Page 18 of Cross My Heart
"Am I?" She asks, stepping back. “Ticking you off, I mean?”
"I don't know how to feel about you, Lanie Heart. All my other employees are scared of me."Maybe this is going to be a mistake.
She steps forward again. “It's hard to be afraid of pretend monsters when you've dealt with the real thing your whole life."
I don’t have an answer to that. I catch the shocked expressions of the guys in the background. Good, now they know what I’m dealing with here. Trying to gain the upper hand, since this ismyhouse, I scowl at Lanie, trying to get my thoughts in order.
Lanie smiles. “Oh, goody. I wasn’t sure I was in the right residence, but with your constant scowl back in place, I feel right at home.” She walks past me to the girls and picks not one but both of them up and walks to the kitchen. Then she calls over her shoulder, “Hey, guys, make yourselves useful and go grab Tate for me.”
All three of my friends look from her to me and back again, then as if pulled by a little string she attached to them earlier, they all shrug their shoulders and go off in search of my son.
What have I done?
* * *
I walkinto the kitchen just in time to find Lanie buckling Harper into her highchair. “Lanie, what are you doing?" I say with a heavy sigh while pinching the bridge of my nose. I already feel a headache coming on and she hasn’t been here for five minutes. "I haven’t actually hired you yet. There’s paperwork, and we need to talk about salary. I also have to go to London soon. We’ll need to go over schedules.”
She puts her hand on her hip, “I know, and we will, but I just spent five minutes with your friends, and while they seem nice, I don’t foresee any of them knowing what or how to feed a baby dinner. Am I wrong?”
I shake my head, knowing she is right. “No, you’re right. It took longer than I was anticipating for you to arrive. The kids will melt down soon if they don’t eat.”She smiles and, god, how I don’t want the reaction it causes in me. I scowl in return.
“I know I am,” she beams. “Now, do you have a dinner plan, or are we winging it?”
“The girls have some of those mashed up meals in the pantry. I was going to order pizza for everyone else.” She scrunches up her nose. I think she does that a lot, and it is fucking cute as hell. “What now, Lanie?” Exasperation laces my voice.
“Oh, nothing really. We can talk about meals later, but from now on, plan on me making the kids food. No more of this packaged crap.” She must notice the irritation on my face. “Listen, I love myself some Kraft mac and cheese as much as the next girl, but we don’t want them growing up only having taste buds for processed stuff.”
I want to be mad. She is basically shitting all over my parenting again, except, I know she is right. I scowl anyway to let her know just who the boss is around here, although my mouth doesn’t connect to my brain.“You said crap,” I say, smiling.
What the fuck. That’s not...I wanted to tell her my way is just fine. I glower and look away.
“Listen, Mr. Dexter Cross,” she says with that sassy lilt to her voice. “I know you are trying hard not to like me, but I might as well tell you now, most people who try, fail.”
I start to stalk toward Lanie Heart and watch her fold in on herself. Fuck, I don’t want to scare her. My anger rises from my gut, but it's aimed at her attacker, not her. I try to squash it down so I don’t frighten her more. I take a step back and lean against the counter instead, crossing my arms.
“Well, Ms. Lanie Heart, I’m not most people.”
Her eyes drift down my body and snap back to my eyes. “No, Dex, you’re not. You’re definitely not.”
She turns and puts all her attention on the girls for the next thirty minutes while I stand off to the side and watch.What the hell was that look? Did she mean to do it? She is a complete mind-fuck. Maybe it’s good that I'm going to London for a while, she can get settled in and I can cool off. Get my head on straight.
The rest of the night goes smoothly. The guys are on their best behavior, for the most part. Tate sat next to Lanie at dinner. I didn’t notice him talking, but he was smiling at her, that’s progress. Maybe she is right…I should speak to him about his mom.
Anna is a total bitch, but she was always a good mom, wasn’t she?A good mom wouldn’t just walk away from her kids,the asshat voice in my head chimes in.
Fuck. If she said something to Tate, I would rip her limb from limb. I’m going to have to come up with a plan for figuring this out when I get back from London.
Lanie takes the girls upstairs, asking Tate to show her their rooms. As I watch Tate climb the stairs, a memory I’ve tried to forget appears unbidden.
“Dexter, go upstairs and get ready for bed. Daddy will be home soon to tuck you in.”
“What about you, mama, are you going to tuck me in too?”
“Not today, Dex. Mama’s got somewhere to be, but Daddy will take care of you.”
I walk up the stairs looking back every couple of steps. Somehow, I knew that would be the last time I would ever see my mother.
Hearing the guys give each other shit, I look up and realize how late it is. "The kids will be in bed soon, guys, so Lanie and I can work everything out then."
