“Again?” My voice squeaks. I find out this is not the right response, because Dustin cocks his head at me as if he doesn’t understand.
“What?”
“What?” I repeat. Great. Now I’m gaslighting him. I shake my head. “I mean, why did you think that?”
“I believe it’s because you shouted at me that you would never set foot in my house again.” His grin fades and he stares at me.
Fantastic. I’m going to kill Jera for not telling me any of this. What exactly happened between her and Dustin? “I’m sorry,” I say, my gaze falling to my lap. “I behaved badly.”
“Well, I had some blame in the matter. I honestly wasn’t trying to embarrass you in front of your friends. And the wine down your front was a complete accident.”
I’m dying to know the whole story, but I can’t ask him. “Accidents happen. Let’s forget the past.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.”
I take a bite of the pasta and gulp back a moan. “This is amazing.”
A smile spreads across his face. “Thanks.”
“I’m not just saying that. This is probably the best alfredo sauce I’ve ever had.” I scoop up another generous bite.
“I admit, this is one recipe I’ve worked hard to perfect.” A lovely blush graces his cheeks. “And now I’ve revealed how much I wanted to impress you.”
“Me?” It’s my turn to blush. I’m not sure what else to say, so I spend time chewing. Finally, I say, “Consider me impressed.”
We eat in silence for a few minutes before he speaks. “In the spirit of starting over, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”
I slowly nod. “Okay.” I rack my brain for tidbits of things Jera might have told me in conversations. Not much comes to mind, so I decide to jump in the way back machine. “I was born in Colorado Springs and grew up in a town called Larkspur, which is one of those blink and you miss it kind of towns.”
“Do you miss it?”
“Yes,” I say before I can think. I do miss Larkspur. The town is charming and quiet and has the best views of the mountains and the red rock formations.
As soon as I look at Dustin, I realize my mistake. Jera hated living in such a small town. It wasn’t even a town. It’s a municipality, population 203. Every chance she could get, she’d go to Denver, which is quite close.
“What do you miss about it?”
I was committed now. I couldn’t take back my answer. “I miss the bright stars in the sky. On a clear night you can see millions of them, twinkling like diamond dust sprinkled across the heavens. I miss the picturesque setting. The quiet. The smell of the mountains and nature. The wildlife. A lot of things.”
Dustin slowly nods. “That sounds so lovely.”
“I don’t live far from there now, so I go back often to paint, but it’s not the same as living there.”
He pauses, his fork halfway to his mouth. “You don’t live far?”
Panic grips my stomach as I try to think of a way out of what I said. “I mean, the flight isn’t long.”
Lame! I should have been more careful, and now Dustin is going to think I’m all kinds of crazy. He can’t think that Jera would fly all the way to a small town in Colorado to paint. I’m so busted.
But instead of questioning my sanity, he just studies me. “You paint?”
“Yes.”
“Oil?”
“Watercolor.”
“I’d love to see your work sometime.”
And that’s all. He continues to eat, and I shove more food in my face to stop me from saying anything else dumb. I eat the last bite, and I scrape my plate to get the tail end of the alfredo sauce. I don’t want to waste any of it. This seems to please Dustin, because he sits back with a goofy smile on his face.
“That was delicious,” I say to explain why I’m scraping my plate.
“Thanks.”
“So, your turn. Tell me something I don’t know about you.” I stand and gather up the plates and silverware to take to the sink. He follows me, along with Squint, whose collar jingles as he runs to catch up to us.
I set the dishes in the sink, plug it, and turn on the water.
“What are you doing?”
“The dishes.” I open the cupboard under his sink to look for the soap. I pull up a bottle of dishwashing liquid.
“You don’t have to do them. I have staff that comes in.”
Oh. Of course. Heat rushes to my face. Dumb mistake. I’m supposed to be Jera, a rich actor who doesn’t lift a finger. Now I have to make up something. “I just thought I’d take care of them real quick. Save them the trouble.”
He shuts off the sink. “Don’t you have staff?”
“Of course.” Then I realize I haven’t seen any staff since I’d come. Did Jera give them time off? Wait, I think I remember her saying something like that when we were on the phone. She must have been worried I’d give her away. It’s looking more and more like her worries are warranted.
“But you do your own dishes?”
“Sometimes. I like the sudsy bubbles. They’re fun.” I’m babbling now, and I sound like an idiot.
Dustin laughs. “So, you’re saying I’m missing out on a lot of fun by not washing my own dishes?”
“Tons.” I try not to roll my eyes at how ridiculous that sounds.
“Well, then, who am I to take away our fun? Maybe we should do the dishes.” He takes the dishwashing liquid from me, and my skin tingles where our fingers touch. “How much of this do we need?”
I eye him skeptically. “You seriously have never done dishes before?”
He shrugs. “I’ve always had staff to do them.”
Wow. I hold in my surprise. “How much soap you use depends on how many bubbles you want.”
“If the bubbles are the fun part, then lots.”
He smiles and my heart does a little flippy thing inside my chest. I turn the water back on. “Put in a generous amount then.”
He flips the lid up and squeezes the soap into the sink like he’s a mad scientist.
“Whoa, not that much!” I giggle as the suds immediately start forming.
“Did I do it wrong already?” His tone is teasing, and I’m sure he did it on purpose.
I pull out the sprayer and spray all the dish soap, making the bubbles mount higher. “It’s okay. We’ll just have to rinse them really well.” In a rash moment I dip my finger in the suds and swipe it across his nose. I have no idea what came over me, but I can’t help but laugh at how it looks and his surprised expression.
He swipes the suds off his nose and chuckles. “Is this how you do dishes?”
“Yes.”
He eyes my sprayer. “That looks like fun. Can I try it?”
“Why?” I don’t have to ask. I know why he wants the sprayer.
“Because it’s not fair if you have all the fun.”
I stop pressing the button so the water returns to the faucet. I slowly hand it to him.
He points it at me. “How do I make it spray again?”
“Don’t you dare spray me.” I try to say it with a straight face, but I can’t. He’s flirting with me, and I can’t help feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush. I like it, even though I shouldn’t.
“If any water gets on you, it will be totally unintentional, I swear,” he says while the spray nozzle is still pointed at me.
I haven’t played the flirting game in quite some time, and I’m all here for it, even if I shouldn’t be. I push away the thought that Jera would kill me if she knew I was flirting with Dustin. It’s just some harmless fun, right?
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