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She met his friends—August, Lucius, and Javan—at her apartment, but since she hadn’t really had a chance to pack things up, they spent two hours with her and Mercer packing and loading.
She could have kept her apartment because she had a job now, but there was really no need. Why would she turn down free housing in the park for an apartment that was overpriced in the first place? Plus, the park’s apartments were nicely furnished and she could walk to work. Not to mention that the neighbors were pretty sexy too. At least one of them was.
“So what furniture goes?” Lucius asked after finishing packing up the glasses in the kitchen.
She pointed out a few small pieces she was taking, and then she made a mental note to call a donation place about the other stuff, which had been all hand-me-downs from her parents.
By the time they were finished loading the SUVs, her apartment was empty save for the furniture and the SUVs were stuffed full.
“Dinner?” Mercer asked as he opened the passenger door for her.
She stared up at him. She really loved how much of a gentleman he was, always opening her door for her. “Can we eat at the park? Is it too late?”
“The stands are closed by now, but we can order dinner for delivery from the cafeteria.”
“I’d like to get this stuff back to the apartment so I can at least have good clothes to wear tomorrow.” During lunch, Mercer had brought her a few park shirts to wear, and she could wear jeans or pants, or shorts in the summer so long as they were beige and not too short.
“Sounds good to me.”
When they were on the way, with the others following behind, Mercer gave her his phone, which was open to an app for the park’s employee cafeteria. He walked her through the process of placing the order to be delivered to his apartment. They both picked lasagna and a side salad, with chocolate layer cake for dessert.
“I can really order dinner every night without paying for it?” she asked as she put his phone in the cup holder.
“Yep.”
“The park is really generous with employees.”
“Very much so.”
It was a lot faster to unload than it had been to pack up and load, so the guys said goodbye an hour after they got to her apartment. They walked up to his apartment right when the food showed up.
“I’m Hayden. It’s nice to meet you, Rhomi,” he said, handing the bags to Mercer. “Jeanie asked me to send up some breakfast stuff for you both. There’s sandwiches and hash browns, plus fruit and yogurt, and some cold brew coffee and flavored creamers.”
“Oh, wow, that’s amazing. Thank you, Hayden.”
She swore Mercer growled.
Hayden took a small step back, his smile dropping. “You’re welcome. It’s from Jeanie, remember.”
“I know,” she said, looking up at Mercer. He was staring hard at Hayden, but then he seemed to realize she was looking at him because he looked down at her and smiled.
There. His eyes had been amber, hadn’t they?
She shook her head as he shut the door after thanking Hayden. “I think I’m overly tired.”
“Are you okay? Do you want to just go to bed? You can take dinner down to your place instead of hanging out here with me.”
“No, I want to have dinner with you. It’s just that I swear I saw your eyes change color. And it sounded like you growled at Hayden. So I’m definitely too tired and my mind is playing tricks on me.”
He stared at her for a long moment, then said, “I’m pretty tired too. It’s been a really long day, but we got you mostly packed up and your things in your apartment, and that makes it worth it.”
“Definitely.”
They ate together at his small kitchen table, and then he carried the breakfast stuff down to her apartment and promised to be there fifteen minutes before eight so they could walk together.
It was tempting to ask him to stay, but she felt like if she did, that they’d end up moving forward physically with the relationship. And while that felt like a really amazing idea, she also wanted to take time to get to know him.
She also couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something going on with him, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She didn’t think he was lying about anything to her, but she had a feeling in her gut that he wasn’t being one hundred percent honest about everything.
