Chloe was eating the night’s chicken special. Tara was carefully stirring her hot tea and adding honey with the precision of a drill sergeant moving troops.
Maddie was knitting, and not with the precision of a drill sergeant. She was also thinking too hard: about Jax’s father, about Jax’s ex-fiancée, about Jax. About their fight. At the moment, she wasn’t sure where they stood, or even where she wanted them to stand, but with a few hours of distance, she could definitely admit one thing.
She’d overreacted.
Fear did that to a person, made them completely… stupid. She hated that. She thought about going over to his house to talk to him. Or better yet, not talking. She could let her fingers do the talking for her.
Chloe glanced at her and rolled her eyes. “You and your orgasmic glow need to shut it.”
“Don’t mind Chloe,” Tara said. “She’s just jealous, bless her heart.”
“I’m going to bless your dead body,” Chloe said. “And are you saying you’re not jealous? The Mouse is clearly getting some, and we’re getting the big fat zip.”
“Sugar, you can’t miss what you can’t even remember.”
Maddie sighed. “There’s really nothing to be jealous of.”
“Uh-oh.” Chloe cocked her head. “Trouble in paradise? What happened? Don’t even try to tell me he didn’t fill out a condom. I’ve seen how he fills out his jeans.”
Tara choked on her tea.
“Oh, like you haven’t noticed.” Chloe turned back to Maddie. “Before we get to why you’re pouting, can we at least hear the juicy details? Does he talk dirty in bed? He’s good with his tongue, right? Please tell me he is.”
So good, Maddie thought and wriggled as she felt her body respond at just the memory.
“This isn’t fair.” Chloe slouched in her chair, pouting. “I’m good with my tongue, and I can’t even do it without getting an asthma attack.”
“I know I’m going to regret asking,” Tara said. “But how do you know you’re good?”
“I practiced with zucchinis. What?” she asked when both sisters laughed. “You asked.”
Tara rubbed her temples as if trying to remove the image burned into her brain. “So what happened?” she asked Maddie, clearly desperate to move on. “What happened with you and Jax?”
“I happened,” she said miserably. “I let my past dictate my present and possibly ruin the future.”
“Huh?” Chloe asked.
“I met his father. Who’s not a nice guy, by the way. And I found out that Jax gets really quiet when he’s mad. Like the calm-before-the-storm quiet.”
“Ah, sugar.” Tara pushed aside Maddie’s knitting to squeeze her hand. “That doesn’t mean he’s going to blow up.”
“I know that.” Sort of.
“And we all have pasts,” Chloe pointed out, surprisingly void of sarcasm. “And exes.”
“I know that, too. I just realized that, for as open and laid-back as he is, there’s more to him, a lot more than he’s shown me. I’m tired of playing the game when I don’t get a copy of the rules. He can go play with himself.” She paused. “Okay, that came out wrong.”
“But it sure is a great visual,” Chloe said.
“I say back off,” Tara said. “You’ve had your fun with him, and that’s all you need for now.”
“But-”
“Trust me,” Tara said. “Backing off before you fall is the safest.” She got up and came back with an apple pie and a quart of vanilla ice cream. “This is my Can’t Get It Together apple pie. It’s got a million calories, but it cures everything. Broken budget, broken heart, you name it.”
They each took a huge piece and added ice cream.
“Uh-oh,” Chloe said to Maddie. “Your foods are touching.”
“Shut up.” The warm, buttery crust melted in Maddie’s mouth and made her moan. Not as good as being naked with Jax, but a close second.
“So one week left until Christmas,” Chloe said, mouth full.
Maddie set down her fork, her stomach clenching.
“Honey.” Tara shook her head, looking surprisingly upset. “It all comes down to money. Our cards are maxed out now. We have no buffer. We’re finishing up the bare necessities and getting it on the market. It’s for the best.”
“Plus you two want out of here,” Maddie said softly.
“And that,” Tara said honestly.
Chloe took Maddie’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go back to the cottage, turn on our Charlie Brown Christmas tree lights, and sing bad Christmas songs. I have a brand-spanking-new facial mask to try out on you guys that takes away fine wrinkles.”
“I don’t have wrinkles.”
Chloe patted her hand. “And remind me to remind you to get your eyes checked.”
The next morning, Maddie opened her eyes and had to laugh. Once again she’d fallen asleep knitting and was wrapped in her yarn. And also once again, she was entangled with her sisters beneath their tree like a pack of kittens. She crawled over a snoring Tara and pulled herself free from her latest knitting project. She’d finished it last night, and beautiful as she thought it was, she had to admit-it was her most crooked scarf yet. “Okay, one of these days, I’m going to get the hang of this.”
Chloe sat up, and Maddie gaped at her. And then at Tara. “Why is your hair green?”
“What?” Chloe touched her hair. “What?”
“And your face is white.”
“Omigod. So’s yours! And yours!” Chloe said, pointing at Tara, too.
It was like a bad game of blind man’s bluff. They all ran to the tiny bathroom and fought for space in front of the mirror.
Each of them had green-tipped hair and a face mask that had hardened like clay, cracking across their skin.
“Oh, God,” Tara groaned, then whirled on Chloe. “This is your fault.”
Chloe tossed up her hands. “Why is it always the baby who has to take the blame?”
“Because you are to blame? You said the mask would soak in overnight.”
She’d talked them into some new conditioner she’d made out of seaweed and avocado. “It must have stained. Okay, no one panic.”
“Why, because I’m sporting a hair dye that makes me look like I should be starring in a Dr. Seuss book?” Tara yelled.
Maddie bent to the sink and scrubbed off the face mask and brushed her teeth. Chloe and Tara followed suit, then they all stared at themselves until the doorbell rang.
Maddie went to the door.
Jax stood on the porch holding a container of four steaming hot coffees. Something tumbled inside her at the sight of him, but the warm fuzzy was immediately chased by a cold dose of reality. She had no idea where they stood.
He was wearing his usual sexy-as-hell work uniform-jeans, boots, and a big, warm-looking hoodie sweatshirt. Minus his usual easy smile. He handed her a coffee. “About my father and my ex,” he said, characteristically going right to the meat. “I don’t talk about them because neither are involved in my day-to-day life anymore. I spend long chunks of time not thinking about them at all. We don’t keep in touch; we don’t have fond memories. Both of those relationships ended badly, so believe me, there isn’t anything you’d want to hear.”
Fair enough. She and her father had a very decent relationship, but her time with Alex certainly wasn’t anything anyone would want to hear, either. “I’m sorry. I overreacted.” She offered a small smile. “I guess I’m still working on those trust issues. But you can’t deny that I really don’t know very much about you.”
His warm caramel eyes met hers. “We could work on that.”
Out of everything he’d given her-his time, a sense of renewed confidence, his friendship and more-this was perhaps the most meaningful of all. “That’d be nice,” she said. “Getting to know each other even better.”