Another thud had me sitting up.
“Dax?” I called.
Nothing.
“Dax?” I called again.
Nothing.
I pulled out my phone and texted him, but he didn’t answer, meaning he was driving or riding.
Rowen: Are you at home?
I wasn’t sure which because I’d been in another orgasmic-induced fog as he was leaving. My brain’s light had been on, but nobody had been home.
Now, though?
That haze was gone, and it was working.
Curious, I got up and got dressed, finding Dax’s sweatshirt on the floor and slipping it on before moving to my leggings.
I fisted the sweatshirt, knowing that this one was going to be mine now, too.
I’d have to buy him more.
It wasn’t nice to steal and not replace.
Grinning to myself and loving the way his sweatshirt always seemed to swallow me whole, I made my way out to the living room and took a good look around.
Nothing.
Everything was quiet.
Nothing out of place. No unusual people in Dax’s living room.
Hell, there wasn’t even a random squirrel.
Not that there would be usually, but that’s always what the random bumps and bangs were if my imagination had any say in it.
Honestly, I expected to see more raccoons in my life, too, with the way I always accounted for them making the loud bangs at my apartment in San Antonio.
One time I’d even asked the super, and he’d explained that we had a family of raccoons that were making a home in our spare utility closets. They’d be kicked out of one and would move to the next one on the next porch, though I’d never actually seen them in mine.
My phone rang, but since it wasn’t a ring tone that I knew—yes, I was that loser that assigned ringtones to my friends and family—I didn’t bother rushing to answer it.
It was probably a telemarketer.
I was being punished as an adult for all the random prank calls that I used to make with Katy when we were kids.
Nine times out of ten, if my phone rang, it was some random person ghosting my number and heavy breathing into my ear.
The random calls had been going on for months now.
To the point where I’d just assigned everybody special ringtones and didn’t bother answering anything else unless they left a voicemail.
The phone finally stopped ringing, and I walked to the front window and looked out through the blinds.
I grinned when I saw my brother mowing his lawn.
I stepped out onto the porch, leaving the door wide, and walked to the end of Dax’s front walk.
I waited until he finally looked over and then grinned at him.
He ignored me, going back to mowing.
The next time he looked at me, I pointed at my lawn.
He rolled his eyes, but I knew he got the drift.
My lawn would be mowed.
Dax’s? No. Mine? Hell yes.
Did I say that I loved my brother?
Because I so totally did.
Sometimes.
Other times, he annoyed the hell out of me and got off on doing it.
Waving at him on his next pass, he flipped me off, causing me to snort.
Turning back around, I made my way back into Dax’s.
Then almost turned around and went into mine.
But I wanted to read the fridge message.
After that was done, I would go back to mine.
I slammed the front door closed behind me and made a beeline straight to the fridge and stared at the letters that were there.
It was almost a habit at this point just to see what he’d say.
I looked forward to it.
Today’s message?
At first, I was confused.
‘I hope you die.’
“What?” I asked.
That was a little harsh for calling him Mr. January, wasn’t it?
“You know.” The woman’s hissing voice sent chills down my spine. “I watched you do that three times during the day yesterday.”
I slowly turned to find Shondra there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.
“It’s sickening.”
Then my confusion slowly slipped away and only understanding and fear resided there now.
“What’s sickening?” I asked, voice rough.
“You and him,” she said. “Your obvious love for Theo is sickening.”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t… I don’t have any feelings for Theo any longer, if I even had them in the first place.”
“Lies!” she cried out. “You’re lying!”
I wasn’t lying.
In fact, I was so far away from lying that I couldn’t stand it.
“I’m not lying!” I burst out. “I can’t stand Theo anymore. The only person I care about anymore is Dax!”
Shondra scoffed, shifting.
That was when I saw the fucking hammer in her hand.
Son of a bitch.
“You know, you were the one that introduced me to Theo,” she continued. “You realize that, right?”
What?
“I saw you talking to him one day after work. He was at a station across the street from where you were visiting. Why do you go to the spa so much?” she asked.
“What?” I asked.
Her change of direction was confusing to say the least.
“You go to the spa. You go to the salon. You get your nails done. You get facials to do on yourself every Friday night. You buy fucking skin cream from Sephora every six weeks. You even change your mascara like clockwork. Why do you change your mascara so often?” she pushed.