For some reason, that made Rene’s lips curve up at the corner’s, just a bit.
Sam waved a hand in the air as if Rene had said something. “I know, I know, but he’s not likeus. He’s—”
“A Daddy?” Rene interjected softly, his eyes darting over to me for a second before dropping to the ground again.
His cheeks went pink.
Sam scoffed. “Definitely not.”
I bristled. Sam was right, of course. I didn’t even know what being a “Daddy” actually meant. But the way Rene’s face fell at Sam’s reaction? That right there told me that even if Sam’s answer was technically correct, it was still somehow wrong, too.
Wrong for Rene, which at the moment, was all that mattered to me.
“I told you, Rene, I have a couch…” Sam started.
Rene put a hand on his arm. “That’s so nice of you, Sam,” he said. “But my car’s already here, and I’m… I’m out of gas.”
I frowned. Not just at the information, although I filed that away to take care of later, but at the way he looked embarrassed about it.
“And you probably don’t get off work until later?” Rene added.
Sam gave a dramatic sigh. “Ugh, I don’t. And you’re tired, aren’t you, sweetie? I can tell. Did you have a long drive?”
Rene nodded, then bit his lip. “Sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Rene,” I interjected, unable to stand watching without doing something to help.
Rene’s eyes widened again, darting up to meet mine, but whatever he saw on my face earned a small smile that…
Christ, I was fucked.
“Ugh,” Sam said again, throwing his hands up dramatically. Then he shot me another glare. “But I don’t trust him,” he added, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at me again. “We’ll think of something else, okay?Heis not a nice man.”
Sam was right.
But once upon a time, I had been.
Rene peeked back up at me. He was taller than my Blair had been, but I still had a good six inches on him.
“He seems nice to me,” he said, blushing again and sending my heart soaring. Then he addressed me directly. “And you’d… you’d really let me stay in your room with you?” he asked, his hands twisting around the straps of the backpack he’d transferred to his back again while he’d been on the phone. “Because I won’t be able to pay you back until, um, whenever the refund hits my account, but—”
“No, sweetheart,” I interrupted, continuing quickly when my “no” made his lower lip start to tremble. “You don’t have to pay me back. This was all my fault. I’ll cover the cost of the room.”
I bit my tongue, literally, to keep from adding, “and whatever else you need,” because that wasn’t appropriate at all.
And yet, itfeltright… and also utterly, completely wrong.
Rene wasn’t Blair, wasn’t mine, and he never would be. But just for a moment, the relief in those sad, summer eyes of his when I reassured him that I meant it—the relief thatI’dput there—almost made it feel like he was.
Or, if things had been different, at least like someday he could be.
5
Rene
“Youwilltextme to let me know he’s not a creep,” Sam whispered fiercely, clutching my arm tightly as he handed me back my cell phone after putting his phone number in it. “Promise me.”
“Okay,” I said, because I knew that was smart even though Mr. Garrett didn’t give me any creepy vibes at all.
