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“Thank you, Charley,” Dex drawled, joining us in the staff room. “That’s enough about family game night.”
“It wasn’t family game night!” she exclaimed, sitting bolt upright. “It was you driving everyone insane night!”
I hid my smile behind my mug as I sipped my hot soup.
“Knew this was a bad idea,” he muttered.
“Besides, I didn’t even tell her the worst bit because I still want my ice-cream you promised me if I didn’t tell her.”
“The worst bit?” I looked between them both. “It gets worse.”
“For hi—”
“Shoop.” Dex clapped his hands. “Shush, Charley.”
“No, let her talk.” I glared at him. “What have you been saying about me?”
“Something she shouldn’t have been listening to in the first place,” he ground out, turning his dark stare from her to me. “It was between me and Rox.”
I put my mug on the table and stood up. “Well, now it’s between you and me, so spit it out.”
He said nothing, just continuing to glare at me.
I met his gaze beat for beat, intensity for intensity. I wasn’t going to back down on this. Charley hadn’t told me stuff I didn’t already know. Well, mostly.
“Do I still get my ice-cream?” she asked in a small voice.
Dex relaxed. “Yes. I promise. There’s nothing booked in after lunch, so I’ll take you, okay?”
“Okay,” she answered, brightening and reaching for her pens again.
I stared at the side of Dex’s head. He was deliberately focusing on her to ignore me, so I grabbed my mug and stormed out of the room. I didn’t care if he followed me. As much as I wanted to know what he’d been saying, right now, I wanted to talk to him even less.
The only thing I could handle right now was being well away from him.
For the first time ever, I was glad when the phone rang.
I darted through to reception with my soup in hand, then grabbed the phone and answered. It was a standard request, so I booked it in, said goodbye, and hung up.
When I put the phone down, Dex was staring at me.
“What?” It came out harsher than I’d intended.
He hesitated. “I deserved that.”
I glared at him. “Unless you’re going to tell me what you said and apparently want to keep quiet or give me something to do, I don’t care about what you have to say.”
“It wasn’t that bad. It’s just Charley overexaggerating like kids do.”
“If it’s not that bad, there’s no reason to keep it from me.” I folded my arms. “Whatever. I don’t care.”
He raised an eyebrow as if to silently call me a liar—which I was—and leaned against the counter. “There’s nothing booked in after lunch, and nothing booked this morning that I can’t handle myself. You can take the day off if you want.”
“In other words, you don’t need me, so I can take my bad mood and go away.”
“Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.”
“Well, they’re arguably better than the ones you spew all by yourself.”
His lips twitched into the tiniest of smiles. “Not many people can make me speechless, but you just did it.”
“Yet, here you are, still speaking.” I rolled my eyes and tucked my hair behind my ear. “If I can really go…”
“You can go.” He held up his hands. “Preferably before you try to murder me.”
“Cute. You think those thoughts are restrained just to today. I won’t forget this.” I wiggled my finger in his face, then hit him with one final glare before I stormed off toward the staff room.
Charley looked up when I clanged my mug into the sink. “Oh no, Jamie. Are you mad?”
I took a deep breath, turned, and smiled at her. I was, but not at her, and she didn’t deserve to feel my anger just because her uncle was an ass.
“I’m fine,” I reassured her. “I’m just going home because there’s nothing to do.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Not because Uncle Dex has been talking about you to my mom?”
“Absolutely not,” I lied smoothly. “There’s nothing to do, that’s all. There’s no point me sitting around here for that, huh?”
“No, I suppose not.” She capped her pen and looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “You look sad.”
“Maybe I’m a little mad,” I finally gave in. “But not at you, okay?”
“Are you really going home because you’re mad? Or is there really no cars?”
“Bit of both.” There was no point lying to the kid. She was smart as hell. “But it’s okay.”
Slowly, she nodded, picking another pen out of her cup. “You should get ice-cream with us. Ice-cream makes everything better.”
She wasn’t lying.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said softly.
“Why not?”
I paused. How the hell did you explain stuff like this to a kid? “Well, me and your Uncle Dex aren’t friends right now, so I don’t think ice-cream would be very fun for you.”
