Page 36 of Close Quarters

“No…well, there was a leg of a chair, but that was after the wrestling. That was…my bad,” I said, though it was more like my back. There was probably a nice bruise on my back from hitting that damn thing.

“Well, that’s something, at least,” Leon said with a shake of his head.

“I’ll get a replacement when I feel like you two aren’t going to get any more brilliant ideas,” she said, snatching up a piece of fried chicken. “I’m keeping my eye on you.”

“Okay,” I said brightly.

With a shake of her head, she walked off, giving Leon a pointed look before disappearing. For his part, Leon watched her for a moment before turning to us and sighing. “Seriously? No fighting. That was the one stipulation.”

“The stipulation was that no news of us getting into a fight was supposed to reach her ears,” I told him, my heart finally slowing its furious beating. “Aaaand, nothing like that has reached her ears, so?—”

“I hope you don’t think that’s somehow a clever loophole,” Leon said. “I bet if I saw more of your bodies, there’d be no way you could say the marks are from wrestling.”

I gasped, turning to Reno, who stared at me. “Did you hear that? He propositioned to have us strip for him! What are we, his personal strippers? My God, the indignities I have to suffer. First, I’m forced to see you walk around with your ass hanging out in the morning, and now this?”

“Oh, you asshole,” Reno said, narrowing his eyes. “I do not?—”

“Just…stop,” Leon said in a pained voice. “The last thing I need is for people to think doing a strip show for me will get them out of trouble.”

“I didn’t know we were in trouble,” I said with a shrug. “We had a…bonding moment today. An intense one but bonding all the same.”

“The evidence tells me you did not, in fact, bond,” Leon said dryly. Then, a strange look came over his face as he looked between us. “And yet?—”

“Ugh,” Reno grunted, grabbing me by the elbow. “C’mon, he’s doing that thinking thing he does. I’m sure he has some big idea locked in that head of his but he’s not sharing. And I want to eat.”

For the first time, his touch didn’t irritate but instead sent a tingling wave through me. It surprised me enough that I let him all but drag me toward one of the tables. It took me a moment staring at my plate before I realized I was still being watched, but not by Reno, who was focused on his plate.

I turned to find Riley beside me, watching me with open interest. He was a strange guy, but in a good way, and I could see the concern on his face. Honestly, he couldn’t be more the opposite of Reno if he tried. He was happy, caring, openly kind to people, and always showed an interest. And now he was looking at me like I was a battered wife or something.

“Well, hiya, Riley,” I said, stabbing my fork into some green beans. “You know, if you take a picture, it lasts longer.”

“Uhh, I don’t wanna pry…” he began.

“But you will anyway,” Reno grunted.

Riley frowned. “Only because I’m worried about you. It does look like you guys went a few rounds.”

“Why do you care?” Reno asked him, turning his green eyes onto Riley with what I could see now was puzzlement. “I mean, sure, Elliot here is like your butt buddy.”

“Oh fuck off. I can be nice to someone without wanting to sleep with them,” I snapped at Reno and then cocked a brow. “The opposite is true too.”

Reno met my gaze, and it was hard to tell from his glare if that was his way of thinking about whether he could get away with screwing me again or if he wanted to punch me again. Come to think of it, he’d looked that way when we’d been having sex. So now I had to wonder how long he had wanted to fuck me and how much of it was just him being angry.

Riley sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I just care? I’m allowed to care, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever…but why? You don’t owe me shit.”

“Because caring isn’t about what’s owed or deserved, Reno.”

“Even when it’s someone who cheaply knocked your block off?”

Reno looked surprised when Riley laughed, nodding his head. “Even then. But I’m not worried about that.”

“And why’s that?” Reno asked doubtfully.

“Because you’re never going to get in a cheap shot like that again,” Riley said with a smile. But even I could see something hard and flinty behind his eyes flash to the surface before disappearing.

If I had caught it, Reno surely had, and he stared at Riley for several seconds before surprising me completely and chuckling. “Alright, fair enough. Guess I can’t expect to get away with it twice.”

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