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“Name three things wrong with me.”
“No. That would be mean.”
“I’ll name three things wrong with you.”
“No,” she says instantly and tries to sit up.
I gently keep her pinned in my lap as I name her flaws. “Number one is you don’t know what you want. Two is how you won’t piss outside. Three is that tiny house you live in.”
“You’re right about the first one. As for the second one, I could learn to pee outside. What’s wrong with my tiny house?”
“It’s tiny.”
“Yes, but it’s nice.”
“I grew up outside with the entire Valley as my home. That wasn’t such a good thing, but it made small places feel like prisons.”
Xenia’s pitying me now. She strokes my face and thinks about a hungry, little boy needing someone to save him.
“Now name three things wrong with me.”
Xenia considers blowing me off. I sense she’s normally a weak woman. However, an ornery shine fills her gaze.
“Number one is how you almost never come around. That leads to number two, which is how I like you way more than you like me.”
I give her body a once-over, making her squirm under my inspection. As she frowns hard at me, I just shrug.
“What’s number three?”
“Does it matter after number two?”
“Sure. I gave you three things. Now, you need to fess up.”
“I can’t think of one.”
“Make some shit up, then.”
“Fine. Even if I could make you want me like I want you, I don’t think you’d ever travel with me.”
“What’s the point in traveling when you already like where you’re at?”
“To try new things.”
“But you don’t like trying anything. That’s why you don’t have hobbies.”
“I’m scared to do it alone.”
Xenia’s tone strips away my cocky grin. She sounds too lost to make it through life. I think of her moving here. Was she on autopilot? When did she realize she was in trouble? Was it that day I saw her from the meadow? She looked brokenhearted.
“What did you think of Wynonna and those biker wives?”
Xenia’s tension eases. “They were nice.”
“Is that you just putting on a show for me?”
“No. They seemed nice.”
“They do these lady things. Go to the salon and eat out and shop. Just chick stuff, I guess. I don’t really know. But I bet they’d invite you along.”
