Page 19 of Maid For Each Other
“So I’m all in the zone when I hear, like, slipping. Like the sound of someone losing their footing. I turned around—Iwas smart enough to pause my treadmill first—just in time to see Dexxie fall and then get shot right off the back of his treadmill.”
“Abi—” he interrupted.
“Thankfully he was in the last row, so he hit the wall insteadof another person, right? I mean, he’s a big boy—he could’ve really taken someone out.”
His parents were laughing, the loud, head-thrown-back kind of laughter that couldn’t be faked.
“So I jumped off my machine and ran over, asking him if he was okay as he lay there, all sprawled out like a big, clumsy puppy. His backside actually put a hole in the drywall, which must’ve hurt, but he was tough about it and climbed to his feet all on his own.”
“Abi.” He said it as a command.
“And after he hobbled over to one of the benches and stopped whimpering, he finally confessed that he’d been too busy watching me to pay attention to his own run.”
“I wasn’t hobblingorwhimpering,” he said in a voice that was close to a growl.
“Oh, okay, sweetie,” I said, pursing my lips and smiling. “Regardless, he was very sweet and romantic and took me out for an amazing dinner afterward.”
“Which was an event in and of itself,” he said, his serious face suddenly brightening. “Because my little Abi here loves steak so much that she kind of forgets to chew sometimes.”
I waited for the rest as his smile climbed a little higher.
That man has bad intentions.
He said, “I had to give her the Heimlichtwicebecause she couldn’t stop herself from just gobbling it down like a wild animal.”
“Twice?” his mom said, looking shocked.
“Twice,” he repeated, nodding his head. “After the first incident, she just lowered her head and got right back to it.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t say—”
“Abireallyloves food,” he said, looking pleased with himself, and I couldn’t help it.
I laughed.
That brought his gaze back to me, and for the first time, we shared a grin. His eyes were warm, his mouth relaxed, and that look launched a thousand butterflies.
Especially when I felt him squeeze my hand.
His mom’s smile dimmed just a little, and there was a wrinkle between her eyebrows when she said to me, “You should really be careful, dear.”
His dad just nodded, also with a furrowed brow and concerned smile. “Dex won’t always be there to dislodge your food.”
That is a sentence Charles probably never imagined he’d be saying.
“Oh, sure he will,” I said, shrugging. “One of these days he’ll promise to love, honor, and Heimlich me until death do we part.”
Instant change.
His parents immediately beamed like they’d just heard world peace had finally been achieved.
Looks like Mommy and Daddy are anxious to marry off little Dexxie.
“Or not,” he said, managing to sound teasing even though I knew the mere thought of it gave him indigestion. “Should we save the rest of the stories and head to the back?”
“Yeah, it’s probably time,” his dad said, turning away from us to start walking in the other direction. His wife fell into step beside him, her heels making staccatoed clicks on the wood floor of the warehouse-like space of the restaurant.
We went down a hall, and at the end of it was a doorway that appeared to lead into the cocktail party. I could hear strings, as in orchestral people were wielding their bows in that very room, and everything was all darkness, white linen, and candlelight.
