“I’ve been in your room before.” Ran rolls his eyes at me dramatically. “And that was in the middle of the night. It’s eleven in the morning now, a much more acceptable time for visitors.”
I follow him down the hall to my bedroom like a scolded puppy with her tail between her legs. Seriously, who is this guy?
“You need a vase.” He surveys my room, but there’s nothing remotely close to a vase in it. His eyes falter when they catch my packed suitcase situated at the foot of my bed instead. “What’s that?” Ran drops the flowers down to this side and a canary yellow petal slips onto the floor.
“I’m heading back to school this afternoon.”
“What?” he blurts. He reclaims his composure and continues, “You’re leaving town today?” His voice cracks slightly.
I nod, not sure why any of this matters to him. “Yes, my roommate is picking me up after lunch.”
“So you don’t have lunch plans then.” Ran pulls a random beer stein that once belonged to my grandpa from a shelf on the wall and shoves the daisies into it, stuffing them into place. They look absolutely ridiculous, but so did the balloons, and so does his face right now as he steps back, admiring his absurd floral arrangement proudly.
“No, I guess not.”
“Well.” He grabs me by the hand and takes two longs strides toward the door. His fingers are warm and interlock perfectly with mine. “You do now.”
Ran drags me at arm’s length behind him back to the entryway but stops short when he sees his helmet on the bench. “Crap,” he breathes, stroking his jaw with his one free hand. Man, he’s got a nice jawline—perfectly square and angular. The tight ball of muscle pulses at the back of it as he clenches his teeth. “Your car’s totaled from the accident, yeah?”
I nod.
“And you don’t happen to have a helmet lying around, do you?”
I shake my head.
“Mikey,” Ran calls over his shoulder. “You have a ride we can borrow?”
“TOUCHDOWN!” Mikey screams and launches into the air, catapulting over to us. He picks Ran up by his waist and twirls him around a few times before depositing him back on the floor. Mikey’s incredibly strong, because Ran is just an inch or so shorter, and probably close to the same weight, yet he lifts him like he’s a ragdoll. “Sorry man, but did you see that?”
“No.” Ran smoothes his ruffled shirt with his palms. “But because you just spun me around like we were competing in Dancing with the Stars, you owe me your vehicle for the afternoon.”
“Fair enough.” Mikey quirks his head and pulls his keys out of his pocket to chuck them toward Ran. “But I’m meeting Eric at the pool hall in an hour and now have no way of getting there.”
“Now you do.” Ran sweeps the helmet off the bench and situates it onto Mikey’s head, paying careful attention to the scar that snakes down the back of it. “Have fun.”
“No,” I pull the helmet off, probably a little too roughly. “Mikey doesn’t have a death wish.”
Snatching the helmet from my grip, Mikey retorts, “You’re right, I don’t. But I did stare death in the face last month and won. And I’m totally willing to kick its ass again…on the back of that sweet bike parked in our driveway.”
“You’re an idiot, Mikey,” I sneer, binding my arms tightly over my chest. What is it with guys and their need to push the limits of their mortality? “And so are you, Ran.” I throw him a cutting glare.
“Shoot, Maggie,” Ran says. “That insult just deducted one of your compliments. You were so close to licking my lips.”
Mikey raises his hands up and backs away from us, the keys to Ran’s motorcycle dangling in his palm. “I don’t even want to know what that is about,” he asserts. “I’ll be back by 1:00.”
“The throttle sticks a bit,” Ran instructs, and it sounds like he’s speaking in some guy code Mikey appears to understand. “I lubed the cable this morning, so she shouldn’t give you a hard time.”
“I’ll try to return her in one piece.”
I’m pretty sure my jaw’s unhinged and my mouth’s hanging open, because when I swallow it’s so dry that it mimics the feeling of sandpaper running up and down my throat. Scrape, scrape, scrape—an unbelievably uncomfortable feeling. Just one of the many I seem to experience each time I’m in Ran’s presence.