Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(8)

Lia and Sienna turned their amused eyes over to Donovan.

“Making you Dommy dwarf,” laughed Sienna. “I can see that.”

Jackson smirked over Donovan’s annoyed look, but remained silent.

Bennett had no similar sense of male decorum. “Can you just imagine a little stuffed Disney dwarf wearing the same expression as Donovan, with tiny handcuffs and a blindfold in the pocket of his Italian suit?”

Donovan ignored their resulting laughter and gazed at Xoey. “Sweetheart, what were you saying earlier about the three of us being your exes?”

Dommy dwarf was her new favorite, most attentive dwarf. “Each of you are almost exactly like my three exes.”

Sienna frowned.

And Xoey proceeded to dub thee Grumpy dwarf.

“Xo, you’ve had way more than three exes.”

Ah, so she was another wise doctor like Jackson. Duly noted. “I have. But I’ve only had three exes and ohs.”

Fascinatingly, a cartoon vision of tic-tac-toe played out in her mind’s eye and she smiled at it, wondering if she would win.

Jackson placed the straw from her water glass up to her lips for her to quench her thirst.

She had been thirsty. Wow. Doc was now edging out Dommy for best dwarf ever.

For some reason, she had all the guys’ complete attention now.

Along with two somewhat uncomfortable looking girlfriends.

Was it something she said?

“Um,” said Lia glancing at Sienna. “You know, Sienna and I aren’t the best fit for this sort of girl talk. Exes, maybe. But definitely not, errr, ‘ohs.’”

Sienna nodded emphatically while smacking Bashful for snorting. “Dani and Quinn have way more estrogen in each of their little pinkies.”

“So maybe we should do this later,” concluded Lia. “Since Dani is in the middle of painting her new house with Luke, and Quinn and Rylan are still spoiling Coop with his first trip to Disneyland.”

Speaking of Disneyland. Xoey munched on the pretzel Jackson held up to her lips, and then informed them glumly, “Do you know that sometimes, it’s not Cinderella that leaves without a trace? Sometimes it’s Prince Charming.” A sad sigh fizzled past her frown.

All smiles left the guys’ faces and three mirrored looks of concern gazed back at her.

It was almost identical to the look of sympathy Dani always gave her when this particular sob story of her past would sneak back into her memories.

No. Not happening. She didn’t want sympathy tonight.

Blinking in revelation a second later, she knew then exactly what she did want.

Another epic oh.

Or at least that sense of truly connecting with an amazing man that came with it.

Waving away the guys’ worried looks, she stated firmly, “Don’t you go feeling sorry for me. Fairytale endings are overrated. Seriously, I’d take a real and honest-to-God ‘oh’ over that fantasy any day. That kind of connection you just can’t fake.”

She’s tried. And apparently, guys get really bruised egos over that.

Could be because her version of faking it was inspired by When Harry Met Sally.

And Xoey certainly wasn’t a Meg Ryan.

She got her second tequila wind then and smiled at the return of the warm rain of simple, undemanding tranquility, cheerfully thinking of the last Meg Ryan movies she’d seen.

Yes, plural. There’d been a Meg Ryan movie marathon last week when Isaac had been out of town for the day. And she’d watched every last one.

“That looks like a happy thought,” murmured Jackson encouragingly. “Care to share with the rest of the class?”

“Gabe’s gadget read me wrong,” she declared. And then smiled again.

The guys were now completely puzzled.

The girls were not.

Lia’s brows hopped up in shock. “I don’t think anyone’s ever said that before about one of my brother’s gadgets.”

“Oh!” Sienna glanced at Lia’s watch in question. “I heard about that. In the gym the other week, right? That mood-analyzer Gabe built into your watch to lo-jack you.”

“I wouldn’t say lo-jack,” replied Lia loyally.

Xoey snorted. Lo-jacking was the absolute least intrusive methods the Spencer boys used to watch and worry over their little sister.

“Yeah, okay. Lo-jacking is probably accurate.”

Donovan slid his business card over to Lia. “Tell your brother to call me. I might be able to get some big financial backers if he decides to put that watch into production. I’ve actually been following your brother’s work with biofeedback technology—”

Bennett rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Xoey, cutting him off. “So tell us why a wrong gadget-reading made you smile, honey.”

She looked at the five pairs of eyes staring at her now.

“You can’t laugh,” she warned.

Bennett shook his head. “I’m not sure we can guarantee that.”

Lia and Sienna both whacked him on the arm.

“What? It’s a compliment. The woman is freakin’ hilarious.”

“We won’t laugh,” promised Sienna.

Xoey mulled it over, and then admitted quietly. “I wasn’t thinking about a guy when Gabe’s gadget read me.”

Donovan grinned. “Well this conversation just took an interesting turn.”