I return to eating my breakfast, smiling gratefully at him when he passes me my juice. I drain my glass, and he takes it back.
He’s lifting my empty plate when I say, “I’m not pissed at you for staying in the apartment next door.”
“You’re not?”
“I was worried about Oscar… Wilkes. Every time I leave the house, I worry, but now I know I don’t need to. Well, as long as you’re not over there listening to me pee through my door or anything.”
He grins at me. “No one is listening to you pee through anything. Just there in case you ever need us.” His shoulders relax, and his eyes dip to my empty plate. “You want more?”
I nod. “But only if you make yourself some as well. These three men I know keep sending me more groceries than I can eat.”
He flashes me a smile. “Those three men have a lot of wrongs to make right. But they will.”
The Juniper Harrington who wanted love and a real, genuine relationship, perks up at that. That Juniper wants to believe Archer, and this new Juniper, who had her heart broken, starts to believe it too.
Chapter 36
June
The next day, I’m taking my trash out when the door four away from mine swings open and Torin steps out holding a trash bag of his own.
He freezes, eyeing me for a beat as if waiting for me to decide what to do. Archer must have told him that I know they’re in that apartment, but this is the first time I’ve seen any of them since Archer stayed with me last night.
Instead of waiting to walk me to work from the front of the building, we left together, stopping at the coffee shop down the street for our usual coffee. I tried to pay. He refused to let me, so I accepted the vanilla latte and chocolate croissant the server handed me.
Maybe I shouldn’t have let him stay overnight, but we just talked, ate, and laughed. It was so nice and easy that I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to leave.
“It’s okay, I know you’re there to watch me,” I say.
A woman sucks in an outraged breath. “What kind of fucked up creepy shit isthat? I’m getting my baseball bat. Don’t go near him, June. I’ve got this,” Lucia declares, having opened her door and stepped out while I wasn’t paying attention.
She’s dressed for a night out in a pretty, short teal dress with black strappy sandals.
“It’s okay,” I call after her. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a loyal friend in Lucia, but I’m eternally grateful for her. “I know him. It’s not as weird as it sounds.”
Her gaze slides from me to Torin. She gives him a narrowed-eye stare, sniffs and turns to me. “Tell me when you need that bat, June.”
We watch her walk down the hallway and clump, literallyclumpbecause she’s wearing block-heeled sandals, down the stairs.
“I’m glad you have someone else watching out for you,” Torin says quietly.
I shift from foot to foot. “Even though she intended to smack you over the head with a bat?” Knowing Lucia, she wouldn’t have hesitated.
“Even though.” He points his chin at my trash bag. “Want me to take that down for you?”
“You don’t need to take my trash out.”
He nods, and I start to step around him when he motions for me to go down the stairs first. Then I stop and turn to face him. “Why are you avoiding me?”
His expression is impenetrable. “Why do you think I’m avoiding you?”
“Archer said you volunteered to watch over me at night. I never go out at night, a fact you all must know by now. I can only assume you keep doing it to avoid me.” Something cold and wet drips on my ankle. Yelping, I scrunch my nose as I give my trash bag a look of disgust, holding it away from me. “Ew. Something dripped on me.”
My trash bag is leaking.Gross.
“Why is adulthood just one endless mess I spend every day cleaning?” I mutter.
Torin reaches for the bag. “I’ll take it.”
