Page 54 of Love Redesigned
I’d grabbed her then, ignoring her squeals as I tossed her back onto the bed, pinning her arms above her head. I’d leaned in close, my nose inches from hers. “You might have said it first, but I hope that doesn’t diminish how much I mean it when I say it back.”
A knock sounded behind me on my open bedroom door. “Hey, Alex?”
I jumped at the sound of Dani’s voice, closing out my photos and tossing my phone onto the bed. I sat up. “Hi. What’s up?”
She eyed me curiously. Had she seen what I was looking at? “Dinner’s ready,” she said. “You okay?”
“Sure. Of course. I’m...” I swallowed. “Everything’s fine.” I followed her to the kitchen where the rest of the guys were already seated at the table. Isaac had something pulled up on his phone, and everyone leaned over, watching the tiny screen. Dani moved to the cabinet and pulled out six plates then started dishing up the first one.
Something didn’t sit right. It was bad enough she’d been put in this position; serving a house full of men in order to earn her keep felt archaic in a way that made me cringe. But that was between her and her brother. Still, she’d only agreed to cook. She didn’t need to serve everyone. Wait on us like we were at some restaurant.
“Hey, Dani?”
She turned around, a full plate in hand. There was a smudge of something on her cheek that I hadn’t noticed before. Spaghetti sauce, maybe? I crossed the kitchen to where she stood and motioned to the plate she held. “Here. This one is yours. You don’t have to serve the rest of us.”
“It’s not a big deal,” she said.
“But it is,” I said. “Don’t condition them to think this is how it should be. You doing all the work while they sit around. You cooked. That’s all you agreed to do. They can fix their own plates.Anddo the dishes.”
She huffed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“They’ll learn,” I told her. “I’ll make sure of it.” I scooted behind her and nudged her toward the table. “Come on. Go sit.” I followed behind her, worried that someone at the table might say something when she sat with her own food before anyone else had a plate.
To my surprise and relief, no one did. The conversation paused momentarily, everyone seemed to internalize what was happening, and then Isaac stood and went to fix himself a plate, the others following closely behind. Maybe there was actual hope for them after all.
I watched Dani a moment longer, and something familiar surged in my chest. Something...protective? It wasn’t quite the right word. Dani was strong and independent and didn’t need protecting. At least not in her brother’s house. But the look on her face said she was grateful to be sitting, not serving, and it made me happy that I’d had a small part in that. Andthat’swhat felt familiar. The desire to make her happy. Which made sense since I’d dedicated almost a year of my life to that singular pursuit.
Dani mostly stayed to herself during dinner, which was probably smart. Whenever the other guys were around, Isaac tended to amplify his teasing. Dani could hardly say anything at all without him turning it into a joke.
“Hey Dani, you going for a run in the morning?” Isaac asked his sister.
She studied him a long moment, probably trying to see if he was setting a trap. “I’m planning on it. Why?” she finally answered.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Isaac shot me a look I didn’t understand. “I was just curious. No reason, really.”
“Do you want to come with me?” Dani asked, hesitation in her voice.
“What? No,” Isaac said. “You know I don’t run unless someone’s chasing me.”
“I, uh,” Steven said. He cleared his throat. “I was thinking I might go with you. If, you know, you don’t care or anything.”
This time, Dani’s eyes flicked to me before she looked back at Steven. How had I become everyone’s emotional barometer? “Oh. Okay,” Dani said. “I guess that’s fine.”
Was Steven interested in Dani? Not that I was surprised. She was beautiful and smart and all the things any man would find captivating. But the idea still didn’t sit right in my brain. Wasn’t there some sort of bro-code that kept any of Isaac’s roommates from dating his sister?
Realization washed over me and my stomach tightened. Acknowledging just how much I wanted Dani to be happy, and how much Ididn’twant Steven to run with her in the morning, felt like a giant step toward the cliff I’d been hovering around for weeks. The image of her on her bed, whiteboard in hand,I love youscrawled across the front, flashed through my mind. It shouldn’t matter, and yet itreally, reallydid. I had fallen for her once. Hard and fast and completely. I didn’t want to watch her fall for someone else. More importantly, how was I going to be around her on a daily basis, eat her food, listen to the sound of her laugh or catch the scent of vanilla on her hair and not fall again myself?
I’d had my reasons for ending things. Good ones. But watching her, itching to touch her, if even just to wipe the smudge of sauce off her cheek, made me wish I could forget why I’d left in the first place.
While I finished up the dishes, Isaac came back into the kitchen. “So tomorrow morning, while Dani is running with Steven, I need you to help me out. You busy?”
I placed the plate I was holding back into the sink and grabbed a dishtowel. “You finish the dishes and I’ll help you out in the morning.”
He hesitated a moment before moving to the sink and picking up the discarded dish. “Hasn’t Dani been doing the dishes?”
“It’s the twenty-first century, Isaac. She shouldn’thaveto do the dishes. She’s cooking for us. This is the least we can do.”
“Fine. I’m sorry. I’m helping. And don’t make it sound like I don’t care about her. That’s what I need your help with in the morning.”
