Page 11 of Axes & Nos
“What are you doing?” Alia asks from right beside me.
“Aaaah! Don’t sneak up on me, woman you just about gave me a heart attack. My poor heart is beating a million miles an hour. This is it; I’m going to meet the big guy in the sky.” I dramatically grab my chest as Alia is cackling like a lunatic at my hijinx.
“Stop being so dramatic! I called your name three times before I came over to you. You are too busy checking out my soon to be brother-in-law to hear me.” I click my tongue at her in derision.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m not ogling your soon to be brother-in-law. I’m simply making sure the dumb oaf doesn’t drop anything.” I answer smugly and she gives me a knowing smirk.
“I’m going to call bullshit but keep lying to yourself if you want.” She snarks as she saunters toward the office door. Beforeshe walks through it, she shouts back at me. “Don’t look now, but here comes the man you aren’t watching.”
Dax walks out with a shit eating grin on his face, giving me a little wink before jumping into the back of the truck to get another load. Before he reaches for the next set of boxes, he takes his shirt and uses the hem to wipe sweat off his face. The action causes me to catch a glimpse of his toned stomach that flexes under my gaze. He’s saying something to me, but my brain has short-circuited watching him. When I look up into his face he’s wearing a cocky smirk and my face heats with embarrassment.
“What...what did you say?” I stutter out as I look down at my clipboard like I’m checking something important, but I have no idea what it says at this point.
“Did you enjoy the show?” He responds by cocking his eyebrow up at me questioningly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I stumbled out. “I was simply wondering what was taking you so long to grab those boxes.”
“Well, if you weren’t so busy ogling my goodies you would know I was asking where these boxes went because the label is smudged. But you weren’t looking at my goodies, so you must just be hard of hearing then.” He chuckled as he jumped down with the boxes in question like they were filled with feathers.
As a matter of fact, both the boys had been carrying boxes and furniture all morning like they weighed nothing. After seeing what Dax was packing under his shirt it made more sense. They must work out constantly to be in that kind of shape. Yet another reason to avoid his advances. Boys who worked out that much were always looking for attention from women. No thank you!
“See the label you created looks like it might have gotten wet or wasn’t dried completely when it was loaded into the truck.”He points at where the perfect label I’d made before we left Dallas now looked like hieroglyphics.
“Damn it! I must have rubbed it before it was dry. I should have noticed that when I was loading the truck.” I growl in frustration, because now I don’t know where these boxes go. This will cause a chain reaction in us getting done on time for the day. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid Myra!
“Wait, what did you just say? Did you say you loaded this truck? Alone? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Chase you asshole! How could you let her pack and load up their office alone? I’m going to kill him.” I’m confused as I watch Dax storm out of the office followed by a confused Alia. Is he pissed on my behalf? Why would he be so pissed on my behalf? I won’t lie; it's kind of hot that he’s trying to stick up for me.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Chase gets in Dax’s face yelling. There's some shoving between the brothers and I swear I can hear growling, but maybe I’m just stunned into stupidity watching them argue over me loading the truck.
“So, you didn’t know that Myra not only packed up the office, but she also loaded up the moving truck alone?” Dax accuses Chase.
“Myra, what is he talking about? You hired movers to pack up the truck. Didn’t you? Myra?” Alia is asking while trying to separate the two brothers who look like they want to kill each other. As everyone’s eyes land on me I feel the sudden urge to run. Instead, I take a fortifying breath and explain what happened instead.
“Well, you see what had happened was, the movers refused to put things into the moving truck the way I asked them to. I knew if it didn’t go in exactly as I planned everything wouldn’t fit and when we were unloading it would cause all kinds of delays. So, I paid them to bring everything to the truck, but I’m the one who arranged everything inside.” Everyone’s mouth washanging open looking at me like I’d grown a second head causing me to duck my gaze back to my clipboard.
“See asshole, I didn’t do shit. Now, apologize to me and make it good.” Chase crowed with his arms crossed like he’d won some giant argument with Dax and would be rewarded.
“Fuck off big brother. Why was she left to do everything by herself? She’s not your servant Alia; you can’t just treat people like that.” Dax grumbles and Chase looks like he’s ready to throttle his brother again for insulting Alia. Before he can say anything, I beat him to it.
“Dax enough! Enough! First of all, Alia has never treated me like a servant. She didn’t know anything about what was going on. I kept it all to myself, because she has enough stress on her plate. She’s dealing with starting a new job, planning a wedding, and moving in with your brother. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me. Be angry at me!” I yell the last part as I stomp off towards my truck to hide the tears of frustration in my eyes. Footsteps sound behind me, but I don’t look back. I don’t want anyone to see me like this. Tears are a weakness and I’m not a weak woman anymore. I am strong, damn it!
“Myra. Myra, come on don’t be mad at me. I was just...I was just trying to stand up for you. I thought...well I thought Alia was taking advantage of you.” Dax rushes out as he grabs my elbow turning me around to face him.
“I don’t need you to stand up for me! I don’t need anyone standing up for me. I am perfectly capable of standing up for myself.” I growl at him, yanking my arm out of his grip. He drops his eyes to the ground, his cheeks reddening, looking embarrassed.
“Woah. Okay, I get it, I really do.” He says with his hands out like he’s trying to soothe a wild animal and it just makes me angrier.
“Do you? Do you really get it? Because I don’t think you do. See men like you think that because you’re hot and work out that women like me will fall at your feet. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not going to happen.” I rant at him but instead of him getting angry at my words he smirks at me like he’s just figured out some grand secret.
“You think I’m hot?” He taunts, wiggling his eyebrows at me.
“That? That is what you take from my rant, is that you’re hot.” I groan in frustration to keep from laughing at his ridiculousness. It is really annoying how good looking he is.
“Are you two going to fuck or what?” Chase yells from across the parking lot at us right before I hear the sound of skin hitting skin followed by a loud yelp of pain. Glancing over I notice Chase rubbing his arm giving Alia a wide berth. Dax glances back at his brother, his shoulders vibrating with tension or is it vibrating from the growl that seems to be emanating from Dax. That’s the second time I’m pretty sure I’ve heard him growl like an animal.
“What? It was an honest question. Do you see the way he’s looking at her like she’s a medium rare steak? Dax does not look at women like that, ever! I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Chase holds his hands up in surrender to Alia and Dax.
“Are you looking at me like I’m a medium rare steak?” I ask as more of a joke to break the tension, but when Dax turns around to face me, I’m shocked by his eyes. They’re no longer green; they look like melted gold. He must see the shock on my face because he ducks his head before he takes a step back from me.