Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,16
Rebecca a few minutes later as we step inside the shop across from the apartment to get a bottle of wine.
“Anything, love,” she says to me as she peruses the scant selection of cold whites.
I lean in close, getting a whiff of her tobacco and vanilla perfume. “Let’s not mention anything to Dex about what Lucinda and I saw,” I whisper into her ear.
She frowns. “Really?”
“I don’t want him to worry,” I tell her. And that’s the truth. Just as I didn’t want to tell Dex who I saw at the window in the house, just as I’ve kept other ghosts close to my chest, I don’t want him to think I’m being haunted again.
Especially if I’m going to broach the whole baby subject with him. If I thought he was overprotective now, what’s he going to be like when I’m pregnant?
“Well, I won’t say anything,” Rebecca says, her eyes going to Lucinda who is holding on to her hand and looking around the store. “Can’t say the same for her.”
Thankfully, when we step inside the apartment, Radiohead’s OK Computer blaring from the stereo, Lucinda is immediately attacked by Fat Rabbit, who scampers right to us and jumps all over her in a flurry of licks and kisses.
“I’m jealous,” Dex says to us, sauntering into the kitchen with a mug in his hands. “Smelly bastard doesn’t even lift his head when I come home.”
He’s wearing his day-off clothes, black sweatpants and a tight white undershirt, obviously not expecting company, but also not caring just the same. I have to say, Dex on his day off is one of his sexiest versions, probably because he’s all messy hair, muscles, and tanned skin, tattoos on display. The cut of his tank makes his shoulders look broader than ever, tapering down to a narrow waist, his sweatpants barely staying on his hips. He meets my eye as he walks past me, his lips curving into a smile as he leans in and kisses me on the cheek. He knows when I’m ogling him.
“Sorry to barge in on you like this,” Rebecca says, looking him up and down, seemingly unimpressed. “We thought we would have a few drinks here.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” he says with a yawn, putting his mug beside the sink and pulling his sweats up higher. He turns and looks at Lucinda. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite niece.”
I roll my eyes. He’s got a silly habit where he insists that Lucinda call him Uncle Dex, even when she politely points out that he’s not her uncle.
“I’m not your niece,” Lucinda tells him matter-of-factly. I have to bite back my smile. “And you’re not my Uncle Roger.”
“I know I’m not your Uncle Roger,” Dex says. “I am much, much cooler. Would your Uncle Roger do this?”
Dex comes at her with the most mischievous smile on his face, grabbing Lucinda by the waist and hoisting her up in the air effortlessly. Lucinda squeals with joy as he spins her around the room like she weighs nothing at all.
Oh my god.
I know I’ve seen Dex do this with her before, but this time it hits completely different. It hits deep. How happy he looks, laughing along with Lucinda, totally in his element. I press my hands to my chest, feeling like my heart is growing too fast, too soon.
I glance over at Rebecca who is watching me so gleefully I swear there are tears in her eyes.
Jesus. My ovaries aren’t exploding, they’re fucking detonating.
Dex eventually turns Lucinda into an airplane, swooping her up and down past us until he’s about to put her on the couch.
“We’re coming in for a landing,” Dex says to her, making his voice sound like a crackly mouthpiece as he starts to lower her. “Hopefully there won’t be any beasts on Planet Vogsphere and…oh no.”
Fat Rabbit suddenly starts running for them, jumping on the couch, trying in vain to leap his little legs high enough to lick them.
“Abort mission, I repeat, abort mission.”
“Nooooo!” Lucinda yells, trying to reach for the dog.
Dex pauses her in the air. “So you’re saying you want to land on Planet Vogsphere, even though there’s a giant, ferocious, fart-blasting beast poised to attack?”
“Yes!” She giggles.
“Okay then.”
He puts her down on the couch where she’s immediately overtaken by Fat Rabbit again, laughing as the dog wriggles all over her.
“You have quite the brave daughter, Rebecca,” Dex says as he comes over to us. “He’s been stinking up the place all morning.”