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I didn’t ask him why. I didn’t need to. Guys like Trev loved girls, and they especially loved a challenge.
Seven
Dinner wasn’t the event I’d feared. Melanie called as soon as we returned to the house to tell us that Kenneth would be staying in Lexington overnight and that she would be having dinner at the club with friends. I knew a family dinner would come for me eventually, but after today, I was relieved it wasn’t tonight.
My family hadn’t done dinner together. Dad would eat in front of the television, and so would Cole. I typically made a meal for them from what food we had and then cleaned up the kitchen while they ate. That had been my normal. Not living in a house with someone who cooked for the family and served them in a fancy dining room.
After standing in my closet for over ten minutes, staring at the clothes and wishing my cutoff sweatpants and faded Texas A&M T-shirt were in there, I finally chose a pair of white shorts and a black tank top. It seemed like the most casual pieces of clothing I had been given. My other clothes had gone missing. I didn’t have to ask to know Melanie hadn’t approved of them. They had been secondhand clothes, but they were mine.
A knock on my bedroom door brought me out of my thoughts on clothing, and I walked over to see what Saxon wanted. It had to be him. We were the only ones home.
He smiled when I opened the door. I liked his smile, but then again, he also had dimples. That was hard not to like.
“Hungry?” he asked.
I was indeed hungry, but I didn’t want to leave this house again today. I paused for a moment before replying, “Yes,” almost cautiously.
“Good. I ordered pizza. I wasn’t sure what kind you liked, so I ordered a cheese, pepperoni, barbecue chicken, and veggie. Jo was going to fix us something before she left, but I told her we wanted pizza.”
All of those pizzas sounded good.
“I like them all,” I told him.
He beamed at me, as if I’d said something brilliant. “Perfect.”
A chime went through the house, startling me before I realized it was the doorbell.
“It’s here,” he said. “Let’s eat.”
He started down the hallway toward the staircase, and I followed behind him. My stomach growled, and I was suddenly ravenous.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had pizza. Well, this kind of pizza. I used to make bread pizzas at home. Expired white bread was cheap, as were dented cans of tomato sauce. When we’d had enough grocery money to splurge on cheese, I would make us pizzas on slices of bread. Cole loved them. If we could afford pepperoni, then Cole was thrilled. That was rare though. Every dollar had counted in our house.
“Declan, I didn’t know you were coming over,” I heard Saxon say, and I paused.
I wasn’t sure if I should keep going down the stairs or turn around and go back to my room. Seeing Declan again did not sound appealing. But the thought of pizza made my stomach rumble, and I decided I was hungry enough to deal with it.
When I reached the bottom step, Declan glanced over at me, then back to Saxon, as if I weren’t even standing there.
“I thought we could watch a movie. Today was a bust, but tonight doesn’t have to be,” she told him, stepping inside and pressing closer to Saxon.
“Uh, well, I guess,” he replied, then looked back at me. “Want to watch a movie, Maddy?” he asked me.
I knew that Declan hadn’t meant me when she suggested “we” watch a movie.
Not wanting to make an enemy since it was obvious I would be seeing a lot of Declan, I shook my head. “Oh, no, that should just be the two of you. I can get my pizza and go to my room and read.” Which was exactly what I wanted to do.
A pleased smile spread across Declan’s full lips, and I was glad I’d made her happy. I didn’t see us being friends, but as long as she knew I wasn’t after her boyfriend, I figured we could exist peacefully.
“Did y’all order pizza?” she asked, looking back up at Saxon.
He nodded, but he was frowning at me. “You don’t have to stay up in your room, alone.”
I started to protest, but Declan stepped around Saxon and farther into the house as she leveled her gaze on me. “He’s right. That sounds terribly boring. Stay down here with us. You can help me decide on a movie. If we let Saxon pick, it’ll give me nightmares or put me to sleep,” she said with a friendly smile that concerned me.
There was no way she was suddenly open to me being here.
“My movies aren’t that bad,” Saxon said defensively.
