The loft was softly lit, Tom Petty was singing “American Girl” on the stereo and Luke was standing behind the semi-circle bar, phone to his ear.
His head snapped up when we entered. His eyes did a body scan of me, his mouth tightened then his eyes moved to Ren and his jaw clenched.
Shit.
I turned immediately to Ren. “I’ll take them now,” I said, grabbing the bags. “Thanks for helping me,” I went on, as if it was all my idea.
He let me take the bags (luckily cookies didn’t weigh that much in cookie form, their weight multiplied significantly once they’d processed themselves onto your ass).
Ren smiled down at me. “Nice night, Ava,” he said softly.
Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t touch me, I thought.
“Thanks for dinner,” I replied.
His hand came up, I held my breath and he tucked my hair behind my ear. All the while he did this he was looking into my eyes, his carrying that look that made me feel like I was going to pass out.
Then he walked into the elevator, turned, his eyes moved to Luke then back to me, he smiled and the doors slid closed.
Alone again with Luke.
Shit.
I walked into the loft not looking at Luke and planning my defense.
He’d mostly touched my hair, not me. I was going to argue that hair didn’t count.
I put the bags on the counter at the back wall not looking at Luke and heard Luke say into the phone, “Call me when you have an update on his condition.”
At his words, I turned to him woodenly and heard him beep the phone off. My eyes moved to his and I wished they didn’t.
He was way pissed off. Super pissed. Ultra pissed.
Still, I had to know. “Bobby?” I asked.
“Found him,” Luke answered. “Fractured skull, major head trauma.”
I closed my eyes and opened them again. “Is he going to be okay?”
“We’ll know more tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry, Luke,” I said quietly, meaning every word.
“You didn’t smash him in the head.”
This was true. I still felt like shit, Bobby got hurt looking after Sissy and me.
“I don’t know what to say,” I told him.
“Nothin’ to say.”
He was likely right about that.
“You wanna tell me why you brought Ren Zano to my loft?” he asked, his voice had changed from matter-of-fact to lethal and I tried to find my immune and removed zone (and failed).
I turned away from him and started to unload cookies. “I told him about my troubles. He wanted to make sure I got in safely,” I tried to pretend it was nothing when I knew it was anything but.
“Ava, turn around and look at me.”