I stand, as cool as cool can be. “I’ll come over for a few minutes. After that I need a ride home, though.”
“I can handle it,” Colin says, his words smooth as silk. “Where do you live?”
Ignoring Mick completely, I walk over to give Teagan a kiss on the cheek and hug goodbye as I answer. “Baldwin Hills.”
“You’re not driving her. You’ve been drinking,” says Mick. He’s mad. He reminds me of my father. Protective. Bossy.
“Two beers is nothing.” Colin goes to the door and holds it open. “Come on.” He looks over at Teagan and raises his palm towards her. “You good?”
Teagan nods at him and then raises an eyebrow at me, but says nothing.
I continue to ignore Mick, as difficult as it is. I want to look at him and explain myself. Maybe I’m hoping he’ll make me a better offer. But none comes and Colin is waiting, so I go.
We get out into the hallway and he walks ahead of me. When he gets to his door, he looks over his shoulder and gives me a heart-stoppingly handsome grin. “I’m going to show you something I’ve never shown anyone else before.”
I hesitate before stepping over the threshold. Looking back at Rebel’s door, I want to believe I see it opening. That Mick is on his way out to stop me. But that doesn’t happen, so I continue inside, shutting the door behind me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE PLACE IS A DISASTER. I stop in the entrance and take it all in. Dirty dishes cover the coffee table in front of the television. Clothing is draped over all the furniture, most of it way past the stage of needing a washing as far as I can tell. There are art canvasses of different sizes leaning in stacks against the walls and what I guess to be an easel in the corner of the room nearest the windows with a sheet draped over the painting that’s underneath. Paintbrushes are standing in old coffee cans on the windowsill and there are multi-colored paint spatters all over the tarp that’s on the ground and even the walls nearby. It smells like a paint store in here.
I could have sworn Teagan told me that she’d been in here before, but she never mentioned any of this to me. I make a mental note to discuss this with her, because if her powers of observation somehow missed all of this, I’m going to recommend she get a brain scan of some sort.
“You want something to drink?” he asks, moving over to the stereo to turn it down.
“Nah. I’m kind of drinked out right now.” I don’t tell him that I’m worried anything that comes out of this apartment is going to be contaminated by some rare and deadly virus. I lick my lips, suddenly very thirsty. That would be my self-torturing personality that likes to make me want exactly what I can’t have at the most inconvenient time.
“Yeah, I’m done too.” He puts his hands in his back pockets. “So…” Grinning at me, he rocks up on his heels a little.
“So…” I cock an eyebrow up at him, “…what’s this mysterious thing you want to show me? I hope it’s not your junk.”
He laughs. “Nah, it’s not my junk. But we can pretend that’s what it was to make Mick crazy if you want.”
I shrug. “Why would I care what he thinks?” My heart-rate picks up at the mere idea.
Colin takes his hands out of his pockets and backs up towards the windows. “I don’t know. Kinda seemed like you cared.”
“Nope, not me.” I put extra cheer into my voice to be more convincing.
“He seems pretty worked up over your personal business. You sure there’s nothing going on there?”
I cross my arms. He’s got the most devious expression on his face. “If you really think there’s something going on between us, why did you invite me over here?” I tap my toe impatiently. I don’t like being played.
“Ah,” he says, taking the edge of the sheet and lifting it. “Sometimes life is dull. Maybe I like to liven things up from time to time.”
I’m in the process of responding, but my jaw drops open and the words get hung up in the system somewhere between my frontal lobe and my mouth. For the first time that I can remember, art has made me totally speechless.
I walk towards the easel slowly as he turns a lamp on nearby.
“No! Turn it off,” I say a little too loudly, my arm flying out to somehow protect the vision I saw from the harsh light of reality.
He flicks it off and looks at me with a new expression on his face.