Page 31 of A Taste For Trouble

“So creepy,” she murmured as she poured some antiseptic on a cotton ball. I braced myself for the sting, but I couldn’t help roaring from the pain when she dabbed the antiseptic onto my wounds.

“Oh, stop being such a giant, grumpy baby, and let me take care of you because your mother will never forgive me if I let you die of tetanus,” snapped Rose.

“It stings,” I snapped back.

“What do you expect?”

“A little sympathy,” I pointed out angrily. “I got these wounds from saving your useless cat.”

“First of all, these aren’t wounds. They are merely scratches. And secondly, Iamextremely grateful to you for your help,” she said frostily.

“I don’t want your gratitude,” I grumbled. “Just a little kindness and sympathy will do.”

I knew I was pouting and maybe I was a giant, grumpy baby like she said, but it hurt, darn it!

“Will this do?” asked Rose, setting the ball of cotton down and taking my face in her hands. When I looked up in surprise, she planted a soft kiss on my forehead, another on each of my cheeks, and another on the tip of my nose before she ended with a soft kiss on my lips.

Fuck me, but that helped a lot, I thought dazedly.

CHAPTER 15

ROSE

Lookie there! I think I broke the grump, I thought to myself when Dominic smiled at me sweetly. My heart gave a hard jolt before it did cartwheels in my chest, and I wanted to gather him in my arms and keep kissing him until that sweet smile got branded on his face. It was way better than the bitterness I’d seen earlier.

I didn’t know what it was about that picture, but seeing it had sent Dom into a dark, unhappy place. Not something you’d associate with an innocent childhood picture. Maybe it had to do with his father. I didn’t know much about him or Dom’s relationship with him, but my mom had once said that losing his father when he was just ten was probably the best thing that happened to Dom and Anthea.

She refused to tell me why she’d said something so horrible, since it wasn’t her story to tell, but she gave me the impression that he wasn’t a very nice person. I remembered that fact when Dom was at the pool, and I decided to make him some lasagna.To comfort him and to thank him for everything he’d done for me.

Ever since I lost my mom, Dom had always shown up whenever I needed help. I hadn’t always welcomed his help, but he knew just when I needed him the most. And for that, I would always be grateful.

I was only six when Henry Carlisle died, and since then, Anthea and Dom had come to our place for dinner once a week. Until he went off to university. Anthea had carried on that tradition even after my mother passed away, and the menu for the meal was always the same. My mother’s lasagna. I tried telling her that I did know how to cook something other than pasta. But Anthea wanted to hold onto that comforting connection to my mother, the sister of her soul.

Dominic waved his hand in my face, breaking me out of my reverie.

“Are you okay, babe?” he asked, and I studied him carefully.

“Areyou?” I asked in return.

He thought for a moment and then nodded.

“I think I am. And even if I’m not completely okay, I’m sure your lasagna will help. Unless that greedy monster has got it all,” he exclaimed, half rising from the couch.

“Okay, new rule. No lasagna for people who say mean things about my cat,” I said firmly. “Now, clean this mess up while I dish up our dinner.”

When he returned to the living room, I was just plating up the pasta, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw Sweetpea’s bowl next to mine at the kitchen island.

“That’s…odd,” he murmured when Sweetpea climbed onto the barstool in front of his bowl and waited patiently.

“Well, eating alone feels very lonely sometimes, and I also got tired of swatting his paw off my plate. I realised that if I gave Sweetpea a small portion of my dinner in his own bowl, andallowed him to eat with me, he left my plate alone. He wasn’t attacking my food out of greed. He just wanted to be part of my daily ritual. So, now, we eat dinner together like a family. Which means that I have now fully transformed into a crazy cat lady,” I said ruefully.

Dominic couldn’t stop laughing as he stared at the way my cat waited patiently for his pasta to cool down before he scarfed it down.

“He’s like a little gentleman,” he commented. “But only with you. For the rest of us, he’s our worst nightmare come true.”

Dinner that night was a merry affair, with Trevor joining us for ice cream afterwards.

“I thought you had a hot date,” said Dominic, and Trevor shook his head sadly.