“All right. I see two of your roommates. Let me introduce you.” He started walking toward where Keaton was sitting, and before I took a step, I knew. I just knew the room I was renting from Devon was in the same house where my former next-door neighbor lived. “Keaton, Mason. This is Rowan.”
Mason stood and stuck out his hand. I took it and we shook. “Nice to meet you,” he said.
“You too.”
Keaton hesitated, then rose to his feet and gave me a curt nod. “Sup?”
I glared back. “Hey.”
“You two know each other?” Devon asked.
“We were neighbors growing up,” Keaton responded.
We had been more than just neighbors, but I didn’t share that info. But I did add, “Then I joined the Air Force right after high school and left.”
“No shit?” Mason let out a low whistle. “Damn. Welcome back to civilian life. How long were you enlisted for?”
“Four years.”
“And you just got out?” He kept questioning me.
“Yes, two weeks ago.”
Keaton’s attention shifted to Mason as if he wanted him to shut up without having to say it out loud.
Mason caught it and somehow became more cheerful. “What? I’m being friendly.”
“You’ll have time to ask him all your questions later,” Devon said. “Rowan is moving into the empty bedroom at your place.”
Keaton sucked in a breath, and his eyes snapped to Devon. “What?”
Devon didn’t blink. “Rowan is taking the other room in the house.”
Keaton’s jaw worked, and when he glared at me again, the anger in his stare sharpened. “You knew.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t.”
“Bullshit!” he barked. “You think you can just get out of the Air Force and try again?”
“Try again? I didn’t know it was your house,” I said calmly, trying not to make a scene.
Mason’s head whipped between us. “Wait, hold up. Your house?”
“It’s not my house,” Keaton shot back. “I rent a room just like you do.”
Devon tilted his head. “I own the house. Which means I get to pick the tenants.”
Keaton’s nostrils flared. “That’s not how this works.”
Devon’s expression didn’t change. “That’s exactly how it works.”
Mason looked at Devon, then at Keaton, then at me, as if he were watching a car crash in slow motion. “So, just to be clear, Rowan’s moving in with us, you two used to live next door to each other, you guys have some sort of beef,andyou haven’t talked in four years?”
“Stop,” Keaton growled.
Mason held up his hands. “I’m just making sure I’ve got the facts straight.”
Devon’s eyes narrowed. “Mason, go stretch.”
