Page 25 of Rook

When she, Detroit, and the dog made their way upstairs to their room, I felt weird hanging out in the common area all by myself.

Besides, I had office supplies to buy.

I was riding the elevator up when I got a ding on my phone notifying me that someone had sent me money to my digital wallet.

Just in time.

I was still smiling as I opened the door to my temporary room.

“What is this?” I said aloud as my gaze landed on a massive basket sitting on the bed, jam-packed full of stuff.

It couldn’t have been Rook. He’d been downstairs with me the whole time.

One of the girls, maybe?

I mean, who else could it be?

Though I was still struggling to wrap my head around one of them being kind to a new, strange woman in their midst.

Either way, there was a basket.

Just for me.

There was this warm, gooey feeling moving across my chest as I closed the door and crossed the room to the bed to see what was inside it.

There was a little card sitting proudly in front with my name scratched on the front in a handwriting I was reasonably sure didn’t belong to a woman.

But, hey, my own handwriting wasn’t swoopy and feminine either, so I opened the card, finding a simple one with the wordWelcomeon the front and nothing inside but more of that same handwriting.

Welcome to the club - Colter

My hand was on my phone automatically, finding the text chain from Rook, and hitting the call button.

My insides felt sloshy and shaky. Hell, my hand holding the phone was trembling slightly.

“Miss me already?” Rook asked, tone light.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, voice close to frantic.

“Okay…” he said, his voice a mix of concerned and curious.

Not angry.

Yet.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I rushed to assure him.

“Ask for what, babe?”

“It was just here when I got to my room.”

“What was there? What’s going on? You okay? You sound freaked.”

“I was with you all day,” I reminded him.

“Tessa, what’s up? You need me to come back?”

“I was at your side the whole time. I couldn’t have said anything to anyone without you hearing.”

---