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Noticing that my sisters and Marleigh were making their way over, I smiled at Felicity. “Now, I hate to cut this short, but we have to bounce.” I did not want any kind of stressful scene to play out in front of my pregnant friend.
Alicia glanced from me to Felicity, her eyes narrowing. “All good here?”
“All is far more than good.” I gave Felicity a friendly nod. “See ya around. Stay classy.” With that, I walked out of the boutique.
Outside, Alicia sidled up to me. “What happened in there?”
Sabrina relayed the entire thing as we strode along the sidewalk, passing store after store, dodging pedestrian after pedestrian.
“She’s such a skank,” sniped Alicia.
Marleigh hummed her agreement. “The woman needs a good kick up the ass.”
“Preach,” said Sabrina, high-fiving her sister.
Harri nudged me with her elbow. “Are you going to tell Dax?”
I rubbed at my neck. “Yes. I’d rather not, since it will lead to inter-family conflict, but I promised I’d let him know if she ever came at me again. I’m surprised she did.”
“I’m not,” said Marleigh. “She probably figures that being his relation will save her.”
Maybe. “Then she’s in for one hell of a shock.”
Chapter Fifteen
Pulling into my driveway later on, I cut the engine. Dax’s car was nowhere to be seen. He’d informed me earlier that he “had business” with someone today but wouldn’t be back late. I hadn’t asked for specifics because there was no point—he very rarely gave me any.
Once I’d grabbed my shopping bags out of the trunk, I headed into the house. I went straight to the kitchen, where I found Gypsy lapping at the water in the bowl. “Hey, kitty cat.”
She straightened, swiping her small tongue over her mouth.
I reached down and gave her a long head-to-tail stroke. She arched into it, granted me the honor of also giving her head a light scratch, and then she haughtily waltzed away. “All right, then.”
I made a cup of tea and then went upstairs. There, I rested the cup on the dresser and plonked my purse and shopping bags on the bed. I unloaded said bags, taking out one item at a time—most were baby clothes, others were little things Marleigh would need.
Once I’d finished cooing over them, I began placing them back in the bags. I was almost done when I heard someone enter the house. There was also the sound of Dax’s voice, but the words were muffled. Since no other voices spoke, I guessed he was talking on the phone.
I heard him moving around downstairs. The muted sound of his footfalls steadily became louder until, finally, he entered the room just as he ended his call.
I smiled. “Hey, sugar bun.”
He blinked. “Sugar bun?”
“I figure I need to come up with a term of endearment for you, so I’m trying some out.”Someoneneeded to save him from how super serious he was. “Not sure sugar bun is the way to go, though. It sounded better in my head.”
Humor flickered across his face. “Right.” His gaze fell to the pile of tiny clothes, and his muscles minutely tensed.
“They’re for Marleigh and Ollie’s baby,” I told him. “You can relax, I’m not knocked up.” Despite what Felicity believed.
Which reminded me that I had a story to tell.
“Your shopping trip was productive, I see,” he said.
“It was a fun day. Aside from one teeny, weeny part. I was in a—”
His cell began to ring. Sighing, he fished his cell out of his pocket. His lips tightened. “I have to take this. Can you give me a second?”
I flicked my hand. “Yeah, there’s no rush.” As Dax left the room, I turned back to my purchases and then continued to reload the bags, intending to stash it all in my closet.
