“What the fuck’s the problem now?” I muttered as I caught up with them. Gray didn’t acknowledge me, and Jett looked to his brother first before he mumbled something under his breath.
“What? Now we don’t speak?” I asked them, my temper rising as they walked beside me.
Jett finally spoke when the house was in front of us. “You changed the whole apartment?”
“I did what now?” I asked him curiously. “I just wanted a new bed.”
“Yeah, you got what you asked for,” Gray muttered as he jogged up the front steps to the house.
Well, what the fuck was that supposed to mean?
Jett took the stairs two at a time to the top level, and I followed them, wondering what in hell’s name was going on now.
Quinn sat in the middle of Gray’s bed, and her eyes were sad when she turned to look at him. Without a word, his hand was out, and she took the offered palm, letting him pull her off the bed and into his body as he wrapped his arms around her. Ava sat on the couch with Red beside her. Jett perched on the end of the sofa as he tilted his woman’s face up to meet his and kissed her in greeting. Red was looking at me, and I hesitated before I slowly closed the bedroom door.
“What?” I asked her as her eyes narrowed infinitesimally at me. “What? I didn’tdoanything!” The fact that I had jumped straight onto the defensive pissed me off.
“My apartment has been completely overhauled,” Red said to me waspishly.
“It’s just a bed, Red.” I grunted as I took the only seat left in the room at Gray’s desk. “It’s not even your bed.”
“It’s more than the bed,” Ava interrupted whatever retort Red was going to give me. “Half the kitchen cupboards are gone, there’s a huge fridge, huge sofa, huge TV. . . ”
“I got a new TV?” I asked enthusiastically. “Sweet.” I looked at Red, whose hand was over her mouth, and I cocked my head as I studied her. “Why are you mad about a TV?”
“They’re coming in the morning to put in a wet room,” Quinn spoke for the first time, and I turned to see her also watching me with judgment.
“What’s a wet room?” I asked.
“A shower room,” Ava piped up. “Only the whole floor’s the drain.”
“Nice, now I’ll at least be able to shower.” I nodded appreciatively as I looked around them. “Seriously, what’s the problem?”
“You can’t refurbish my apartment,” Red said to me through gritted teeth.
“Well, technically, I didn’t.”
She shot to her feet and took a step toward me in temper. “You may not have ordered anything, but you told your brother!”
“Actually,” Jett spoke up, “I, uh, that was me.” His eyes widened as the redheaded she-demon turned to him. “I only asked for a bed.”
“Did you call Onyx?” Gray asked me as Quinn retook her place on the center of his bed.
“Nope.” I popped thePjust to annoy him. It worked. “You all forgetting your brother is on the school board and has access to all the information in the system? Including housing floor plans?”
I took no satisfaction from the guilty look that Jett and Gray exchanged. Quinn was looking at Mia, but it wasn’t with guilt; it was more “I told you so.” What had she told her? Had Quinn defended me? “It’s real nice how all of a sudden I’m the fucking bastard.” Jerking my thumb at Gray, I continued, “Isn’t one enough?”
Jett grunted out a laugh, but Gray merely flipped me off, and I returned his one-finger salute with two of my own.
“So that’s what all the grief’s for? Onyx remodeled some of your furniture?” I looked between Red and Ava. “You shitting me?”
“It’s just a lot,” Ava spoke up as she reached over to grab Red’s hand and tug her back down onto the couch.
“Okay.” Shaking my head, I looked away from them all. Christ almighty, how would they ever deal with arealproblem?
“That’s it?” Red demanded. “Okay?”
“Jesus fuck, what more do you want? You don’t even own the fucking stuff that was replaced. It belongs to the dorm, a dorm you don’t own. Fuck me, this is not a fucking problem.”
