Chapter 5
OLI
“Damn it, what’s going on?” I paced between two maple trees on a small grass slope leading down to the main student parking lot.
I kicked at red and orange leaves as I went, but the crunch wasn’t even that satisfying.
My chest clenched and my fingers shook on my phone as I tried to hold off on looking at the screen again.
I’d noticed that on the days after I played hard with KC and Ren, I was on an emotional rollercoaster, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it. And I wasn’t sure if my tangled-up feelings were the problem or if the real issue was how completely weird this situation was.
“Fuck it.” I glanced at the text again.
Mom
Come home as soon as you can. I have something we need to talk about.
Was she sick? My shoulders ached as I forced myself to straighten them out because I was hunched over doing an impression of a gargoyle. Were we getting kicked out of the cute house she loved? My stomach heaved and I gagged on some acid that bit the back of my throat.
Not again.
She wasn’t behind on bills. She had a regular office job now. She would’ve told me if she was having problems with money.
Right?
She was always honest with me. It was the only way we’d survived while I was growing up.
I stared at the text and inhaled the perfume of the fall leaves, trying to focus on anything except the anxiety rampaging around in my gut.
The sky was not falling.
We were fine.
Shit, it couldn’t be good news or Mom would’ve left hearts and a smiley face with her text. She loved all those cutesy emojis.
The message was so sterile and unlike her.
Ren pulled Shakira into a parking spot close to me and gave me a wave and a little beep.
My heart squeezed happily. I was a mess last night, and I needed to tell him sometime soon that I thought maybe coming so hard, twice in a row, made me feel strange afterward. He would know how to fix it. I rushed to the passenger door.
But right now, I had to deal with this weirdness with my mom.
Relief washed through me when I opened the door, already talking as my ass hit the seat.
“I’m so so so so sorry about this. So sorry.
I know you were at the parlor, but I just couldn’t sit there in class after I got that mysterious text from Mom.
” My stomach cramped, and I leaned forward, cradling it.
Ren frowned and snagged my chin, rubbing his thumb across it soothingly.
He had his glasses on, which made me feel all squishy inside.
They made him seem less like a hardass, and I needed that.
His pink lips always made me want a kiss—no matter how irritated I happened to be with him—and the angles of his face distracted me from my worry for a few heartbeats.
He was so damned hot it almost didn’t seem fair.
It wouldn’t be fair at all, except he wanted me, and that made life better.
“Okay, Kitten. You’re having a whole deal here. Deep breaths.”
I sucked in oxygen and it sounded horrible. Fuck, I’d been holding in every drop of air. My head rushed as he took a few breaths with me and kept doing it until we were breathing at the same time.
“Now.” He tapped my chin with his thumb. “Don’t you think she would’ve called if it was a true emergency?” He tilted his head, giving me a broken dog look and making me feel dumb.
I thrust the phone in his direction, and he gently pushed it down into my lap, so I stuffed it into the pocket of my borrowed jeans. “Trust me, this is super weird from her.”
Ren brushed his soft lips over mine, and I sagged against my seat. The scent of leather and vanilla and something pleasantly musky that was pure Ren surrounded me. Some of my tension ebbed away. He sat back just enough to grab my seat belt and buckle me in, then rested his forehead against mine.
“I’m not great with talking about stuff.” He rolled his forehead from side to side, and the pressure almost hurt but was weirdly good, too.
This was a great opening to hash out what had happened last night and what was going on between us, but I couldn’t handle another serious discussion while I had no idea what was happening with Mom. I nodded, hoping he would decide for himself what that meant.
“But I’m good at showing up to raise hell.” He waggled his dark eyebrows.
“Okay.” I wallowed in his presence and undivided attention.
It was different from being alone with KC.
More charged. I never knew what Ren would do and each minute with him felt tinged with anticipation.
A hint of danger. Usually, the amped-up atmosphere made something explode between us—sex or a big fight—but I wasn’t able to handle either option right now.
“Thank you,” I said.
He hummed as he sat back and settled firmly into his black leather seat. “Tell me where I’m going.”
“Okay.”
Ren typed my address into his phone to find a route he liked that avoided the most traffic while I texted KC that our plans had changed. I bit my cheek as I pressed Send, hoping his phone was on Do Not Disturb.
“And away we go,” Ren said, tossing his phone into the cup holder.
The tires screeched as he backed out of the spot at top speed, then hit the gas.
I was so stuck in my head, drowning in worry, that I barely noticed the world flash past us.
Ren stopped trying to talk to me after the fourth “what?” to one of his questions.
When we arrived at Mom’s house, nothing seemed out of place. The blue metal roof gleamed in the buttery autumn sunshine and the lawn was small but maintained as always. Her Honda Fit was in the driveway.
“It’s adorable and tiny, just like you,” Ren said, leaning forward to check over the house. He winked at me when I scowled and shot him my middle finger.
“I’m a good size.”
“That’s what he said!” Ren cackled while I huffed. “The kitten lives. I was getting worried.”
“Let’s go.” I unbuckled but didn’t move as fast as I would’ve liked. My body ached as I got out of the Mustang. I stretched, eyes closed as my back popped.
Ren ruffled my curls, and I swatted at him.
“Hey! You can meet Mom!” I grinned at him and felt slightly evil. “We all know you were looking forward to that.”
Ren groaned and darted his big stupid hand out toward my head again, but this time I slapped his hand hard. He hissed and shook it, and I tried not to feel smug. I failed.
“You’ll love her. Wow.” I glanced at the house in shock. “I actually miss her. I don’t think we’ve ever been apart long enough for me to miss her.”
“I might love her—” Ren rolled his eyes. “—but will she like me? Quain hates me. I’m covered in tattoos.” He held out his arms and scrutinized them with his pierced nose wrinkled. I knew he was hamming it up, trying to shake me out of my funk, but that was too much.
I rolled my eyes right back at him and did it with so much enthusiasm my eyeballs hurt for a hot second. “Quain doesn’t hate you because of your tattoos, you fucking goober. My dad is a biker. Mom can’t hate tats.”
“Oh, well, that’s that, then.” He returned fire with the setting cranked to Full Sarcasm.
I bit my lip to hold back a smile, then headed toward the front door.
I’d never seen Ren nervous in a normal social situation, and he was even rock steady in a few that should’ve shaken him, but as he walked, he glanced down and plucked at his muscle shirt with a frown.
Did he care what Mom thought of him for real?
Ren got to the door first, and I snorted out a laugh as he knocked.
I rested my hand on the door and glanced up at him.
He frowned down. “What?”
“Are you nervous?”
“Fuck that. No.” He tugged on one of my curls, and I smacked his side with the back of my hand. I held eye contact with him, then turned the knob and pushed open the door. “I live here, not at your apartment, no matter how much I’m there. Remember?” I gestured him inside with a wave of my hand.
“Oh!” Ren blinked around, then stared at me. “Right.” He rubbed his face and knocked his glasses askew on his nose. “Fuck.” He ripped off the glasses and put them in a case he carried around.
My stomach lurched. He wore his glasses when he was tattooing. “Did I pull you away from a client? I did. Why didn’t you tell me no when I texted and asked for a ride?”
“It’s okay. Wylie took over.” He shrugged a shoulder.
“No, that’s—”
He wrapped a solid arm around me and hauled me against his side. God, I loved that strength. “I want to be here if you need me.”
I gave his wrist a squeeze.
The sound of a very male voice that wasn’t either of us made my breath catch.
It was coming from inside the house, but it was muffled, as if it had traveled from back the hallway.
My stomach cratered. The only rooms in that direction were the bathroom and bedrooms. And people didn’t usually talk to themselves.
The bizarre intimacy—a man must be talking to my mom—made my skin crawl.
“It’s weird that Mom didn’t hear you knock.
” I fumbled my hand up to where I had Dad’s Kings of Men ring on a necklace and clutched it.
Did Mom have a boyfriend? Was that the news?
I headed inside and was vaguely aware of Ren following me and shutting the front door.
The hallway wasn’t long. In seconds, I was in the doorway to my bedroom.
A strange man was sitting on my bed with scuffed black riding boots stretched out in front of himself.
His jeans were frayed at the bottom and there was a hole in the left knee.
His black T-shirt was full of pinprick holes and his black leather cut made my stomach swoop.
His cold blue eyes were sharp as they swept over me.
I touched my head. His brown curls were frizzy and everywhere, the way mine were if I didn’t use leave-in conditioner. He was also bonkers tall.
“Mom?”
“Oh, you’re home!” She jumped up from my desk chair and grabbed the man’s shoulder. He recoiled, but she didn’t notice or maybe ignored it. “Look who it is, Oli!” Her smile faltered. “Do you know who this is, honey?”