“Shut up,” Julian snapped. “She should be coming down here and minute now and she doesn’t need to overhear this bullshit and take it the wrong way.”
The fist wrapped around my heart loosened just a little bit.
“I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” Damien shot back. “I just figured Quint or Ty would have said something about her coming over here. What’s wrong? Why did no one call to tell us she was coming? Why is she here?”
Since eavesdropping did me absolutely no good and I had learned my lesson the hard way, I to
ok the last step off the stairs and woodenly walked to the kitchen.
“She’s moving in, which means this is her home now,” Dash growled darkly. “I want her to feel welcome in her own home. I want-”
“Nobody knew that I was coming,” I said into the now silent room. I looked at Dash, ignoring the other two for the moment. “If they had known, they would have let you know, I’m sure. And, I realize I absolutely should have told you I was coming over, but it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Mr. Cole had a last-minute business meeting pop up that he had to go to. It’s a overnight trip and I really didn’t want to be alone.” Here’s where things were going to get awkward for me but to hell with it. “It’s really depressing being there with all the moving boxes everywhere and I just had to get out of there. I couldn’t go next door because… well, to be honest, I am still avoiding going over there. But you already know about that because that’s why I’m moving in here and not there.”
And, oh god I was rambling. My fingers were tangled together in front of me, twisting every which way. I was incredibly nervous and all three of them were watching me like hawks. Even Damien eyeballed me.
Dash moved away from the counter and opened a drawer. He rifled through things until he came out with a silver key on a little circular key ring. He held it up for my inspection before tossing it my way. I caught it in mid-air.
“Key to the front door,” he told me. “It’s yours because this is your home too. You can come and go as you please and you don’t owe any of us an explanation for showing up out of the blue.”
I shifted from foot to foot nervously as I clutched the key to my chest. “Yeah, but I wasn’t supposed to move in yet and I really should have called.” Which I could not have done because I didn’t have his phone number. Best to leave that part out.
“Doesn’t matter.”
I frowned at him. Why was he being so easy about this?
“Thanks for the room,” I rushed out in my most sincere voice. “It’s lovely.”
The corner of his lips twitched, and I stopped breathing. He wanted to smile at me.
“Take your house key upstairs while we take the food to the dining room,” he ordered.
I did as I was told. I usually did.
When I got back down the stairs after placing my key on top of the dresser they were all in the dining room, waiting for me.
I hesitated in the doorway as I took in the scene.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The three of them were seated at the large dining room table. Dash at the head with Julian and Damien sitting across from each other. That meant I had to pick between Julian and Damien to sit next to. No brainer. I picked Julian, he was the safer bet, the nicer bet.
They watched my every move as I strode up to the table. I pulled out the chair beside Julian and sat down.
An empty plate appeared in front of me. I grabbed it out of the air and sat it down with a clunk on the table.
“Dig in,” Dash ordered gently.
I looked up to see him watching me and I gave him a hesitant, half smile. My palms were sweating fiercely, and I was thankful I had already set the plate down or it would have probably slipped from my fingers and that would have been embarrassing.
Dash tipped his head towards the food on the table and continued to watch me. I noticed no one else was eating even though they already had food on their plates. I hoped they weren’t going to watch me eat because that wouldn’t help at all with my nervousness and I would likely choke on whatever it was I was attempting to stuff in my face.
There were dishes on the table filled with food. A bowl with salad mix in it. Four different kinds of salad dressings. A plate with a pile of breadsticks on it. A casserole dish with what looked like creamy chicken alfredo in it. The table was littered with things. A plastic bottle of parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper shakers that were cute little ceramic cats, one black and the other white. I could guess which one was the salt shaker and which one was the pepper shaker. A half empty roll of paper towels and a small pile of silverware.
Who was supposed to eat all this food?
When I continued to sit there stupidly staring at all the food, Julian picked up my plate and started filling it with things. He skipped the salad entirely and piled the plate high with alfredo. He plopped two breadsticks on top of it and smothered the whole thing in parmesan cheese. The plate thunked down in front of me and I stared at it in open mouthed horror. I couldn’t eat all that.
He placed a fork on the edge of the plate and pushed the ceramic cats towards me.