Page 80 of Dashing for Love

I swallow. “Right. Right!”

Anthony swings back over and pours more tea for Ox. “You know who it is, little brother. Use that head of yours.”

Ox’s eyes bulge. “Youknow, too? Oh, come on!” he whines. “This isn’t fair! How long have you known?”

Anthony shrugs and shoots more water into Reid’s glass from the gun.

Ox groans. “This is worse than growing up. You never tell me anything! And you,” he glares at Reid. “Sounds like you’ve known this juicy secret for a while, too. I don’t think I like any of you very much right now.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then maybe we should all leave.” Reid stands and grabs my arm.

“No, no,nowait!” Ox says, panicked. “I’m sorry. I’ll be good. Just, please tell me.” He turns his hulking form to me, bendinghis knees to look me in the eye and raising his hands in a prayer position. “Please?”

I laugh. “You’re completely ridiculous, you know that, right?”

Reid nudges me. “Come on. Admit it.”

I take a breath, then brace myself. “It’s Goldie Dash.”

Anthony nods in a way that looks suspiciously like pride. Reid just grins, happy to be right. And Ox? Ox loses his mind.

“What?What?” He grips my biceps. “No way!No. Way!”

I wince at the man’s giant hands on my upper arms. “Um. Ow?”

Ox beams, his face ruddy with absolute joy. “This. Is. Amazing!” He shakes me with every word.

I don’t fight it. Who fights an ox? Or, an Ox?

“Holy shit. Holyshit!You and little Goldie Dash. This is amazing!” he repeats, looking at his brother, then Reid, then me. His grip, if it’s possible, gets even tighter.

“Seriously. Ow.” But I’m also laughing, because I have never seen Ox like this. He is absolutely giddy.

“Buddy,” Reid says gently, placing a hand on Ox’s.

“What? Oh. Sorry.” Ox lets me go, but his joy doesn’t diminish. Not even a little bit. He crushes me to him in a hug. Which, I gotta say, isn’t comfortable. The man is huge, plus he’s wearing his bulletproof vest. I pat him in return.

“Okay, Ox. Let the man breathe,” Reid chuckles.

Ox releases me once again and I take a deep inhale. “Wow. Oxygen. Good stuff.” I take another breath.

“Goldie Dash,” he repeats. “Wow. Really?”

I nod.

“Because I always thought…well.”

“Enough with Liv Stinson,” Reid growls. “What is wrong with you, man?”

“I don’t know—I’m an idiot.” He hops up on the stool and shakes himself off. “There. All done. No more Liv. We are all Goldie, all the time. Tell. Us.Everything.”

Resigned, but also feeling lighter than I have in weeks, I tell them about signing up for the Blinding Love app, and how it matched me with someone named Dawn. How we talked and eventually decided to meet at the Masquerade Ball but didn’t reveal who we were.

“Wait,” Ox says, his eyes wide. “You werethere? You couldn’t have been. I saw Goldie—she was beautiful. But she was with a cowboy.”

I blink, then grin. “The cowboy wasme,Mr. Chief of Police.”

“No.” He shakes his head. “That guy’s ass was way nicer than yours.”

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