The Here and Now (Worlds Collide The Duets #2) - LL Meyer Page 0,10

reading the situation right, we both think we’re stepping on the other’s toes. “If you’re okay with it, I’d love to help out.”

The grin pulling at his lips eases the last of my trepidation. “They can be a handful, you know that right?”

“I have no doubt.”

Scott is forced to spend the short ride from his place to mine listening to me happily go on about how excited the girls and I are to be spending the day together on Monday. By the time he’s parallel parking his truck on the street near my building, I only half-jokingly ask him if he’s going to drop me off and run.

Once he turns the engine off, he crooks his finger at me, wanting me closer. “Opal?”

I lean in, all playful innocence in the light from the street lamps. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“Oh yeah?”

He wraps a hand around the back of my neck and pulls me closer. “Yeah.” The word touches my lips before he actually kisses me sweetly. “Come on. Let’s go inside.” The suggestion woven into that statement only serves to boost my soaring mood higher.

Meeting me around the front of the truck, he takes hold of my hand. “Everything went so well today,” I say, enthusiasm dripping from every syllable. “Except maybe it was touch and go there for a minute with your sister.”

He grins at me, his spirits as bright as my own. “Desi’s always like that. I wasn’t too worried though. I’m pretty sure if push came to shove, you could take her.”

“Pretty sure?” I choke out. “Shouldn’t you have given me a heads up?”

“Nah. I’ve discovered no one on the planet is immune to your charm, not even my crazy-ass sister.”

Scott unlocks the front door of the building with the key I gave him last week and stands back to let me pass.

“I have a confession to make,” I say, giving him a bit of a grimace over my shoulder. “Ever since you took me out for that first dinner and a movie, I’ve been so nervous about meeting your family.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s always been obvious how much your family means to you. I was worried that I’d mess it up somehow.”

Pausing in the hall outside my apartment door, he turns me to face him. “You were never going to mess anything up.”

When I make to object, he places a finger over my mouth. “Are we done talking about my family?” He reaches around me and inserts the key in the lock. “Because I think there are better ways we could be spending our time together.”

Walking backwards into my apartment, I pull him along, my giggles spilling out into the dark entryway. It takes a second to register that something is wrong, but a sudden, horrible feeling assaults me from both sides. First from Scott, whose gaze snaps up over my shoulder, and then from behind me, where I hear the rustling of movement. I don’t get the chance to scream, I don’t even get a chance to breathe before Scott has me behind him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Scott grits out harshly, his fury-filled voice cutting the air like the sharpest of blades. With my heart in my throat, I scramble to hit the light switch and catch sight of a man getting to his feet from where he’s been sitting on the sofa.

“Gunnar! Are you insane?!”

The fact that I know the man standing in my living room doesn’t appease Scott. From beside me, I feel raw violence pouring off of him. “What the hell are you doing here?” I demand of my ex-boyfriend with my hands pressed over my racing heart.

“Pipes, we need to talk.”

Is he serious? “Then you call me like a normal person, Gunnar.”

“You know you’ve blocked my number,” he says pleasantly, casually, as if being in my apartment, waiting for me, is the most normal thing in the world. “And you’ve cancelled all your social media.”

“So you break into my place?” I ask, adrenaline giving way to anger as I take in his lean, dark-haired and very familiar figure.

“Like I said, we need to talk.”

“No.” I shake my head. “We don’t.” I step forward but Scott catches my arm, keeping me next to him.

“Get. Out,” Scott orders in a low, very steady, very threatening tone.

Gunnar flashes Scott a look of skeptical disdain before dismissing him completely. “This, Piper,” Gunnar says, gesturing vaguely at Scott. “I don’t like it. I’ve given you more than enough time to work out your problems, a year to the