Hit the Spot

I chuckled and released Syd, who was laughing, too.

She smiled up at Dash, then rushed in to give him a quick kiss. “Did you ask him?”

Dash shook his head.

“Was waiting until after dinner,” he told her.

“Ask me what?” I looked between the two of them, settling on Dash.

He threw his arm around Syd’s shoulders and pulled her close.

“Wanted to talk to you about buying back part of Wax,” he informed me.

“You serious?” I questioned, feeling my lips curl up. “Shit. You don’t gotta ask, brother. Wax is ours. Always has been.” Syd slid out of the way when I stepped in close to Dash, offering my hand, and when he gripped it, pulling him into a hug while throwing my other arm around his back and patting him hard between his shoulder blades.

“Thanks, man,” he mumbled, reciprocating the hug.

We dropped our arms and separated, both of us grinning big.

“This is awesome,” I commented, shifting my eyes to Syd and seeing her happiness, too. “Only thing that’ll make this night better is gettin’ some of that good-smellin’ food in my stomach.”

I turned to head inside, ready to eat, but before I could take a step, Syd was jumping in front of me and planting a firm hand on my chest.

Not that I couldn’t plow through her easily, she was tiny, but I halted anyway.

“You got more good news to share?” I asked her, cocking my head. “Not sure you can top what Dash just put on me, but you can try, Sunshine.”

I was still wearing my smile, but hers was gone. She looked uneasy.

“The happy you’re feeling right now, I’d really like you to keep hold of that through dinner,” she requested with soft eyes and a small voice.

I shot her an odd look, turned that look to Dash, and saw he was wearing one similar—he didn’t know what she was driving at either—then looked back down at Syd.

“Say again?”

“You’re happy. Keep it,” she pressed. “Even when you don’t want to, which could possibly happen, just focus on this feeling making you happy right now and let it take over.”

“Babe, what the fuck are you talking about?” Dash questioned, stealing the words out of my mouth.

“Yeah, and can we head in and talk about this while we fuckin’ eat? I’m starvin’,” I threw out, just in case she didn’t know the urgency here.

Syd briefly glanced at Dash, ignoring his question. Then when Sir ran over to us, she scooped him up and gave him a kiss on the back of his head. “I’d like confirmation you’ll be keeping the happy before we step inside,” she demanded, tipping her chin up and meeting my eyes.

Again, I looked to Dash.

He was looking at his girl and he was doing it with eyes searching for understanding, so I did the same.

I sighed. “Whatever, Sunshine. If it’ll put food in my mouth, fine,” I told her, moving past because I was sick of waiting and wasn’t lying when I said I was starving. “Consider it confir—”

The word died on my tongue the second I stepped inside the house and got an eyeful of Legs standing at the island.

Fucking Legs. At Sunday dinner.

What. The. Fuck.

I stared at her, looking my fill as Syd and Dash came into the house behind me.

Her long blond hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, which made my dick hard for some fucking reason. She wasn’t wearing much makeup except for that red lip I wanted to bite, and her hotass body was decorated in a blue, floral, hippie-looking, ugly-as-shit dress that wasn’t ugly one fucking bit ’cause she was wearing it.

To top that off, she was holding a pie. Looking like Miss Fucking America entering a bake-off.

If it looked like shit, I wouldn’t care. But it didn’t.

It looked good. Real good. And I was starving.

Goddamned motherfucker.

“What the fuck?” I bellowed, causing Tori to jerk back and flinch. I gestured at her. “Your schedule changed that last minute? I just verified two fuckin’ hours ago that you weren’t gonna be here.”

“What?” she questioned softly, setting the pie down in front of her and looking between me and Syd. “I wasn’t scheduled to work today. What are you talking about?”

I slowly turned my head to look at Sunshine, who was keeping her eyes on the puppy in her arms and obviously avoiding.

“What is she doing here? I thought you told Dash she was workin’?” I questioned.

“She told me you knew I was coming and were okay with it,” Tori announced, drawing my head back around.

My eyes narrowed. “What?” I grated.

“Babe, really?” Dash said.

He knew nothing about this either. It was all Sunshine. That was clear.

I breathed deep through my nose, searching for calm.

“I just thought this would be a nice way to smooth things over,” Syd said quietly, offering up an explanation. “You know, break bread and all.”

“Bad idea, Wild,” Dash replied.

I looked from Dash to Syd, echoing, “Yeah, bad idea. She ran me over, Sunshine. You forgettin’ that? So why the fuck would I be okay with sharing a meal with her?”

Tori slapped the counter and gained everyone’s attention when she started yelling, “I did not run you over! Jesus Christ! Quit spreading lies about me!”

“It ain’t lies if it’s true!” I yelled back, glaring at her.