I’m going to be across the country in a month, so if you’d rather keep this casual, I’ll understand. But”—she looked up, and he fell hard into her aquamarine gaze—“this doesn’t feel casual to me. This feels …” She shrugged.
Dax swallowed. He knew what she meant. And he was starting to understand what he was feeling. But … “Have you ever had a boyfriend before?”
She shook her head. “My past … well, it’s always been casual flings. Before New Orleans, I’d never been anywhere long enough to have a relationship, and in New Orleans, well, I guess I never found anyone I was really interested in.”
Dax’s chest burned with conflicting emotions. He loved that he was going to be her first real relationship. That made him feel ten feet tall. But he wanted to pound every other man who’d ever dared to touch her before. He wasn’t the caveman type, so his reaction was completely illogical.
He didn’t care. Lissa was his.
He didn’t want to freak her out, though. As she’d said, he was her first real boyfriend. No need to show her his Neanderthal side. So he kept his voice light. “I don’t want casual. Not with you.” Skimming one hand up under the fluttery hem of her paisley tank top, he dug his fingers into her back. Her skin was so damn soft and warm. He lowered his head. “We’ll make it work when you to school.” Somehow. “I’ll come out and visit when I can. You can come back here for breaks.”
A huge smile broke across her face. “Really? You want me enough to wait for me?”
A flash of anger spiked in his gut. Her parents had done that to her. Put that note of surprise in her voice at his response. This woman shouldn’t have one drop of insecurity in her bones about how wanted she was. How loved.
Her stomach growled, and Dax’s shoulders unclenched as he chuckled. “Before we start worrying about the future, I guess we should think about right now and getting us fed.” He faced the disaster in his kitchen. “I have a pizza in the freezer. Do you want to get that in the oven while I start cleaning up?”
She skipped to the fridge. “You’re not even going to make me clean up my own mess? You really are the best boyfriend I’ve ever had.”
“Ha ha.” He snapped a dish towel in the direction of her butt. “Don’t worry, I’ll make you pay for this later.”
He filled the sink with water and squeezed some liquid soap under the stream. He looked at his mistreated pot and pan and squeezed the bottle until only bubbles hissed out. Rolling up his sleeves, he got to work.
Lissa took the dish towel off his shoulder and started drying as he washed. She hummed an Elvis song lightly under her breath.
Dax rolled up onto the balls of his feet, feeling weightless. God, this was so simple. Frozen pizza at home, washing dishes together. And he’d never been happier. Not even when exploring a new wilderness and camping under the stars. Because what he was exploring here, now, with Lissa, was even more significant. It meant so much.
The oven timer dinged just as they were finishing up. “You okay with paper plates?” he asked. “I think I’m done doing dishes for the day.”
“Sounds perfect.” She opened the fridge and bent inside. “What do you want to drink?”
Dax’s phone rang and he pulled it from his pants pocket. It was a number he didn’t recognize. “Hold that thought.” He answered. “Hello?”
“Dax? This is Ted Cooke with Crook County United. How are you tonight?”
Dax’s whole body went tight. “I don’t know. You tell me.” He checked his watch. Definitely after bank hours. He couldn’t think of a good reason Cooke would be calling him after work.
“I think you’ll be happy,” Ted said. “You got the loan. You can come into my office tomorrow to sign the papers.”
Dax whooped and took two large steps to reach Lissa. He wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her into a tight hug, swinging her around in a circle. “I got it!”
Lissa planted a kiss on his cheek. “I knew you would! Dax Cannon, business owner.”
“It must have been your pie charts,” he told her. His cheeks were starting to hurt, but he couldn’t stop grinning. “Thank you for all your help.”
She slapped his arm. “I’m sure it wasn’t my graphics that got you the loan. You had all your numbers nailed down tight.”
The phone in his hand squawked, with Ted’s voice calling for attention.
Oops. Dax let Lissa go and raised the phone back to his ear. “Sorry about that. I was just telling my girlfriend the news.”
Lissa’s cheeks went a dusky rose at the word “girlfriend,” and Dax couldn’t wait to say it again.
“Yes,” Ted said dryly. “I heard the self-congratulations. And while you did have a good proposal, that’s not what put you over the top.”
Dax drew his eyebrows together. “Oh?”
“You must have some friends in high places.” Ted sniffed. “I got a call from the bank’s president not ten minutes ago, telling me he’d personally approved the loan. That doesn’t happen often.”
Dax rubbed his jaw. No, he wouldn’t expect that happened a lot. So why had the man approved Dax’s loan? The only person he could think of who had connections like that in Pineville was Marla. She was always hobnobbing with the money people on the fund-raising efforts for her charities. But he couldn’t see her calling in a favor like this.
“Well, thanks for letting me know.” Dax wrinkled his nose, then pointed wildly at the oven.
Lissa opened it, and a wave of smoke rolled out.
“I like delivering good news and I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible,” Ted said. “But remember, all the conditions we discussed still apply. You can’t be more than five days late with a payment or get into any more legal trouble or the full amount of the loan will be due and payable.”
“I understand.” He tossed Lissa a pot holder. She pulled the steaming pizza from the oven and set it on top of the stove, frowning. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Dax said, fighting his own smile. “And thanks ag
ain.”
He hung up and shoved his phone in his pocket. “Another dinner burned, huh?”
Flapping her hand over the pizza, Lissa looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “This one wasn’t my fault. You distracted me.” She lifted up an edge of the crust. “I think most of it is okay. The smoke came from a sausage that fell to the bottom of the oven.” She went back to the refrigerator. “I wish we had some champagne. This calls for a celebration!”
Dax peered over her shoulder. The scent of something sweet and floral wafted from her skin, and his gut went tight. “No champagne, but I have a growler of New Holland’s oatmeal stout in the back there.”
“Ooh, fancy.” She pulled it out and held it tight to her stomach as she sauntered to the cabinet with the glassware. “I’ll pour and you get the plates. Let’s eat—I’m starving.”
There was a lot to celebrate. He was going to own Off-Road Adventures. His own eco-tourism business. He would actually get to do what he loved while securing his future. He knew his parents would be thrilled for him, and he couldn’t wait to call his dad later. But somehow, he knew that getting the loan wasn’t going to be the first bit of news he’d tell his old man.
He had Lissa.
The long-distance thing was going to be tough, definitely an annoying stone in their path. But Dax was good at getting over and around stones. They’d make it work.
She turned, two mugs filled to the rim with amber liquid in her hands and a grin on her face.
No, there was no doubt. Lissa definitely got the top billing, and Dax had a feeling she always would.
Chapter 18
They ate on the floor in front of the fireplace. It wasn’t really cold enough for a fire, but Dax built one for her anyway. The smell of logs burning was a definite step up from the stench of melted rubber.
Lissa popped an olive into her mouth and licked grease off her finger. “Are you going to make any changes to Off-Road once you buy it?”
Forever Wild Page 18
