“You enjoy it,” Oli observed.
I hummed in response because it was true. Ren made me laugh, and as much as Oli pretended he hated Ren, I had a feeling he liked him more than he was letting on.
Ren slid behind the wheel, and soon we were on the road toward his apartment, a rap song playing gently from the speakers. We were mostly quiet, but I didn’t miss each time Oli mumbled and it made me smile. He really wasn’t giving up the act of someone annoyed and I found it adorable. Ren and Oli were two completely different guys, yet I liked them equally. They had their own quirks, their own positives, and there was something about the two of them that had me feeling relaxed.
“We should go on a date together,” I said as the Mustang reached the corner of the street Ren’s apartment was on.
“What?” Oli’s squawked indignance had me laughing.
“You heard him.” Ren winked at Oli through the rearview mirror.
“Fuck off.”
I sighed. Why did I find their bickering so damned cute? I should hate this—the arguing and insults—but I really didn’t. They made me smile. “I mean it, though. I want to go on a date with both of you. I like you two a lot.”
“Then we can arrange it.” Ren shrugged easily. “We want to make you happy. Don’t we, Kitten?” He peered into the rearview mirror again as he pulled the Mustang into his apartment building’s underground parking garage.
“I want to make him happy. Who knows about you?”
Oli was in the seat behind me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I heard the way his voice softened and that did things to me. Mystomach fluttered, a wistful feeling that had me rubbing a hand over my abs.
After Ren parked his car, he popped the trunk, and I grunted in surprise when he pulled my duffel bag out.
“When did you get that for me?” I chuckled.
Oli sniffed. “He broke into your Jeep while you were playing football. He’s a thief, obviously.” He gave Ren the stink eye.
“Yeah, but a useful one,” Ren fired back. He hitched the strap of my duffel bag higher up his shoulder.
I chuckled as we walked to the elevators. Inside, I stood between them, staring at the door as the elevator moved. The back of Oli’s hand bumped mine and so did Ren’s on the opposite side.
The silence was heavy, but also peaceful. Calmness surrounded us, and being between them soothed me in ways I didn’t want to dissect. Could I really choose? I didn’t know, but I didn’twantto. I liked them both.
As soon as we were in Ren’s apartment, he dropped my bag on the floor near the door, and we all kicked off our shoes.
“Wow. This is an improvement,” I said.
He’d unpacked all the boxes that’d been here early in the week, leaving the space feeling bigger. The view from the windows wasn’t obstructed anymore, framing the star-dappled sky.
A bookshelf full of neat stacks of novels caught my eye, as well as a few framed photos and a couple of small figurines. I couldn’t resist taking a walk over to the shelf and perusing the books. There was an entire section dedicated to nonfiction about tattoos, including books about yakuza ink and the history of tattooing.
The male and female figurines probably came from an anime, but I wasn’t sure because I’d never watched any. Theyweren’t tall, but I suspected they probably cost a lot of money because collectibles usually did.
My gaze moved to the picture frames. One of the photos was of a kid version of Ren, around ten years old or so, with a girl who was a few years older. She was pretty, with long dark hair and dimples at the corners of her big smile. She had her arm wrapped around his shoulders and he leaned into her. It was clear she was safe to him. Someone he loved a lot.
“Is this your sister?” I asked, aiming for a random guess. Usually, if people had photos like this, it was with their siblings, right? I didn’t know. I’d never had one. For a long time, it was me and Pa, and before that, it was me and my deadbeat mom, whenever she wasn’t leaving me alone.
Ren laughed and slid in behind me, a heavy hand resting on my shoulder as he leaned over the opposite one to stare at the same photograph. Oli stayed near the kitchen island, shifting between his feet nervously now that we were back in Ren’s apartment. I watched him from the corner of my eye to make sure he was okay.
“Nope.” Ren popped thep. “That’s my babysitter. Andrea. She was more of a sister to me than my actual sister. She cared about what I thought and supported me. She talkedtome and notatme. She was a sweet cherub walking the earth to everyone who met her. None like her anywhere. To be in her presence was to feel like nothing could go wrong.”
I studied his face and caught the darkness seeping into his eyes. It was subtle and quick, but there. Plus, I’d never heard him be sentimental about anything.
A bad feeling wrapped around my chest. “That’s nice that she’s important to you.”
“Was. She’s dead. Died by suicide,” he said easily, as though talking about the weather.
I froze, shock and sympathy pouring through me with the violence of a rough tackle. The words took my feet right out from under me as I processed them, letting them roll around in my head until I was sure I’d heard him right.
