He moved to let me go, but I tightened my thighs on his hips and my arms around him and regained his focus.
“We got busy last night and conversation was limited,” I noted. “I didn’t get the chance to ask you about your conversation with Lee.”
“Rather have more time than we got right now to explain that to you,” he said, and I didn’t get a good feeling about that.
“Zano—” I started, but stopped when one of his hands came up and curled around my neck.
“You’re lettin’ me in and you already know you’re in, Ally. But I’ll let you in more when I have time to explain. But just to say now, Lee and I are cool, or as cool as we can be. However, he was not a big fan of you heading off to the mountains and gettin’ involved in that shit, and he was even less of a fan of your apartment exploding. You know what kind of man he is. You know how he feels about you. And if you don’t know, you can guess he wants the kind of man he is, which includes the ways he looks after his woman, for you. This means he feels all that shit is my responsibility. So we had words.”
This was understandable. Lee was wrong about it being Ren’s responsibility, but I knew my brothers, both of them, so regardless, Ren was right in what he said. So it was understandable.
Ren went on, “And there’s shit going down at work between Vito, Dom and me. Lee’s in the know about it, and since he was pissed about other shit, he took that opportunity to get in my face about that. That’s done between your brother and me too.”
This was not understandable, seeing as I had no idea what he was talking about.
Therefore I asked, “What?”
“That’s the part I need time to explain,” Ren replied. “And I don’t have that time now, but I’ll explain it, honey. It’s not bad. But it is somethin’ you gotta know.”
Oh shit.
I was not good at waiting for information. Especially if it was juicy. Especially if it had something to do with someone I cared about. And this sounded juicy and it definitely had something to do with someone I cared about.
“Uh… Zano,” I started. “Something to know about me—”
I stopped speaking because he smiled and that took all my attention.
Then he pulled me deep into his body and dipped his face close to mine.
“Curiosity killed the cat,” he noted, still smiling.
“Cats have nine lives,” I replied and his smile instantly died.
“How many of those you gone through?”
Uh-oh.
We were hitting a conversational danger zone. This was because, counting nearly being blown up the day before, I suspected I was close to the end of my quota. I also suspected Ren knew that and didn’t like it all that much.
In an effort to prevent this talk from becoming a Talk, I stated, “I’ll wait until we have time for you to explain.”
“Good choice,” he returned.
“Now kiss me and go to work so I can go meet Indy,” I ordered and got the smile back.
Then I got his mouth back, another squeeze and a sweet, soft, “Later, baby,” before he let me go.
I watched him walk away.
And when he disappeared, I gave myself a moment to kick my own ass (mentally) for not initiating this together togetherness ages ago.
Then I got over it because it happened, I fucked up, it was over and there was nothing I could do about it. Except live in the now and make that now the best it could be, for me and for Ren.
I jumped off the counter, did the breakfast dishes and headed out to make amends with my friend.
Hopefully.
* * * * *
I was sitting outside a Starbuck’s in Cherry Creek North.
In other words, I was taking my life in my hands.
No joke.
This was not because there might be snipers (don’t think I’m kidding—I was a Rock Chick; anything goes when you’re a Rock Chick, the scarier, the more possible).
This was because, if Tex knew I was at a Starbuck’s, he’d lose his mind.
Tex felt, and shared this philosophy liberally, that the coffee counter at Fortnum’s was like your momma’s dining room table at Thanksgiving. That was to say, on Thanksgiving, your ass was at that table. You didn’t tell your mother you were going to a Chinese restaurant with your friends or suggest you have Thanksgiving catered at your house or explain you were taking that longed for, once in a lifetime vacation to a five star resort in Antigua.
You sat your ass at your momma’s table.
And you got your coffee from Tex. Even if you had to go out of your way, you went to Fortnum’s and Tex handed you your cup.
No excuses were accepted.
If you didn’t do this, things could get ugly.
