Something to Talk About. Dakota Cassidy

      Five

      The front door to Em’s small ranch blew open with a gust of winter wind, Dixie’s beautiful face in the middle of it. “Well, hello, fine sir! Might I interest you in a cheeseburger and some fries with your aunt Dixie and the girls? Like a real dinner date?” Dixie swung Gareth up into her arms, nuzzling his neck with her nose until he was in a fit of giggles.

      The moment Dixie walked through Em’s front door, Gareth launched himself at her. Dixie, Caine, Sanjeev and the girls had become as important to Em and her children as any family member.

      Her mother didn’t like it, and no one in town did either for that matter. But she no longer cared what other people didn’t like. She didn’t care that the women in town mocked her parenting for letting the boys be around the women of Call Girls. Their “I can’t believe she’d allow young, impressionable boys in the presence of those women” snide comments rolled right off her like water off a duck’s back.

      At least those women were honest. They might talk dirty, but they didn’t talk behind your back.

      Over the months, during the hardest transition of their lives, Dixie and the girls were always there for her and her sons.

      While she’d picked up the pieces of her life, while she’d driven Clifton to his counselor, while she’d learned how to be single—they’d been there, too. Helping her through meltdowns, passing her tissues and teaching her how to be a part of a group of women who accepted her for who she was. That was more than she could say for her judgmental mother and the Mags.

      “Stop, Aunt Dixie!” Gareth cried between bouts of laughter as Dixie kicked the door shut with her foot. “I have somefin’ to tell you ’bout school. It’s ’portant!”

      Em held her breath. Please, don’t let it be another incident where one of his classmates poked fun at him about his father’s cross-dressing.

      Dixie’s eyes twinkled down at Em’s youngest son. “Did you find a new sweetheart? You better not be courtin’ someone new,” she teased, walking her fingers up his chubby arm until he squealed. “I’m your only girl, buddy. You’d do well to remember that.”

      Gareth instantly let his head fall to Dixie’s shoulder to signify his loyalty, snuggling against it and wrapping his legs around her slim waist. “No, silly. I got an A on my alphabet test.”

      Em let air into her lungs, sending up a silent prayer it had been a torture-free day for Gareth. That, on top of a phone call from her mother, Clora, reminding her the boys lacked proper discipline because she didn’t make them tuck their shirts in, would have been too much.

      “You are the smartest boy ever!” Dixie punctuated her words with kisses. “Now, you scoot—go get handsome for Miss Dixie. I can’t have you goin’ out on the town with me if your hands look like they’ve been rootin’ around a pig farm. Tell that good-lookin’ brother of yours, Clifton, to kick it into overdrive, too!” She let Gareth down with a plunk and a pat on his behind, shooing him upstairs. “Are MB and LaDawn here yet?”

      Em sighed with a nod, watching Gareth run upstairs to get his pouty brother. “Upstairs charmin’ Clifton Junior. You’re all so good with them. I wish Clifton would talk to me like he does to y’all. What is it with you and the opposite sex, Miss Dixie Davis? Honest, it’s like anyone with a man-garden falls ripe from the tree when you’re within range.”

      “What is it about you and a man, Miss Emmaline?” Dixie closed the front door, putting her hands behind her back and strolling over to Em with a smile on her lips.

      Em’s eyes fell to the floor, her fingers tangling up in a shaky knot. “Oh, hush. It’s not like that. We’re just picking out colors and some furniture for Maizy’s room.”

      It wasn’t like that. It really wasn’t like that because she wouldn’t let it be like that even if Jax wanted it to be like that. Which, surely, he didn’t.

      As she’d carefully applied makeup in preparation for tonight, she’d decided to get control of her wandering thoughts and behave like an adult. She was going to put her fantasies about Jax on a shelf where they belonged.

      He was a coworker she was helping out because she had a skill he lacked by virtue of being the opposite gender. Single parents needed to stick together and support each other. Rah-rah.

      Besides, her life was in such upheaval with the boys and the constant trouble they were having at school with everyone teasing them about their father, she didn’t need another complication in it. Men were complicated.

      All she wanted was freedom right now, some room to breathe after holding her breath for so long she didn’t even know it was happening.

      But wasn’t it you just a few days ago who was thinking about dabbling in the friends with benefits section of the relationship aisle? Yes. That had been her, but was it the real her?

      Was she capable of having sex with no lingering emotional ties? Was she willing to find out? Was she the kind of woman who could take a lover in the afternoon and discard him for another the next day?

      Now that a man had taken an interest in her—even if it was only about color palettes and canopy beds, a gorgeous man she’d logged hours daydreaming about, she was all tail between her chicken legs. One more reason to maintain a careful distance.

      Just a few nights ago, she’d been ready to learn the finer points of talking dirty so she could nab a man and quell this raging desire to explore her lack of sexual experience. Tonight, she was throwing salt all over her libido’s fire.

      Dixie ran a hand over the red knit beret Em wore and fluffed the scarf around her neck. “Helping a man pick out colors for his daughter’s room is very personal in nature, leading me to believe Jax wouldn’t just ask anyone.”