She wasn’t behind on bills. She had a regular office job now. She would’ve told me if she was having problems with money.
Right?
She wasalwayshonest with me. It was the only way we’d survived while I was growing up.
I stared at the text and inhaled the perfume of the fall leaves, trying to focus on anything except the anxiety rampaging around in my gut.
The sky was not falling.
We were fine.
Shit, it couldn’t be good news or Mom would’ve left hearts and a smiley face with her text. She loved all those cutesy emojis.
The message was so sterile and unlike her.
Ren pulled Shakira into a parking spot close to me and gave me a wave and a littlebeep.
My heart squeezed happily. I was a mess last night, and I needed to tell him sometime soon that I thought maybe coming so hard, twice in a row, made me feel strange afterward. He would know how to fix it. I rushed to the passenger door.
But right now, I had to deal with this weirdness with my mom. Relief washed through me when I opened the door, already talking as my ass hit the seat. “I’m so so so so sorry about this. So sorry. I know you were at the parlor, but I just couldn’t sit there in class after I got that mysterious text from Mom.” My stomach cramped, and I leaned forward, cradling it.
Ren frowned and snagged my chin, rubbing his thumb across it soothingly. He had his glasses on, which made me feel all squishy inside. They made him seem less like a hardass, and I needed that. His pink lips always made me want a kiss—no matter how irritated I happened to be with him—and the anglesof his face distracted me from my worry for a few heartbeats. He was so damned hot it almost didn’t seem fair. It wouldn’t be fair at all, except he wanted me, and that made life better.
“Okay, Kitten. You’re having a whole deal here. Deep breaths.”
I sucked in oxygen and it sounded horrible. Fuck, I’d been holding in every drop of air. My head rushed as he took a few breaths with me and kept doing it until we were breathing at the same time.
“Now.” He tapped my chin with his thumb. “Don’t you think she would’ve called if it was a true emergency?” He tilted his head, giving me a broken dog look and making me feel dumb.
I thrust the phone in his direction, and he gently pushed it down into my lap, so I stuffed it into the pocket of my borrowed jeans. “Trust me, this is super weird from her.”
Ren brushed his soft lips over mine, and I sagged against my seat. The scent of leather and vanilla and something pleasantly musky that was pure Ren surrounded me. Some of my tension ebbed away. He sat back just enough to grab my seat belt and buckle me in, then rested his forehead against mine.
“I’m not great with talking about stuff.” He rolled his forehead from side to side, and the pressure almost hurt but was weirdly good, too.
This was a great opening to hash out what had happened last night and what was going on between us, but I couldn’t handle another serious discussion while I had no idea what was happening with Mom. I nodded, hoping he would decide for himself what that meant.
“But I’m good at showing up to raise hell.” He waggled his dark eyebrows.
“Okay.” I wallowed in his presence and undivided attention. It was different from being alone with KC. More charged. I never knew what Ren would do and each minute with him felttinged with anticipation. A hint of danger. Usually, the amped-up atmosphere made something explode between us—sex or a big fight—but I wasn’t able to handle either option right now.
“Thank you,” I said.
He hummed as he sat back and settled firmly into his black leather seat. “Tell me where I’m going.”
“Okay.”
Ren typed my address into his phone to find a route he liked that avoided the most traffic while I texted KC that our plans had changed. I bit my cheek as I pressed Send, hoping his phone was on Do Not Disturb.
“And away we go,” Ren said, tossing his phone into the cup holder. The tires screeched as he backed out of the spot at top speed, then hit the gas. I was so stuck in my head, drowning in worry, that I barely noticed the world flash past us. Ren stopped trying to talk to me after the fourth “what?” to one of his questions.
When we arrived at Mom’s house, nothing seemed out of place. The blue metal roof gleamed in the buttery autumn sunshine and the lawn was small but maintained as always. Her Honda Fit was in the driveway.
“It’s adorable and tiny, just like you,” Ren said, leaning forward to check over the house. He winked at me when I scowled and shot him my middle finger.
“I’m a good size.”
“That’s what he said!” Ren cackled while I huffed. “The kitten lives. I was getting worried.”