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I blinked, pausing in chewing my food. Only he could talk about sex with the same nonchalance he’d also use when speaking of the weather.
He picked up his mug. “Maverick, Jag, and my brothers will meet us at your house in an hour so we can transfer your things here.”
“I’m assuming one of them will be driving something big enough to carry furniture,” I said, lowering my cutlery to my plate.
“Maverick’s going to borrow his dad’s van.”
“Ollie offered to help, which is really him extending an olive branch.”
“Good. I would rather you weren’t at odds with your brother.” Dax took a swig of his coffee. “Speaking of olive branches … Grayden emailed me this morning.”
I stilled while reaching for a wet wipe.
“He claims to regret how he’s behaved recently—more specifically his defense of Felicity and Blaise.”
I felt my brow furrow. “Defense?”
Dax knocked back more of his drink. “Sometime after I called Felicity to warn her how exceptionally stupid it would be for her or her son to fuck with you again, Grayden contacted me, insisting that I was overreacting and there’d been a ‘misunderstanding.’ He swore that Blaise hadn’t graffitied the sign, and he maintained that Felicity had only been rude to you because she was drunk.”
What an asshole. Graydenknewshe was a bitch to me in general, and heknewBlaise was a regular vandal. Then again, Grayden was bound to stick up for his family, wasn’t he?
Sniffing, I tore open the wet wipe wrapper. “Making light of their behavior was a shitty move, but it’s only natural that he’s protective of them.”
“I don’t think it was a matter of protectiveness. I think he was angry at me for making you mine, and he used my warnings to Felicity and Blaise as an excuse to reproach me.”
I felt my brows dip. “What makes you think that?”
“There was bitterness in his wording. The emotion was out of place. Why be bitter that I’d issued warnings to his woman and stepson?”
Why indeed. Cleaning my sticky fingers, I tilted my head. “What did you do?”
“I sent him the CCTV footage showing Blaise clearly vandalizing the parking sign. That spoke for itself. I wasn’t going to be baited into engaging in an argument just so Grayden had an excuse to vent.”
If my ex had aimed to wrench a real reaction out of Dax, he’d taken the wrong route. You couldn’t hope to play a master manipulator unless you had some serious game of your own. Grayden did not. “What was his response to the footage?”
“There wasn’t one. I didn’t hear from him again until this morning. He apologized for how he’d acted.” Dax paused. “He also suggested that you and I go to dinner with him and Felicity sometime soon.”
“What?” I blurted on a humorless chuckle of pure disbelief. “Why? I mean, I know you two were once friends, but that was in high school, right?”
“Yes. We lost touch once he went to law school. I think he wanted to distance himself from me due to my reputation for fear that no law firm would otherwise employ him.” He shrugged, unbothered. “Proposing we have dinner is more or less a peace offering. He probably hopes he can smooth things over.”
“Probably. I wouldn’t want my family to be in your bad books.” I dropped the used lemon-scented wipe on my plate. “If you want us to go make peace with them, I’ll do it. As I’ve said before, I don’t want you to be at odds with your family.”
Truthfully, though, I wasn’t confident that it would help much. Felicity would be seething that I’d married her cousin. Seeing Dax and I together wouldn’t be something she’d enjoy, let alone take with grace.
“And as I’ve explained to you before, Felicity and Blaise might be my relatives by blood, but we have no relationship.” Dax set down his cup. “You, on the other hand, are my wife. I’m not going to place you in an uncomfortable situation of any kind. Nor would I expect you to make peace with someone who quite frankly doesn’t deserve it.”
Oh. Well. All right, then. “Have you replied to his email?”
“No. Nor do I intend to. He’ll get the message. But if he chooses to ignore it and contacts you about this—whether by phone or email—tell me.”
“He won’t be able to contact me by phone. I blocked his number recently. I should have done it months ago rather than put up with him calling and texting at his leisure, but I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction.”
Dax’s brows dipped. “Calling and texting about what?”
“Nothing. Random, unimportant stuff. Which was shitty, since he promised me no contact.” But Grayden had a habit of breaking promises where I was concerned. “He’s likely scared enough of you to leave me alone from here on out.”
“If he doesn’t stop, I want to know about it,” Dax told me, a warning in his gaze.
