Page 46 of Puck You Very Much

“Hm.” Matt turned his beer bottle thoughtfully between his hands. “But that’s nothing new between you two.”

“Oh, it’s something new this time.”

“Yeah? What was the argument about?”

“None of your business,” he snapped. Even if someone held a gun to his head, Dax wouldn’t be able to summarize what it was about.

Matt put his hand to his chest, pretending to be hurt. “Since when are you withholding your most intimate thoughts from me? I thought you only acted mysterious to pick up women, not to piss me off.”

Dax rolled his eyes. “I can multitask,” he explained matter-of-factly. “Besides, you don’t have to know everything. In this case, all that matters is that I was angry at her and she was angry at me and we both behaved…incredibly badly.”

“Incredibly badly,” Matt echoed thoughtfully, tilting his head. Finally, he whispered uneasily, “Tell me, are you two screwing?”

Dax choked on his beer and coughed loudly. “Fuck, no!”

But he would like to be. Very much so.

“I’m just asking,” his buddy said, raising his hands defensively. “Ever since Jack said he thought you were a couple…” He shrugged it off. “It doesn’t matter. Look, if it’s weird, just text her and say you want to go back to normal again.”

He stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t just text that.”

“Of course you can. Lucy absolutely hates it when people aren’t honest.”

Yeah, he knew that.

“Apart from that,” Matt continued, “women like that honest, sincere shit. Two out of three say that honesty in a relationship is more important to them than good sex.”

Dax stared at him in disbelief. Honesty was important to him, too. Especially in bed—so that he could have good sex! “Where the hell did you get that? Is it your sisters influencing you, or how are you suddenly so in tune with women?”

A gentle blush crept up Matt’s neck. “Um, I got that insight from Maddie. She runs a dating agency. She said a lot of her clients answer the questionnaire like that.”

“Maddie?”

“Yeah. You know. Lucy’s sister.”

Oh, yes. Right. Matt was friends with her, too. Dax was slowly losing track. He sighed heavily and dropped his head against the backrest. “I don’t know if I can just text Lucy and say that I want things to be normal again. I don’t want to make it worse,” he admitted quietly.

Matt raised his eyebrows, amused. “Worse than now? Shit, Dax! Watching you is like watching two turtles eat Tide Pods. Slow and painful, and everyone knows it will end in death. You two are not designed to be quiet and polite. At some point, someone will explode, probably dragging me into the abyss with them, and I’ll be hanging there by my fingernails. So text her. I’ll go get some vodka in the meantime.”

“Why?” Dax asked, irritated.

“It feels like a vodka night, don’t you think?” Matt replied easily and shrugged before crossing Fox’s living room.

Dax snorted and pulled out his phone. He stared at the blinking cursor for a few seconds and then drafted a long message. At first he explained in full what was bothering him about Lucy’s behavior lately…and then he deleted it all. It was too long-winded. Impatient with himself, he groaned and frowned, and then simply sent three direct sentences. They contained all the important information:

I want you to act normal again. Like before. Before… everything.

Satisfied with himself and his eloquence, he was about to put it away when his phone vibrated with a reply.

Take your own advice, Pinocchio. Act like a real boy before you accuse ME of not being normal!

The corners of his mouth twitched. At least her messages were still normal. That is, normal by her standards. He was about to reply when someone leaned over his shoulder.

“Are you texting Lucy?” Leon asked.

Dax flinched and lowered the phone. “Did you read my private messages?” he retorted harshly.

“No, just her name,” he replied lightly and dropped down next to him. “Why does everyone have her private number except me?”

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