Jane frowned.
“That’s what I wrote on her side of the mirror.”
Dax deduced that the girls shared a bathroom with, he was guessing, two sinks and one big mirror. Clearly that didn’t go so well.
“I only wrote one word! She wrote a bunch!” Aspen protested. “It’s a way bigger mess to clean lipstick off than shaving cream too!”
“That doesn’t make it okay that you wrote on her mirror,” Jane said.
“And it’s not like you’re cleaning it up!” Kelsey shot back. “Why do you care if I make a bigger mess? I’m the one who has to do all the work!”
“You know what?” Aspen said. “That is a great point.”
She pivoted on her heel and started back up the steps.
“Oh no.” Jane stepped forward and caught the back of Aspen’s dress. “You’re not going back up to make it worse.”
“Oh yes I am.” Aspen narrowed her eyes at Jane. “You always take her side.”
“I don’t. You know that,” Jane said. “But why did you write on her mirror to start with?”
“Because she poured out my favorite hair gel,” Aspen said, glowering at Kelsey. “She knew I wanted to wear my hair curled today, and she knows that hair gel is the best for curls.”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” Kelsey said. “I don’t give a flying frig about how you wear your hair, Aspen! I never touched your hair gel. You used it up and didn’t replace it and are blaming me!”
“Your hair looks a lot better than usual,” Aspen said, eyeing Kelsey from four steps up. “You’re telling me you didn’t use my products?”
Kelsey gritted her teeth and pulled in a breath. “I didn’t use your products. Your products smell like rotting avocados.”
Aspen gasped. “They do not!”
“They do. And Wade wasn’t talking to me after school because of my hair.” Kelsey propped a hand on her hip.
Ah, this was actually about a guy. Dax was catching on.
“Then why was he talking to you?” Aspen said, looking down her nose at Kelsey.
“Because I’m nice and because I can spell,” Kelsey told her.
Aspen’s eyes narrowed. “You are such a—”
“I think jojoba oil is better than avocado for hair actually.”
All three females in the entryway turned to look at him. Dax shrugged. This was dangerous, he knew. He was with the one woman who had broken his I-can-charm-anyone-into-anything streak and now her little sister and stepsister. There was no guarantee he was going to do anything but make this worse.
But he still couldn’t shut up. “I do,” he said. “But the best is coconut oil. Love the way coconut oil smells on a woman’s hair.”
Jane raised both eyebrows. Both teenagers just stared at him.
“Who are you?” Aspen finally asked.
“I’m a friend of Jane’s. We work together.”
“Oh.” Aspen frowned, but she studied Dax, almost as if she hadn’t noticed him at all before. “Coconut oil, huh?”
“Yep. And easy to get at most grocery stores.” Of course, he was in Tiny Town, Iowa. “Or you can order it online.”
“We have coconut oil,” Aspen said, wrinkling her nose. “My mom uses it to cook sometimes.”
He nodded. “Well, there you go. Same stuff. Some of the most versatile oil in the world. And you don’t have to worry about replacing your hair gel, then.”
Aspen flounced down the stairs. “Fine. I’ll do that, then.” She glared at Kelsey. “You’re lucky.”
“Yep,” Kelsey said, nodding. “I tell myself how lucky I am every single day.”
Aspen rolled her eyes and continued to flounce, right past them and down the hallway Dax assumed led to the kitchen.
“Do you use coconut oil on your hair?” Kelsey asked, her gaze going over his head.
He grinned. “Nope. I’m just blessed with amazing hair genes.”
“So you know about the coconut oil from women you know?” Kelsey asked. Her gaze flitted to Jane and the corner of her mouth curled up. “Just… friends?”
Dax liked Kelsey. “Yes. Some of my friends have used coconut oil on their hair.” He’d actually been told about it by one of the cosplayers who was a regular at the cons Dax and Ollie attended. She had great hair. She was also happily married and one of the few women who thought Dax was amazing, loved Warriors of Easton, and who didn’t want to sleep with him.
“Right,” Kelsey said. “And you make a habit of smelling women’s hair?”
“Whenever possible,” he said with a nod. “Assuming we have that kind of… relationship.”
“Of course,” Kelsey said, fighting a smile. “What does Jane’s hair smell like?”
“Cake,” he answered immediately. Then realized he’d just more or less confirmed they had a hair-smelling-is-appropriate relationship. Well done, Kelsey. He grinned at her.
Kelsey laughed. “That’s true. Of course, all of Jane smells like cake because of the factory.”
Dax glanced at Jane. She was watching him and Kelsey interacting as if fascinated and confused.
“Well, I’ll have to take your word for that,” he told Kelsey, his eyes still on Jane. “For now anyway.”
Kelsey snorted, and Jane’s eyes widened as she snapped her head to look up at him.
“Okay, enough of that,” Jane said. “It sounds like we have a lot of cleaning up to do in the bathroom.”
“She made as much mess as I did,” Kelsey immediately protested. “And Wade is not her boyfriend. She has no right to be mad he was talking to me.”
“Kels,” Jane said, sounding tired. “If we don’t clean it up, Aspen will tell Cassie, and Cassie will tell Dad. Then he’ll be upset you’re fighting and be concerned about Wade and….” She sighed. “I’ll help you clean it up. Let’s just… get through it. Just another couple of years.”
Kelsey looked like she was going to cry for a minute, but she finally sniffed and lifted her chin. “Fine. Whatever. I’m not sorry though. I’m not apologizing.”
“Okay,” Jane said. “Except about the smashed plates. You need to apologize for that and buy new ones out of your allowance.”
Kelsey shrugged. “I already gave Cassie money. She’s out buying new ones now.”
Jane shook her head with a sigh. “She’s out getting away from the two of you fighting.”
“That too,” Kelsey agreed.
“Mother of the Year,” Jane muttered. Then she looked at Kelsey. “I did not say that and you will not repeat it.”
“I know.”
Dax watched the exchange with interest. So Cassie just bailed when the girls started fighting? And Kelsey was a plate thrower? Wow. And it seemed that perhaps Jane said a lot of things about Cassie that Kelsey shouldn’t repeat judging by Kelsey’s answer.
He was not having a terrible time. This was infinitely more interesting than anything he’d be doing at the hotel.
Unless Jane was with him.
He couldn’t resist adding that little afterthought every time he thought about how boring his hotel room was.
“So go grab the supplies,” Jane said. “I’ll meet you in the bathroom.” She looked at him. “You can watch TV or something, if you want. Living room is in there.” She pointed. “I’m sure Aspen will shut herself in her bedroom and will be reading up on how to use coconut oil in her hair, and Cassie will stall coming back here for as long as possible. Especially because she knows I’ll be here.”
“She knew you were coming over?” Dax asked.
“She’ll assume Kelsey called me, and I always come over when the girls are fighting. Partly because Cassie always bails,” Jane said.
“Got it. But I’ll help,” he said. He wasn’t going to sit in the living room and watch TV when he could be hanging out with Jane. And Kelsey.
“You’ll help?” Jane asked. “You’ll help clean the bathroom?”
“Why not?”
She looked at up him, hand on her hip. “Have you ever, in your life, c
leaned a bathroom?”
“Sure. There was this time in Vegas…” He shrugged. “It just didn’t seem fair to make the housekeeping staff clean that up.”
Jane and Kelsey’s eyes were both wide. He looked back and forth between them. “See, one of my friends was—”
“Nope.” Jane held up a hand. “Don’t want to know.”
“I do,” Kelsey said.
“No, you don’t,” Jane told her.
“I do.” She looked at Dax. “Is it super gross?”
He studied her. “Well, that depends. Are you the squeamish type?”
“No—”
“Stop it,” Jane said. She pointed down the hall. “Get the cleaning supplies,” she told her sister. Then she looked up at him. “If you’re going to help, you have to be good.”
He gave her a slow grin. He couldn’t let the moment pass without commenting. “I’m always good.”
“Yeah? And why do I think you’re just the guy to ask about how to get lipstick off of a mirror?”
He laughed. “Rubbing alcohol.”
Jane nodded. “Figured. And I don’t want to know that story either.”
“There’s more than one story involving lipstick and mirrors,” he said. It was true, but he also loved teasing her. “And windows.”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “No stories about Vegas, lipstick, bathtubs, showers, or… maybe no stories at all. How about that?”
He chuckled. He wanted to kiss her. Badly. He wasn’t sure he’d ever wanted to kiss a woman more.
“I don’t know if we have rubbing alcohol,” Kelsey said.
“Hair spray will work too,” Dax said. “Guessing you all have plenty of that.”
“It will?” Kelsey asked.
“Yep, it’s the alcohol in it. Just like the rubbing alcohol. And hair spray is easier when you’re covering a large area. If it’s just like a single lip print or a heart or something, you can just use a cotton ball and the rubbing alcohol, but if it’s a big area like with words and stuff, then the spray is easier.”
Kelsey grinned. “Yeah, we have hair spray. I’ll raid Cassie’s bathroom for the big bottle.”
“You wrote in big letters?” Dax asked, really liking Jane’s little sister.
She nodded. “Very big.”
She headed down the hallway, presumably to gather supplies. Dax watched her go then turned to Jane.
“Lip prints, huh?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Guessing you’re pretty used to having lip prints in lots of places.”
Okay, he really liked the little flash of jealousy he saw her in her eyes. Was he going to tease her? Oh yes. “I have a little experience,” he said nonchalantly, tucking a hand in his front pocket.
“But soap and water will probably get most of them off?” she asked.
Insinuating that most of the lip prints had been on skin.
God he liked her. “Well, you gotta use rubbing alcohol or hair spray to get lipstick out of clothes.”
“Maybe you should hang out with people who can wait until the clothes are out of the way to start applying their lips,” Jane said.
Yep, she was definitely a little jealous.
“Or maybe I should hang out with people who don’t wear lipstick.” He lifted a hand and ran his thumb over her bottom lip.
Her eyes heated a little, and her tongue darted out to trace the same path his thumb had taken.
“Yeah, maybe you should,” she agreed.
He grinned. “It’s definitely a good idea. It took me half an hour and two trips to the store to clean the last lip print up.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Lipstick is a bitch to get out of carpet.”
Jane closed her eyes and took a breath. “Do not want that story.”
He laughed.
Kelsey rejoined them just then with a plastic bucket full of cleaning supplies in one hand and a large can of hair spray in the other. “Okay, let’s do this.” She was actually smiling.
Dax felt a stupid rush of satisfaction at that. He didn’t think Kelsey smiled about cleaning the bathroom very often.
He followed the girls up the stairs to the bathroom on the second floor. It was actually pretty good sized. As he’d guessed, there were two sinks in the long vanity with a huge mirror. One side of the mirror had white streaks that looked like dried shaving cream. The other was covered in words written in bright pink lipstick.
Dax had to laugh. Girls were brutal.
“Okay, you’ve got mirror duty,” Jane said to Kelsey. She plucked a bottle and a sponge from the bucket. “I’ll do the tub.”
“What do I get to do?” Dax asked.
“You can pick between the sinks, toilet, or floor,” Jane told him. “And just so you know, this is only room one. We have the kitchen to clean and the living room to dust and vacuum.”
“Awesome.”
She snorted. “Well, it’s definitely not Ping-Pong.”
But it could be. Not Ping-Pong exactly, but it could be fun. He chose a bottle from the bucket as well and looked at the label. “Toilet, it is.” Then he lifted the bottle and spoke into it like it was a microphone. “And my first selection will be, of course, ‘Chicago’ by Frank Sinatra.”
“We’re going to listen to Sinatra while we clean?” Jane asked.
“No, that’s my song for the lip-sync battle.”
Jane blinked at him. Kelsey asked, “There’s a lip-sync battle tonight? That’s so cool. Where?”
“Right here,” Dax said. “What’s your song going to be?”
“Huh?”
“We’re going to clean for fifteen minutes. Then one of us is going to do their lip sync. Then we’ll clean for fifteen minutes more. Then the other will go. If I were you, I’d grab my earbuds and listen to my song and practice while I’m cleaning. I’m really good.”
Kelsey grinned at him. “Seriously? We’re going to do a song every fifteen minutes?”
“Yep. And I know you’re younger than me and the sister of the girl I’m really trying to impress, but I will not go easy. Lip-sync battles are serious shit. And did I mention I’m really good?”
Kelsey was laughing. “You did mention that.”
“So, yeah, I’d find my headphones or whatever if I were you and pull that first song up.”
“Okay.” She started for the door. “I’m going to do ‘Sweet but Psycho.’”
Dax laughed. “Awesome.”
Kelsey ducked out of the room, and Dax turned to find Jane grinning at him. “’Sweet but Psycho.’ You sure you shouldn’t do that one?”
He moved in close, taking the chance to pull her in and put his mouth against her neck. “Aw, you think I’m sweet.”
She sighed and tipped her head back, letting him kiss down her neck and along her collarbone. “I do,” she admitted.
He kissed back up her neck to her mouth. “And all it took was coconut oil and a toilet brush.”
She kissed him, going soft in his arms, letting him tease her lips open and meeting his tongue with hers. She arched into him, sliding her hand into his hair.
But after a few seconds, she pulled back. “That’s not all it took,” she told him.
“No? Then what was it?”
“The realization that you jumping in with coconut oil and a toilet brush is completely in character for you. You’re not even really trying to win me over here.” She smiled. “You’re trying to make my sister smile. And you’d be doing it even if I weren't here.”
Dax had to swallow hard. He should be flippant and charming and flirtatious here, but damn. He couldn’t do it. That meant a lot to him. “I would.”
“Thank you.”
“I—”
“Oh, see, that’s not fair,” Kelsey protested as she came back into the room. “If Jane’s the lip-sync-battle judge, you can’t be kissing her and stuff. That will bias her vote.”
Dax and Jane both laughed and moved apart. “She can be the judge if you want,” Da
x said to Kelsey. “But I’m telling you, it’s going to be very obvious who’s winning this thing.”
Kelsey propped a hand on her hip. “Bring it on.”
“Gladly.” He pulled his earbuds from his pocket and tucked them into his ears. “See you in fifteen.”
Kelsey grinned and stuck her earphones in as well, tapping the screen on her phone then tucking the device into her pocket.
“What if I want to lip sync?” Jane asked.
He turned to her. “What song would you choose?”
“That’s easy.”
“Oh?”
“‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin.’”
Dax’s eyebrows shot up. “A Frank classic.”
She nodded with a sly little smile. “I might have looked up his greatest hits.”
Dax pointed a finger at her nose. “If I hadn’t already given up my shares in Hot Cakes, that would have done it.”
She laughed and turned away. Dax watched her squirt cleaning solution into the tub and kneel to begin scrubbing. Kelsey had already sprayed the mirror with hair spray and was working on the lipstick.
This was the weirdest date he’d ever been on.
He loved every second of it.
9
Dax hit the play button on his music app, and as Frank filled his ears, he studied the toilet. This couldn’t be that hard, could it? He lifted the bottle of toilet cleaner, turning it to read the back label.
The directions for use were pretty straightforward, but he looked around and didn’t see a toilet brush. Was he supposed to use a sponge like Jane was using? That sounded disgusting.
He turned, intending to ask her, but found she’d moved in behind him, and he bumped into her, stepping on her foot.
“Ow!”
He pulled the earbud from one ear. “Oh shit, sorry.”
“You don’t know how to scrub a toilet?” she asked. Clearly she’d seen him checking out the label.
“I do. I just read the instructions,” he said. “But I need to know—if I don’t put my hands in the toilet and scrub with a sponge, does that completely knock out the chance of a kiss tonight, or would you still consider it?”
She shook her head, grinning. “Your chances of getting kissed are far better if you don’t stick your hands in the toilet.”
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