Probably Amy wouldn’t even be in. If she had indeed been spotted on the premises earlier, it was likely just to pick up something she needed. In a way, it was too bad he wouldn’t see her, because it would have given him something to taunt his sister with. To the extent that he had thought about Amy this past week, it was because Kat would not shut the hell up about her. That was why he tried to keep his personal life separate from his family. They all went crazy at the slightest hint he might be moving toward settling down—which was irritating because they had all had front row seats for the train wreck that was Allison, so they had to know it was a lost cause. Still, when he’d arrived at his parents’ house on Sunday night for their family dinner, Kat, ever hopeful, had filled them in on every detail.
“I promise I won’t even nag you about grandchildren if you bring this girl to meet us,” his mother had said, patting Kat’s belly. “Your sister has that covered.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “For now.”
“We all just want you to be happy,” his traitorous sister said, an artificial smile plastered on her face.
His father, typically, said nothing, just served Dax’s mother more stroganoff.
“I am happy. And she’s just a friend. Not even that! She just needed some help, and I happened to be around.”
“Don’t you think eighteen years is long enough to let what happened with Allison rule your life?” Kat said, her signature playful smile gone.
Adrenaline flooded Dax. They didn’t talk about this. Kat knew that. “It doesn’t rule my life,” he said stiffly. It was true. It had been a tragedy, of course. And he had learned an important lesson. But that was it. It wasn’t like it kept him up at night—anymore.
“I’m glad you helped this girl,” his mother said, oblivious to the tension swirling around her children. “Your father needed help when we first met.” Dax and Kat had both heard the story of their parents’ meeting countless times, and this was usually the part where they would catch each other’s eye and commiserate, but Kat just stared at the floor as their mother went on. “He was locked out in the rain.” Mercifully, his mother left out the rest of the story, where she invited the waterlogged boy inside. Her parents weren’t home, but when they arrived, they freaked out at the prospect of their daughter being alone with a white boy. Yada, yada, Romeo and Juliet, yada, yada, love conquers all. She always left out the part where Dax’s father had charmed his in-laws so hard that when he’d asked their mother to marry him and she’d said she had to think about it, her parents had tried to ground her, despite the fact that she was twenty-one.
“Help is good,” their mother went on, motioning for their father to put more sour cream on her stroganoff. “It’s as good a basis for a relationship as anything. Certainly better than these lust-filled hookups”—she made air quotes with her fingers—“that the youth are doing today.” Dax nearly spit out his food in a fit of coughing. If only his mother could have seen him with Amy on the ferry. God, if she could have heard the filthy things he’d said to her, she would ground him, no matter that he was thirty-five.
“How do you know about lust-filled hookups, Mom?” Kat asked, smiling tentatively at him. He smiled back, despite himself. He could never stay mad at her, even when they were kids.
“I read about them in the paper.”
“Anyway,” Kat said, “Dax, I think Mom’s point is that you should give this girl a chance. You’re not getting any younger. You can only be a canoeing, programming, hermit bachelor CEO rich dude for so long.”
“I appreciate your concern,” Dax said. And he did. His family was annoying, but they were his, and he loved them. He just needed to shut this down. This was exactly why they never met any of his girlfriends. They didn’t understand the whole concept of casual dating. His mother would have been appalled, in fact, to hear him outright telling women he went on more than one date with that while he was up for some short-term fun and companionship, they needed to check any ambitions they might have beyond that if they wanted to be with him. “But you’re barking up the wrong tree. Last night was an aberration. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to help. Under normal circumstances, this girl hates me.”
“No!” His mother pressed a hand to her heart. “That’s not possible.”
He and his sister rolled their eyes in stereo.
“It is, Mom,” Kat said. “It totally is.”
He hadn’t disagreed, and he tried to remember that fact as he rounded the corner to the executive suites at Winter Enterprises. Amy hated him. It was possible that because of Saturday night he might have been upgraded from hate to mere disdain. But either way, she wasn’t his biggest fan. And the feeling was mutual. Or it had been, historically. The part where she’d wrapped her legs around him while he devoured her mouth wasn’t really germane to the situation because she’d been reeling from the jilting and probably a little drunk. In other words, not herself. And though he was always up for a little no-strings-attached fun, he wasn’t foolish enough to think a woman who’d just been dumped in such grand fashion could ever come with no strings.