Page 13 of Good Boys Don’t Bite

“Text me.”

“I will.”

“You're lying.”

“Bye, Claire.”

She flipped him off and turned around. Elliot smiled. Then he saw Ronan. Everything else disappeared. He was standing across Hawthorne Quad beside a black motorcycle, one boot planted on the curb and his arms folded across his chest. At six-three, Ronan rarely disappeared into crowds anyway, but he seemed particularly out of place among Bellweather students. Black jeans. Black boots. Dark charcoal shirt beneath a worn leather jacket. His hair was nearly black and slightly too long on top, pushed backward as though he'd repeatedly dragged his fingers through it. Tattoos disappeared beneath both sleeves and reappeared along the fingers of his left hand. A helmet hung from one hand. Elliot's charger dangled from the other. Elliot smiled. Ronan saw him.

His expression did not change. That was Ronan's version of smiling in public. Elliot crossed the quad.

“Thought you weren't bringing it.”

Ronan held out the charger.

“I got tired of imagining you bitching about three percent battery.”

“How thoughtful.”

“Don't make it weird.”

Elliot took the cable. Their fingers brushed. Nothing unusual. Nothing anybody watching would notice. Elliot noticed. He always noticed.

“You came all the way here for this?”

“I was nearby.”

“You weren't.”

Ronan's eyes narrowed.

“How do you know?”

“Your studio is fourteen minutes west.”

“You're creepy.”

“You love me.”

“Debatable.”

Elliot stepped closer. Ronan smelled like cold air, leather, and the cedar soap he used because Elliot had bought it once and Ronan had apparently decided purchasing another kind would require too much emotional vulnerability. Elliot wanted to touch him. Couldn't. Not here. Instead he reached up and adjusted the collar of Ronan's jacket. The gesture was innocent. Brotherly. Ronan's eyes dropped to Elliot's hand. That wasn't.

“Don't,” Ronan said quietly.

Elliot smiled.

“Your collar was folded.”

“You don't give a shit about my collar.”

“No.”

Ronan caught his wrist. Only for a second. His thumb pressed against Elliot's pulse. Then released. Elliot's smile changed. Ronan noticed. Of course he did.

“You're being annoying.”

“You drove twenty minutes to bring me a charger.”