“Lip prints, huh?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Guessing you’re pretty used to having lip prints in lots of places.”

Okay, he really liked the little flash of jealousy he saw her in her eyes. Was he going to tease her? Oh yes. “I have a little experience,” he said nonchalantly, tucking a hand in his front pocket.

“But soap and water will probably get most of them off?” she asked.

Insinuating that most of the lip prints had been on skin.

God he liked her. “Well, you gotta use rubbing alcohol or hair spray to get lipstick out of clothes.”

“Maybe you should hang out with people who can wait until the clothes are out of the way to start applying their lips,” Jane said.

Yep, she was definitely a little jealous.

“Or maybe I should hang out with people who don’t wear lipstick.” He lifted a hand and ran his thumb over her bottom lip.

Her eyes heated a little, and her tongue darted out to trace the same path his thumb had taken.

“Yeah, maybe you should,” she agreed.

He grinned. “It’s definitely a good idea. It took me half an hour and two trips to the store to clean the last lip print up.”

She frowned. “What?”

“Lipstick is a bitch to get out of carpet.”

Jane closed her eyes and took a breath. “Do not want that story.”

He laughed.

Kelsey rejoined them just then with a plastic bucket full of cleaning supplies in one hand and a large can of hair spray in the other. “Okay, let’s do this.” She was actually smiling.

Dax felt a stupid rush of satisfaction at that. He didn’t think Kelsey smiled about cleaning the bathroom very often.

He followed the girls up the stairs to the bathroom on the second floor. It was actually pretty good sized. As he’d guessed, there were two sinks in the long vanity with a huge mirror. One side of the mirror had white streaks that looked like dried shaving cream. The other was covered in words written in bright pink lipstick.

Dax had to laugh. Girls were brutal.

“Okay, you’ve got mirror duty,” Jane said to Kelsey. She plucked a bottle and a sponge from the bucket. “I’ll do the tub.”

“What do I get to do?” Dax asked.

“You can pick between the sinks, toilet, or floor,” Jane told him. “And just so you know, this is only room one. We have the kitchen to clean and the living room to dust and vacuum.”

“Awesome.”

She snorted. “Well, it’s definitely not Ping-Pong.”

But it could be. Not Ping-Pong exactly, but it could be fun. He chose a bottle from the bucket as well and looked at the label. “Toilet, it is.” Then he lifted the bottle and spoke into it like it was a microphone. “And my first selection will be, of course, ‘Chicago’ by Frank Sinatra.”

“We’re going to listen to Sinatra while we clean?” Jane asked.

“No, that’s my song for the lip-sync battle.”

Jane blinked at him. Kelsey asked, “There’s a lip-sync battle tonight? That’s so cool. Where?”

“Right here,” Dax said. “What’s your song going to be?”

“Huh?”

“We’re going to clean for fifteen minutes. Then one of us is going to do their lip sync. Then we’ll clean for fifteen minutes more. Then the other will go. If I were you, I’d grab my earbuds and listen to my song and practice while I’m cleaning. I’m really good.”

Kelsey grinned at him. “Seriously? We’re going to do a song every fifteen minutes?”

“Yep. And I know you’re younger than me and the sister of the girl I’m really trying to impress, but I will not go easy. Lip-sync battles are serious shit. And did I mention I’m really good?”

Kelsey was laughing. “You did mention that.”

“So, yeah, I’d find my headphones or whatever if I were you and pull that first song up.”

“Okay.” She started for the door. “I’m going to do ‘Sweet but Psycho.’”

Dax laughed. “Awesome.”

Kelsey ducked out of the room, and Dax turned to find Jane grinning at him. “’Sweet but Psycho.’ You sure you shouldn’t do that one?”

He moved in close, taking the chance to pull her in and put his mouth against her neck. “Aw, you think I’m sweet.”

She sighed and tipped her head back, letting him kiss down her neck and along her collarbone. “I do,” she admitted.

He kissed back up her neck to her mouth. “And all it took was coconut oil and a toilet brush.”

She kissed him, going soft in his arms, letting him tease her lips open and meeting his tongue with hers. She arched into him, sliding her hand into his hair.

But after a few seconds, she pulled back. “That’s not all it took,” she told him.

“No? Then what was it?”

“The realization that you jumping in with coconut oil and a toilet brush is completely in character for you. You’re not even really trying to win me over here.” She smiled. “You’re trying to make my sister smile. And you’d be doing it even if I weren't here.”

Dax had to swallow hard. He should be flippant and charming and flirtatious here, but damn. He couldn’t do it. That meant a lot to him. “I would.”

“Thank you.”

“I—”

“Oh, see, that’s not fair,” Kelsey protested as she came back into the room. “If Jane’s the lip-sync-battle judge, you can’t be kissing her and stuff. That will bias her vote.”

Dax and Jane both laughed and moved apart. “She can be the judge if you want,” Dax said to Kelsey. “But I’m telling you, it’s going to be very obvious who’s winning this thing.”

Kelsey propped a hand on her hip. “Bring it on.”

“Gladly.” He pulled his earbuds from his pocket and tucked them into his ears. “See you in fifteen.”

Kelsey grinned and stuck her earphones in as well, tapping the screen on her phone then tucking the device into her pocket.

“What if I want to lip sync?” Jane asked.

He turned to her. “What song would you choose?”

“That’s easy.”

“Oh?”

“‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin.’”

Dax’s eyebrows shot up. “A Frank classic.”

She nodded with a sly little smile. “I might have looked up his greatest hits.”

Dax pointed a finger at her nose. “If I hadn’t already given up my shares in Hot Cakes, that would have done it.”

She laughed and turned away. Dax watched her squirt cleaning solution into the tub and kneel to begin scrubbing. Kelsey had already sprayed the mirror with hair spray and was working on the lipstick.

This was the weirdest date he’d ever been on.

He loved every second of it.

9

Dax hit the play button on his music app, and as Frank filled his ears, he studied the toilet. This couldn’t be that hard, could it? He lifted the bottle of toilet cleaner, turning it to read the back label.

The directions for use were pretty straightforward, but he looked around and didn’t see a toilet brush. Was he supposed to use a sponge like Jane was using? That sounded disgusting.