“What?” Rob said. His cheekbones went red. “I do it. I just have to be in the mood, that’s all.”
“Well, you’ve been in the mood exactly once in the past three months,” I said. “I know, because I’ve had to hear about it. But apparently you get to kick me out of my room even though you haven’t stepped up your game.”
“Ava!” Tara looked embarrassed. “It’s fine,” she said to Rob. “Totally fine.”
“I have to be in the mood,” Rob argued. “Really. That isn’t a lie or anything.”
“Hello?” I waved at them. “I’m homeless over here. Are you going to move out of my room?”
“No way,” Rob said. “I paid rent and I gave up my old place. I live here now, too.”
Tara put a hand over her eyes. “Oh my God, this is so complicated.”
“Complicated how?” I said. “When I left here a week ago, I lived here. I paid rent and had a room to keep my things in. Honestly, it was really simple.”
“She told me I could move in,” Rob said. “She said it was fine.”
“Ugh, I hate confrontation,” Tara said. “This whole thing is stressing me out.”
I closed my eyes and let out a breath. The universe was telling me something, right? Hadn’t I just got off a plane while thinking about changing my life? I hated living here anyway. The problem was that I had nowhere else to go.
“Fine,” I said. “Can I at least sleep on the sofa for a couple of nights until I figure out where to go?”
They said I could, and when I glared at them, waiting, they turned the TV off and left the room, going into Tara’s room and closing the door behind them. I wasn’t sure why Rob needed his own room since whenever he was here he spent most of his time banging Tara, loudly and apparently not very skillfully. My memory had a hot flashback of Dane and his genius oral skil
ls, and then I pushed the image away as I sat on the sofa and kicked my heels off of my aching feet.
I needed somewhere to live, stat. I’d had no phone calls for work since Jared had called me to be the fill-in on the Bergdorf shoot I should have been hired for in the first place.
I had the check Aidan had given me. He’d called it an advance for expenses, but even with all of the clothes I’d bought Dane, it was too much money. No doubt my rich brother had padded his estimate of how much I’d spend—that sounded like a sneaky way of giving me money. Normally I’d be offended, but I was too tired now. I’d use the money, and I’d have to ask him for the rest of my fee now that the job was done. Which meant talking to my brother after spending three days in bed with his best friend.
Oh, and I couldn’t have a drink because there was a good chance I was pregnant.
I sighed and pulled out my phone. I’d powered it off when I got on the plane, and now I powered it on again. There was a text from Aidan: Call me and tell me how it went in Chicago.
And there was another text, this one from Dane. No anger or recrimination, no emotion at all. Just a street address and then a jumble of numbers.
I squinted at the text. What kind of nerd message was this? Did he think I was going to do some kind of math? And then I remembered.
Me, trimming Dane’s beard. Standing between his knees, trying not to admit how much I liked being close to him. Talking about why I liked the fashion business. Dane telling me about the house he’d bought on an impulse after only seeing a few pictures. A house on Long Island.
I need time, I’d written in my note to him. And instead of arguing with me, of telling me he knew better than I did, he’d replied with the address to his beach house. And the numbers were the security code for the front door.
“Damn it,” I said, because two tears had spilled over onto my cheeks before I could stop them. “Dane, you ruined my smoky eye.”
I sniffed. Fuck it. I’d go to Long Island. It was better than sleeping on this sofa, and it would only be for a few days while I got my things together. I’d repay Dane somehow. This would just be a temporary loan while I needed a place to stay.
I looked again at the text from my brother. If I didn’t at least call him, he’d worry. He’d definitely worry if he found out I’d been kicked out of my apartment. And if I told him I was going to stay at Dane’s Long Island house—which Aidan didn’t even know about—my brother would definitely know something was up. I couldn’t talk to him, but I couldn’t not talk to him. I was between a rock and a hard place.
Think, Ava.
The answer came to me a minute later. There was only one person I could talk to.
Before I left town, I needed to talk to my brother’s wife, Samantha Riley.
Twenty
Dane