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He told me he used to be that guy until he came to Moonridge Place. “It’s not always because you want to be.”

I didn’t say anything and he didn’t push me. Throughout dinner he’d say something, and if I didn’t respond, he wouldn't apply pressure. It was the opposite of every conversation I’d had in the flight where every word was a test and I’d often failed.

“The rabbit’s named Pierogi because that’s what my sister was eating when I brought him home.” He added that his pet was a biter but he loved him. “Indigo has been trying to broker a meeting between him and her cat, but that only ends one way and it isn’t friendship.”

Marmalade and I have something in common. My dragon fancied a bunny snack

He turned his water glass on the table and trailed his finger over the condensation. I tensed because I sensed this was it, the moment he asked me why I said it or had he misheard. My plan had been that he would never know. He didn’t recognize the scent, there was no pull to mark and bond with me. I was just the neighbor upstairs.

Sheridan let me eat the rest of my food before he asked the big question. “He’s mine.” He leaned back. “That’s what you said. Care to explain that?”

8

SHERIDAN

Radley deflected like a boss. He’d called me his. How did he think I’d be able to ignore that? He explained it away as being a common phrase, except it wasn’t. Not once in my life had I ever said that to anyone, nor had anyone ever said it to me.

I decided to wait for the right moment to bring it up again because I couldn’t let it go, and I had a feeling that if I pushed any more now, he’d get up and leave. As much as his words nagged at me, him leaving would be worse.

Calling a neighbor mine was a level of possessiveness that wasn’t normal, especially not when it came from a neighbor who actively ignored them. Radley had pretended like I didn’t exist for weeks. And then at night, he rode in like a knight in shining armor to save the day, only less knightlike and more like badass mercenary-like.

If someone had said that breaking another’s arm would be a turn-on, I’d have called them sick. How could it possibly be? Except watching him be so protective over me… it had been.

I didn’t hate that the alphahole had been hurt. He deserved it. My only concern had been that Radley would’ve been in trouble with the cops, but they didn’t seem to play a part in any of this. No one threatened to call. No one threatened to sue. It was just an average day at the bar, I guess, which was all the more reason not to go there again.

I made the right call letting it go, because once I stopped asking, Bradley seemed to relax. I wouldn’t say he was having, like, a big old conversation with me. There was a quietness to him that was pretty consistent, but he wasn’t turning and walking away from me. He wasn’t looking in every direction but mine. And when we were talking about anything but the bar, he was listening pretty intently.

“I saw you got new furniture the other day,” he said.

I couldn’t help but be pleased that he’d noticed me. While he might not interact with me, I wasn’t invisible to him. He’d been paying attention. Or I was reading what I wanted into it. Probably the latter.

“Yeah. I went to Jones and Jackson’s Secondhand Wonders over on Miller. They were having a half-price sale on their furniture, and I managed to get a couch and a coffee table for only a handful of bucks. And then I went to that new place on Willow Street, the one where they put all the stuff outside every day.”

“Oh, I passed there. One day, it’s all gonna get rained on.”

I imagine it did often. They dragged out dressers and chairs and desks every day. It was good marketing, my guess was a lot of them sold because people drove by and saw the perfect thing, but it seemed like an awful lot of work before you had your second cup of coffee.

“They had a little table for me and some kitchen chairs, and that’s where I got a couple of my lamps.”

I went on to tell him my adventures from store to store, and where all my lamps came from, and how my apartment almost looked like a lamp warehouse. But I loved all the lights, and I couldn’t figure out which I preferred, so they all stayed. Given they were all picked up at a bargain price, why not?

“It’s kind of a vibe. Right?” The sentence coming from his mouth felt off. Like it wasn’t something he’d normally say.

“The coolest thing I found was a mug.” I loved mugs, and my favorite one had been broken by one of my ex-roommates.

“What was so cool about it?”

“It looked like somebody made it. And it doesn’t have a handle, but my hand fit around it perfectly.”

I’d spent so much time thinking Radley hated me, that he didn’t wanna be near me to the point where he would flee the scene if I arrived. I was starting to think I’d misunderstood him. He’d been in that bar alone watching me and ultimately protecting me. That wasn’t something you did if you hated people. Right?

And looking back, he’d helped me at the mailbox too. He also helped paint my apartment, but he didn’t know me then. So while I technically couldn’t count it, I wanted to. I wanted to collect each and every little thing he did for me and hold it tight, including him sitting here eating instead of going home.

Had I gone straight back home after all that had happened, my mind would’ve been racing. The tension would’ve been too much. I could talk to Pierogi, but it wouldn’t have been the same. This, this was better. We were talking in a neutral place with food and no distractions. The adrenaline had already worn off from earlier, although there were other things buzzing through my body thanks to Radley being hotter than any man deserved to be.

Radley turned his head toward the dessert board, and I caught a glimpse of his scar again. I wanted to ask what happened to him, but I didn’t. He was just opening up to me enough to have a conversation. I didn’t want to slam those doors shut.

I tried not to look at it. I suspected people stared at it often. It was pretty prominent. Nobody liked to be stared at. Probably some people would’ve been scared by it, but not me. If anything, it had me curious and wanting to explore where it led and the story of how it got to be there.