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Chapter Thirty-Nine

ROWAN

“ I feel like I’m meeting your parents,” Ruth has a vice grip on my hand as we take the stairs up to my apartment.

I frown down at her. “You’ve already met my dad.”

“Yeah, but Trevor feels like a bigger deal.”

“Jesus, don’t fuckin’ tell him that.” The thought of Trevor’s ego somehow getting bigger makes me nauseous. “Anyway, you’ve met Trevor.”

“But I haven’t met him met him.” Ruth looks up at me like it should be obvious, but I don’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.

“I don’t get it.”

“I wasn’t your girlfriend then, now it’s a whole different thing.”

“Why?”

She huffs and drops my hand. “I want him to like me.”

“He doesn’t need to like you. I like you.”

Apparently, this is the worst thing I could have said.

“You don’t think he’ll like me?” Ruth’s wounded expression guts me, and I catch hold of both her hands, pulling her to a stop. She’s a couple steps up so I have to look up at her as she scowls at me.

“He’s gonna love you.” Her face softens a fraction. “He already likes you more than me, and that’s just after one car ride.”

“Really?” Her face looks so vulnerable. I hadn’t seen how much she’s been worrying about this, but after everything she’s told me about her past relationships, it makes sense that she’d be insecure about how someone feels about her.

“I’m dreading it already. You guys are gonna be a pain in my ass.”

She lights up. “Yeah?”

“I’m debating if this is even a good idea. He’s gonna have you two ganging up on me in ten minutes.”

“Nah.” She kisses my cheek. “I could never be mean to you.”

“You’re mean to me every day!” I call after her as she sprints up the stairs. When I catch up to her, she stands sheepishly in the hallway. “Problem?”

“It’s possible that I don’t know where I’m going,” she grouches.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have run off,” I say as I wrap an arm around her shoulders and guide her toward the apartment.

“Whatever.”

It takes me a second to pull the keys out of my pocket, and I can feel the tension radiating from Ruth.

“Is that you, Honey?” Trevor pokes his head out of the kitchen once we’re in. He’s wearing his favorite apron, a ruffled ‘kiss the cook’ number I got him last Christmas. I’d meant it as a joke, but now he refuses to wear anything else when he’s cooking.

“Hey.” I slide off my shoes, Ruth following suit.

He doesn’t respond, just brushing past on his way to Ruth. “Hey Homewrecker.” He grins as he pulls her into a hug.

“Dude,” I warn him. I knew he’d be an ass, but I don’t need him scaring off Ruth in the first two minutes.

“What?” She looks bewildered.

“You like lasagna, right? Ro said you did.” He loops an arm through hers and half drags her toward the kitchen. Her face as she looks back at me is one of pure terror, but I can’t say she’s wrong. Trevor can be a menace when he wants to be.

He bustles her into the kitchen and has her sitting at the island before she can say anything. I take up a position behind her and give the back of her neck a gentle squeeze. Her anxiety is so potent it’s coming off of her like steam.

Trevor whirls around and produces a glass of wine, which he hands to her. When did we get wine glasses?

“You look ready to jump out the window.” He quirks an eyebrow.

“Trev,” I hiss.

“What!” He laughs. “It’s true.”

“I’m a little nervous.” Ruth gives a chagrined smile.

“I told you not to be,” I murmur.

“Ah yes, and I bet that magically solved the issue.” He levels me with a blank look.

Ruth erupts with a laugh that sounds more like a hog snort and her hand flies up to cover her mouth. “I don’t know what that sound was.”

“It’s perfectly natural,” Trevor says as he picks up what looks like a cleaver and starts dicing vegetables from the pile on the counter. “I am hilarious.”

She giggles again and I feel some of my own tension easing. I didn’t want to let on to Ruth, but the stakes here feel high. Trevor’s pretty much the most important person in my life, and the thought of him not getting along with the girl I’m becoming more obsessed with every day makes me a little queasy.

“Um, did Rowan tell you about my allergies?” she asks. I can see her fingers twisting into the skirt of the white sundress she’s wearing. It’s one of the ones with all the little fancy holes in it. When she came out of her building wearing it, I couldn’t say anything, my tongue heavy in my mouth.

“He definitely did,” Trevor answers sardonically.

Ruth stiffens, her eyes widening slightly, but she tries to play it off. “Sorry to be a pain.” She forces out a chuckle.

I’m about ready to smack Trevor around the back of the head. I know Ruth has this idea that her allergies are some kind of problem, that she shouldn’t create issues for other people or some bullshit like that. She obviously thinks that Trevor’s giving her shit about everything she can’t eat.

“You’re fine.” I give her hand a squeeze.

Trevor must catch on to how he’s put his foot in his mouth because he sets down his knife and starts to round the counter. “No, no, you’re good,” he rushes out. “I’m just sick of him telling me about them every day like he thinks I’m gonna throw eggs at you the minute you get in the door.”

“Really?”

“Oh god yeah, I can show you the texts. Every time I mention food, he’s all ‘don’t give Ruth wheat, don’t give her dairy.’ He really doesn’t give me enough credit.”

“I give you exactly the right amount of credit,” I scowl.

“I wrote out a list as soon as he told me, but that’s not stopped him.”

“Oh,” she sounds surprised, “well, thank you, that’s, uh… That’s kind of you.”

“It’s not kind,” he scoffs, going back to his prep. “It would look really bad for me if you died the first time you ate here. I’d be suspect number one.”

“Not Rowan?” She tips her head to the side. “I thought the boyfriend always did it?”

“I think if he wanted to kill you, he’s had plenty of opportunities. I’m the variable.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“Can we not be discussing Ruth’s murder?” I cut in.

“Aw, he’s getting all protective,.” Trevor clutches a hand to his chest and I have to stop myself from launching across the island to pull the knife out of his hand. The way he’s waving it around makes me worry that he’s going to slice someone’s ear off.

“I am not,” I huff.

“You’re not?” She looks up at me with wounded eyes and I kind of want to punch myself in the balls.

“I, uh-” I look around frantically as if someone’s going to pop out and save me from my own idiocy.

“Dude, I think she’s fucking with you,” Trevor stage whispers. I whip my head around to catch Ruth trying to hide a grin.

“God damn,” I sigh, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Don’t do that.”

“Sorry.” She doesn’t look sorry at all.

“I thought I upset you.” I grab the edge of her stool and yank it closer until the lengths of our thighs are pressed together. From here, it’s easy to grip her chin and drop a hard kiss against her mouth. “That’s not funny.”

She doesn’t reply, just stares up at me, her lips flushed. I have to look away so I don’t do something that neither of us wants my roommate to see.

“You guys are gross,” Trevor whines. “When I agreed to this, I specifically said that I didn’t want to see all this kind of fuckery.”

“Agreed to it?” Ruth frowns.

Trevor grins. “When Rowan came to me saying he had a ginormous crush on a girl-”

“Not what happened,” I grumble.

“When he said he had an apocalypse level crush,” he continues, “I said I would get on board as long as I didn’t have to see it, and I never had to get involved with all your drama.”

“Nobody’s asking you to get involved,” I point out before adding, “and there’s no drama!”

“Not. Yet.” He’s brandishing his cleaver again, pointing the blade between us with each word. I don’t know what the fuck he’s playing at. He thinks he’s being funny, but he’s kind of pissing me off.

“This is why she didn’t want to meet you.” I shoot him a look.

“I never said that!” Ruth smacks me in the chest before turning to Trevor. “I never said that.”

“You wound me!” He cries.

“I just said I was nervous.”

“Because I’m such a terrifying beast.”

“Yes,” I deadpan.

“No!” Ruth exclaims. “You are not making this better,” she hisses at me.

“You don’t need to worry, Homewrecker.” He smirks. “This is how we show each other love.”

“Stop calling her that.”

“But she’s breaking up our marriage!”

“You’re not my husband.”

“I mean, obviously we don’t have the paperwork, but…” He waggles his eyebrows, getting a kick out of messing with me. I’m ready to tear my hair out. This is not what I meant when I said, ‘best behavior.’ Though given Trev’s track record, maybe this is his best.

“But nothing,” I sigh.

“You guys do give off married couple energy,” Ruth pipes up between sips of wine.

“She knows what’s up.” Trevor grins at her.

Fantastic. Apparently she’s ready to join in this nonsense. I should have known that getting these two together was going to be an issue.

“I don’t want to be the one to break up a family,” she says earnestly.

“I hate this,” I groan.

“I love this,” Trevor giggles.

“I should have never brought you home.” I nip at Ruth’s ear.

“You make me sound like a stray cat.”

“I told you that you didn’t need to worry,” I say quietly. “I think I’m the one who needs to be afraid.”

“Should I be offended that you were scared to meet me?” Trevor doesn’t look up from whatever he’s doing with the lasagna sheets. “You guys are not good at being quiet, which doesn’t bode well.”

“I just wanted to make a good impression.” She fusses with her hair. “I told Rowan it was like meeting the parents.”

“You’ve already met my dad,” I point out.

“Yeah, but I’m the one you actually like,” Trevor says.

“Not right now, I don’t.”

“And I yelled at your dad,” says Ruth.

“Nice work with that, by the way,” Trevor says, putting on oven mitts. “It was about time someone handed his ass to him.”

“Oh no, I didn’t-”

“Sure you did!” he says brightly. “From what Ro said, it was awesome.”

“It was fuckin’ awesome,” I mutter.

“So,” Trevor announces as he sets down the giant bowl of leafy salad, “the reason I asked for this dinner is because I want to know what your intentions are.”

“Trevor,” I growl. “What the fuck are you doing?”

He slides into the seat across from us and starts furiously eating lasagna.

“Hey!” I try and get his attention. “Dude, you can’t just drop something like that and then just start eating.”

“Sorry,” he talks through a mouthful, “this is just really good. I’ve kind of outdone myself here.”

“Spit it out.”

He swallows and sets down his fork. “Ruth, you seem like a lovely person, but you gotta tell me if you’re serious about this.” He levels her with a stare. “I know we were joking about you breaking up our family, but I really care about him, and if you’re just gonna fuck around with his feelings, I gotta tell you I’m not gonna take that well.”

“Jesus, Trevor,” I say.

“It’s fine,” Ruth says as she sets a hand on my arm. “I get that you’re being protective and I think that’s really cool of you, but this really isn’t any of your business. I like him, like a lot. But that’s between the two of us. We’ll figure things out on our own time, without any input from anybody else.” She barely stops for breath, building up some momentum. “I’m really happy that Rowan has a friend like you, but as his friend, I’d hope you would give him enough credit to make his own decisions. If he wants to be with me, if he trusts me not to hurt him, then that’s his prerogative, and I hope you can support that without trying to interfere.”

Silence falls over the dinner table. I hold my breath, not a clue what I should say, if I should even say anything. I mean, how do I even respond to that? She’s not wrong, but I don’t want them to get off on the wrong foot.

Trevor just keeps eating, his eyes trained down on his plate. I’m about to speak when he gives a hard nod, a broad smile erupting over his features. “I like her,” he declares. “I mean, I liked her anyway but now I like her a lot.”

“Was that a test?” Ruth asks indignantly.

“You’re an asshole,” I say.

“Sometimes.” He shrugs cheerfully. “But I’m your asshole.”

“Whatever,” I grouch. “You’re lucky I love you, or else I’d sock you in the kidneys for being a dick to my girl.”

“You cuties,” he says with a shit-eating grin. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

“Yeah, well.” I press a kiss to Ruth’s temple. “I’d never met Ruth before.”