“Thank you,” I say, my voice husky. “So how do you two know one another?” I turn my attention back to Dusty, hoping it’s not too obvious to Connor that I did so.
Dusty gives Connor a sideways look as if asking permission to tell me. Connor sighs and moves to the counter and starts cracking eggs over a bowl. “We were cell mates, Demi.” He doesn’t turn around, and I wonder if he thinks I’ll judge Dusty—or him.
“Ohhhh.”
“I got out three years before Connor,” Dusty notes. “If it hadn’t been for him, I would’ve never made it out.”
“How so?” I ask.
“It’s not important,” Connor interrupts. “All that matters is he made it out.”
My brows rise at Connor’s quick interruption. Dusty gives me an awkward smile and shrugs one shoulder in apology. “Go ahead and ask.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You want to know why I was in, right?”
Damn, I do. I really do. Am I sitting across from a murderer or a rapist? Who is this man that Connor shared a cell with? I mean, Connor was in prison for manslaughter which is basically a murder sentence. Did Dusty kill someone too? But even though this man is sitting in my house, I still feel rude asking.
“I wasn’t going to ask,” I respond before taking a large sip from my mug.
Dusty chuckles, a look that oddly, despite his tattoos and shaggy hair, is quite handsome and endearing. “She’s every bit a lady, just like you said, Connor.”
My brows rise again for the hundredth time this morning. Connor told his friend about me and called me a lady?
Connor doesn’t turn to acknowledge his statement, but from where I sit I can see his mouth quirk up a smile. “That she is,” he agrees.
“Well, seeing as I’m sitting in your kitchen, drinking your coffee, I feel like you should know. And, seeing as how Connor is a good buddy of mine, and I hope to hang out with him more since I just moved here, and to do that, I might want to be invited back to your house, with your permission, of course, I feel I should tell you.”
His proclamation surprises me. Is it ridiculous to think him volunteering the details of his conviction is gentlemanly? “Dusty,” I say, as I lean over the table and pat his hand where it sits. His head rears slightly as if he’s surprised by the gesture. “You don’t have to share if you don’t want to. I trust Connor. I know he would have never brought you in my house had he not trusted you wholeheartedly. And since you’re his friend, I hope I can call you mine, too.”
I stand and push in my chair. Connor has turned, his eyes fixed on me, an expression of awe on his face. I return a soft smile, letting him know I meant every word. I do trust him—wholeheartedly.
“I know I must look awful,” I huff. “Do I have time to wash my face and dress before breakfast is ready?”
“Ten minutes,” Connor responds, watching me with mirth filled eyes.
“Be right back.”
As I exit the kitchen, I can’t help smiling to myself when I hear Dusty say, “One hundred percent lady.”
It took me fifteen minutes to get back to the kitchen. I decided on a quick shower instead. Then I had to rewrap my toe. The cut doesn’t look so bad today, thankfully, and I find when wearing flip flops it’s manageable. Connor has set plates on the table and is dishing eggs out when the screen door creaks open. I close my eyes. Damn.
“Demi! Where are you at you two cent hooker?” Lexi rounds the doorway and stops in her tracks. She looks like she managed a shower this morning before showing up unannounced.
“Good morning, Alexis,” I mumble.
“Hey, Lexi.” Connor juts his chin in acknowledgment. “Want some breakfast?”
Lexi gives me a bright smile as she bats her eyes obnoxiously. “Why, I’d love some, Connor. How kind of you to offer.”
I shake my head as she scurries toward the coffee pot and pulls a mug from the cabinet above while Connor sits another plate out and dishes some eggs on it. When she finishes, she takes a seat on the other side of Dusty and smiles. “Hi.”
Dusty smirks as if he’s amused by her, but it’s not hard to see he likes looking at her. My sister is a beautiful woman. “Hi, yourself. I’m Dusty.”
“Lexi,” she answers sticking her hand out, and they shake.
“Friend of Connor’s, I presume?”
“Yes. The wild little sister, I presume,” Dusty responds. Lexi looks to Connor and twists her mouth in a smirk.
“So you’ve been talking about me, Connor? I’m flattered.”
“I’m sure he meant it as more of a warning to his friend,” I chirp, grinning at Lexi, so she knows I’m kidding.
“I told him you liked to party,” Connor clarifies.
“Well, I haven’t heard a thing about you,” Lexi ignores Connor and me and remains focused on my mother’s worst nightmare sitting in front of her.
“I’m an open book, ma’am. What would you like to know?”
“Ma’am?” Lexi questions, making a weird face at me, like, who is this guy? “How old are you?”
“Thirty,” Dusty answers. “You?”
“Twenty-nine. Are you married?”
Dusty holds up his left hand, showing his ringless ring finger. “Nope.”
“Girlfriend?” Lexi continues.
Dusty lets out a little chuckle. “Nope.”
“You live around here?”
“Yep,” Dusty answers as he bites a piece of bacon. “Just moved to town.”
“Been to prison?”
“Yep,” Dusty replies, meeting her gaze for gaze.
“Would you like to have dinner with me at my mother’s house?”
I nearly choke on my eggs. “Lexi,” I hiss. Lexi laughs as she smacks my back. “Okay, maybe not at my mother’s house, but maybe just dinner?”
Dusty looks at me, and I immediately look away. I’m staying out of this. “Maybe the four of us could hang out sometime,” he finally answers.
Lexi, to my utter astonishment, looks shocked. She expected Dusty to be on her like white on rice. This may literally be the only time I’ve ever seen her speechless.
“Yeah, sometime soon,” Connor intervenes, saving us all from Dusty’s shutdown.
Lexi recovers quickly and begins babbling on about everything from how hungover she is to how she’s going out again tonight. And of course, as soon as we’re done eating, she has to rush out, late for work. At least Dusty has the good grace to offer to help with the dishes, but Connor refuses his help, asking him to go in the garage and take a look at the Harley because he thinks something is wrong with the muffler or something.
“It was nice meeting you, Demi,” Dusty says, before he leaves. When the screen door slams, I move my gaze hesitantly to Connor, who’s watching me with his arms crossed and an unsure sideways smirk on his face. It’s the first time we’ve been alone together this morning, and it’s the first opportunity the awkwardness has had a chance to fall upon us.
“How are you feeling today?” he asks.
My heart is pounding. A part of me fears he’ll try to discuss last night, and the other part fears he’ll try to ignore it like I intend to do. Does he regret it, too? Why does the thought of that break my heart? But in the end, it doesn’t matter if he does or doesn’t. It was wrong. So I take my easy cop-out. God, the kissing was amazing, his hands all over me. I’ll never forget it as long as I live, but it shouldn’t have happened. There are so many reasons it shouldn’t have happened.
“A little better,” I admit with a chuckle. “I swear I think I blacked out after I cut my toe. It must’ve been the whiskey.”
His mouth turns to a frown as he narrows his eyes slightly, staring hard at me. “So you don’t remember anything after you cut your toe?” he questions, disbelief rich in his tone.
My mouth is so dry right now. I hate lying. Especially to Connor. “No,” I assure him. “But I guess you’re the one that bandaged my toe, so thank you.”
Insert awkward silence here as we stare at one another. He doesn’t believe me. I can tell. And I’m pretty sure that’s because I’m the worst liar ever born. Lexi sucked all the deception abilities out of our gene pool and left me looking like a wounded kitten every time I try to be untruthful. My nose might as well grow like Pinocchio.