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“We found to-die-for red shorts that looked fabulous on Dovie,” Nailyah informed me.
“Oh, yeah? Well, let me see these shorts.”
“She wouldn’t buy them,” Nailyah said. “I begged, but she’s stubborn.”
I looked back at Dovie. “You didn’t like them?”
She shrugged, then signed, “Too much.”
Ah. I’d given her the only credit card I owned that was tucked away and kept for emergencies. It only had a credit limit of five hundred dollars, but I liked knowing I had it in a bind. Until Dovie had wanted to go shopping, I had never actually used it.
I lifted my gaze back to Nailyah’s. “She’s a bargain shopper. Takes after me.”
Nailyah frowned. “That doesn’t sound like fun.”
I wanted to laugh. The girl had no idea what struggle was. But she didn’t understand what all Dovie had lived through. I let it slide.
“What is it you needed help reading?” Lula Mae asked, giving me a helpful look that was fake. I knew it now. I’d fallen for her bullshit once, but I wouldn’t do that again.
“Nothing. It can wait,” I replied. “Can I get y’all something to drink? Snacks?”
“You don’t have to wait on us. It’s Storm’s house. I’m perfectly fine with helping myself to his things,” Lula Mae informed me, beaming as she walked over to the fridge.
I cut my eyes back at Dovie, and she was watching her with a frown. The way she’d said Storm’s house hadn’t been lost on either of us.
“Yes, well then, help yourselves,” I replied, wanting to go put my foot on her ass and shove her into the open fridge she was studying.
“So, how long are y’all gonna live with Storm? Looking for your own place?” Lula Mae asked, taking the last of my favorite yogurts.
Figured that would be what she took.
“That’s not our business,” Nailyah said, giving me an apologetic look.
“I was just curious. I didn’t mean to be nosy,” she said, scanning the drawers, clearly not sure where to get a spoon for my yogurt.
I walked over and opened the drawer she needed.
“Thank you,” she said as she came over to get a spoon. “I was simply asking because I know how Storm never does the company thing or lives with anyone. He just cherishes his space, you know,” she said before sticking her spoon into the yogurt.
She was trying to make me think she knew him better than I did again. I had to remind myself of that as the jealous monster began to rear its ugly head. I met Dovie’s gaze, and she looked like she wanted to escape. The bitch was making her uncomfortable. I would take shit off the woman if I had to, but I wasn’t going to let her make Dovie feel unwanted.
“How does Rice Krispies Treats sound?” I asked her with a wink. She loved them when they were still warm. “You get the butter from the fridge, and I’ll get the other supplies.”
“You’re making them?” Nailyah asked hopefully.
“Sure are,” I replied. “Won’t take long, and we can take them out on the back porch and eat them all while y’all tell me about the things you bought today.”
Nailyah clapped her hands together, grinning. “Ohmigod, yes! I’ve not had those in so long.”
I walked over to the pantry and went inside to find the marshmallows and Rice Krispies I’d put inside when I got back from grocery shopping yesterday. Finding both, I grabbed them and stepped back out. Nailyah was sitting on the counter, watching Dovie as she got a large pot out and started melting the butter.
Lula Mae was walking over toward the peaches that I’d picked earlier and placed in a bowl on the bar. She smiled and picked one up. “Did these come from the trees out back?” she asked me.
“Yep. Picked some this morning,” I told her, setting the supplies down beside Dovie.
She raised her eyebrows slightly and scrunched her nose. “I’m glad I didn’t make it weird, telling you about Storm and me kissing out there.”
The woman was really pushing it.
I pulled the measuring cups from the drawer. “Not at all. But then Storm did take me out there yesterday, stripped me naked, and, well …” I glanced at Nailyah. “Sorry. TMI.”
She was pressing her lips together like she wanted to laugh and shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t mind me.”
I shifted my gaze back to Lula Mae, who no longer looked so pleased with herself. That smug look on her face was gone.
“Let’s just say, what we did was the opposite of a G-rated kiss.”
Lula Mae tensed. “I don’t think Storm would appreciate you talking about your … sex life around his little sister.”
“Trust me, he does not care,” Nailyah said with a wave of her hand.
“It’s inappropriate,” she snapped.
Nailyah opened the bag of marshmallows. “Relax. I walked in on him screwing a girl in the pool house when I was, like, ten, and he yelled at me to get out while he was fucking. So, I seriously doubt he’d care now that I am almost twenty. Besides, the way he looks at Briar makes it pretty crystal clear he’s obsessed with her.”
