Chapter 15
Ren remembered a time that didn’t feel so far away when he would’ve ghosted someone rather than deal with their personal problems.
But with Seth, Ren’s first instinct was to do the exact opposite.
He wanted to make sure he was okay.
He wanted him to be more than okay. He wanted him to be good. To be absolutely fucking stupendous.
There was a voice in the back of his head that told him he knew exactly why that was. But Ren was ignoring that voice.
Resolutely.
Instead, he went with Seth the next day after his breakdown to visit Dave in the hospital. Gabe hadn’t been very happy when he’d said he’d needed the day off, but Ren had only been halfway through explaining why when Gabe started to dial the temp agency.
“I’m glad you’re doing this,” was all Gabe would say when Ren questioned him. “It’s good to see you like this.”
“Caring about someone that isn’t myself?” Ren had asked.
Gabe had shot him a look. “You’ve always cared,” he’d argued. “But for some reason you thought it was necessary to hide it. You’re not hiding anymore.”
Gabe was right; he wasn’t hiding anymore.
Not even in front of the other food truck guys.
Tonight, for the staff meeting that Tony had called at the Funky Cup, when Seth had walked in, Ren hadn’t even hesitated. He’d walked right over to him and thrown his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
Seth’s smile had told him just how much he’d enjoyed it.
“So, you guys are together now, like together-together,” Ross said, a crease forming between his brows as he sat down next to Ren.
“We’re . . .” Last time they’d discussed it, they’d both agreed to keep things casual.
Things were not casual.
Ren could say that much with absolute certainty.
But they hadn’t discussed the actual verbiage of what the casual thing had turned into, and Ren found he was perfectly okay with that for now.
“You’re what?” Ross asked patiently.
Ren liked Ross a lot. Not many of the other guys had, at least at first. He could be bluntly pragmatic in a way that offended some of the others.
But not Ren. He liked the honesty. And then there’d been the little matter of Ross having more talent in his pinky finger than a lot of them had in their whole bodies.
But Ren had never been jealous, not like he knew some of his friends had been. He’d been in awe, even after finding out that Ross was just as much of a mess as anyone else.
Now, they were friends.
Friends told each other stuff like this.
Ren hesitated.
“We’re figuring it out,” Ren said.
“Oh, you don’t know,” Ross said. Which was exactly why, Ren thought wryly, the other food truck owners hadn’t been lining up to be his friend at the beginning.
Ren took a sip of his drink. “You got it,” he said.
“Ah,” Ross said. Like he was glad he finally understood, because he’d been puzzling at this one for awhile. “Shaw and I were very happy and relieved when we finished figuring it out,” he added.
“I bet you were,” Ren said.
Ross patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. “You’ll get there, too,” he said.
“We’ll see.”
“Is everyone here? Can we get started?” Tony said, breaking away from where he was chatting with Lucas and Seth and raising his voice, so he could be heard clearly in their corner of the Funky Cup patio.
“Yeah, we’re all here,” Tate said, speaking up.
“Please don’t tell me we’re here so you can gift us with another impossible task and one of your cheap kitchen appliances.
” His voice was teasing. Ren knew how much money they’d all made from Waffle Day—even if Tate was right and that waffle maker had been cheap as hell.
“Nope,” Tony said, grinning. “We’re here because of copycat me.”
Ren had already known why Tony had called the meeting—it had been obvious when Seth had told him he’d be meeting them there—but he was still surprised.
“What about him?” Gabe asked. “Did you find out some dirt on him?”
“No,” Seth said. “No dirt. He’s what he says he is, a corporate lawyer with probably too much money and time on his hands. He had a breakup last year, around the same time I think he visited Food Truck Warriors for the first time, and he liked what he saw. Thought he could do it, too.”
“He can, if he wants,” Tony said, shrugging. “But he can’t have any of you. First off, because you’re not for sale, and second because we’re a team and a family. He can’t buy that. He can only work hard enough to earn it.”
“Exactly what you did,” Ash said.
Tony nodded. “We worked hard to create a place where everyone would feel safe and accepted.” Ren saw him glance over at Ross.
“Sometimes we weren’t always perfect at it, but we got there in the end.
I can understand, though, the urge to experience something great, something like we share, like we experience every day, and want to replicate it.
But even if you want a place, you can’t buy it, and you can’t steal it. You can only grow it.”
“Everyone has to be willing and invested,” Lucas said. “And we’re lucky enough that you all believed in what we were doing.”
“It’s because of that, because of you, that we’ve made it through our first year, and been more successful than we ever could’ve imagined when we started out,” Tony agreed.
“So there’s no way we can just make him . . . go away?” Ross asked.
“A guy like that? Smart? With money to spare? Who’s used to being intimidating and never giving in?” Seth questioned. “Not likely. But I think . . . Tony and I have discussed a few options.”
Ren was suddenly intrigued. Seth had told him the other night that he’d made a recommendation to Tony, but that he’d not taken it particularly well.
“Tony’s first indication is always to fight,” Seth had said, as a movie had played quietly in the background at Ren’s loft and they cuddled on the couch, “and I get it, because for a long time, mine was too. When I got out, I wanted to fight everyone who wouldn’t listen to me, even though they usually didn’t have a reason to. ”
“But you learned,” Ren had pointed out. “You don’t do that any more.”
“Not often, anyway. And at least when I do, the person I’m fighting is me,” Seth had said, chuckling wryly. “But Tony is quick to anger and usually quick to reconsider. We’ll see if he does.”
It appeared that Tony had reconsidered, because he looked over at Seth and smiled. “What Seth is saying,” Tony corrected with a smile, “is that he’s brilliant, and we should always listen to him.”
“That’s the chorus Ren is singing these days,” Gabe teased.
Before, Ren was pretty sure he’d have felt humiliated. Ashamed, almost, that he’d ended up like this. But now he just felt proud.
Maybe they didn’t have their shit figured out yet, but that was his guy up there, being brilliant, and helping out his friends.
How could he feel anything else but pride?
“Maybe I should be singing it even louder,” Ren wondered out loud.
“I’m not going to argue with any of that,” Seth said, and the look he shot Ren was sweet and private and real.
And Ren knew without even being told that he was going to get thoroughly kissed later, and even more, if he continued playing his cards just right.
“So what’s this brilliant idea?” Alexis wondered.
“I think we should, barring any lingering competitive insanity, partner with him,” Tony said.
A silence fell over the group.
Ren saw surprise on several faces. Disbelief on others.
Gabe, for example.
“What?” Tate asked. “He tried to buy us all away and you want to partner with him?”
“He’s got money,” Tony said. “He said it himself, he’s got all these marketing experts lined up.
He wants to advertise. But he doesn’t have the trucks, not if he’s trying to buy you all away from Food Truck Warriors.
Besides, we have room for a few more trucks, but we’re eventually going to run out of room, and I wouldn’t mind expanding. ”
“Can we trust him?” Alexis wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” Tony confessed.
“I suggested that maybe before we make him a partner,” Lucas said, “that we make him a friend. That’s how we all started, isn’t it? As friends, first.”
Ren nodded, liking Lucas’ approach. He was always so level-headed and quietly, smartly capable.
That’s why he and Tony made such a power couple and such an incredible team. Tony was all light and fire and electric brilliance, but Lucas was pragmatic and level-headed and figured out how to make Tony’s crazy ideas work.
“I had Lennox arrange to meet him here, about half an hour ago,” Tony said. “He’s inside now, with Lennox.”
“Lennox is making small talk?” Tate teased. “Wow, that’s something I’d never imagine would happen.”
“Hey, he’s trying,” Ash said, defending the man he loved.
“What I’m asking is not if he’s uncomfortable with Lennox’s version of small talk,” Tony said, grinning, “but if we should put him out of his misery and ask him to join us outside.”
“To be what? A friend? A partner? All of the above?” Ross wanted to know. Ren thought it made sense that he would want clarification. Ross liked his boxes, and liked to understand where everyone fit into them.
“To be whatever he ends up being,” Tony said.
“I don’t know if he’s going to want to partner with us.
I don’t know if he wants to be our friend.
He might tell us to fuck off. That’s totally up to him.
But I thought instead of intimidating him or threatening him, we should give him a chance.
That’s what Food Truck Warriors is about, right? A chance.”
“Huh, okay, I guess I can see that,” Gabe said.
Ren could hear the thoughtfulness in his cousin’s voice.
“Before we do it, I’d like to put it to a vote,” Tony said. “Because we’re a democracy.”
“Are we?” Alexis wondered with a teasing glint in his eye.
“We sure are,” Tony said firmly. “Everyone in favor of inviting Jonas out to the patio, raise your hand.”
After he lifted his own, Ren was not surprised at all to look around and see every owner with their arms up.
“I guess that settles it, then,” Tony said, grinning as widely as Ren had ever seen him.