The message ends.
Kai and I sit there for a moment, staring at the phone.
“Jesus,” Kai says finally. “That was ominous as fuck. Hewastalking about Rooke, right?”
“Yeah, but don’t stress. He’s just looking out for me.” I shove the phone back in my pocket, trying to ignore the unease coiling in my stomach.
“Wait.” Kai huffs out an uneasy laugh. “How does he know about Rooke?”
“We, uh…” I glance away, softly clearing my throat and taking a sip of coffee to figure out how to phrase things. “Me and Bastian had lunch there the one day. I introduced them, and Bastian was acting kind of…”
“Like a psycho sugar daddy?” Kai says through a laugh.
When I glare at him, he lifts his hands, palms out. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
“Whatever,” I mutter, breaking off another chunk of my muffin and popping it into my mouth.
“What gig was he talking about?”
I sigh, closing my eyes for a moment. The past isn’t a place I like to visit, even briefly. But I owe it to Kai to explain, I guess. Better than having him come up with his own super paranoid theories.
“Bastian kinda quit my job for me back at the start of the semester.” I glance to see how Kai’s taking the news. His eyes are narrowed, but that’s it. “Milo offered me a job helping him run his food truck, and I took it. But the morning I was supposed to start, Milo fell off the face of the earth.”
Kai’s quiet for a moment, his thumb tracing circles on my thigh. “And you still trust him?”
“Yeah.” I don’t even have to think about it. “He’s good people. Never tried anything, never expected anything.”
“He ghosted you.”
I shrug. “You heard what he said. He had shit to deal with. Happens to the best of us.”
I wait for the flare of jealousy, the tightening of his jaw, the possessive growl I’ve come to expect whenever another man enters the conversation.
It doesn’t come.
Why am I disappointed that my boyfriend isn’t jealous of Milo? What kind of fucked-up emotional wiring is that?
Kai just nods, his expression thoughtful. “Fuck it.”
I blink at him. “Fuck it?”
“We know Rooke’s messed up.” He shrugs.
I guess I’m the kind of person who likes pressing on a bruise, because I just can’t help myself. I twist to look at Kai, waving a hand.
“Why are you being so cool about this?”
“This isn’t exactly new information, Heavenly.”
I huff. “No, I mean, about Milo. Why aren’t you acting all crazy and shit that some guy is messaging me?”
The question comes out before I can stop it, and I immediately want to take it back. But I can’t, so I settle for shoving my phone back in my tote bag instead.
Kai just shrugs again. “He doesn’t worry me.”
I narrow my eyes to slits. “But Bastian does, doesn’t he?”
Up until our dinner in Ashwood Crossing—and everything that came after—I couldn’t even mention Bastian’s name without Kai losing his shit.
